Dallas Wings former first round pick Lou Lopez Senechal has made the decision to sit out the 2025 WNBA season, the team announced on Monday. The former UConn women’s basketball guard was selected fifth overall in the 2023 WNBA Draft. She did not make her debut in the WNBA until 2024, however, as she was […]
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Luka Doncic is flashing his potential with the Los Angeles Lakers. The newest Laker Doncic exploded in the first quarter then lobbed an alley-oop to LeBron James on Saturday versus Denver. But now comes his most highly anticipated game yet against the Dallas Mavericks — which got DeMarcus Cousins thinking a “shark” will come out […]
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Like other NFL teams, the Washington Commanders must make tough roster decisions. They also added an interesting name to their coaching staff. And here is a perfect trade the Commanders must complete in the 2025 NFL offseason. While it’s among the possibilities the Commanders could make a trade for Myles Garrett, the asking price seems […]
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Unfortunately for the Phoenix Suns, they continue to find themselves in plenty of NBA rumors. For instance, Bill Simmons explained Kevin Durant’s alarming behavior during the Suns loss on Thursday. Although that could be a spur of the moment, plenty of executives don’t feel that they. They feel this has been coming for quite some […]
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Michigan football didn’t have the season that it was hoping for in 2024, but the roster had no shortage of talent to put on the field. That will be on display in April’s NFL Draft, when many Wolverines will be selected on both sides of the ball. One of the top Michigan players who will […]
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IF AI generated a song about itself, it might adapt a line written by Freddie Mercury in his Queen pomp.
“CAN’T stop me now, I’m having such a good time.”
As you may have gathered, artificial intelligence is like a runaway train, here to change all our lives forever, for good and for bad.
And it is causing an existential crisis for creators of what, for decades, us Brits have been rather good at — popular music.
Now, proposed changes to copyright laws have provoked some of our best-loved stars to speak out.
Sir Paul McCartney fears a “wild west” and The Who’s Roger Daltrey warns that “AI is going to destroy the music industry if we’re not careful”.
Yesterday, 1,000 signatories from that industry, which contributed £7.6billion to the UK economy in 2023, submitted a “silent album” called Is This What We Want? to Downing Street demanding “that the Government ensures fair pay for the work that powers AI”.
One of those backing the Make It Fair campaign, Kate Bush, said: “In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?”
She previously used Monet’s paintings of Victorian London, in which “vague, blurred” figures were veiled in fog, to express her fears.
“Is that us?” she mused.
“Standing in awe at the dawn of AI, standing at the dawn of modernity, as smog was for Monet at that time in the newly industrial London?
“Do we only see the twinkling light of the new invention, which so often catches the eye of our imagination . . . and what are those vague, dark sardonic shapes we can see in the background, behind the theatrical gauze?”
Before we hear more from concerned artists like them, just consider some of our acts who burst onto the world stage with their own songs.
In the Sixties, it was trailblazers such as The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks. Not to mention hard rockers Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and prog-rock pioneers Pink Floyd.
The Seventies was the era of singer-songwriters, glam rockers and punks — David Bowie, Elton John, Kate Bush, Joan Armatrading, Roxy Music, Queen, The Sex Pistols and The Clash.
The Eighties witnessed the arrival of synth pop in the shape of Eurthymics, Wham! Duran Duran and indie icons The Smiths and New Order.
The Nineties and Noughties were all about brash Britpop — Oasis, Blur, Pulp — and glorious Glastonbury headliners — Radiohead, Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys.
In the past two decades, we’ve seen the emergence of solo powerhouses like Amy Winehouse, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles, Stormzy, Sam Smith and Dua Lipa.
But, by the end of the 2020s, will we be celebrating computer-generated output by that faceless, ubiquitous artist called AI?
In one of his illuminating letters to fans, Nick Cave, the Aussie who made Britain his home for years, told of his horror at songs created by AI platform ChatGPT “in the style of Nick Cave”.
In response to one artificial composition which included the line “I’ve got the fire of hell in my eyes”, he raged: “This song is bulls**t, a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human.”
He also noted: “ChatGPT may be able to write a speech or an essay or a sermon or an obituary but it cannot create a genuine song.
“Songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel.
“Data doesn’t suffer.
“ChatGPT has no inner being.”
Daltrey, known for his towering vocal interpretations of Pete Townshend’s songs, echoed this view.
“Music is a different language, and we shouldn’t let AI control that,” he said.
“It will always contain empathy, and AI can’t do that.
“If AI can ever do empathy, then we are f***ed.”
A considered perspective came from Joan Armatrading, the songwriter who emerged in the Seventies with sublime Love And Affection and has continued to write and perform into her seventies.
“It is crucial to safeguard the rights of creators through robust copyright laws,” she affirmed.
“Governments must take immediate action to ensure that the intellectual property of creatives — whether ideas, works, or inventions — remains protected and under the originators’ control.”
ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus may not be from Britain but he and his group left an indelible mark on our pop culture with Dancing Queen and the rest.
As president of the International Confederation of Societies Of Authors and Composers, he has a pragmatic approach.
Bjorn said: “There is no way we can or should stand against AI.
“I am using AI models myself, and these are wonderful tools that can enhance creativity.
“But this progress must never come at the expense of creators’ rights.
“And this is not just an ethical issue, it’s economic good sense because the whole concept of copyright has immense impact on culture, jobs and the economy.
“We can’t let that be watered down by poor regulation of AI.”
One notable user of AI is the aforementioned Paul McCartney, who sanctioned its use to extract the vocals from an unfinished demo by John Lennon to make The Beatles’ “final” song, Now And Then.
He accepted that AI “can do lots of great things” if used the right way.
But in a televised interview, he added words of extreme caution: “You get young guys, girls, coming up.
