Earlier this month, SoundExchange CEO Michael Huppe testified before a Senate Panel on the importance of fairness and control when it comes to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). During her testimony, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) asked Sam Altman of OpenAI if he favored something like SoundExchange for the collection and distribution of royalties in order to compensate artists when their works are used by AI companies.
Huppe was immensely pleased by the panel’s recognition of the need to protect and compensate the creative class, as the AI development landscape accelerates rapidly with technology that can now generate digital music to sound like renowned artists, create stories using authors’ voices, and provide platforms for the public to use AI-generated music.
It was then that the Human Artistry Campaign was launched in March, in order to encourage responsible use of AI while recognizing the “inimitable value of human artistry and expression”. Over 100 organizations from the literary, music, and art industries have signed on, including Major League Baseball Players Association and the NFL Players Association.
Huppe noted that it’s not solely the music industry that’s affected by AI developments – athletes may see their name, image or likeness used without their permission to capitalize off of. He emphasized the idea that the creative class should have “fairness and control” over how their works are used for AI, with the emergence of a licensing structure and a portion of Artificial Intelligence profits going to the creative community.
The Washington DC-based nonprofit SoundExchange was founded two decades ago to monitor and collect royalties for digital audio platforms and distribute them to music creators. Michael Huppe maintained his stance that it is the right of the creative class to make the decision for their copyrighted works to be used as training models for AI.
As musical artists like Justine Bateman and Sting voice their concerns, the creative class is increasingly working towards ensuring they are compensated for the use of their works in the AI industry.
