Some of the biggest record companies on the planet have decided to sue AI, attacking two start-ups and accusing them of copyright infringement. Here’s what’s happening in the music industry.
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Record companies sue AI for copyright infringement
Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group Recording, Warner Records and several other record companies have filed lawsuits against two artificial intelligence startups.
Specifically, these are Suno and Udio, which use generative AI to produce music. The accusation made against him is of violating the artists’ copyright, and the extent of it is not even calculable.
The lawsuit against Suno AI was filed in federal court in Boston, while the lawsuit against Uncharted Labs, developer of Udio, was filed in New York. These two start-ups are able to create new songs starting from some very simple inputs provided by users. They generate not only the voices and arrangements but also the lyrics.
In short, once again artificial intelligence is back in the news, but this time not for its innovative possibilities but rather for the blurred boundary between legality and illegality.
The reason for the cause
How did Suno and Udio violate copyright according to the major record companies? The answer is quite simple: in training. Copyrighted songs on a “hardly imaginable scale” would be used to train the generative AI.
The record companies asked for a sum of 150 thousand euros for each song, a very large sum considering the scale of the matter. All this, according to Sony, Warner, Universal and others, serves to preserve the rights of artists.
Mitch Glazier, head of the RIAA, said the music industry actively collaborates with responsible, licensed and trustworthy AI developers. In the case of Suno and Udio, however, lacking these two essential conditions, the situation would be completely different.
“Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it is ‘ok’ to copy an artist’s life work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or without payment stand in the way of the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all.”
Suno and Udio’s response
On one side the record companies, on the other Suno and Udio, who defend themselves by highlighting the originality of the output produced by the tool.
Shulman, director of Suno AI, also declared that his start-up would have tried to explain it to the record labels who, however, preferred to proceed through legal action.
AI and music compared
It’s not the first time we’ve heard about artificial intelligence in the music scene. Many argue that due to new technology the musical panorama will be less and less original and that it will live on the genius of past artists.
According to someone else, however, AI could be a very valid ally in production. As with many topics, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
Much more significant, however, is the legal question, which absolutely cannot exist in uncertainty. For this reason it will be very important to see how this controversy ends, it could represent a watershed between the present and the future.
