If you have been following our blog posts recently, you will be aware that legendary Producer Timbaland has been facing a huge backlash recently over his championing of AI.

The Latest Scandal

The most recent incident unfolded when Timbaland shared a post where his bizarre AI alter ego “Baby timbo” claimed to have created a killer beat using the AI music tool Suno. It later emerged that the beat in question was in fact the work of another producer by the name of K Fresh.

The only explanation was that Timbaland had input K Fresh’s beat into Suno without the original creator’s permission, something that directly violates Suno’s terms of use. Understandably, K Fresh wasn’t pleased and issued a statement through his lawyer. (see below)

Timbalands Response

Up until now, Timbaland had responded to criticism with defiance, often doubling down and even trolling those who disagreed with him. But K Fresh’s public statement seems to have struck a nerve. Timbaland has since issued a much more humble and legally cautious apology on his Instagram.

In the statement, he suggested that a third party had provided him the beat, and that he believed they had the rights to it. He went on to offer a direct apology to K Fresh, acknowledging that he should have done his due diligence before using the track.

Interestingly, he also took the opportunity to emphasise that people are at the core of his AI company, Stage Zero, and that nothing the company does should come at the expense of creators.

As well as a personal statement from Timbaland his lawyer Tania Coats also offered a statement to defend the legal position. It makes it clear that while Timbaland did break Suno’s terms of use he did not break the law by publishing the video. And while this may be the case, the argument and example she used didn’t hold much water. She used the example of people agreeing to T&Cs without reading the small print. However, when you upload audio to generative music AI tools it is a simple tick box exercise asking if you own the rights to the track.

She also clarified that the law has not yet stipulated that it is AI companies’ responsibility to delete copyrighted material from its training models. Something that K Fresh was asking for in his open letter.

You can read Timbaland’s full statement below and decide for yourself. For now, it seems this may have put a temporary pause on the controversy, at least until Timbaland releases material from his newly signed AI artist, TaTa.

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