Sting has warned that songwriters are facing challenges from artificial intelligence.
“The building blocks of music belong to us, to human beings," he told the BBC. “That's going to be a battle we all have to fight in the next couple of years: Defending our human capital against AI.”
The 71-year-old singer, who sold his entire music catalogue to Universal Music Publishing Group last year, said while AI might work for electronic dance music, it doesn’t for “songs, you know, expressing emotions.”
Sting explained: "It's similar to the way I watch a movie with CGI. It doesn't impress me at all. I get immediately bored when I see a computer-generated image. I imagine I will feel the same way about AI making music.”
The music industry is already grappling with music created using AI. Last month, streaming services received copyright complaints from Universal Music Group over an AI-generated “collaboration” by Canada’s Drake and The Weeknd.
Sting acknowledged AI could be a tool for songwriters but, he said, “we have to be driving them.
“I don't think we can allow the machines to just take over. We have to be wary.”