Some of the biggest names in the British music industry have joined forces to release an album without any music. Kate Bush, Damon Albarn, and Annie Lennox are among more than 1,000 artists behind a silent album called Is This What We Want?, reports the BBC. It was released Tuesday to protest proposed changes in British copyright law that would make it easier for artificial intelligence companies to train models using musicians' work without permission, Reuters reports. Bush said, "In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?" Proceeds from the album will benefit the charity Help Musicians.
"The album consists of recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, representing the impact we expect the government's proposals would have on musicians' livelihoods," the project's website states. The titles of the album's 12 tracks form a sentence: "The British government must not legalize music theft to benefit AI companies." Under the proposal, AI companies could use any copyrighted material found online. Artists would have the ability to opt out, though critics say it would be impossible for them to track their work across the entire internet and notify thousands of AI service providers, the BBC reports.
"Opt-out models are near impossible to enforce, have yet to be proven effective anywhere else in the world, and place enormous burdens on artists, particularly emerging talent," organizers said, per Rolling Stone. A government spokesman argued that current rules on AI and copyright are "holding back the creative industries, media, and AI sector from realizing their full potential." (More artificial intelligence stories.)
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