UK Music’s Interim Chief Executive Tom Kiehl has urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to address the music industry’s concerns surrounding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in music ahead of this week’s AI Safety Summit. Kiehl and UK Music argue that AI could lead to “music laundering,” where creatives do not receive compensation for their work. The two principles outlined in the letter to the PM are consent and transparency at a national and international level. Kiehl emphasises the need for copyright protection on music and urges that AI firms should obtain consent from artists to use copyright-protected work.
The global summit, which will take place from November 1-2 at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, brings together international governments, AI companies, civil society groups, and research experts to discuss AI development and safety. In a speech last week, Sunak stressed that “the UK’s answer is not to rush to regulate”.
On the matter of consent, Kiehl says that “machine learning involves numerous rights, including copyright, which in most countries are not subject to an exception that restricts creators and rightsholders’ abilities to exercise their rights.” With the second principle of transparency, Kiehl argues that AI platform providers should keep an auditable record of the music used for training the machine, and AI-generated music should be labelled as such to avoid consumer confusion.
UK Music will continue to engage in discussions with the UK government and the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) regarding the impact of AI on the music industry. Kiehl’s full letter to Sunak is available to read online
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