No Generative AI At Berklee- Disband Bots, Beats and Bytes

Robo Livingston Taylor says, "data centers are too ugly to be popular in music!"

I am a student at berklee online and I personally think this is horrible. I love berklee and I have learned a lot from the amazing faculty there. But there are some issues— there isn’t much infrastructure for upcoming graduates to actually get internships or jobs in the music industry. It’s concerning, and to push out an AI course instead of focusing on that feels a bit tone deaf. If administration wants us to be prepared for the future, they should focus on helping connect students with jobs after college. Not teaching tools that steal from artists and make producers irrelevant.

Songwriter, cellist, composer here—let's do everything in our power to keep human beings as the sole creators of art. Encouraging the use of generative AI is completely against what any music school with a conscience should be doing right now.

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.

Come on, guys. At best this is irrational, uninformed FOMO, at worst it's a deliberate attempt to profit off buzz at the expense of the most vulnerable in your community.

A school about the creation of music should not support technology that actively takes the creativity out of human's hands. Creation is about the heart that humanity puts into their work, about the connection of making something with others. We gain no value from the soulless steel of a robot's regurgitation of what we've already made.

Professional jazz pianist here, standing in solidarity!

I stand with the students against AI's looming threat to creativity and human value.

Schools should be promoting original contant, and outside of the box thinking, not teaching their students to use computers to do our jobs. Why would you pay for a music degree? If you're going to learn how to use a computer to do your job? Unbelievable…

Best contact number for MWA is [email protected]

I’m not a Berkeley student… I signed in solidarity. But bravo to the students who organize this petition. All AI systems trained on music ingested without the consent of all its creators is unethical and must be resisted. Music workers alliance MWA is planning a nationwide protest on May 19 to encourage the AFM to fight back in its negotiations with the major labels: no sell out licensing to AI companies without consent of ALL musicians: composers, artists, and side musicians. Would be great to have a Boston contingent. Please contact us at musicworkersalliance.org for more information

Classical pianist here. From learning about the evolution of classical music from the Gregorian chants to the modern piano music of the last century, the fact that everything was created by human intelligence proves that AI must be eliminated out of any kind of music education class and be tossed to the dustbin of history.

No to AI songwriting!

Stealing from other artists isn’t what education should be about.

don't do it!

While AI has uses in creative work, the ethical and environmental issues at this moment are far more important than teaching songwriters how to use AI better. Berklee - please take a strong stand for IP and for the environment and planet and do not offer this class, or promote generative AI as part of the creative process while these issues are unresolved.

As a songwriter and writer, I am vehemently opposed to how AI steals the work of creative people. As a human on Earth, I cannot support a technology that sucks up so much power and water for a result that we do not need.

I’m a Composition alum of Boston Conservatory and my son is a recent graduate of Berklee. This approach to using AI at Berklee, as reported in the Globe, is not in alignment with my expectations for my Alma mater - Berklee can do better when it comes to navigating the challenges of AI in creative work.

AI is not music or any form of art

AI has no place in creative places. It exists as an amalgamation of stolen creative property from fellow creatives and can never replace, nor imitate, nor compete with human creativity ever.