Artificial intelligence

Abstract

AI, being a new advanced technology, has been widely examined, tested, and applied in various industries, including the creative industries. Those musical works ‘created’ by machines designed by various technology companies do not only predict the future of the digital music industry but also bring conceptual conflicts in the interpretations of different terms, such as ‘authors’ and ‘composers’, in the traditional copyright context. The existing copyright framework is reluctant to recognise non-human creations. It is arguable that AI systems can “create” music by themselves based on human users’ needs. In this case, who are the author/beneficiaries of AI-produced music, together with a further question – whether copyright law is appropriate to protect AI-produced music raises concerns from both national and international perspectives. Besides, there are also other surrounding issues about AI-produced music, such as the infringement issues of training data and the possible misappropriation of folk music of indigenous/ethnic minority communities. However, to address these issues, identifying who is the author/beneficiary of AI-produced music is the starting point. The chapter first analyses how AI re-shapes the music industry by reviewing the impact of technologies on the music industry in the past and comparing such impact with the predicted impact that AI brings to this industry; then the chapter explores the definition of AI and several types of AI research trying to identify the creative capabilities of AI. Furthermore, the chapter evaluates to what extent existing copyright systems leave room for a piece of AI-produced music to be a copyrightable work from both legislative and practice perspectives. Finally, the chapter ends by foreseeing uncertainties with AI-produced music in the music industry.