ABBA, The Cure and Radiohead musicians sign statement against using creatives’ work to train AI

Thousands of artists, including musicians from ABBA, The Cure and Radiohead, have signed a protest letter against using creatives’ work to train aritificial intelligence tools.

Musicians, actors and authors signed the letter warning against the mining of their artistry, in what is the latest outcry about AI tools that can spit out synthetic images, music and writings after being trained on huge troves of human-made works.

“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,” says the statement.

Among the 13,500 signatories are Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA, The Cure's Robert Smith, Thom Yorke and his Radiohead bandmates, and composers John Rutter and Max Richter.

Other industry figures who signed the statement are writers including Nobel-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, Emma Donoghue, Ian Rankin, James Patterson, Ted Chiang and Joanne Harris, as well as actors Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon, Rosario Dawson and Kate McKinnon.

Following the release of the statement, Gee Davy, the interim CEO for the Association of Independent Music has said: “On behalf of the UK’s independent music community – businesses who are proud to work in partnership with artists – we support this statement from Fairly Trained.”

“To achieve the benefits of AI for creativity, we urge policymakers not to lose sight of the need for strong copyright protections,” he added. “This is vital to ensure a healthy future for those who create, invest in and release music across genres and all communities, regions and nations of the UK.”

This recent statement follows ongoing legal issues between the creative world and tech firms over the use of their work to train