Songs by some of the biggest names in Australian music have been found in datasets being used to train AI without artists’ permission.
U.S. publication The Atlantic has launched a searchable database revealing over 21 million stolen songs that have circulated among AI developers.
A quick search turns up countless Australian acts including Kylie Minogue, AC/DC, the Kid Laroi, Delta Goodrem, Powderfinger, Tame Impala, Missy Higgins, and many, many more.
Here’s what we know about one of the most significant data heists in music history.
Context
Journalist Alex Reisner has spent three years building The Atlantic’s “AI Watchdog”, an investigation into the mass scraping of creative work to train AI systems.
Reisner found that Suno, a popular AI song generator, has produced tracks that closely resemble Michael Jackson's “Thriller”, and Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You", among others.
It’s a consequence of AI systems being trained on those songs, without being given permission to use them, and reproducing elements of them in their outputs.
The Atlantic’s database maps four datasets being shared across the AI development community.
Three of them don’t actually store audio files. Instead, they hold links to tracks on YouTube and Spotify, which developers download using automated tools designed to bypass platform logins and monetisation systems.
In other words, AI companies have found a loophole: Scraping songs from the internet at massive scale, helping themselves to content they don’t have permission to use and sharing them freely among AI developers.
Aussie acts
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A quick search of the database returns staggering results.
For example, Taylor Swift’s music appears 966 times, while almost 700 results came up for Beyoncé.
The list also reads like the greatest hits of Australian music. Over 1,000 results for Kylie. 521 for Sia. 234 for INXS.
The list goes on: Midnight Oil. Cold Chisel. Crowded House. Tame Impala. Hilltop Hoods. Flume.
Australian music rights body APRA AMCOS has condemned the “indiscriminate” theft of musical works.
It noted that recordings by Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Māori artists, like Gurrumul and Warumpi Band, have also been caught up in the breach.
“Many of these recordings carry cultural knowledge, language and connection to Country. Their use without consent is not acceptable, these are not just recordings, they are cultural expressions governed by protocols as well as copyright,” Leah Flanagan, APRA AMCOS Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Programs and Strategy said.
Response
Paul Dempsey’s entire catalogue of solo music and Something for Kate songs (his band) appear in the leak.
“An artist's ability to negotiate fair terms for the use of their content is just being ripped away from them,” he told AAP.
APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston says “major tech platforms have not come to the table” to engage in genuine licensing talks.
According to the industry body, without proper AI regulation, creators stand to lose more than $500 million over four years.
