Sting says musicians face “a battle” to defend their work against the rise of songs written by 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.”
His comments come after a number of songs have used artificial intelligence to “clone” famous artists’ vocals.
In February, DJ David Guetta used the technology to add Eminem’s “voice” for one of his tracks while a faked duet between Drake and The Weeknd went viral in April.
The latter was pulled from streaming services after a copyright complaint from Universal Music Group (UMG), which is also the label that releases Sting’s music.
“It’s similar to the way I watch a movie with CGI. It doesn’t impress me at all,” Sting said.
“I get immediately bored when I see a computer-generated image. I imagine I will feel the same way about AI making music.
“Maybe for electronic dance music, it works. But for songs, you know, expressing emotions, I don’t think I will be moved by it.”
