British musicians release a silent album to protest plans to let AI use their work

A new album called “Is This What We Want?” features a stellar list of more than 1,000 musicians – and the sound of silence. With contributions from artists including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Cat Stevens and Damon Albarn, the album was released Tuesday to protest proposed British changes to artificial intelligence laws that artists fear will erode their creative control. The UK government is consulting on whether to let tech firms use copyrighted material to help train AI models unless the creators explicitly opt out.

Critics of the idea fear that…