Top Music Body Says AI Firms Guilty Of 'Wilful' Copyright Theft

AI companies have sucked up the world's entire music catalogue and are guilty of "wilful, commercial-scale copyright infringement", a major music industry group told AFP.

"The world's largest tech companies as well as AI-specific companies, such as OpenAI, Suno, and Udio, Mistral, etc. are engaged in the largest copyright infringement exercise that has been seen," John Phelan, director general of the International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP), told AFP.

For nearly two years, the Brussels-based body, which brings together major record labels and other music industry professionals, investigated how generative artificial intelligence (AI) companies used material to enrich their services.