Terrance Sawchuk

Producer, Songwriter, Artist, Mixer. Entrepreneur. $old 4 a $ong, RESASTER Inc. U Rawk Miniatures.

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

Well well the plot thickens. This would be a game changer for artist ability to leverage their music. Direct deal with no labels…

https://t.co/uhPhsTnjDK

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation.

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

We are starting to see some progress in ticketing land.

https://t.co/6hBn9k8Vzn

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

https://t.co/WiywCkKDdj

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

@Sportsnet @FriedgeHNIC That was sick!!

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

@JPriceOfMusic Music and hotdogs. Everyone loves them but you don’t want to know how they’re made. 🤪

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

Shout to @raveanddrool for having me as a guest on your 90’s Canadian Music themed podcast. Tyler Elynuik is a wonderful host keeping an important music era alive. #raveanddrool #canadianmusic #90smusic

https://t.co/9ocLKlergo

[Ed Newton-Rex @ednewtonrex]

I’ve resigned from my role leading the Audio team at Stability AI, because I don’t agree with the company’s opinion that training generative AI models on copyrighted works is ‘fair use’.

First off, I want to say that there are lots of people at Stability who are deeply thoughtful about these issues. I’m proud that we were able to launch a state-of-the-art AI music generation product trained on licensed training data, sharing the revenue from the model with rights-holders. I’m grateful to my many colleagues who worked on this with me and who supported our team, and particularly to Emad for giving us the opportunity to build and ship it. I’m thankful for my time at Stability, and in many ways I think they take a more nuanced view on this topic than some of their competitors.

But, despite this, I wasn’t able to change the prevailing opinion on fair use at the company.

This was made clear when the US Copyright Office recently invited public comments on generative AI and copyright, and Stability was one of many AI companies to respond. Stability’s 23-page submission included this on its opening page:

“We believe that Al development is an acceptable, transformative, and socially-beneficial use of existing content that is protected by fair use”.

For those unfamiliar with ‘fair use’, this claims that training an AI model on copyrighted works doesn’t infringe the copyright in those works, so it can be done without permission, and without payment. This is a position that is fairly standard across many of the large generative AI companies, and other big tech companies building these models — it’s far from a view that is unique to Stability. But it’s a position I disagree with.

I disagree because one of the factors affecting whether the act of copying is fair use, according to Congress, is “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work”. Today’s generative AI models can clearly be used to create works that compete with the copyrighted works they are trained on. So I don’t see how using copyrighted works to train generative AI models of this nature can be considered fair use.

But setting aside the fair use argument for a moment — since ‘fair use’ wasn’t designed with generative AI in mind — training generative AI models in this way is, to me, wrong. Companies worth billions of dollars are, without permission, training generative AI models on creators’ works, which are then being used to create new content that in many cases can compete with the original works. I don’t see how this can be acceptable in a society that has set up the economics of the creative arts such that creators rely on copyright.

To be clear, I’m a supporter of generative AI. It will have many benefits — that’s why I’ve worked on it for 13 years. But I can only support generative AI that doesn’t exploit creators by training models — which may replace them — on their work without permission.

I’m sure I’m not the only person inside these generative AI companies who doesn’t think the claim of ‘fair use’ is fair to creators. I hope others will speak up, either internally or in public, so that companies realise that exploiting creators can’t be the long-term solution in generative AI.

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

Soon they’ll have to change the name to a Mattrick. @MapleLeafs #mapleleafs #goleafsgo #papi #leafnation

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

@BigHeadHcky Respectfully, none of these 4. McDavid is already 4th of all time in points per game. Baring injury Connor is the future #5.

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

Just heard a great remix of Sorry Not Sorry, by a Canadian DJ. It’s called Sorry Still Sorry. #Canadians #CanadaVSTheWorld #Canada #SorryNotSorry #demilovato #sorrystillsorry

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

Taking a break from social media folks. Not that I ever used Twitter anyway. 🤪🤘🤘

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

Thank God for @MMercuriadis . This is why in 30 plus years I still own and control 100% of my songs and publishing share. Thank you Merk, for creating this Guild and having the balls to kick the hornets nest for us. https://t.co/1Z6MsA6aUQ

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

Thank@you so much @SOCANmusic!! #jakeowen #barefootbluejeannight #ericpaslay #dylanaltman #socan https://t.co/mEAVV9ibSc

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

Well, this happened last night. @jakeowen thx for bringing @ericpaslay and I up at The Ryman last night(missing was Dylan Altman). Most played Country Song of The Decade!! This pic best explains the gratitude we all feel. #jakeowen #barefootbluejeannight #theryman

[X92.9 @X929]

Breathing in the Alt 6 @ 6
Conditioned for your comfort, built to last

6 @joywave
5 @KennyHoopla
4 @royalblooduk
3 @theknocks @fosterthepeople
2 @cannonstheband
1 @rubywatersmusic

[Ruby Waters @rubywatersmusic]

interviews are scary af but ya'll made it chill, thanks @etalkCTV for the feature 🙏💙

@notNoreen

[Terrance Sawchuk @terry_sawchuk]

Covid 2020 pinch in performance royalties coming next month. Predictions say a 20-30% drop, My analytics are showing an over 50% drop this coming quarter. MBW article on the matter and catalog investors mindset concerning intermediaries in the future. https://t.co/59H8cUyb1k

[Ruby Waters @rubywatersmusic]

Thank you for voting for Blow! Keep votin if ya can! 🙏

https://t.co/bYNYnHJvkw