Paul McCartney again raises concern about AI’s threat to artists

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Paul McCartney speaks up again about AI threat to artists

Sir Paul McCartney has renewed his call for the government to think carefully before changing the copyright laws to make it easier for AI companies to ingest creative works to train their models.

In an interview with the BBC on Saturday, McCartney said that weakening protections could mean that artists are unable to make a living from their original works.

"You get young guys, girls, coming up, and they write a beautiful song, and they don't own it," he said.

"They don't have anything to do with it. And anyone who wants can just rip it off.

"The truth is, the money's going somewhere. Somebody's getting paid, so why shouldn't it be the guy who sat down and wrote Yesterday?"

It's the second time that McCartney has spoken on the issue. In December, prior to the government opening a consultation into on how copyright materials could be used by AI companies to train models, he said: "We've got to be careful about it because it could just take over and we don’t want that to happen particularly for the young composers and writers for whom it may be the only way they're going make a career. If AI wipes that out, that would be a very sad thing indeed.”

Many in the creative sector are afraid the government will favour a loosening of restrictions in order to turbocharge development of AI, in which it has placed an enormous amount of faith to boost economic growth.

During a web seminar organised by Queen Mary University of London’s Digital Environment Research Institute last week, artist and writer Molly Crabapple said generative AI is already having a negative impact on creatives, with AI companies hoovering up their work for training and then using them to put creatives out of business.

"It is absolutely devastating and apocalyptic for every single person who, instead of making themselves a brand and trying to make themselves famous, instead is just focused on being good at their craft. Those are the people that AI is going after," said Crabapple.

Actor Laurence Bouvard said: "In the same breath where they say, your work is not valuable enough to pay for, they have taken all of our work and used it as training data to then monetise," she said. "And yet, without us, they don't have AI."

Anna Ganley, chief executive of the Society of Authors said that a survey in January 2024 found a quarter of the Society's illustrators (26%) and a third of translators (36%) already lost work due to the introduction of GenAI, and that in a May 2024 survey 97% of members asserted that they did not consent to use of their work for GenAI systems.

"They don't want this happening. They haven't been asked. They're not being paid. Why is this happening?”

The lack of transparency is worrying, she added.

"In the summer we wrote to over 100 tech companies, and we’ve had very few responses, so little engagement, shrouded in NDAs, and evidence as to why we need transparency."

David Leslie, the director of ethics and responsible innovation research at The Alan Turing Institute said existing laws need to be properly enforced to protect artists.

"We are facing a time where even existing copyright laws, intellectual property, data protection laws are not being effectively enforced.

"So one of the steps forward we have to really start thinking about is, how do we strengthen and how do we further develop the enforcement of the existing rights that are being violated."

The government’s consultation runs until 25th February.

Computing will be the QMOL webinar in more detail in the coming days.