As musicians rally against AI, Will.i.am takes a different approach

“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,” reads the petition, which is not addressed to anyone in particular.

Meanwhile, in June, some of the world’s largest record labels teamed up take two prominent AI music-making companies to court, alleging that they trained their models on decades’ worth of copyrighted sound recordings without consent.

For Will.i.am, the lack of regulations and governance covering who owns what must be addressed.

“Creatives are not secure, and I want to make sure that creatives are protected,” he said. “But creatives are going to be OK. Some people are afraid of AI, and how rapidly it makes music. I write heartbreak songs because my heart was broken, and those types of creatives aren’t going anywhere.

“The community that I think is at risk the most are assistants. There’s billions of dollars going to copilots and assistants, so I’m worried about assistants and finance folks more than I am about beat makers and singers.”

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Will.i.am has a long history with the technology sector: a member of the World Economic Forum’s Fourth Industrial Revolution Advisory Committee, he previously served as chipmaker Intel’s director of creative innovation. In 2009, he launched the i.am Angel Foundation to support young people studying computer science and robotics in the Los Angeles neighbourhood where he was raised.

At CES, the entrepreneur also unveiled new suite of Bluetooth speakers and ear buds in partnership with LG, dubbed Xboom by Will.i.am, to launch this year.

LG recently appointed the musician to be the “Experiential Architect” of the Xboom brand, whose devices use AI to analyse content being played, and automatically adjust the sound to accentuate the melody, rhythm or voice. They also feature a dedicated button to connect to the Raidio.fyi platform.

“By the end of the year, I would love for it to be in all LG TVs and radios. It’ll be in hundreds of millions of devices that will have Raidio.fyi built-in.”

David Swan travelled to Las Vegas with support from Samsung, LG and Hisense.

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