Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus and the BPI sign statement against using creatives’ work to train AI

Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke, ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and other industry figures are among those who have signed a statement against using creatives’ work to train AI.

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The statement, which you can find here, reads: “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 follows ongoing legal issues between the creative world and tech firms over the use of their work to train artificial intelligence models such as ChatGPT.

Among the 11,500 signatories from across the music, film, theatre and writing world pushing back against the use of intellectual property without permission are Billy Bragg, Kevin Bacon, Robert Smith, Julianne Moore, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ann Patchett, Rosario Dawson and more.

Today we’re publishing a statement on AI training, signed by 10,000+ creators already:

“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.”

Signatories include… pic.twitter.com/AqVaEThMs4

— Ed Newton-Rex (@ednewtonrex) October 22, 2024

Following the release of the statement, Gee Davy, the interim CEO for the Association of Independent Music has 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.

“To achieve the benefits of AI for creativity, we urge policymakers not to lose sight of the need for strong copyright protections. This is vital to ensure a healthy future for those who create, invest in and release music across genres and all communities, regions and nations of the UK.”

Per the Guardian, the British composer and former AI executive Ed Newton-Rex – the organiser of the letter – said creatives are “very worried” about the current landscape.

“There are three key resources that generative AI companies need to build AI models: people, compute, and data,” he said. “They spend vast sums on the first two – sometimes a million dollars per engineer, and up to a billion dollars per model. But they expect to take the third – training data – for free.”

Industry heavyweights have consistently criticised the use of AI, with Nick Cave saying the use of in music was “unbelievably disturbing”, and Peter Hook claiming: “Every AI song that has ever been written is shit”.

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