McCartney to release silent AI track in protest at UK copyright law changes that would exempt tech firms

Pop legend Paul McCartney will release a silent music track next month as part of a silent album to protest UK copyright law changes that would give exemptions to tech firms.

Other artists such as Hans Zimmer and singer Kate Bush have joined the project, highlighting what they say are the dangers artificial intelligence (AI) poses to the creative industries.

McCartney’s contribution to the album Is This What We Want? will draw “attention to the damning impact on artists’ livelihoods controversial government proposals could cause”, the artists behind the project said in a statement.

Called Bonus Track it is a two minute and 45 seconds recording of an empty studio featuring a series of clicks.

More than 1000 artists, including Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn and Jamiroquai, have collaborated on the silent album which was first released in February.

They maintain that the Government’s law changes “would make it easier to train AI models on copyrighted work without a licence”.

“Under the heavily criticised proposals, UK copyright law would be upended to benefit global tech giants.

“AI companies would be free to use an artist’s work to train their AI models without permission or remuneration,” they added.

The changes “would require artists to proactively ‘opt-out’ from the theft of their work – reversing the very principle of copyright law”, they added.

Only 1000 copies of the vinyl album have been pressed.

In May, some 400 writers and musicians including Elton John and Bush condemned the proposals as a “wholesale giveaway” to Silicon Valley in a letter to the Times newspaper.

Other signatories included the 83-year-old former-Beatle McCartney, singer-songwriters Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa, and Sting, and writers Kazuo Ishiguro, Michael Morpurgo, and Helen Fielding.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has previously said the Government needs to “get the balance right” with copyright and AI while noting that the technology represented “a huge opportunity”.

“They have no right to sell us down the river,” Elton John told the BBC in May, urging Starmer to “wise up” and “see sense”.

According to a study by UK Music last week, two out of three artists and producers fear that AI poses a threat to their careers.

More than nine out of 10 surveyed demanded that their image and voice to be protected and called for AI firms to pay for the use of their creations.

-Agence France-Presse