Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Kick Against AI Unauthorised Use of Their Works

Over 200 prominent musicians, including Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, and Pearl Jam, have joined forces to fight back against the unauthorized use of their music in training artificial intelligence (AI). 

Through an open letter from the Artist Rights Alliance, they urge AI companies to obtain permission before using artists' work. 

The letter warns of the dangers of irresponsible AI development. "When used irresponsibly, AI poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music, and our livelihoods," it reads. The artists claim some powerful companies are training AI models on their music without permission. 

"These AI models," the letter continues, "generate new music... by training on massive datasets of existing work, which often include original compositions, vocals and lyrics from these artists." 

The artists' group demands a commitment from AI companies and tech platforms. They want them to pledge to avoid developing AI that undermines human artists, replaces their work, or denies them fair compensation. 

The letter acknowledges the potential of AI to enhance creativity but echoes concerns shared by major record labels.

Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge worries about both licensing issues and an oversaturated music market flooded with AI-generated content. 

With the debate around AI in music heating up, lawmakers are considering legislation to protect artists' work and likenesses.

Tennessee's recent ELVIS Act updates its Protection of Personal Rights law, safeguarding artists from AI deepfakes and voice clones. 

While YouTube partners with record labels to experiment with AI-generated songs using cloned vocals, the debate isn't without legal clashes.

Anthropic, the company behind the chatbot Claude, faces a lawsuit from Universal Music Group and music publishers for allegedly using copyrighted lyrics in their AI.