Kent's Kate Bush part of 'Silent' Protest Album
The co-written album titled "Is This What We Want?" features contributions from the likes of Damon Albarn and Annie Lennox and a list of empty studios and performance spaces
More than 1,000 musicians including Kent’s Kate Bush have released a silent album to protest proposed changes to Britain's copyright laws which could allow tech firms to train AI models using their work.
The co-written album titled "Is This What We Want?" features contributions from the likes of Damon Albarn and Annie Lennox and a list of empty studios and performance spaces to represent what organisers say is the potential impact on artists' livelihoods should the changes go ahead.
Creative industries globally are grappling with the legal and ethical implications of AI models that can produce their own output after being trained on popular works without necessarily paying the creators of the original content.
The proposed changes would allow AI developers to train their models on any material to which they have lawful access, and would require creators to proactively opt out to stop their work being used.
The changes have been heavily criticised by many artists, who say it would reverse the principle of copyright law, which grants exclusive control to creators for their work.
"In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?," said Bush.
A public consultation on the legal changes closes later on Tuesday.
Billy Ocean, Hans Zimmer, Tori Amos and The Clash are among the musicians urging the government to review its plans.
"The government's proposal would hand the life's work of the country's musicians to AI companies, for free, letting those companies exploit musicians’ work to outcompete them," said organiser Ed Newton-Rex, the founder of Fairly Trained, a non-profit that certifies generative AI companies for fairer training data practices.
"The UK can be leaders in AI without throwing our world-leading creative industries under the bus."
