Echo Comment on Taylor Swift’s attempts to trademark her voice
Is this a money-obsessed global superstar trying to do everything to maximise her revenue, or is this an artist who is genuinely worried that artificial intelligence has the ability to take her unique selling points and copy them?
By trademarking her voice singing specific phrases, Ms Swift is attempting to prevent AI from churning out songs that sound like her but are really just copies. Similarly by protecting her guitar-holding image, she is trying to prevent AI from taking her most famous pose and using it in all sorts of ways that she has no control over β she has already been hurt by a pretty convincing deepfake video which appeared to show her asking people to vote for Donald Trump.
AI has enormous potential for good and will transform human existence, but it does not bring anything new to the party β unlike Ms Swift who, whatever you may think about her music, has an inventive novelty that has never been heard before and which appeals to billions of people. AI can flood the planet with copied pastiches of Ms Swift, but they would never exist if Ms Swift did not exist.
This has profound implications for anyone with original thoughts or actions β actors, writers, painters, musicians, inventors. AI, powered by massive global companies, will just ride roughshod over their rights.
This technology is brilliant but someone somewhere has to ensure it doesnβt eat us all. For instance, social media was hailed as a superb democratic tool, giving a voice to the voiceless, but only now are the dangers it poses to young minds being understood with governments around the world, including our own after a surprise statement on Monday night, being forced to try and rein it in.
