David Porter is one of America’s national treasures. He was the first staff songwriter at Stax Records based in Mr. Porter’s home town of Memphis. Mr. Porter and his writing parter Isaac Hayes wrote classic hits for Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas and many Stax Records’ artists. He is a gracious man and generous soul and strikes me as a man with a servant’s heart.

Mr. Porter testified yesterday before the House IP Subcommittee on their first five year look back at the Mechanical Licensing Collective. The hearing was not about AI, but Mr. Porter evidently had something he wanted to say about AI and he said it eloquently. Trust a hit songwriter to give you the hook straight up. I was struck by that part of his testimony which was about as good a summary of a creator’s perspective on AI as any I’ve seen:

Today, huge AI computer models are copying and analyzing virtually all of the music ever made to generate what they are calling “new” songs from the music of yesterday. Hopefully, courts will see that copyright law does not allow this. AI platforms and services must get permission before rightsholders’ work can be copied and used in this way though. So far, very few have done so. No one at any AI company has spoken to me, my label, or my publishing company. This is wrong.

But our concerns extend beyond copyright. There’s no greater honor than to have an audience enjoy my music. But key to that appreciation is that it’s MY music. To have someone – or something – take my voice, my sound, my persona without permission and manipulate it or mimic my work is a personal violation and a threat to the good I’ve built up over the years. How can this be “new” when this has been taken from songs written years ago? How is that new? I know I speak for a great many songwriters who feel this way.

I do believe there is a place for AI. But we appear to be going down a path of appropriation, exploitation, and dehumanization. I have been the benefactor of a great number of people who have taken my songs and sampled them. They have my permission; they pay a royalty; and they create something that adds a fresh intention of my original work. This is not currently the case for the majority of AI generated songs. It’s not just a threat to existing works but to future generations of artists and to culture itself. If all we have is machine-made music copied from existing works, there will be less and less creativity, artistry, and soul to go around. What a penalty to put on future generations. What a penalty.

Congress and the courts must assure that guardrails are in place to protect creators’ rights and their control over their own work. But if AI moves too fast, it will leave today’s laws in the dust.

You have a model in the MMA process to make things right, bringing the music family together with your own policy and legal expertise to shape strong rules for healthy uses of AI.

Just like writing a great song, it’s hard work that will pay off for generations to come.