Billie Eilish and Stevie Wonder among 200 artists demanding protection from AI

ITV News Entertainment Reporter Rishi Davda explains what exactly the music artists are demanding

Stevie Wonder, Billie Eilish, and Nicki Minaj are just some of the over 200 names featured on a new open letter labelling artificial intelligence (AI) an "assault on human creativity".

Submitted by the Artist Rights Alliance non-profit, the artists are calling on AI tech companies, developers, platforms, digital music services and platforms to pledge to stop using the tech "to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists".

The Artist Rights Alliance is an artist-led non-profit organisation that advocates for musicians in a precarious digital economy.

The letter, while acknowledging the creative possibilities of new AI technology, addresses some of its threats to human artistry.

Those include using preexisting work to train AI models - without permissions - in an attempt to replace artists and therefore "substantially dilute the royalty pools that are paid out to artists".

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Stevie Wonder, pictured with Beyonce at the iHeartRadio Music Awards this week, also signed the letter. Credit: AP

"This assault on human creativity must be stopped," the letter reads.

"We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem."

The full letter is available here.

Among the other signatories are Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Katy Perry, Chase & Status, the estate of Frank Sinatra, J Balvin, Camilla Cabello, Sam Smith, and more.

Last month, Tennessee became the first state to pass legislation designed to protect songwriters, performers and other music industry professionals against the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

Supporters say the goal is to ensure that generative AI tools cannot replicate an artist’s voice without their consent.

The bill - dubbed the Ensuring Likeness, Voice, and Image Security Act or "ELVIS Act" - goes into effect on July 1.

“We employ more people in Tennessee in the music industry than any other state,” Tennessee Governor Bill Lee told reporters shortly after signing the bill into law.

"Artists have intellectual property. They have gifts. They have a uniqueness that is theirs and theirs alone, certainly not artificial intelligence."

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