AI Open Letter: Billie Eilish, Metro Boomin, Noah Kahan

AI has become a hot-button topic in creative communities and beyond since consumer-level tools have become widespread over the past few years. Some feel it could threaten the livelihoods of artists, and now some recognizable names have signed an open letter from Artist Rights Alliance that aims to curb or prevent irresponsible use of these technologies.

Those who signed include Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Noah Kahan, Metro Boomin, Katy Perry, J Balvin, Zayn Malik, Camila Cabello, Jonas Brothers, d4vd, Doechii, and Kacey Musgraves, among others.

The letter begins, “We, the undersigned members of the artist and songwriting communities, call on Al developers, technology companies, platforms and digital music services to cease the use of artificial intelligence (Al) to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.” It then considers both sides of the AI situation, saying, “Make no mistake: we believe that, when used responsibly, Al has enormous potential to advance human creativity and in a manner that enables the development and growth of new and exciting experiences for music fans everywhere. Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are employing Al to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians, and rightsholders.”

It goes on from there before concluding, “We call on all Al developers, technology companies, platforms and digital music services to pledge that they will not develop or deploy Al music-generation technology, content or tools that undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists or deny us fair compensation for our work.”

Find the full letter and list of people who signed it below.

“We, the undersigned members of the artist and songwriting communities, call on Al developers, technology companies, platforms and digital music services to cease the use of artificial intelligence (Al) to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.

Make no mistake: we believe that, when used responsibly, Al has enormous potential to advance human creativity and in a manner that enables the development and growth of new and exciting experiences for music fans everywhere.

Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are employing Al to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians, and rightsholders.

When used irresponsibly, Al poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music and our livelihoods. Some of the biggest and most powerful companies are, without permission, using our work to train Al models. These efforts are directly aimed at replacing the work of human artists with massive quantities of Al-created ‘sounds’ and ‘images’ that substantially dilute the royalty pools that are paid out to artists. For many working musicians, artists, and songwriters who are just trying to make ends meet, this would be catastrophic.

Unchecked, Al will set in motion a race to the bottom that will degrade the value of our work and prevent us from being fairly compensated for it.

This assault on human creativity must be stopped. We must protect against the predatory use of Al to steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem.

We call on all Al developers, technology companies, platforms and digital music services to pledge that they will not develop or deploy Al music-generation technology, content, or tools that undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists or deny us fair compensation for our work.”