The EU has adopted AI law

AI services that generate music must respect European copyright law. The European Parliament passed a resolution last week. This means that AI services can no longer be trained on music without permission from the music creators.

/ 20/03/2024 / Kristian Dugstad

The most important milestone in European legislation related to artificial intelligence took place on Wednesday last week. The EU Parliament adopted the much-talked-about "AI Act", the world's first legislative regulation of the training and development of generative AI models.

The AI Act will, among other things, ensure respect for copyright in Europe, as well as facilitate transparency around the use of intellectual property in training models within generative artificial intelligence.

Enormous importance

A number of European industry organisations for creators and rights holders have been actively campaigning for better regulation of artificial intelligence for a long time. TONO's Inger Elise Mey, Director of International Affairs, is involved in working on legal issues in two of these international organisations, GESAC and CISAC.

– The law will have enormous significance for the world's artists, musicians, authors, music publishers and the music industry in general, says Mey

On Thursday, she was in the Storting's Technogroup and explained the challenges surrounding the use of music in AI models, as well as the expectations that our members have for the protection of their rights.

– The introduction of the AI Act is an important prerequisite for good Norwegian legislation that protects our members and others who create intellectual property.

Three key points in the EU law on artificial intelligence

1. Respect for rights: The law requires AI companies to comply with EU copyright law. Illegal use of music to train AI models must be stopped, and necessary permission from rights holders and creators must be obtained.

1. Transparency commitments: AI companies must be open about what kind of music they have used in training models or generating new AI music. This ensures a fair interaction between technology and creative creation.

1. Global impact: When generative AI products reach the EU market, there must be transparency about the sources used to train and educate the models, regardless of where in the world the training took place. This creates an international standard for handling AI in the music industry.