Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, the organization responsible for the Grammys, recognizes that the music industry was one of the first to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and explore its benefits. However, he warns that the lack of regulation can create problems.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Mason spoke about how technology opens doors to creations, but also raises questions about copyright, consent and protection of artists.
“The productivity that comes with using this technology, creating things we haven’t heard or thought of before, is possible,” says Mason. “But there need to be rules and laws to guarantee the protection of human creators. The fear of what you’re learning and how it will be misused, or how it could be used to impersonate someone who doesn’t agree or consent to its use, is something that really worries us.”
For Mason, the central questions revolve around the origin of AI creations and identifying misuse of an artist’s voice or music. It highlights the potential of AI, as in the case of the Beatles’ new song “Now and Then”, which used AI tools to extract John Lennon’s voice from an old demo tape.
New Beatles song was produced using AI to extract John Lennon’s voice from an old demoSource: GettyImages
“Artists have to be able to consent to a license for their voice or their music to be used by AI, both on the learning side and on the generative side. So at that point there will be the opportunity to potentially monetize new works if artists, publishers or the labels want, but it requires a prior agreement”, argues Mason.
Some initiatives are already being taken in the North American country. In the US House, a bipartisan bill called the “No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas and Unauthorized Duplications Act” aims to protect voice and image at the federal level.
In the state of Tennessee, the “Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act” bill was proposed to protect artists and songwriters against deepfakes by updating an existing law to address the specific challenges of new AI tools.
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