AI Music Is Everywhere. Is It Legal?

AI can now generate music that sounds indistinguishable from your favourite artists. It can mimic voices, replicate styles, and produce tracks at a speed and cost that the music industry has never seen. The question is whether any of this is legal — and whether it should be.

Ed Newton-Rex is one of the few people in the AI industry who has actually taken a stand on this. He resigned from Stability AI because he believed the company's approach to training on copyrighted material was wrong. He has since founded Fairly Trained, an organization certifying AI models that respect creators' rights.

In this conversation on Machines Like Us, we talked about what happens when generative AI meets creative industries, why the "fair use" argument is weaker than its proponents claim, and what a fair licensing model could look like.

This episode is essential listening for anyone who cares about the intersection of AI and creative work.