“‘This is a great demonstration of the extent to which this technology is not transformative at all,’ Tift Merritt (Photo above from Wikipedia) said. ‘It’s stealing.’”, reports Reuters. Merrit is a country musician who feels AI is copying without permission. And maybe there’s something to it: Even the big music labels are afraid and have released statements.

Reuters continues: “‘Ingesting massive amounts of creative labor to imitate it is not creative,’ said Merritt, an independent musician whose first record label is now owned by UMG, but who said she is not financially involved with the company. ‘That’s stealing in order to be competition and replace us.’”

There have been several rulings on fair use in the last years, but it does not look like this is the end of the debate – fears of losing jobs in the creative industry and lack of quality in composition fan the fire of the discussion. Tift Merrit is famous for guitar- and voice-focused country songs like Traveling Alone.