The British government is currently considering legislation that would alter copyright laws in regards to AI. Specifically, the changes would allow companies that create artificial intelligence models to use copyrighted content to train their algorithms unless the content’s creator specifically opts out.
Content creators in the UK are not happy with the proposed changes, and a group of musicians has released an album, Is This What We Want?, in protest. But it’s not a very entertaining one to listen to. That’s because all 12 tracks are nothing but silence. More than 1,000 contributors, including names like Kate Bush, Damon Albarn, Cat Stevens and Annie Lennox, recorded the silence in empty music studios and other spaces to create the album.
Creators are concerned that if the law follows an opt-out model regarding whether content can be used to train AI programs, it “may result in leaving right-holders without any control of their work,” said Alina Trapova, a British legal scholar and lecturer. “This is because the opt-out mechanisms that exist nowadays can be and are being circumvented.”
