Sony Music Demands Tech Giants Not Use Its Music To Develop AI

Sony Music, the largest music publisher in the world and the home of artists like Beyonce and Adele, has contacted more than 700 firms, including Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, to determine if they have used its songs to develop artificial intelligence systems.

The publisher wants to stop training, developing or making money from AI using Sony songs without permission, the BBC reports.

In a letter, Sony said it has “reason to believe” that the addressees “may already have made unauthorized uses” of its music. Sony Music says it will enforce its copyright “to the full extent permitted by applicable law.”

The complaint mirrors other concerns about AI tools, which have to be “trained” using existing materials.

For example, the BBC says, a chatbot might have “learned” to give a particular written style by being shown billions of books.

Sony Music’s believes the same principle applies to music. AI has to be exposed to songs in order to grow, and Sony thinks some of them it owns.

Google and OpenAI have both developed AI tools that can generate music, but what was used to train it is not known.

Universal Music has brought legal action against Antrophic in the U.S. Its complaint believes that firm used the lyrics of hundreds of its songs.