Abba, Cure, Radiohead lead thousands of artists to sign letter protesting AI use of creative work

Thousands of songwriters, composers, music producers, and other creatives – including Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus, The Cure’s Robert Smith, and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke – signed a petition on Tuesday protesting the use of their artistic work to train AI.

As on Tuesday evening, Eastern Time, the online "Statement on AI Training" showed a powerhouse list of 12,500 signatories.

The grab bag of artists, with many names recognizable worldwide, is taking a stand against AI technology companies who scrape copyrighted works to train their AI models.

“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted,” read the only statement on the non-profit petition’s page.

Björn Ulvaeus – musician, singer, songwriter, producer, and one of the four members of beloved Swedish pop group ABBA – was the first to sign the letter, appearing at the very top of the growing list.

Other famous musicians include Radiohead’s Thom Yorke (lead singer and songwriter) and bandmates Ed O'Brien (guitarist), Philip Selway (drummer).

The Cure’s Robert Smith (co-founder, producer, lead singer); UK’s Billy Bragg (singer, songwriter, political activist); Jason "Jay" Kay of Jamiroquai (co-founder, lead vocalist); and American actor Kevin Bacon of the Bacon Boys (musician), also appear near the top of the list.

Nearly 150 other artists/musicians have signed the open letter, including more than 130 songwriters, over 400 composers, and another roughly 200 music producers.

Additionally, close to 4,000 authors/writers and more than 50 actors lent their names to the cause, including international best-selling novelists James Patterson and Sir Ian James Rankin, actors Julianne Moore, Sean Astin, Rosario Dawson, and comedian Rosie O’Donnell.

Some of the hundreds of heavyweight industry organizations further supporting the effort with a signature include; the American Association of Independent Music, HarperCollins Publishers, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the Sony, Universal, and Warner Music Groups.

The Cure’s Smith was also a signatory on an open letter released by the Artists Rights Alliance back in April.

More than 200 artists signed the petition demanding that AI developers, tech companies, and digital music services stop using their works to develop AI music technology.

Artists such as Stevie Wonder, Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, R.E.M., Peter Frampton, Jon Batiste, and Katy Perry, among others, labeled their actions a detriment to the rights of human creativity.

Earlier on Tuesday, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which owns the Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, Fox News and The New York Post, filed a lawsuit against generative AI startup Perplexity for copyright infringement.

The AI start-up Perplexity – backed by Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos and chip maker Nvidia – is being accused of of copying news content and then using it to generate responses to users’ queries.