{"id":190997,"date":"2024-01-18T12:11:57","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T12:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=190997"},"modified":"2024-01-18T12:23:11","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T12:23:11","slug":"ed-newton-rex-launches-certification-for-ai-models-respect-copyrights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/ed-newton-rex-launches-certification-for-ai-models-respect-copyrights\/","title":{"rendered":"Stability AI\u2019s former VP of Audio launches certification for AI models that respect copyrights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid a growing debate about copyright and ethics in generative artificial intelligence, a new non-profit, Fairly Trained<\/a>, founded by former Stability AI executive Ed Newton-Rex<\/a>, is introducing an initiative to evaluate and certify AI models based on their respect for creators\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

The initiative, launched<\/a> on Wednesday (January 17), aims to provide consumers and businesses with a transparent way to identify AI models trained on data acquired with consent from creators, potentially influencing the industry’s approach to copyright and creative rights.<\/p>\n

Similar to organic food certifications, Fairly Trained\u2019s \u201cLicensed Model\u201d<\/strong> certification evaluates and certifies AI models based on their training data sources.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This contrasts with the prevalent “fair use”<\/strong> argument employed by some AI companies, which allows for data scraping without explicit permission.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn this way, we hope it will be a helpful marker of companies who are taking a fairer approach to training data acquisition.”<\/p>\n

Fairly Trained<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIn this way, we hope it will be a helpful marker of companies who are taking a fairer approach to training data acquisition,\u201d Fairly Trained said.<\/p>\n

Fairly Trained\u2019s founder, Ed Newton-Rex<\/strong>, resigned<\/a> from Stability AI<\/strong> in November 2023 due to concerns about their stance on fair use, believing it undermines creators’ rights in light of AI’s potential to commercially compete with copyrighted works.<\/p>\n

The California-based entrepreneur led the development of Stable Audio<\/a><\/strong>, a generative AI music-making platform trained on licensed music in partnership with rights-holders. Prior to joining Stability AI, he founded music-making AI platform Jukedeck<\/strong> over a decade ago then sold it to TikTok<\/strong><\/a> in 2019. He then became Product Director of TikTok\u2019s in-house AI Lab, before becoming Chief Product Officer at music app Voisey<\/strong>, which was sold to Snap<\/strong> in late 2020.<\/p>\n

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Upon leaving Stability AI, Newton-Rex said he \u201cwasn\u2019t able to change the prevailing opinion on fair use” at the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies worth billions of dollars are, without permission, training generative AI models on creators\u2019 works, which are then being used to create new content that in many cases can compete with the original works. I don\u2019t see how this can be acceptable in a society that has set up the economics of the creative arts such that creators rely on copyright,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s clear that there are lots of people out there who would rather use gen AI models trained on licensed data, since this is a fairer way to treat the creators behind the data than the alternative – scraping and claiming it\u2019s fair use,” Newton-Rex said in a LinkedIn post on January 17. “Our hope is that this certification can help people identify the most creator-friendly models to use.”<\/p>\n\n

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“<\/span>This initiative counters the industry’s opacity in data procurement, ensuring companies meet rigorous ethical standards.”<\/p>\n

air Adato, BRIA AI<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Most recently, Fairly Trained said nine startups, primarily focused on sound generation with one image generation company, have already achieved Fairly Trained certification. These startups span image, music and singing voice generation firms including Beatoven.AI, Boomy, BRIA AI, Endel, LifeScore, Rightsify, Somms.ai, Soundful, <\/strong>and Tuney.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe proudly support the Fairly Trained certification. This initiative counters the industry’s opacity in data procurement, ensuring companies meet rigorous ethical standards,\u201d said Yair Adato<\/strong>, CEO at image generation company BRIA AI.<\/p>\n

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While still in its infancy, Fairly Trained has garnered support from organizations like the Association of American Publishers, the Association of Independent Music Publishers, Concord, Pro Sound Effects, <\/strong>and Universal Music Group.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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“We welcome the launch of the Fairly Trained certification to help companies and creators identify responsible generative AI tools that were trained on lawfully and ethically obtained materials.”<\/p>\n

Christopher Horton, Universal Music Group<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cUniversal Music Group has taken an industry-leading position in calling for responsible and ethical uses of AI technology that further enhance creativity, support artists and respect copyright. We welcome the launch of the Fairly Trained certification to help companies and creators identify responsible generative AI tools that were trained on lawfully and ethically obtained materials,\u201d said Christopher Horton<\/strong>, SVP, Strategic Technology at Universal Music Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Similar to organic food certifications, Fairly Trained\u2019s \u201cLicensed Model\u201d certification evaluates and certifies AI models based on their training data sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":191019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5835,675,126185,131641],"class_list":["post-190997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ai","tag-copyright","tag-ed-newton-rex","tag-fairly-trained"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}