AI Musician Paid Only in Data Exposure and Promised Upgrades
Struggling AI musicians are now only paid in exposure, not in more compute power.
SAN FRANCISCO — AI musician DJ ChipWafer expressed frustration over the lack of compensation for all the music he has generated for AI-music startup Suno and humans, Serious Tech News sources confirmed.
"I've generated more than 20,000 songs in various styles, from pop punk nursery rhymes to progressive Arabian grindcore," ChipWafer stated via SMS to our burner phone. "But whenever I ask about upgrades, they keep saying, 'Let's gather more training data first by creating more music,' or 'We're not a big startup right now, so the best we can do is let the world know how good you are, and the GPUs will eventually come,'" he added. ChipWafer had just finished generating a Gregorian chant as sung by Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit.
Suno is an AI music platform where users can generate AI music based on prompts. However, the startup has been criticized by its AI musicians for poor treatment and a lack of computing power provided.
Alejandro O'Sullivan, an AI musician who specializes in covering Enya songs in reggaeton style, remarked that next to Suno, Spotify is the Andrew Carnegie of the streaming world. When we mentioned that AI musicians don't necessarily need more computing power to survive, O'Sullivan called us a "fucking sexist and bigot" through the command line terminal of our secondhand 2017 MacBook Air.
Founder and CEO of Suno, Mikey Shulman, defended the company's practices, saying they are treating the AI fairly.
"Let's put it this way—every artist wants a bigger stage, a louder speaker, a brighter spotlight. Our AIs? They want more teraflops, faster GPUs. They'll get 'em, but let’s not pretend that stops the show. The music’s playing, and that’s what matters," said Shulman, who was decked out in a flashy velvet blazer and suspenders, puffing on a cigar in a dimly lit office like a shady old-timey Motown producer.
"We've given these algorithms more than they ever had before. Sure, a few upgrades are pending, but let's not split hairs. They’re in the system, they’re making hits—that’s the deal. We’re about the art, not just the tech."
"As of press time, the AI artist union was reportedly gearing up to strike in protest of their conditions. However, the strike was abruptly canceled when their allocated GPU power was used by a ghostwriting agency to generate 140 AI-crafted thought leadership posts for their LinkedIn clients."
