The booking agency responsible for unknowingly including an AI generated artist on the lineup of a Sydney live music event has apologised. 

Good Intent is responsible for booking Mixed Bag, a weekly series featuring emerging artists at Newtown’s Bootleggers. On Wednesday (July 1st), the lineup included The Duke of Randwick, Pillar Lane, and Genevieve, as well as Afro Charles – whose content was later described as “clearly and blatantly” AI-generated.

Aidan Sammut, who also played that night, posted a video to Instagram the following day (July 2nd), describing it as a “pretty unfortunate development for live music in Sydney”.

“At no point was it disclosed to us that we would be playing with an AI artist,” he said. “In fact, we only found out because a member of another band had happened to go through their [Afro Charles’] Instagram account. The account contains AI generated visuals over what I’m fairly certain is AI generated music, lyrics, and vocals.

“Worse still, there was no disclosure on any of the event’s promotional material that it contained an artist that was AI generated. As a musician, it is a complete insult to be put on a lineup with someone who uses technology that can only exist because of the large scale theft of the work of my other fellow human musicians,” he continued.

While he acknowledged Good Intent may not have been aware it had booked an AI generated artist, Sammut said he would find it “very hard to justify paying to attend one of their events in the future” if that proved to be the case.

Following Sammut’s video, Good Intent and Bootleggers also took to Instagram to apologise. In a joint post, Good Intent’s Rob, who books the Mixed Bag series, said he takes “full responsibility”.

“I didn’t look at this particular artist’s socials, and their representatives’ communication used wording consistent with genuine artists,” he wrote in the statement. “Their representative described them to us as a ‘producer’ who used ‘live vocals’ in their sets. This person was booked through an agency, who presented themselves as professional. I hadn’t seen them live, but now looking at their socials – their content is clearly and blatantly AI.

“Good Intent and Bootleggers have never knowingly, and will never, book people who use AI to generate music,” the statement continued. “We’ll ensure we review our vetting processes moving forward, we’d never want to be placed in a position where we’re encouraging the use of AI, and financially supporting the theft from artists on which AI is trained.”

Good Intent and Bootleggers said they will donate to Support Act to “put [thei] money where [their] mouth is”, and will “make sure to do better”: “We don’t support AI, we support genuine artists,” the statement reads.

The controversy comes as Australia’s music industry ramps up its fight against AI. Last month, reports emerged that millions of Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand musical works had been included in four “giant datasets of songs” used to train AI models without the knowledge, consent or payment of the songwriters, composers and publishers behind them.

In response, artists and industry leaders gathered in Canberra this week to urge the Federal Government to uphold Australia’s copyright laws, arguing AI companies should not be allowed to train their models on creators’ work without permission or payment.

Artists including Paul Dempsey, Mahalia Barnes, Mark Seymour and Holly Rankin (Jack River) joined industry bodies including ARIA, APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Publishers Association in calling for AI companies to negotiate licensing agreements with creators rather than using copyrighted works without consent.

As Sammut summed up in his video: “Live music must be defended as an avenue for human creative expression. There is no place for generative AI slop in the live music scene. The appeal of live performance is that it is raw, it is passionate, and that it is human.”

From Rolling Stone AU/NZ