Sting warns against AI songs as he wins prestigious music prize

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.

In addition, Sting stated that “That's going to be a battle we all have to fight in the next couple of years: Defending our human capital against AI."

A number of recent “cloned” songs have used AI-generated vocals, notably DJ David Guetta’s track with a fake Eminem and a fake Drake and The Weekend duet, which was removed from streaming services because of a complaint by Universal Music Group (UMG).

UMG, which releases Sting’s music, has launched the "Human Artistry Campaign" to protect the copyright of works generated by human creativity. The campaign accuses some AI companies of violating copyright rules as they train their software on commercially-released 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."