The AI backlash is in full bloom in the UK. The government entertained a proposal to allow AI training with copyrighted works, subject to authors’ ability to opt out. But that triggered a huge outcry of turning copyright on its head.
Now, over 1,000 artists, including Annie Lennox, Kate Bush, and Billy Ocean, have released a Silent Album: Is This What We Want?
Another group of artists published a scathing letter in the Times (UK):
Sir, The government’s proposal to exempt Silicon Valley from adhering to creative copyright in building its AI platforms would represent a wholesale giveaway of rights and income from the UK’s creative sectors to Big Tech.
It would smash a hole in the moral right of creators to present their work as they wish and would undermine our 300-year-old gold-standard copyright system, which supports individual artists and creative businesses, large and small.
Signing the letter were: Simon Beaufoy, Barbara Broccoli, Kate Bush, Stuart Camp, Matthew Dunster, Sam Fender, Helen Fielding, Rachel Fuller, Sir Stephen Fry, David Furnish, Dame Pippa Harris, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, Sir Elton John, Paul King, Simon Le Bon, Dua Lipa, Alastair Lloyd Webber, Lord Lloyd-Webber, Sir Paul McCartney, Martin McDonagh, Sir Michael Morpurgo, Lucy Prebble, Sir Simon Rattle, Philip Ridley, Michael Rosen, Dame Hannah Rothschild, Ed Sheeran, Sting, Sir Tom Stoppard, Pete Townshend, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Matthew Warchus, Jeanette Winterson, Andrew Wylie.
Last year, the Artists Rights Alliance posted an open letter Urging Tech Platforms to Stop Devaluing Music?, signed by the likes of Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj.
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