Kevin Winter/Getty Images, Recording Academy
Sony Music, the world’s largest music publisher and home to artists such as Beyoncé and Adele, has contacted more than 700 companies, including Google, Microsoft and Open AI, to have its songs developed into artificial intelligence systems. I checked to see if it was used.
Publishers want to stop using Sony’s songs without permission to train, develop, and make money for AI, the BBC reports.
Sony said in the letter that it “has reason to believe” the recipients “may already be misusing” its music. Sony Music says it will enforce its copyrights “to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.”
This complaint echoes other concerns about AI tools that need to be “trained” using existing materials.
For example, chatbots may have “learned” certain writing styles by being shown billions of books, according to the BBC.
At Sony Music, we believe the same principles apply to music. In order for the AI to grow, it needs to be exposed to songs, and Sony believes it owns some of them.
Google and OpenAI are both developing AI tools that can generate music, but it’s unclear what was used to train them.
Universal Music has filed a lawsuit against Antrophic in the United States. The company’s complaint believes it used lyrics from hundreds of songs.