“They write a beautiful song, and they don’t own it.
“Anyone who wants can just rip it off.”
“The truth is, the money’s going somewhere.
“Somebody’s getting paid, so why shouldn’t it be the guy who sat down and wrote Yesterday?”
Macca spoke directly to Keir Starmer and Co when he said: “We’re the people, you’re the Government!
“You’re supposed to protect us. That’s your job.
“If you’re putting through a bill, make sure you protect the creative artists, or you’re not going to have them.”
British music has been on a long, winding and wildly successful road — but now it’s time to say HELP!
B&M BARGAINS’ boss has checked out — as a big profit warning raised questions about his leadership of the firm.
The discount retail chain yesterday tried to position Alex Russo’s exit as retirement after two and a half years as chief executive.
But few believed those claims, as Mr Russo’s departure aged 54 came with a triple whammy warning of a sales slump, weak confidence and a profits hit due to currency rates.
Analysts at Panmure Liberum said the “retirement of Russo and a downgrade are unlikely to be mutually exclusive”.
Andrew Wade, at Jefferies, said it was not “a surprise, given the group’s consistent over-promising”.
Mr Russo’s departure comes eight months after The Sun first raised questions about why the boss of a FTSE 100 retailer would want to keep the media and investors in the dark about its trading.
We said it was a slippery slope when firms stop talking to the financial press about their results, especially when readers are its customers.
It raises suspicions all is not well if there cannot be open conversations on performance.
Analysts warned at the time B&M’s decision to scrap guidance was a clue its performance was weakening.
Mr Russo joined B&M in 2020 and replaced Simon Arora, who had led for almost two decades.
B&M shares fell yesterday by as much as 10 per cent before recovering to be down 2 per cent at 284.97p.
TAKEAWAY firm Just Eat is being gobbled up in a £3.39billion deal — which values it at a fraction of its value during the height of its online ordering boom during lockdowns.
The group, which is now only listed in Amsterdam, is being bought by a Dutch tech investor Prosus.
At one stage the brand was using stars including US singer Katy Perry in marketing campaigns.
The company, who had merged with Dutch firm takeaway.com in a £6.2billion deal in 2020, had become ambitious after a surge in sales during Covid restrictions and spent £4.8billion buying US rival Grubhub.
The deal proved to be a disaster and Just Eat offloaded it for just £518million in November.
Shares in Just Eat Takeaway leapt by 54 per cent yesterday — but are still 82 per cent lower than their peak back in October 2020.
Shares in rival firm Deliveroo, which was founded in 2013 and also has been on a rollercoaster since Covid, jumped by almost 7 per cent yesterday as investors bet there could be further dealmaking in the sector.
NATIONAL GRID has sold off its US renewable energy firm to Canadian investment giant Brookfield for £1.3billion.
The move for Brookfield to beef up in renewable energy with the Grid’s solar, wind and battery assets comes despite US President Donald Trump’s “Drill, baby, drill!” push towards fossil fuels.
In the past year, National Grid, which remains a FTSE 100 firm, has sold off the UK’s electricity operator to the British Government as well as raising £7billion to invest in renewable energy sources.
THE firms “freaking out” the most about Donald Trump’s diversity backlash were virtue-signalling in the first place, says the boss of the FTSE Women Leaders Review.
Latest figures show women hold 43 per cent of roles on UK FTSE company boards, better than most European peers.
At the UK’s biggest 50 private companies it is 36.8 per cent.
However, the majority of female board seats are for heads of human resources.
Meanwhile, just 17 per cent of FTSE 350 chairs (53) are women and there are only 19 female chief execs (5 per cent) of FTSE 350 companies.
UK firms are mandated to report their board’s gender diversity but there is no penalty for failing to do so.
There is now speculation whether the requirements will continue.
Vivienne Artz, boss of the FTSE Women Leaders Review, told The Sun that transparency helped firms with diversity because you “don’t know what you’ve got until you measure it, or what you are working towards if there is no target”.
However, Ms Artz said that there had been too many DEI schemes “for the sake of it”.
This led to some men believing they were “disadvantaged when 60 per cent of boardroom jobs still go to men”.
She added: “I think the firms freaking out about the DEI backlash are those that were doing it just for the targets and data to make them look good.
“You need to be critical at what it’s delivering, not just virtue-signalling.
“It became pushed so much, people become disenfranchised because they feel excluded.”
APPLE has committed $500bn (£395bn) to the US as the tech giant aligns itself closer to President Trump.
Tim Cook, Apple boss, said the investment will create 20,000 new US jobs as he unveiled plans for a new factory in Texas.
A BRITISH defence company which supplies the RAF has had a £1billion takeover bid from a US private equity firm.
FTSE 250-listed Chemring has reportedly rejected a 390p-a-share offer from Boston-based Bain Capital, Sky News said.
Shares in Chemring soared by as much as 14.5 per cent yesterday before closing up 4 per cent to 373.50p, amid uncertainty that Bain would return with a higher price.
The defence sector is expected to be boosted from the increasing tensions in global politics.
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The New York Knicks are one of the best teams in the NBA this season, but when they play against other top squads, they tend to struggle. So far on the year, the Knicks are 37-20, which is good for third place in the Eastern Conference. However, against the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma […]
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It is safe to say that it has not gone to plan for Kris Bryant with the Colorado Rockies after signing a seven-year, $182 million contract with the team ahead of the 2022 season, but he is attempting to put together his best year with the franchise in 2025, and he spoke about making it […]
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Now that NBA All-Star Weekend has come and gone, most rosters around the league are pretty set, and you won’t see many teams changing up their 15-man squad before the playoffs. The trade deadline has already passed, and most of the big-name players who were bought out have already found new homes. There are still […]
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