An Interdisciplinary Analysis of GenAI’s Systemic Risk to Cultural Pluralism in the Music Sector

ongoing

musAIc aims at exploring whether the legal category of systemic risk recently provided by the AI Act can include the systematic impacts posed by certain generative AI systems (genAI) on the fundamental rights of cultural pluralism. The use of genAI is growing rapidly, particularly in the music domain, which accounts for 8% of its global market. While their indisputable economic and societal benefits are well recognized in existing literature, concerns about their potential negative impacts on cultural pluralism are raising. Nonetheless, so far scholars have not yet fully acknowledged these impacts as systemic risks according to EU digital law (including the Digital Services Act), nor as potentially leading to cultural impoverishment. Focusing on the music sector as a paradigmatic case, musAIc aims to address this gap by building a new framework to facilitate the development of the methodology and criteria required by Art. 51 and ff. of the AI Act and the drafting of codes of practice (Art. 56). To build it, I will analyze and test in practical environments what is a creative process within an algorithm-dominated context, and I will explore cultural impoverishment as a possible consequence of the architecture of these systems and their usage context. This will culminate in developing guidelines to aid stakeholders to assess this risk and EU policymakers to address it. To reach this goal, musAIc uses a strong interdisciplinary approach, bridging law, sociology and computer science and considering the needs of the general public as well as professional and amateur musicians. To ensure the successful completion of the project, I will conduct my research at both EU and non-EU institutions (Switzerland, US) -which is invaluable for the global nature of the issues at its core and my ultimate policy goal. This project will prepare me to become a tenured scholar, strengthening my academic and policy-maker profile and enabling me to establish my own international network.