Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj and 200 artists write open letter warning of AI in music industry

As Artificial Intelligence gets more real by the day, the Artists Rights Alliance issued an open letter signed by more than 200 major music industry figures who want digital music service platforms to pledge that they won’t develop or use AI tools “that undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists or deny us fair compensation for our work.”

The letter was published on the Medium platform and features signatures from celebrities like Billie Eilish, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, R.E.M, the estates of Frank Sinatra and Bob Marley, Chuck D, Camila Cabello, J Balvin, Chuck D, Peter Frampton, Billy Porter, Jonas Brothers, Smoky Robinson, Imagine Dragons, Kate Hudson and many more. A total of more than 200 celebrities signed the letter. 

Letter seeks to ask for protection for its creative talent

The letter calls on “AI developers, technology companies, platforms and digital music services to cease the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.”

It further adds, “Make no mistake: we believe that, when used responsibly, AI has enormous potential to advance human creativity and in a manner that enables the development and growth of new and exciting experiences for music fans everywhere. Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are employing AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rights holders.”

The motto of the letter is to seek to “protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem.”

AI threatens showbiz

Earlier, the entertainment and showbiz world asked for guarantees against the use of AI as both Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA employees went on months-long strikes to limit the use of Artificial Intelligence.

Also read: Taylor Swift among 141 new billionaires who joined list of world’s richest in 2024