200+ members of the artist and songwriter communities have signed a new open letter, submitted via the non-profit Artist Rights Alliance, which urges AI developers, technology companies, platforms, and digital music serves to “cease the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.” 

The call for change was signed by a genre-bending representation of all four corners of the music industry, continued with context, further amplifying the decry over creativity in the wake of technological advancements: “Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are employing AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rightsholders.”

“When used irresponsibly, AI poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music and our livelihoods. Some of the biggest and most powerful companies are, without permission, using our work to train AI models. These efforts are directly aimed at replacing the work of human artists with massive quantities of AI-created ‘sounds’ and ‘images’ that substantially dilute the royalty pills that are paid out to artists.” The letter continued, “For many working musicians, artists and songwriters who are just trying to make ends meet, this would be catastrophic.”

The remaining artists endorsed-note warned, “Unchecked, AI will set in motion a race to the bottom that will degrade the value of our work and prevent us from being fairly compensated.” The letter went on to reflect the urgency for change, “This is an assault on human creativity must be stopped. We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem.”

As stated, the letter was signed by a staggering number of bands, artists, and music creatives, including the estate of Bob Marley, R.E.M., Marcus King, Elvis Costello, Jason Isbel, Mumford & Sons, Norah Jones, Pearl Jam, Rhett Miller, Peter Frampton, T Bone Burnett, Stevie Wonder, Rosanne Cash, Kacey Musgraves, Don Was, Patrick Carney and many more. 

Read the complete letter here.