Hundreds of students at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston have signed an online petition protesting a new course on generative AI music and songwriting, marking another salvo in the continuing battle between artists and a technology they believe is stealing their hope for a livelihood.
As of Tuesday, 418 people have signed the petition, which is targeting the two-credit course “Bots and Beats: AI and the Future of Songwriting” and calling for the school to stop leveraging AI on campus.
The petition accuses the school of promoting OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which “steal the art of [tens of thousands] of artists and rot the essence of the industry and have devastating consequences on the environment all to create facsimiles of real human art,” the petition’s organizers wrote.
Angry comments from current and former students filled the discussion area of the petition, with many expressing disappointment that a school known for fostering the creation of popular music has gone into bed with a technology implicated in the theft of countless original songs.
“Very unfortunate behavior from an esteemed creative/music college,” one alumni wrote. “Do better, Berklee. You represent so many of us and so many great artist’s futures, don’t ruin it by damaging the craft.”
“As a Berklee grad, I’m appalled at the questionable use of AI in creative classes, and if I were a paying student now, I’d be angry being told to use it in place of struggling through every assignment fully myself,” another wrote.
According to the course’s description, students would delve into how AI-aided songwriting can both help and stymie musical creativity along with discussions on the “impact of AI on the music industry (both helpful and harmful), and on the future careers of music makers.”
In comment to WBZ, Berklee wrote that as an “artist-first institution at the forefront of contemporary music and performing arts education, Berklee has a responsibility to prepare our students to navigate technologies impacting the creative industries. We will continue to do so, in keeping with our guiding principles.”
Something tells us from this lukewarm statement that Berklee will do little to allay the fears of students and alumni alike.
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