Numerous points of generative AI have induced rampant debate, together with its entry to copyrighted materials. Now, the vp of audio at Stability AI, Ed Newton-Rex, has resigned because of his perception that coaching generative AI fashions utilizing copyrighted content material would not qualify as “fair use,” he wrote in an op-ed on Music Enterprise Worldwide. He joins the likes of artists similar to Unhealthy Bunny, who just lately spoke out in opposition to a viral TikTok tune that used AI to imitate his voice.
In the meantime, AI firms have steadfastly supported honest use (coaching fashions with copyrighted materials with out asking permission or offering compensation), and Newton-Rex’s choice marks a novel change from the norm. In his public resignation letter, Newton-Rex explains that he believes Stability AI has a extra “nuanced view” than a few of its rivals. Nevertheless, he had a difficulty with the corporate’s current submission to america Copyright Workplace, which argued that AI improvement ought to fall below honest use.
“I disagree because one of the factors affecting whether the act of copying is fair use, according to Congress, is ‘the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work,'” Newton-Rex said. “Today’s generative AI models can clearly be used to create works that compete with the copyrighted works they are trained on. So I don’t see how using copyrighted works to train generative AI models of this nature can be considered fair use.”
Newton-Rex is a broadcast classical composer and based Jukedeck, which created music utilizing AI, in 2012. He turned the product director of TikTok’s in-house AI lab after the corporate bought Jukedeck in 2019 and subsequently labored at Voicey (acquired by Snap) earlier than becoming a member of Stability AI in November 2022.
Satirically, there’s additionally been an (as but unsuccessful) push to guard AI-produced work. In August, a choose upheld the US Copyright Workplace’s choice that AI-generated artwork cannot be copyrighted, stating, “Human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright.”