Sting reveals he doesn’t see artificial intelligence as a competitor

Sting has revealed that he doesn’t believe that, as a musician, artificial intelligence (AI) is a competitor. 

The iconic singer and musician appeared as a guest on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg (per Music News), where he shared his thoughts about AI and said: “I think AI can make perfectly serviceable pop music that you might hear in a railway station or a hotel lobby, and you can hear it, but would you listen to it?”

He continued: “Because AI has never had its heart broken, it doesn’t have a story; it has a borrowed story, so you’re not really hearing a song. So, in that sense, I don’t feel any competition so far; people still want to come and see live concerts. They want to see a human being, a vulnerable human being who can make mistakes, and not a machine that is perfect.”

 
 
 
 
 
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Various musicians have spoken out against the use of AI, such as Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, Katy Perry, Jon Bon Jovi, Smokey Robinson, J Balvin, and more—all of whom have signed the open letter by the Artist Rights Alliance, which targeted tech companies, digital service providers, and AI developers over irresponsible artificial intelligence practices, calling their work an “assault on human creativity” that “must be stopped.”

On the other side, there are musicians who are for the use of AI, such as Grimes, Timbaland, Tyga, and more. 

Elsewhere, Universal and Warner have asked a court to dismiss an AI licensing lawsuit. The suit, filed by the American Federation of Music (AFM) in June of this year, alleged that its members were not receiving royalties from the labels’ licensing settlements with two AI music companies, Suno and Udio. AFM sued both UMG and WMG for breach of collective bargaining agreement, based on two copyright settlements the companies had reached allowing AI music models to be trained on their licensed works. 

UMG and WMG are now disputing whether the AI licensing of their catalogs represents “new use” of those records under AFM’s Sound Recording Labor Agreement. Were it to be proven so, the labels would be obliged to compensate any involved musicians and inform the AFM.

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