Debate post by Sara Indrio, musical artist and chairperson of the Danish Artist Association

Seen through the prism of art, the social debate about artificial intelligence and machine learning is about law, but also about spirit, community and identity. That's why it's important for both politicians and businesses to follow. AI tools enable a speed in the production of artistic content that makes it possible to Millions of music tracks can be released on a daily basis. Even a trained ear will struggle to tell if they are originals or imitations, created through machine learning based on existing musical ideas and expressions.

In addition to ensuring artists' income and right to their own identity and expression, we must ask ourselves what will the quality be? What will be the value of artistic content, and who will be able to afford the 'real thing'?

 

Ensuring quality and value

The music industry's major players and organisations can stand up for artists' protection, and politicians can help. They can start with Danish law, where, following the implementation of an important EU copyright directive, further adjustments are now needed. In the US, AI is high on the agenda: after a lengthy strike, the film and performing arts parties have reached an agreement that includes the aforementioned protections. Support for the artists came from labour groups such as nurses, electricians and construction workers - and even President Biden himself. The industry can negotiate and price music performed by artists and musicians fairly and proportionately and ensure proper protection, but it cannot control the market or the technology.

 

AI - tool or replacement

As a tool, AI can lead to new music, new sounds and expressions if there is an artist with the ear and expertise to manage the production. But if you set a machine to create sound-alikes or look-alikes solely to save costs, it will become just that: cheap imitations. In the future, music without an author and artistic treatment may even flood the world. We can assume this will happen if we take the words of Spotify's CEO at face value. We run the risk that the majority will end up with the imitation of the imitation because they can't afford the 'real thing' or can't recognise it in the crowd. In this way, AI technology creates a serious democratic problem. Perhaps we should already be working to make the encounter with man-made art a human right?

 

Artists create what moves us

AI is available and can be used by anyone for music production. In the future, an advertising agency, for example, can completely bypass the musician, artist and composer and instead use music created by AI. As long as it's legal and transparent, and the original work is credited and paid for, you can't blame them. But behind the music that can move and touch us and shape communities, it should be clear that there is a human being with artistic expertise and intention. People need to be able to reflect themselves in art, and this identity creation is extremely important, especially for young people and the next generation of audiences. The global society risks being dominated by free music services, the soundtrack to life is provided by cheap imitations, and the sense of identity is reflected in machine-made look-alikes. To put it bluntly.


Global solutions for audiences and artists

In that scenario, the need for protection arises. Not only of the song and the work, but also of the artist's identity. It's not just the ideas, but also the artist's persona and brand that AI can harvest, manipulate or emulate. Alongside that protection, we need a labelling scheme so that the audience knows when it's AI-generated content.

We must find global solutions that leave no room for local exceptions, and Danish politicians and artists should take the lead by taking a stand and setting ambitious goals. This could be in the form of a global human right to one's own identity and through a new global goal that formulates everyone's right to encounter unique, man-made art. In this way, problem solving extends beyond artists and into society.