Uncovering Copyrighted Songs in AI Training Datasets: Implications for Music Industry Ethics
A significant number of copyrighted songs, totaling over 21 million, have been discovered in several large datasets used for training generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. These datasets, identified by journalist Alex Reisner, contain millions of tracks by popular artists like Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, and Ed Sheeran. The largest datasets, LAION-DISCO and Sleeping-DISCO, consist of more than 12 million and nine million tracks, respectively, while two smaller datasets contain over 100,000 tracks each.
These datasets are utilized to train AI models, particularly music-generating AI systems that create new audio tracks from text prompts using deep-learning networks. LAION and Sleeping datasets include web links to songs on platforms like YouTube and Spotify, while the smaller datasets contain MP3 files sourced from the Free Music Archive. However, using these tracks for commercial AI model training would violate their Creative Commons licenses.
Although not providing concrete evidence, the investigation mentioned Google and Stability AI as companies that have acknowledged using FMA datasets for model training. Suno and Udio were also mentioned, operating within the same data-sharing communities where the 21 million songs have been downloaded. Examples of AI-generated tracks by Suno closely resembling copyrighted songs like Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You were highlighted.
Following the investigation, The Atlantic introduced The AI Watchdog search tool, enabling users to check the content of the uncovered datasets, which include songs by Malaysian artists like P. Ramlee, Sudirman, and Siti Nurhaliza, as well as local indie acts and bands such as Carburetor Dung, Butterfingers, and Yuna. However, the presence of these works in the datasets does not confirm their use in training AI models.
In conclusion, the discovery of copyrighted songs in AI training datasets raises concerns about potential copyright violations and the ethical use of AI technology in the music industry. The need for transparency and adherence to copyright laws in AI development is crucial to protect the rights of artists and creators.