Nicki Minaj, Q-Tip and Chuck D are among a huge group of artists supporting a campaign to protect artists from having their music violated by artificial intelligence.
An open letter organized by the Artists’ Rights Alliance sets out their opposition to the use of A.I. within the music industry after tech companies such as YouTube began experimenting AI music-making tools.
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The open letter says: “We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal artists’ voices and likenesses.”
The artists also called upon tech companies to not “undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists, or deny us fair compensation for our work.”
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The letter also warned against the creation of technology that will “violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem.”
The letter was signed by over 200 artists including some of the biggest names in Hip Hop.
As well as Minaj, Tip and Chuck, signees included Metro Boomin, Benny The Butcher, Dave East, Doechii, Jadakiss, Ja Rule, Hit-Boy and Tech N9ne.
Artists such as Drake and The Weeknd have already encountered issues with artificial intelligence imitating their sound.
Last April, a track titled “Heart On My Sleeve” was uploaded to YouTube and featured artificially-created vocals from Drake and The Weeknd, with it later being uploaded to various streaming services.
Universal Music Group, who have both Drake and The Weeknd under their umbrella, forced the takedown of the track and released a statement condemning the use of the technology.
“UMG’s success has been, in part, due to embracing new technology and putting it to work for our artists — as we have been doing with our own innovation around AI for some time already,” the statement began.
“With that said, however, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation.”
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The statement continued: “These instances demonstrate why platforms have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the use of their services in ways that harm artists. We’re encouraged by the engagement of our platform partners on these issues–as they recognize they need to be part of the solution.”
Drake had previously criticized AI after technology was used to create a Drizzy cover of Ice Spice’s “Munch.”
