SoundCloud is the latest company to run into trouble after quietly adding an AI clause to its terms and conditions. The clause appeared to allow the company to use subscriber work to train AI models …
Adobe controversy
A number of companies have been called out in the past for this, with Adobe one of the most high-profile examples back in June of last year.
A change to Adobe terms & conditions for apps like Photoshop has outraged many professional users, concerned that the company is claiming the right to access their content, use it freely, and even sub-licence it to others. The company is requiring users to agree to the new terms in order to continue using their Adobe apps, locking them out until they do so.
The company initially dismissed the controversy, but was later forced to issue a better explanation.
SoundCloud latest example
Tech commenter Ed Newton-Rex spotted that SoundCloud had quietly added a similar clause to its own T&Cs without any fanfare.
You explicitly agree that your Content may be used to inform, train, develop or serve as input to artificial intelligence or machine intelligence technologies or services as part of and for providing the services.
TechCrunch obtained a statement in which the company explained the reasons for the clause,
SoundCloud has never used artist content to train Al models, nor do we develop Al tools or allow third parties to scrape or use SoundCloud content from our platform for Al training purposes. In fact, we implemented technical safeguards, including a ‘no Al tag on our site to explicitly prohibit unauthorized use […]
Any future application of AI at SoundCloud will be designed to support human artists, enhancing the tools, capabilities, reach, and opportunities available to them on our platform. Examples include improving music recommendations, generating playlists, organizing content, and detecting fraudulent activity. These efforts are aligned with existing licensing agreements and ethical standards. Tools like [those from our partner] Musiio are strictly used to power artist discovery and content organization, not to train generative AI models.
9to5Mac’s Take
As with Adobe, the wording is ambiguous to say the least. If companies don’t want to have their users up in arms, they’d be well advised to explicitly state in the T&Cs what they will and won’t do.
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