Musicians concerned by lack of regulation around fast-evolving AI technology

RNZ News

3 days ago

Jeremy Toy.
Photo:
RNZ / Evie Richardson
New Zealand's musicians are watching on with a mix of horror and wonder as artificial intelligence programmes create increasingly plausible songs, often with just a few clicks of a button.
Just weeks ago a band called the 'Velvet Sundown' rose up the Spotify charts before it was revealed all their music had been
generated by AI.
As the technology continues to evolve at breakneck speed, artists and producers here are concerned about the lack of regulation around the tech.
In recent years, a number of easily accessible generative AI music tools have been released, where users can create complete songs by merely inserting a simple prompt.
One of these is Suno, a US-based company, which has faced a number of lawsuits from major record labels in the US and Germany over copyright issues.
Sophie Burbery, a musician and PHD student studying the topic, said companies like Suno don't disclose what music their AI software is learning from, leaving artists vulnerable.
"Suno has admitted that all of its music is trained on anything that it can scrape from the internet under fair use. No decisions have been made yet within those court systems as to whether or not they can actually rely on that as a way of getting away with not paying musicians for their music or licensing it or asking permission because at the moment they've done none of those things. "
Experts say the use of AI here in New Zealand is similar to the 'wild west' with no regulation or laws in place.
Concern was sparked following the recent release of the government's AI strategy report, which contained no mention of the implications for creative industries.
Burbery said if this continues, the consequences could be dire for our music and other creative industries.
"It's really up to the government to be doing this work, and to be saying hey look, you want to have your platform up in New Zealand Suno and Udio you need to tell us where and how you've trained your AI, and it has to be labelled as the output and who owns the output of the ai?"
Sophie Burbery.
Photo:
Supplied / Paul Taylor
These AI programmes have generated many questions around copyright, an area where New Zealand is unique.
Under the current Copyright Act, when a person uses AI to create a piece of art, such as a song, the end product automatically belongs to them, even it's based on a multitude of other people's songs.
Clive Elliott KC, a barrister at Shortland Chambers who specialises in Intellectual Property told
Checkpoint
the current law is not fit for purpose when it comes to protecting creatives.
"We can't use old principles that have been around for many years. We've got to say this is a completely different paradigm we face in here and we have to find a way which compensates people who have contributed to the learning process."
Elliot said the Copyright Act is simply too out of date to apply to the rapidly evolving technology.
"It's theft in a way, but it's theft of a tiny piece of information. And the problem with copyright is you have to show that a substantial part of the work has been copied."
"The Copyright Act has been under review for years now. [The government] need to step up and say this is this is urgent."
For some in the industry, like producer and artist Jeremy Toy, the risks are worrying.
"If it's adopted early on with songwriters that it normalises the process of using AI to create your music. It's completely stripping you of your creative ideas."
"I find it offensive as a musician that people think they can train a computer to think independently like a creative."
They said there are some things that AI will never be able to replicate.
"Connecting on the level that's not verbal, just being in a room with someone and playing music with them, that will never be recreated."
Although the buzz around AI has amplified in recent years, some musicians say its been a part of the industry for a while now.
Rodi Kirk.
Photo:
RNZ / Evie Richardson
Rodi Kirk, who works in music tech, said AI is commonly used when producing music, particularly in the mixing and mastering stages of production.
"One thing that might be surprising is that tools that rely on machine learning are not super new in terms of music production."
Kirk remained optimistic about the benefits the technology could bring.
"I wouldn't release a song and swap my voice for somebody that was well known, but you might do things that change your voice around for creative purposes. This general suite of tools that will be enabled by AI, I think people will do really creative stuff with them. "
With no regulation or protections for artists in sight, Burbery said it is unclear where AI will take the music industry next.
"It could offer many great creative possibilities but we don't know what they are because the way it has been developed is so unethical."
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