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Over 1,000 artists, including Damon Albarn, Kate Bush, and Annie Lennox, have released a silent album titled Is This What We Want? to protest the UK government’s proposed changes to copyright law, which would allow AI companies to train their models using copyrighted work without a license. The album contains recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, representing the impact they expect the government’s proposals would have on musicians’ livelihoods. All proceeds will be donated to the UK charity Help Musicians.
The UK government is currently consulting on proposals that would allow AI companies to use material available online without respecting copyright if they are using it for text or data mining. Generative AI programs mine, or learn, from vast amounts of data like text, images, or music online to generate new content that feels like it has been made by a human. The proposals would give artists or creators a so-called “rights reservation” – the ability to opt out. Critics of the plan believe it is not possible for an individual writer or artist to notify thousands of different AI service providers that they do not want their content used in that way, or to monitor what has happened to their work across the whole internet.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said in a statement on Tuesday that the UK’s current regime for copyright and AI is holding back the creative industries, media, and AI sector from realizing their full potential. They have been consulting on a new approach that protects the interests of both AI developers and right holders and delivers a solution which allows both to thrive. They have engaged extensively with these sectors throughout and will continue to do so.
Imogen Heap, Yusuf aka Cat Stevens, Riz Ahmed, Tori Amos, Hans Zimmer, and composer Max Richter have also backed the silent album release. Singer-songwriter Naomi Kimpenu added: “We cannot be abandoned by the government and have our work stolen for the profit of big tech.” The plans would “shatter the prospects of so many emerging artists in the UK.”
In January, Sir Paul McCartney told the BBC the proposed changes to copyright law could allow “rip off” technology that might make it impossible for musicians and artists to make a living. In a letter to The Times, signatories including Sir Paul, Lord Lloyd Webber, and Sir Stephen Fry said that changes to the law will allow big tech to raid the creative sectors.
On Tuesday, the UK’s creative industries launched a campaign to highlight how their content is at risk of being given away for free to AI firms. The Make it Fair campaign, which includes wrap-around adverts in national newspapers, is urging people to write to their MPs to object to the government’s plans.
