UMG TAKES ANTI-SKYNET POSITION

As controversy swirls around generative AI, a rep for UMG has issued the quote below about its implications for the music world.

A recent flap over an AI-generated track emulating Drake and The Weeknd, which racked up considerable streams and buzz before being yanked, sets the stage for a genuine showdown between advocates of human-generated music and the shadowy robot army.

"UMG’s success has been, in part, due to embracing new technology and putting it to work for our artists—as we have been doing with our own innovation around AI for some time already," UMG's statement reads. "With that said, however, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression or the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation. These instances demonstrate why platforms have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the use of their services in ways that harm artists. We’re encouraged by the engagement of our platform partners on these issues—as they recognize they need to be part of the solution."

This story was not written by ChatGPT, which has been kind of sulky lately.