1,000 contractors released an album “Silent” to protest the UK’s Copyright Sale of AI

The UK Government insists on plans to attract more AI companies in the region through changes to the Copyright Act, which would allow developers to train AI models on the content of artists on the Internet – without permission or payment – unless the creators proactively “are” proactively ” They refuse. ” However, not everyone goes to the same rhythm.

On Monday, a group of 1,000 musicians released Silent Album, protesters, protesters the planned changesS The album – entitled “Do we want this?” – Characteristics of songs by Kate Bush, Imogen Hape and contemporary classic composers Max Richter and Thomas Hughit Jones, among others. It also contains co -authorship loans from hundreds moreIncluding big names such as Ani Lennox, Damon Alburn, Billy Ocean, The Clash, Mystery Jets, Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Riz Ahmed, Tori Amos and Hans Zimmer.

But this is not Band Aid Part 2. And it’s not a collection of music. Instead, the contractors have made records of empty studios and spaces for implementation – a symbolic presentation of what they believe will be the impact of the planned changes to the Copyright Act.

“You can hear my cats moving around,” Hughit Jones described his contribution to the album. “I have two cats in my studio that bother me all day when I work.”

In order to put an even more dumb point, the titles of the 12 songs that make up the album write a message: “The British government does not have to legalize music theft to take advantage of AI companies.”

The album is only the most new move in the UK to draw attention to the question of how copyright is processed in AI training. Similar protests are undergoing In other markets, such as the United States, emphasizing global concern among artists.

Ed Newton-Rex, which organizes the project, simultaneously runs a major campaign against AI training without licensing. A Petition It has now been launched by more than 47,000 writers, visual artists, actors and others in Creative Industries, with nearly 10,000 of them registered in the last five weeks since the UK government has announced its great AI strategy.

Newton-Rex said it also “manages a non-profit purpose in AI for the last year, where we have certified companies that are generally not scraped and trained with great work without permission.”

Newton-Rex arrived in the intercessors for artists after fighting for both sides. Classically trained as a composer, he later built a platform for a music composition based on AI called Jukedec, which allows people to bypass, using copyright, creating their own. His catchy terrain where he rapes and threw himself on the virtues of using AI for writing music, Won the TechCrunch Battlefield Starting Race in 2015S Jukedeck eventually was Acquired by tiktokwhere he has been working for some time on music services.

After a few years in other technology companies such as Snap and Stability, Newton-Rex returns to consider how to build the future without burning the past. He is considering this idea from a rather interesting point of view: he now lives in the area of ​​the bay with his wife Alice Newton-Rex, Vice President of the product at WhatsApp.

The album edition comes just before the planned changes to the Copyright Act in the UK, which would force artists who do not want their work used for the purposes of AI training Proactively “give upS “

Newton-Rex believes that this effectively creates a situation of loss for artists, since there is no method of refusing, or some clear way to be able to track what kind of specific material has been submitted to each AI system.

“We know that refusal schemes are simply not accepted,” he said. “This will simply give 90% (up to) 95% of the work of the people of AI companies. This is no doubt. “

The solution, to say artists, is to produce work in other markets where there may be better protection for it. Hewit Jones-who threw a working keyboard into a port in Kent in protest personally, not long ago (he kicked him down, shattered it), he was considering markets like Switzerland to distribute his music in the future.

But the rock and the difficult place of the harbor in Kent are nothing compared to the Wild West on the Internet.

“For decades, we have been telling us to share our work online because this is good for exposure. But now AI companies and, amazing, governments are turning and saying, “Well, you are playing this online for free …”, Newton-Rex said. “So now the artists are just stopping to do and share their jobs. A number of artists have contacted me to say that this is what they do. “

The album will be widely published on music platforms sometime on Tuesday, the organizers and all the donations or receipts from its release will go to the charity musicians.