THE threat of robots stealing musicians’ work has prompted more than 1,000 famous artists to join forces in protest with a “silent album”.
Fears are growing over the government’s plans to change UK copyright law for AI.
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It would mean artificial intelligence companies could use any online material including music, art, articles and photography to train AI models.
The concern is a bot can then use algorithms to churn out its versions with no human creativity.
Stars including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, and Blur’s Damon Albarn have produced the protest album, titled Is This What We Want?
The 47 minutes of sparse background sounds are designed to show what life would be without musicians.
Organiser Ed Newton-Rex said: “The government’s proposal would hand the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies, for free, letting those companies exploit musicians’ work to outcompete them.
“It is a plan that would not only be disastrous for musicians, but that is totally unnecessary: the UK can be leaders in AI without throwing our world-leading creative industries under the bus.”
Dr Jo Twist, head of industry group the BPI, said it would be legal for AI firms “to plunder the UK’s music, books, film and more, all for their own profit and without the need for authorisation or compensation”.
British music contributed £7.6 billion to the economy in 2023, but the industry warns that the changes to copyright laws would diminish this boost, risk jobs and undermine Britain’s “global soft-power advantage”.
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