While these are two extremes, there’s no denying that AI is changing how we think, work, and create. The fact remains that we cannot ignore this rapidly advancing tech or sweep it under the rug. Rather than viewing AI as something sinister or threatening, it could inject new creativity into the music industry and provide tools to support the creative process rather than replace us all.
We’re currently in an era where the future of tech is up for debate. We can see examples of influential industry-changing innovation by looking back at the inception of iTunes, which followed the rapid growth of the illegal file-sharing software Napster. When Napster launched, it altered the shape of the music industry forever. The role of iTunes was to establish a legal framework to deliver in a different way and at an other price point. The iTunes platform opened access to the entire music world and offered music discovery opportunities to new audiences. It set the framework for legal digital music distribution as we know it today.
Similarly, how we build and legislate AI today will affect its functionality and how we use it tomorrow. Let’s look specifically at Generative AI.
What is Generative AI? Generative AI is artificial intelligence that can be used to generate text, images, audio, video and more, often following prompts from an end user. The Generative AI model ingests data and learns patterns based on that data; it then creates new data that mimics the patterns it’s learned based on the user’s prompts. However, it requires training or ‘seed data’.
This is where the legality of Generative AI becomes complicated. There is much debate and numerous current legal cases worldwide investigating and considering the permissions and licensing of the source data used to train the AI models. This dramatically challenges the ultimate copyright status and ownership of AI-generated works.
Fewer AI companies are using licensed seed content to train their models. For example, Meta announced they used 20,000 hours of licensed music to train their model; find out more here.
Similarly, several music libraries in the United States are currently in litigation with AI company Anthropic for their alleged “systematic and widespread infringement of” copyrighted song lyrics. This lawsuit contends that Anthropic builds its AI models based on “unlawful copies” of copyrighted works. [Music Business Worldwide]
Kevin Sargent, a board member for The Ivors Academy, UK’s professional association for songwriters and composers, reflects on the use of AI, “we need to ensure that it [AI] supports and encourages human creativity and expression rather than replaces them”. This is essentially the ethos of The Human Artisty Campaign. An Ivors-backed campaign that is “a global alliance of organisations in the creative industries, now urgently calling on the government to protect the unique value of human creativity”. [The Ivor’s Academy]
Collective efforts are being made to provide clarity and consistency of guidance and approach worldwide.
The UK government is working on a code of practice to assist AI companies looking to access copyrighted information. The code will clarify the relationship between intellectual property law and generative AI so that creativity and innovation aren’t hampered. [ComputerWeekly.com]
Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government Patrick Vallance said that enabling generative AI companies in the UK to mine data would “attract investment, support company formation and growth, and show international leadership. [ComputerWeekly.com]
Rolling Stone journalist Gideon Kimbrell envisions a future in which creativity and artificial intelligence coexist peacefully and combine to create an even more significant result:
“In the brainstorming, whiteboarding, and outlining stages, artists can seed the AI with an initial set of thoughts and get various ideas for creative direction. Artists can then choose from these and start creating in their own styles. They can also use AI to overcome writer’s block, ensure that style and content tone is unique in the final stages of editing, and fill skillset gaps.” [Rolling Stone]
While different territories may disagree on the best approach toward mitigating the problematic conflict between pushing boundaries with generative AI and protecting copywritten material, one thing is clear: AI technology isn’t going away.
Read more on our stance on AI and music here.
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