Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, More Call For AI To Respect Artists’ Rights
Billie Eilish attends the 39th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival: Variety Artisans Award at The Arlington Theatre on February 11, 2024 in Santa Barbara, California. Host Nicki Minaj performs onstage during the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards at Prudential Center on September 12, 2023 in Newark, New Jersey.
Hundreds of musicians have banded together to fight against the impending use of AI to respect artists rights. Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Stevie Wonder, Pearl Jam, Kacey Musgraves, Ja Rule, Jon Bon Jovi, and more than 250 other artists have joined with the Artist Rights Alliance to issue an open letter calling on “AI developers, technology companies, platforms, and digital music services to cease the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.”
Who Is Asking AI to Repsect Artists Rights?
The letter highlights AI has been used without permission to train and produce AI models. The AI-created “sounds” and “images” are what “substantially dilute” royalty obligations to artists. “Unchecked, AI will set in motion a race to the bottom that will degrade the value of our work and prevent us from being fairly compensated for it,” the letter continues. “This assault on human creativity must be stopped. We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem.”
Concluding the open letter, the Artists Rights Alliance calls on all AI developers, technology companies, platforms, and digital music services to pledge that they “will not develop or deploy AI music-generation technology, content or tools that undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists or deny us fair compensation for our work.”
AI Doesn’t Respect Artists’ Rights
For example, Bad Bunny heard a song back in November that went viral on TikTok, which was made using AI to copy his voice. The AI song called “nostalgIA” was created by FlowGPT, an AI tool that functions similarly to ChatGPT, and the track was uploaded under the username @flowgptmusic on YouTube and TikTok. The song also featured AI vocals from Justin Bieber singing in Spanish and Daddy Yankee rapping towards the end of the nearly four-minute-long song.
The Puerto Rican artist slammed fans who supported and shared the viral track. He wrote on WhatsApp at the time: “If you like that s—ty song that’s viral on TikTok, get out of this group right now. I don’t want them on the tour either.” In the post to his 19 million followers, he added: “You don’t deserve to be my friends and that’s why I made the new album, to get rid of people like that. So choo-choo out.”
“Working musicians are already struggling to make ends meet in the streaming world, and now they have the added burden of trying to compete with a deluge of AI-generated noise,” explains Jen Jacobsen, Executive Director of the ARA. “The unethical use of generative AI to replace human artists will devalue the entire music ecosystem—for artists and fans alike.”
Celebrity Deaths 2024: Musicians, Entertainers & Cultural Figures We Lost
We have already had to say goodbye to many people in 2024 from the worlds of entertainment, sports, politics and beyond.
Among the untimely deaths in 2024 was actor Carl Weathers. The actor best known for playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky franchise died on February 1 at the age of 76. Weathers died in his sleep, but a cause of death wasn’t disclosed.
Weathers also notably starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1987’s Predator. Schwarzenegger said in a statement via social media following his death, “Carl Weathers will always be a legend. An extraordinary athlete, a fantastic actor, and a great person. We couldn’t have made Predator without him. And we certainly wouldn’t have had such a wonderful time making it. Every minute with him – on set and off – was pure joy. He was the type of friend who pushes you to be your best just to keep up with him. I’ll miss him, and my thoughts are with his family.”
Sylvester Stallone released an emotional video statement honoring Weathers. Stallone said, in part, “Today is an incredibly sad day for me. I’m so torn up, I can’t even tell you. I’m just trying to hold it in because Carl Weathers was such an integral part of my life, my success — everything about it, I give him incredible credit and kudos. Because when he walked into that room and I saw him for the first time, I saw greatness. But I didn’t realize how great. I never could’ve accomplished what we did with ‘Rocky’ without him.”
Toby Keith is another major death in 2024. The country star died on February 1 at age 62 following a battle with stomach cancer. Countless artists from the country world shared tributes to Keith. Among them was Reba McEntire, who shared, “Toby and I are both from Oklahoma and very proud of our Oklahoma heritage. Toby worked very hard to make a mark in the country music business and did a great job doing that. I am very proud of him, and I hope he rests in peace. I was very honored to get to work with Toby and be a part of the era of country music he was in. We’ll sure miss him.”
An unlikely tribute to Keith came from someone who was an unlikely friend: Stephen Colbert. Colbert took a moment during The Late Show to honor his friend, whom he first met when he was the host of The Colbert Report. Colbert said, at the time, there was “a not-so-helpful legend that I had knives out for some of my guests, and it didn’t help that at the beginning, I sometimes did.”
Much to Colbert’s surprise, he and Keith hit it off. He noted, “That day, Toby taught me not to pre-judge my guests and to have my intentions but to keep my eyes open to the reality of who they are. For that lesson and a lot of other things, I am always gonna be grateful.”
Scroll through the gallery below to see the musicians, celebrities and other cultural figures we’ve lost, so far, in 2024.
Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.
