The pressure group Artists For An Ethical and Sustainable Internet have launched a campaign against one of the biggest AI platforms: Suno.
The group has published an open letter, an opening salvo in their Say No To Suno campaign. It warns against the ambitions of Suno and the implications of the platform, which at present is generating an eye-watering 7 million new AI tracks a day.
A large proportion of those are so-called ‘slop’. Indeed, Deezer has reported that 85% of the AI-generated tracks on its service are fraudulent and emerge from major generative models such as Suno.
“The hijacking of the world’s entire treasure-trove of music floods platforms with AI slop and dilutes the royalty pools of legitimate artists from whose music this slop is derived,” the open letter states bluntly.
Comparing Suno to the thieves who broke into the Louvre last year disguised as construction workers and made off with $100 of jewellery, the letter says those “who are promoting this new business model are operating in broad daylight, too – minus the yellow safety vests.
“That is AI music company Suno, the brazen ‘smash and grab’ platform whose ‘Make it Music’ ad campaign suggests that the most personal and meaningful forms of music can now be fabricated by their unauthorised AI platform machinery trained on human artists’ work.”
They quote Suno Chief Music Officer, Paul Sinclair, who has claimed that his company’s platform is about “empowerment” that enables “billions of fans to create and play with music.” Sinclair has argued that the present copyright laws are “walled gardens” that deny people access.
Using his metaphor, they say: “Ask yourself: just why are most gardens surrounded by fences or walls? To keep out rabbits, deer, raccoons and wild pigs seeking a free lunch. We cultivate, nurture and protect our gardens precisely because that makes them much more productive over the long run.”
Suno has not as yet responded to the letter. The tech firm is still in legal disputes with two of the big three major labels, though they did reach a licensing agreement with Warner Music last year.
You can read the open letter by the Artists For An Ethical and Sustainable Internet here.
