Commentary by Jerome Harris (MFM)
(Note: this is Jerome Harris’ submission for Local 802’s A.I. series who has been a member of Local 802 since 1979. Sohrab who’s also a member of Local 802 read this article in ALLEGRO – the Local 802 digital publication of news, articles, and discussions about issues that are important for organized musicians – and got permission from Jerome to share it with the MFM community.)
When thinking about artificial intelligence from the perspective of those for whom music making is a livelihood, it’s useful to note a distinction. There are various forms of AI; the one that is most concerning for workers in creative fields is generative AI. This technology can assemble (“generate”) new material based on the patterns it finds in old material. This involves feeding vast amounts of digitized data — including recorded music — into powerful computer systems designed to analyze and isolate patterns. This is called “training” these AI systems. The systems can then be ordered to fabricate recordings based on those patterns, as specified by commands such as text-based prompts. Note that the underlying compositions and their recordings that are being used for AI training were created by humans and are owned by them or by business entities unless they are in the public domain.
