UK Music implores government to address concerns about use of AI in the industry
A leading British music body has called on the government to protect musicians from the use of artificial intelligence in the industry. They say it’s “vital” that some AI firms aren’t allowed to “crush the human creativity” at the centre of the United Kingdom’s world-leading industry.
UK Music, a prominent organisation representing the collective interests of the production side of the country’s commercial music industry, implores the government to address the various concerns about the use of AI in music.
The CEO of UK Music, Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, has highlighted the industry’s concern in an open letter to Culture Secretary, Lucy Frazer. He’s also provided a five-point plan for the Government to follow when regulating AI in the sector.
“It is not acceptable for creators’ work or their identity to be used by AI developers without their consent,” reads the letter. “Taking other people’s work without their permission contravenes basic principles of property rights, undermining both creator incomes and the economic model that has enabled the UK to build a world-leading music industry.”
It adds: “It’s vital that we do not allow some AI firms to crush the human creativity that is the beating heart and soul of our world-leading music industry.”
Elsewhere, the message from UK Music says that “without original content to ingest, it would not be possible to produce AI-generated content. So, it is absolutely critical we develop AI technologies in a way that enhances and enables human artistry rather than eroding it.”
One aspect the five-point plan attempts to cover is the copyright issues that provide one of the last defences for a creative against the use of AI. Across many industries, creators assert that AI has been trained on copyrighted works with the owners’ permission. For instance, comedian Sarah Silverman is suing ChatGPT for the unauthorised use of her book.
Read UK Music’s full AI policy paper here. Find the points below.
UK Music’s five AI points:
- Creators’ choice: The creator, or their chosen rights holder, should be able to decide if and how they want to use their creative talent. This certainty underpinned by legal rights (copyright) should not be undermined by any exception to copyright or compulsory licensing during the input stage. Users need to respect creators’ choice as baseline for any discussions.
- Record keeping: It is important that in the input stage, the technology providers keep an auditable record of the music ingested before the algorithm generates new music. This is the only point in the process when these data points can be documented.
- Without human creativity there should be no copyright.
- Labelling: Music generated by AI should be labelled as such.
- Protection of personality rights: A new personality right should be created to protect the personality/image of songwriters and artists.
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