The British government advances the plans to attract more AI companies in the region thanks to modifications to the law on copyright which would allow developers to train AI models on the content of artists on the Internet – Without authorization or payment – unless the creators “undress”. But not everyone walks towards the same pace.
On Monday, a group of 1,000 musicians released a “Silent album”, Protestant planned changes. The album – entitled “Is this what we want?” – presents kate bush, Imogen Heap and classic contemporary composers Max Richter and Thomas Hewitt Jones, among others. He also offers co-writing credits Hundreds of othersIncluding big names like Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, Billy Ocean, The Clash, Mystery Jets, Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Rice Ahmed, Tori Amos and Hans Zimmer.
But it’s not a part 2 dressing. And it’s not a music collection. Instead, the artists have gathered recordings of empty studios and performance spaces – a symbolic representation of what they believe to be the impact of the planned changes in copyright law.
“You can hear my cats moving,” is the way Hewitt Jones described his contribution to the album. “I have two cats in my studio that bother me all day when I work.”
To make an even more blunt point, the titles of the 12 songs that make up the album transfer a message: “The British government should not legalize the flight of music for the benefit of IA companies.”
The album is only the last decision in the United Kingdom to draw attention to the question of how copyright is managed in AI training. Similar protests are in progress In other markets, such as the United States, highlighting a global concern among artists.
Ed Newton-Rex, who organized the project, simultaneously carried out a larger campaign against the formation of AI without license. A petition It has started was now signed by more than 47,000 writers, visual artists, actors and others in the creative industries, of which nearly 10,000 of them have registered in the last five weeks that the British government has announced its great strategy of AI.
Newton-Rex said he “also run a non-profit organization in AI since last year when we certify companies that do not scratch and do not train on excellent work without authorization.”
Newton-Rex arrived at the defense of artists after hitting both sides. Classically formed as a composer, he then built a musical composition platform based on the AI called Jukedeck which allowed people to bypass the works protected by copyright by creating theirs. His catchy pitch, where he struck and wrinkle on the virtues of using the AI to write music, won the Startup Techcrunch’s battlefield competition in 2015. Jukedeck was finally acquired by Tiktok, where He worked for a while on musical services.
After several years in other technological companies such as Snap and Stability, Newton-Rex is back to consider how to build the future without burning the past. He envisages this idea from a rather interesting point of view: he now lives in the bay region with his wife Alice Newton-Rex, vice-president of product at WhatsApp.
The release of the album comes just before the planned changes in the copyright law in the United Kingdom, which would force artists who do not want their work to be used for AI training purposes for ” unsubscribe ”.
Newton-Rex thinks that this effectively creates a losing situation for artists because there is no method of deactivation in place, or anyway to be able to follow which specific material has been introduced into an AI system.
“We know that the unsubscribe schemes are simply not resumed,” he said. “It will just give 90% [to] 95% of people work with IA companies. This is undoubtedly.
The solution, according to the artists, is to produce work on other markets where there could be better protections for this. Hewitt Jones – who threw a work keyboard in a port of Kent during a demonstration in person not long ago (he fished, broken, after) – said he was considering markets like Switzerland for having distributed its music in the future.
But the rock and the hard place of a port in Kent are nothing compared to the West West of the Internet.
“We have been told for decades to share our online work because it is good for the exhibition. But now, IA companies and, incredibly, governments are turning around and say: “Well, you put it online for free …”, said Newton-Rex. “So now, artists stop making and sharing their work. A number of artists contacted me to say that this is what they do. »»
The album will be widely published on musical platforms on Tuesday, the organizers said, and any donation or product produced in the charity helps musicians.
