Lennox, Albarn & Co:

Musicians protest against AI with a “silent album”

The twelve tracks on the album, which is backed by more than a thousand musicians, together form the sentence: "The British government must not legalize theft for the benefit of AI companies."

(Bild: 2018/TOBIAS DELLIT)

Musicians such as Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and Damon Albarn are protesting against the relaxation of British copyright law in favor of artificial intelligence with a "silent album". The work with the cautionary title "Is This What We Want" contains nothing but recordings of silence in deserted recording studios and performance venues.

The twelve tracks of the album, which is backed by more than a thousand musicians, together form the sentence: "The British government must not legalize theft for the benefit of AI companies." They were published on the same day as the deadline for public consultation on the new copyright law in the UK.

Warning against selling off artworks to AI companies
An open letter from several dozen musicians and authors was also published in "The Times" newspaper, in which they warn against the sell-out of artworks to AI companies in California's Silicon Valley. The signatories include music greats such as Paul McCartney, Elton John, Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa and Sting, as well as writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro and Helen Fielding.

In an extraordinary move, almost every national newspaper in the UK also ran a campaign of advertisements and editorials expressing concern about the proposed copyright reform. Their front pages were emblazoned with the appeal "Make it Fair" on a blue background.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is considering allowing AI companies to develop and train their models using creative content available on the internet. If creators do not want this, they would have to explicitly object in each case, according to the proposed reform. Many artists argue that this approach would cause them a lot of trouble and make it difficult for them to determine who all wants to use their content.

"Poorly thought-out plan"
Ed Newton-Rex, who organized the release of the silent protest album, said the musicians were "united in their complete condemnation of this ill-conceived plan". In their view, the proposed copyright reform would "hand over the life's work of the country's musicians to AI companies for free and let those companies exploit the musicians' work to out-compete them". The UK could also become a leader in the AI sector "without letting our world-leading creative industries fall by the wayside", emphasized Newton-Rex.

According to Premier Starmer, he wants to strike the right "balance" between copyright and the requirements for the further development of artificial intelligence and points to the "huge" opportunities offered by AI.