A group of musicians expect the sound of their collective silence to tell legislators in the United Kingdom
More than 1,000 artists, including Kate Bush, Imogen Heap, Annie Lennox, Cat Stevens and Hans Zimmer, launched a silent album entitled “Is this what we want?” on Tuesday in response to the changes proposed by the United Kingdom government to an copyright law.
They argue that changes in the law, proposed at the end of last year, “would allow artificial intelligence companies to build their products using the copyright work of other people: music, works of art, text and more” without a license, According to a website for the album. “The musicians in this album joined to protest this.”
The album song list explains a prayer: “The British government should not legalize musical theft to benefit AI companies.”
“It is an album of recordings of empty studies and interpretation spaces, which represents the effect that the government’s plans would have on the life of the musicians,” Ed Newton-Rex wrote, a composer who was among those who organized the album , in a publication about X.
The album is the last action of the creatives about the growing concerns that AI could invade their works. Although it focuses on British law, concerns about the impact of AI on the support of the artists have become general.
The laws that regulate AI are scarce, and because the generative AI, which can create media from songs to images, is so accessible, many creatives have raised ethical and legal issues about technological companies that train their programs in works of artists.
The launch of the album arrived on the closing day of the public consultation of the British government to change the copyright laws. In December, the Left Labor Party announced that it would begin to consult the AI and change the copyright laws with the intention of becoming a world leader in AI technology.
As currently proposed, the law would allow artists to choose not to be used for the learning of AI.
On Tuesday, the newspapers in the United Kingdom made identical messages entitled “Make It Fair”, which required protecting the Creative Industries of AI. Some side by shared side of the covers of British newspapers in X.
In a statement to Associated Press, the British government said it was “consulting in a new approach that protects the interests of AI developers and law holders and offers a solution that allows both to prosper.” He added that “no decisions have been made.”
There have been efforts to combat legislative changes before the release of the album, even a group called The Creative Rights in Ai Coalition. The group says that companies must seek permission first to train AI in the works of the artists. This would put the responsibility of companies that seek to use AI instead that artists have to choose not to participate.
“Protect copyright and build a dynamic licenses market for the use of creative content in the construction of generative (GAI) is not just a matter of equity: it is the only way in which both sectors will flourish and grow up,” he wrote The coalition on its website on its website.
In a letter to The Times published on Tuesday, 34 artists, including some that appear in the album, requested “protection of creative copyrights of the United Kingdom against AI.”
The new proposal is “totally unnecessary and counterproductive”, and endangers not only the international position of the United Kingdom as “a lighthouse of creativity, but also the resulting works, economic contribution and soft power, and especially damaging artists New and young people who represent the future of our nation, “artists wrote.
The signatories include Bush, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Elton John and Sting.
Bush, known for successful songs as “Running Up That Hill,” shared a music video for the album on his website. The video of 1 minute and 25 seconds presents images of empty recording studies, with the names of the slopes of the album in a bold white source on the video.
“The United Kingdom is full of pioneering artists, highly creative and imaginative.” Bush wrote on his website. .
He added that he is “very happy to have contributed a clue to this project and join the protest” and requested public support in protection “Music creators and our most sincere work. “
“In the music of the future, are our voices not heard?”
