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Sony Music revealed the scale of the artist’s battle with artificial intelligence fakes, saying it took over 75,000 examples of AI-generated materials with the biggest stars, including Harry Styles.
One of the music industry’s three biggest labels, the company has given figures submitted to the UK government’s consultation on copyright rules that Sony fears will exacerbate damage to the music industry from AI.
Music executives say the fakes detected are probably just some of the AI music available online. This is because teams working on the issue will need to manually scrutinize the streaming service and request it to be removed.
The ability of new, freely available AI software to generate vast amounts of persuasive fake materials has emerged as a major concern for companies in the creative industry. Many people fear that the free availability of materials will undermine their ability to make money from legal recordings.
In a submission to consultations seen in the Financial Times, Sony said that recordings generated by AI on the music streaming service “does directly harm legitimate recording artists, including British artists.”
Executives are concerned that the weakening of UK copyright laws will only exacerbate the situation, especially for small artists who lack large labels to protect their interests.
Those familiar with Sony’s efforts have said that on most labels the copied artists are the most popular – Harry Styles, Queen and Beyoncé are the case with Sony.
Sony’s submission states, “Unfortunately, Sony Music has extensive experience in digital replicas.”
The UK government has published the proposal as part of a drive that Kiel Prime Minister Sterner said was aiming to make the UK “the perfect place to start and expand your AI business.”
One proposal allows AI companies to train models for free for commercial purposes with a variety of UK content, including music, films, books, newspapers and more. Copyright holders must seek certain opt-outs to be exempt.
Executives in the creative industry fear that models will place new administrative burdens on creators of keeping their jobs online at all times.
The proposal sparked weeks of protests from artists, musicians, filmmakers and media groups.
However, the Minister argues that they are still open to different views as they try to come to a copyright position that could help raise British technological ambitions while protecting the creative industry.
Sony Music has called for it to submit to highlight the benefits of existing systems that AI developers must pay copyright owners to access content in order to train their models. Sony said it is currently involved in “multiple negotiations” to license intellectual property to AI companies. The government’s proposal said “it is likely to be reduced, rather than cut AI licensing activities in the UK market.”
The Sony response calls the proposed changes “hurried, unbalanced and irreversible” and argues that copyright is a “right, not a regulation.” The system was “necessary social rewards” for creating and investing in works that benefit society and enriching human life, it added.
The company said the “unjust and unnecessary” proposals distorted the market in favor of AI developers.
Sony argued that the proposal would undermine much of the UK’s economy, claiming that the UK is the world’s third largest audio-recorded music market and the world’s second largest exporter.
