How AI is creating a 'Wild West' scenario for entertainment giants like Spotify, Disney

Alexandra Canal and Alexandra Garfinkle  Yahoo Finance Tue, May 16, 2023 -- Source Bick

AI buzz is booming right now — but that's not all good for Universal Music Group (UMG).

Last month, a song that featured the AI-generated voices of Drake and The Weekend went viral and subsequently was removed from various streaming platforms. Music label Universal was behind at least one of the takedowns, citing copyright infringement, according to Variety.

The song, dubbed "Heart on My Sleeve," was created by anonymous TikTok user Ghostwriter977 and highlights how the growing use of AI has created complications within the entertainment industry. On the one hand, companies and artists are trying to figure out how to utilize the technology known as generative AI to produce content. French DJ and producer David Guetta recently used AI to add the voice of Eminem to one of his songs — without Eminem actually performing on the track.

But on the other hand, companies must navigate how to protect the work and earnings of artists with whom they have relationships.

During its most recent earnings call on April 26, UMG CEO and Chairman Lucian Grainge told investors, "The recent explosive development in generative AI will, if left unchecked, both increase the flood of unwanted content hosted on platforms, and create rights issues with respect to existing copyright law, in the US and other countries, as well as laws governing trademark, name and likeness, voice impersonation, and right of publicity."

Proponents of AI, however, have a different view on whether the use of AI that has learned from existing artists like Drake constitutes copyright infringement.

"In the case where Drake’s voice was used to make a new song, it is not a copyright infringement in the traditional sense since it wasn’t a copy of Drake’s song,” said Natalie Monbiot, head of strategy at Hour One, an AI startup virtual generating human-narrated videos. “There has never been a precedent for use of his voice – since AI voice synthesis wasn’t even possible until recently. The argument in court would need to be that the copyright applies to the training process, and training data (Drake’s voice) used in the models."

Spotify (SPOT) CEO Daniel Ek described AI as "an incredibly fast moving and developing space" during the company's first-quarter earnings call on April 25.

He explained the platform's role in navigating the new technology is twofold: fostering creative innovation and protecting creators and artists.

"These are very, very complex issues that don't have a single straight answer," he said, explaining AI-related issues include everything from "fake tracks from artists, which falls in one bucket" to "using AI to allow for expression, which probably falls in the more lenient and easier bucket."

Adding to the complexities is the question of whether AI-generated content can be protected and who gets compensated for it. When it comes to understanding why the interplay between copyright and AI is so legally complicated, it all ties back to two words: "legal person," said Jonathan Bick, intellectual property chair at law firm Brach Eichler.

"General property belongs to the person who created it, and AI isn't a legal person," he told Yahoo Finance. This raises questions about how copyright rights can be asserted when a song, image or video is built by an AI model – and starts to make money.

"AI can't assert copyright infringement, because courts work out disputes between legal persons," said Bick.

Spotify has already had to remove a swarm of AI-generated songs as CEO Daniel Ek described AI as

Spotify has already had to remove a swarm of AI-generated songs as CEO Daniel Ek described AI as "an incredibly fast moving and developing space"

A second issue is what happens when the AI model creating that content studies protected works to do it, something the industry has referred to as "training" the technology.

There are, as of now, limited answers: "It's really a Wild West situation right now," said John Strohm, a partner at law firm Frost Brown Todd.

Ultimately, for artists, generative AI presents clear problems – and, if managed correctly, vital possibilities.

“Artists tend to look at these things as threats,” said Strohm. “I think that what you’ll see is a lot of creative people who are anxious and protective, but if on balance this goes well – and a lot can go wrong – it’s going to give creative people new tools to do great work. The opportunities are enormous, and the threats are enormous."

But for artists, protecting their IP in this Wild West isn't just about money, rendering a much more high-stakes conversation surrounding generative AI.

"Music and AI are complex topics in part because of the way that economics of the music industry works, but because you're talking about someone's art," said Jessica Powell, founder and CEO of Audioshake, an AI-focused startup that helps artists deconstruct their songs for new applications. "This also applies, of course, not only to music but to images and videos and other debates we've seen across other kinds of media with the explosion of generative AI. We're sort of asking: What do people have the right to recreate with, and train these models on? What are we okay with as a society?"

Yahoo Finance: How AI is creating a 'Wild West' scenario for entertainment giants like Spotify, Disney

Yahoo Finance has 42,920,079 unique monthly visitors and the article was syndicated ten times (please see article pickup in the table below). Thank you, Jonathan for speaking with Alexandra for this piece!

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