Kate Bush has become the latest to sign a petition speaking out against artificial intelligence (AI) using artists’ work without their permission.
The campaign emerged earlier this year and states that “the unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted”.
It arose in light of ongoing legal issues between the creative world and tech firms over the use of their work to train AI models such as ChatGPT. Find the full statement here.
Back in October, it gathered more momentum as both Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus signed the petition, alongside 11,500 others. More famous faces who got involved included Billy Bragg, Kevin Bacon, Robert Smith, Julianne Moore, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ann Patchett and Rosario Dawson.
Now, Kate Bush has joined the list of names speaking out against having their copyrighted materials used to train generative AI technology.
The petition currently has 36,000 signatures and reads that, without government intervention, the practice creates “a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works”. You can sign the petition and find out more here.
Bush’s signature sees her join Paul McCartney, who also took a stance in recent weeks and called for new laws to be put in place to prevent mass copyright theft by AI companies.
For Bush, the push to restrict AI being used in music comes after the singer revealed that she’s looking to make new music.
The artist found fame with her 1978 hit ‘Wuthering Heights’, and released her last studio album back in 2011. In a rare new interview with the BBC, however, she admitted that she was “very keen” to make another record and had “lots of ideas”.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back into that creative space,” she revealed. “Particularly [in] the last year, I’ve felt really ready to start doing something new.”
Following the release of the petition against artists’ work being used by AI, Gee Davy – the interim CEO for the Association of Independent Music – said: “On behalf of the UK’s independent music community – businesses who are proud to work in partnership with artists – we support this statement from Fairly Trained.”
British composer and former AI executive Ed Newton-Rex, who developed the latter, outlined how creatives were “very worried” about the current landscape.
“I think generative AI can be a powerful tool for creativity, but sadly, right now, as is commonly known, the majority of gen AI companies are unfairly exploiting the life’s work of the world’s creators. They’re using that to train models that compete with those creators,” he said (via The Guardian).
“Changing the law to allow training on copyrighted work without a licence… would, I think, be totally unacceptable to Britain’s incredibly important and rightly respected creators.”
The issue of AI being used in music has been a growing topic of discussion in recent times, and in April Billie Eilish, Robert Smith, Stevie Wonder and Nicki Minaj were named as just a handful of artists who had signed an open letter warning against the “predatory” use of AI in music.
Developed by non-profit organisation Artist Rights Alliance, the letter asked that developers, technology companies, and platforms and digital music services “pledge that they will not develop or deploy AI music-generation technology, content, or tools that undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists or deny us fair compensation for our work”.
It continued: “Unchecked, AI will set in motion a race to the bottom that will degrade the value of our work and prevent us from being fairly compensated for it. This assault on human creativity must be stopped. We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists’ voices and likeness, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem.”
Other musicians who signed the document included Katy Perry, Sam Smith, Kim Petras, R.E.M., Jon Bon Jovi, Mumford & Sons, Imagine Dragons, d4vd, Jon Batiste, Finneas, Fletcher, Pearl Jam, J Balvin, Jonas Brothers, Noah Kahan, Norah Jones, Yard Act, The Last Dinner Party, Zayn Malik, Smokey Robinson, Sheryl Crow, Sigrid, the estates of Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra, BTS‘ label HYBE and others.
In November 2023, it was announced that the Council of Music Makers (CMM) had shared an open letter about the “profoundly tone-deaf” government hearing on the impact of AI. Before then, UK Music Interim Chief Executive Tom Kiehl urged then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to respond to the music industry’s concerns around artificial intelligence by introducing some form of legal protection around the developing technology.
One of the most concerning statistics regarding AI came earlier this month, when it was estimated that people working in music were likely to lose a quarter of their income to Artificial Intelligence over the next four years.
Without intervention from policymakers, those working in music are predicted to see more than a 20 per cent decline in their income, while AI developers in the music industry are set to gain £3.3billion (up from £0.08billion in 2023), per The Guardian.
The annual market for generative AI is currently £2.5billion, which is predicted to rise to £52.8billion by 2028.
