Major labels finally sue music-generating AIs. Think about creativity.

【Major Labels Declare War on Music Generation AI; “Piracy” Brought to Legal Proceedings】
https://wired.jp/article/ai-music-generators-suno-and-udio-sued-for-copyright-infringement/

・Music labels sued Suno and Udio for copyright infringement, claiming that the music-generating AIs used songs by artists to train their AIs without their permission.

・The plaintiffs are seeking up to $150,000 in damages for each infringed song.

・When questioned in pre-litigation correspondence, Suno not only did not deny using copyrighted material in the training data, but explained that the training data constituted “trade secret information.

・Our technology is transformative. Our technology is designed to generate entirely new outputs, not to memorize and reuse existing content. That’s why we don’t allow user prompts related to specific artists,” says Suno’s CEO.

・Major companies like OpenAI are already facing numerous copyright infringement lawsuits from artists, writers, programmers, and other copyright holders.

・The labels are not entirely opposed to AI. In fact, many labels are working on parallel projects with AI companies.

・The issue is when music labels will determine that intellectual property is being misappropriated without commercial return.

The above is a quote from the article

Human creativity, AI creativity

Music Generation AI and Copyright.

As a musician on the fringe, this is a topic that I have always paid attention to.

And now, as expected, it has finally happened,

Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Group, and other major labels have filed a lawsuit against music-generating AI.

In fact, if you listen to the generated music, it sounds exactly like a Marais Carry song, doesn’t it?

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Pretty amazing stuff from the Udio/Suno lawsuits. Record labels were able to basically recreate versions of very famous songs with highly specific prompts, then linked to them in the lawsuits. I made a short compilation here:https://t.co/9Nu7rW7eqD pic.twitter.com/5fQaD0wQ2I

— Jason Koebler (@jason_koebler) June 24, 2024

Moreover, when music of this quality is generated in a few seconds, it is truly a frightening feeling for musicians and the music industry.

I believe that these music-generating AIs are learning from the music of the past,

I think that these music-generating AIs are learning from (and influencing) past music, but I also think that they may be no different from us human musicians in that they are learning from (and influencing) past music.

And moreover,

When I make music at work, I often receive an order to “make music like existing music 00”.

I sometimes think recently that this is not much different from what music generation AI is doing.

However!

Inevitably, as a human musician, I have to admit that I am a bit uncomfortable with some aspects of the music when it is learned and made with a few seconds of bleep, although it is an emotional argument.

To use an analogy outside of music,

When a potter makes a pot,

If a human artist is ordered to make a vase that looks like a 00, he/she would look at it, touch it, absorb it, learn from it, and then make the vase in his/her own way,

AI is able to scan a vase digitally and create it in a few seconds with 3D printing. (To make a little difference, I tweak some of the scanned 3D data a bit)

Humans feel like they create through their brains and senses (by taking in)

AI is like creating through digital incorporation.

Broadly speaking, both are the same in terms of learning (taking in), but I still feel that they are not exactly the same.

I still feel unconvinced. ^^;

Incidentally, what I don’t agree with is that these are treated as the same music, in the same field.

Well, I can’t deny that this has a lot of personal feelings of human composers.

Of course, I am not completely rejecting AI either. (I too would like to incorporate AI as a tool)

I think it is important to create various systems and mechanisms, whether it is a copyright royalty fee or an obligation to label the work as having been created by AI.

The reality is that the system can’t always keep up with the speed of technological development.

In any case,

This lawsuit is likely to be a turning point, so it will be interesting to watch.

See you then

I believe that in the textbooks of the distant future, music will be divided into BAI (pre-AI) music and AAI (post-AI) music, just like BC and AC. The way of making music will be revolutionized in the future. Personally, I would like to try my best to make music made only by human power in BAI while I still can.