Irish Singer Says AI Companies Stole His Songs

Danny O'Donoghue, the lead singer of the Irish pop group The Script, says that AI companies have been using musicians' songs without permission. He spoke out on Irish radio on Tuesday, the same day Ireland's parliament was set to debate a motion about protecting artists' rights in the age of AI. O'Donoghue said he found out that 125 of his band's songs had been taken and used to train AI systems — without his knowledge or consent. He called it 'intellectual property theft on an industrial scale.'

O'Donoghue said he supports a motion put forward by the political party Sinn Féin called 'Protecting the Copyright of Irish Artists in the era of Artificial Intelligence.' He told RTÉ's Morning Ireland radio programme that five major AI companies had 'scraped' his songs to train their AI models. Scraping means that software automatically collects large amounts of data — like music, writing, or images — from the internet. O'Donoghue described this practice as 'outrageous' and said it affects far more than just famous artists.

He said that a single song is not just the work of one person. There can be many small businesses involved, like recording studios, songwriters, and producers. 'You don't just class a song as something one person wrote, there could be an ecosystem of small businesses combined in there,' he said. He added that while he is a well-known artist who can still sell concert tickets, he wanted to speak up for lesser-known musicians who have fewer resources to fight back.

O'Donoghue also pointed out that copyright laws already exist, but said they are not being enforced strongly enough when it comes to AI. He compared the situation to someone stealing a famous company's secret recipe. 'If this was Coca-Cola and we stole their formula, you could be damn sure we'd be brought to court over it,' he said. He argued that musicians should be treated with the same legal protection as big corporations.

Another concern O'Donoghue raised is that AI-generated music is flooding the market. He said about 80,000 new songs are released every day, many of them made by AI. This flood of content is 'diluting the market,' he said, making it harder for real, talented new artists to be heard. He believes this threatens the future of the music industry in Ireland and around the world.

O'Donoghue called on Ireland to use its current presidency of the Council of Europe to show the country supports its artists. He said new laws should make sure artists are paid fairly and that their work is properly licensed before being used. He also suggested giving artists an 'opt-out right,' which would let them choose whether or not their music can be used to train AI models. If they do allow it, he said they should be paid for it.

Ireland's Minister for Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless, was asked about the issue before a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. He said he was 'sympathetic' to musicians, but described the situation as 'difficult' and 'complex.' He did not think a private members' bill from an opposition party could fully solve the problem, but he agreed that action is needed quickly. 'I think it's a very real and present danger to the musical industry right now,' he said.