Universal Music Group (UMG) has announced its work engagement with AI company Klay Vision to help train Generative AI (GenAI) music models while being “ethically and fully respectful of copyright.” The model will help create commercially available AI-generated music that will also include protections for the likeness rights of human creators.

“Research is critical to building the foundations for AI music, but the tech is only an empty vessel when it doesn’t engage with the culture it is meant to serve,” said Ary Attie, Founder and CEO of Klay. Earlier, UMG had signed an agreement with YouTube to be part of YouTube’s parent Alphabet’s Music AI Incubator. It also partnered with SoundLabs to help create voice models for artists. 

Klay and UMG said the goal is to responsibly build AI music foundation models that the companies hope “will dramatically lessen the threat to human creators and stand the greatest opportunity to be transformational, creating significant new avenues for creativity and future monetization of copyrights.”