Politicians around the world are worried about the potential for deepfaked videos of themselves to be used to spread misinformation. But in Ireland, such a video is part of music-industry body IRMA’s latest lobbying push.
To be clear, this deepfake was made with the full permission of the politician – Malcolm Byrne – it was based on. IRMA showed it as an example at a briefing for members of the Irish parliament this week.
“The demonstration highlighted the potential misuse of such technology in both the music industry and political life and the possibilities of its ethical and lawful use,” said IRMA in its post-briefing summary.
The thrust of the meeting was to convince politicians of the potential economic harm that unlicensed use of copyrighted music to train AI models could cause, with IRMA noting that the average Irish adult spends nearly €800 a year on music, merch and live events.
“Irish music is a global success story, with real social, cultural and economic value.. AI has the potential to create new opportunities, but it must operate within a framework that respects the law and values human creativity,” said IRMA’s David Kitching in a statement.
“If we fail to enforce copyright protections in the AI era, we risk undermining a sector worth €1 billion annually and the thousands of livelihoods it supports.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source musically.com ’














