Sheryl Crow attends the Grammy Awards on the Hill on April 30, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Paul Morigi/Getty Images
I'm not a scientist. I am an artist. We can't spit out scientific data about what will happen to us when artificial intelligence overtakes us. You can read predictions about how our workforce will be replaced by AI. You can read Stephen Hawking's warning all the way back to 1996 that it is likely AI, not climate change, that will bring about our downfall.
But what I can say with certainty is that what we all share as humans on this planet, and what unites us, is the human experience, which is made up of emotions that we could never have been programmed to experience. about it. And it is what has recorded our existence since time immemorial, in our hieroglyphics, our paintings, our stories, and our songs.
As humans, we can create. We can destroy. We can feel pain. We can feel joy. We can feel love because it is written in our human code.”
This is not science. These are the lyrics I wrote for the song “Evolution” after learning about the use of AI to bring various popular artists and entertainers back from the dead for what I can only assume is for someone's personal gain. It's just that. This moment haunted me with the question of who we will forever be in humanity. So many questions have permeated my own art.
Yes, it's heartening to see that artists in visual media have only recently established safeguards to protect their likeness in film and television. And yes, we believe our voices and likenesses need to be protected from bad actors who use AI for financial gain. But it's not the loss of money or compensation that worries me. Sure, it's a mistake to manipulate an artist's likeness, voice, words, and art as if it were your own, but to me it's a deception that you're giving approval to by doing nothing to prevent it from happening. .
I recently watched an interesting TED talk with Mustafa Suleiman, CEO of Microsoft AI. “Humanity's and technology's journeys are now deeply intertwined,” he said, warning that the huge opportunity presented by AI to change the world requires building in safeguards to ensure it is used ethically. did. we should demand this. AI will impact the lives of everyone, including songwriters, truck drivers, and school teachers. I hope that AI will help solve many of the world's problems and alleviate suffering, but ethical boundaries must be set to ensure that. Congress needs to act now, and we need to work hard.
It's been an eventful week in Washington DC on this very topic. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday on the issue of AI and name, image, and likeness. On Wednesday, the Grammy Awards continued, with dozens of fellow artists and members of the Recording Academy meeting with lawmakers to urge them to protect creators from AI fakes.
I join over 200 artists who have signed an open letter to tech companies called “Stop Devaluing Music” by the Artists Rights Alliance. The letter, signed by artists as diverse as Roseanne Cash, Sam Smith, Nicki Minaj, Jon Batiste, Kacey Musgraves (and many others), states, “AI developers, technology companies, platforms, digital Do not develop or deploy AI music generation technology, content, or tools to music services that undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists or deny them fair compensation for our work. ” If you love music, we want you to stand up for the people behind the songs you know and love and demand that your agents in Washington pass meaningful protections.
We hope you will support us so that our artists can continue to create work for you. It's what we love to do and it's important in our history as humans on this planet.