Kate Bush joins campaign against AI

Legendary British singer songwriter Kate Bush is the latest artist to sign a petition speaking out against artificial intelligence using artists’ work without their permission.

She joins the likes of Paul McCartney, ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, who all signed the petition back in October – alongside 11,500 others including Kevin Bacon, Julianne Moore, Kazuo Ishiguro and Robert Smith.

The artists are speaking out against having their copyrighted materials used to train generative AI technology.

The campaign states that “the unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted”.

The petition currently has more than 36,000 signatures and reads that, without government intervention, the practice creates “a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works”.

You can sign the petition and find out more here.

A concerning statistic regarding AI was released earlier this month, when a global study revealed that in just four years’ time, a quarter of musicians could have their financial revenue threatened by AI generated music. The alarming statistics state that music creators could lose up to €10 billion, with an expected annual loss of €4 billion in 2028 if the rate of market penetration by generative AI continues.

The annual market for generative AI is currently at approx. €3 billion, which is predicted to rise to €63.7 billion by 2028.

Additional sources • Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d’Auteurs et Compositeurs (CISAC)