Sony has developed a system that detects original songs used in AI-generated music and estimates their contribution.
The technology was reportedly developed by Sony AI, a part of Sony Group
Photo Credit: Pexels/John Tekeridis
Sony Group has reportedly developed a new technology that can identify original music used in artificial intelligence (AI)-generated songs. The system is designed to detect copyrighted material embedded in AI-created tracks and help rights holders determine whether their work has been used without permission. Several ongoing lawsuits against AI music startups and a lack of transparency about the data used in the underlying models have raised concerns about the ethical output of AI-generated songs, and Sony reportedly wants to address this with its music detection technology.
According to a Nikkei Asia report, Sony Group has developed a new technology that can spot and identify the original music that inspired an AI-generated song. Since generative AI models require a large volume of data to train on, music generation models can only be trained on songs and samples of music.
Sony's new tool reportedly finds the underlying original music that became the basis of the final output. Not only that, it is said to be able to detect multiple original songs in a track without any issues. Additionally, it can reportedly also mention what percentage of the music is used to generate an AI song. The report did not mention any technical details or the underlying workings of the technology.
The technology operates in two ways. When AI developers cooperate, Sony's system can connect directly to their base models and analyse training data to determine which copyrighted works were used. If developers do not cooperate, the system compares AI-generated output with existing music catalogues to estimate the sources.
Sony AI, the research and development arm of Sony Group, led the development. A related academic paper detailing the approach has reportedly been accepted at an international conference, suggesting the work has undergone peer review. The company reportedly wants the technology to be integrated into AI models by developers or used by content owners during license negotiations.
While no specific timeline for commercial rollout has been shared, Sony reportedly sees it as a tool to create fairer systems for distributing revenue from AI music back to original songwriters.
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