Nicki Minaj and other Artists are Calling for a Stop of Music AI

R| Katy Perry (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images) M| Nicki Minaj (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) L| Billie Eilish (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)

In an open letter organized by the non-profit Artist Rights Alliance issued on Tuesday, artists including Katy Perry, Billie Eilish, The Jonas Brothers, J Balvin and more, are calling on AI developers, technology companies, platforms and digital music services to “cease the use of artificial intelligence to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.” 

The artists’ statement highlight how, even as the technology advances rapidly and its potential expands, artificial intelligence is poised to fundamentally alter the creative industries and the U.S. economy as a whole. 

The letter identifies “irresponsible uses of AI,” such as using AI sound to reduce royalties to artists and using musical compositions by AI developers without permission to train and create AI copycats, as well as threats posed by AI, such as deepfakes and voice cloning.

“We believe that, when used responsibly, AI 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,” the letter states. “Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are employing AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rightsholders.”

The letter is urging services and platforms that offer digital music to promise to safeguard artists.

“We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem,” the letter says.

Jen Jacobsen, the executive director of Artist Right Alliance, released a statement where she said that the threats of AI are worsening already-though working conditions for artists. 

“Working musicians are already struggling to make ends meet in the streaming world, and now they have the added burden of trying to compete with a deluge of AI-generated noise,” Jacobsen says. “The unethical use of generative AI to replace human artists will devalue the entire music ecosystem—for artists and fans alike.”

The letter also states that AI brings concerns to the entertainment business overall and not just to the music industry. 

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