By altering copyright laws, the U.K. government is moving forward with ambitions to draw more AI companies to the area. Unless creators voluntarily “opt out,” the proposed amendments will permit companies to train AI models on artists’ online content without their consent or payment. However, not everyone is following the same path.
A group of 1,000 artists protested the proposed changes by releasing a “silent album” on Monday. “Is This What We Want?” is the title of the album, which includes songs by Kate Bush, Imogen Heap, and modern classical composers Thomas Hewitt Jones and Max Richter. Additionally, hundreds more people have co-written credits on it, including well-known figures like Annie Lennox, Billy Ocean, Damon Albarn, The Clash, Mystery Jets, Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Riz Ahmed, Tori Amos, and Hans Zimmer.
However, this is not part two of Band Aid. Furthermore, it isn’t a compilation of songs. As a symbolic portrayal of what they think will happen as a result of the proposed changes to copyright laws, the artists have instead recorded vacant studios and performance venues.
When Hewitt Jones contributed to the CD, he said, “You can hear my cats moving around.” “My two cats in my studio are a constant source of annoyance while I’m working.”
The album’s 12 tracks all have titles that, to put it bluntly, convey the message, “The British government must not legalize music theft to benefit AI companies.” Here, you may hear it for yourself.
The CD is only the most recent action taken in the United Kingdom to raise awareness of the problem with copyright in AI training. Similar demonstrations are taking place in other areas, including as the United States, indicating that artists around the world are concerned.
The project’s organizer, Ed Newton-Rex, has also been spearheading a larger movement against AI training without a license. Since the U.K. government disclosed its big AI policy five weeks ago, about 10,000 writers, visual artists, actors, and other creative professionals have signed a petition he initiated, which currently has over 47,000 signatures.
Additionally, according to Newton-Rex, he has been “leading a nonprofit in AI for the last year where we’ve been certifying companies that basically don’t scrape and train on great work without permission.”
After arguing for both sides, Newton-Rex came to support artists. After receiving classical training as a composer, he went on to create Jukedeck, an AI-powered platform for music composition that allows users to create their own music without utilizing copyrighted compositions. In 2015, it won the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield competition with its catchy pitch, in which he rapped and riffed on the benefits of employing AI to make music. After Jukedeck was eventually purchased by TikTok, he spent some time working on music services there.
Newton-Rex has returned to thinking about how to create the future without destroying the past after working for a number of years at other digital businesses like Snap and Stability. He’s thinking about the concept from a quite intriguing angle: He and his wife, Alice Newton-Rex, VP, currently reside in the Bay Area product at WhatsApp.
The record was released immediately before the UK’s copyright laws are set to change, requiring artists who do not want their work to be used for AI training to proactively “opt out.”
Since there is no opt-out mechanism or obvious means to monitor what particular content has been fed into any AI system, Newton-Rex believes that this essentially puts artists in a lose-lose situation.
“We are aware that opt-out plans are simply not being used,” he stated. “This will simply give AI companies 90–95% of people’s labor.” That is definitely true.
The artists claim that creating works for other markets where it would have better safeguards is the answer. Hewitt Jones, who recently threw a functional keyboard into a Kentish harbor during an in-person demonstration (he later recovered it, shattered), stated that he is thinking about delivering his music in places like Switzerland in the future.
However, the Wild West of the internet is nothing like the rock and hard place of a Kentish harbor.
For decades, we have been promised that sharing our work online will increase its visibility. But now, governments and, astonishingly, AI businesses are arguing, “Well, you put that online for free.” “Oh,” said Newton-Rex. As a result, artists are simply ceasing to create and distribute their work. I’ve heard from several artists who say this is what they’re doing.
“Any donations or proceeds from playing the album will go to the charity Help Musicians,” the organizers said, adding that the album will be widely shared on music platforms sometime Tuesday.