Björn Ulvaeus, president of Cisac (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) and co-founder of ABBA, delivered a detailed speech on artificial intelligence and creator rights at the United Nations’ AI for Good Summit in Geneva, arguing that the music industry’s focus on licensing the outputs of generative AI models is misplaced.
Ulvaeus contended that the debate over whether AI-generated tracks infringe copyright by copying existing songs misunderstands how the technology works. “What comes out isn’t a copy of any one song. It is a new synthesis built from everything the model has learned,” he said.
He described the emphasis on tracing outputs as “always the wrong question” and urged a shift in focus to the training phase. “The right question is much simpler. It is about the training. Our works went in. We should be paid for what went in, not for every output that comes out the other end, but for the raw material that made the machine what it is.”
Ulvaeus called on policymakers to support a collective licensing framework for AI training, similar to the model used by music streaming services. “The infrastructure already exists. The principle is already established. What is missing is the political will to require it for everyone, not just those powerful enough to sue,” he said.
