Artificial Intelligence AI and Machine learning are the next phase of technological advancement. It is thus important that AI is used to push boundaries and create more opportunities. However, with this role, there is a tendency for AI technology implementation to abuse the rights of others. This possibility has made it important that the implementation of AI technology be done ethically and legally. As such, the laws that bind humans should also bind AI.
On the 4th of June 2024, the Recording Industry Association of America RIAA/PLAINTIFF on behalf of the major record labels filed two suits against AI music generators: Suno and Udio. The arguments of the plaintiff in both cases centred around the protection of sound recordings that are generated by AI tools. Suno and Udio, being AI music generators, train their AI models to generate output that imitates the qualities of actual sound recordings. These AI models are trained with copies of copyrighted music and upon prompt, they produce closely similar copyrighted materials.
A popular example of the use of AI in music is seen in 2024 during the rap battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. In one of the diss tracks titled Taylor Made Freestyle released by Drake, the Canadian-born rapper included AI-generated vocals of both Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg on the track. Another popular example happened the year earlier in 2023 when an AI song called Heart on My Sleeve was released featuring Drake and The Weeknd. The entire song was created by AI and it gathered over 8.5 million views on TikTok and over 250,000 listens on Spotify.
The reality is that AI tools depend heavily on copyrighted input. In the case of Suno, the company itself alleged that the training data it uses are music files of reasonable quality that are accessible on the open Internetabiding by paywalls, password protections, and the likecombined with similarly available text descriptions. This use of copyrighted input to train the AI is not transformative in nature but a way of stealing from creatives without reference or compensation. It can be likened to sampling without clearance.