Sting predicts “struggle” of musicians against artificial intelligence

British rock star Sting has warned about the impact of artificial intelligence and software like ChatGPT on music. “The building blocks of music belong to us, the people,” the 71-year-old said in an interview with the BBC published on Thursday.

Recently, several musicians had used artificial intelligence for their songs. So David Guetta complemented Eminem’s voice in one of his tracks. In April, a song with the voices of singers Drake and The Weeknd cloned using artificial intelligence was removed from streaming services.

“Maybe it will work for electronic dance music,” Sting said. “But with songs that express emotions, I don’t think that’s going to get to me.” It is similar to computer generated images.

Sting agreed with Pet Shop Boys frontman Neil Tennant that AI could help overcome the writer’s block. “The tools are useful, but we need to move them forward,” he said. “We cannot allow the machines to take control just like that. We have to be careful.”

The music industry has already braced itself against artificial intelligence and launched an initiative called the Human Artistry Campaign. She warns that AI companies are violating copyright by training their software with commercially released music. Whether music created with AI can be copyrighted is still under discussion, according to the BBC report.

Sources

(dsc/sda/dpa)