Over a thousand British artists join forces for silent album against UK government's AI measures

It could be a message written in a letter, an online post, or even a poster carried at a protest. “The UK government should not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies.” In keeping with the protest tone, this phrase (in English) has been immortalised forever in the form of an album, with each word representing one of the twelve songs on the album Is This What We Want?

The authorship is shared by 1000 British artists, including Hans Zimmer, Kate Bush and Billy Ocean, to convey the message to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Executive, who are considering the possibility of training generative artificial intelligence (AI) models with works protected under copyright, but without the permission of the same.

In this way, over the course of 47 minutes and 17 seconds, the musical collective takes listeners on a journey that allows them to reflect on the topic, indicating a future in which artists are not protected by law, and their work can be used by AI. Thus, the 47 minutes are spent in silence, without music, hearing only footsteps and sounds in the background , to symbolize what happens in a recording studio without artists, where no music is recorded, “the silence says it all”.

“The government’s proposal would hand over the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies for free, allowing those companies to exploit the musicians’ work to outperform them,” said composer Ed Newton-Rex, the conductor who orchestrated the project. He said the plan would be “disastrous for musicians” and “completely unnecessary,” and that it is possible to reach the top of the AI ​​world “without ruining their creative industries.”

“In the music of the future, will our voices not be heard?” writes Kate Bush, in a statement asking the British government to protect musicians, explaining that music is made for the people, and should not be “taken away and used against musicians”. The proceeds from the album’s sales will go to the charity Help Musicians .

In addition to the artists mentioned, Damon Albarn, Annie Lennox, Tori Amos and The Clash also appear on the album's technical sheet.