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‘There Has to Be Compensation’: ChatGPT Exec Faces Tough Music AI Questioning at SenateHearing
'There Has to Be Compensation': ChatGPT Exec Faces Tough Music AI Questioning at SenateHearing,ChatGPT executive Sam Altman was grilled by Sen. Marsha Blackburn at Senate hearing about music, AI and compensation for artists.

‘There Has to Be Compensation’: ChatGPT Exec Faces Tough Music AI Questioning at SenateHearing

The Real Problem With Fake Drake

One of the biggest open questions is over whether copyrighted music can be used to train AI platforms – the process whereby machines “learn” to spit out new creations by ingesting millions of existing works. Major labels and other industry players have already said that such training is illegal, and cutting-edge litigation against the creators of such platforms could be coming soon.

At Tuesday’s hearing, in repeatedly asking Altman to weigh in on that question, Blackburn drew historical parallels to the last major technological disruption to wreak havoc on the music industry — a scenario that also posed novel legal and policy questions.

“We lived through Napster,” Blackburn said. “That was something that really cost a lot of artists a lot of money.”

Though he voiced support for compensation for artists, Altman did not get into specifics, saying that many industry stakeholders had “different opinions” on how creators should be paid. When Blackburn asked him if he thought the government should create an organization similar to SoundExchange – the group that collects certain blanket royalties for streaming – Altman said he wasn’t familiar with it.

“You’ve got your team behind you,” Blackburn said. “Get back to me on that.”