Story by Patience Nyagato
ZIMBABWEAN musicians are facing a growing challenge in the digital era, with concerns increasing over the unauthorised use of their music on social media platforms and the use of their work to train artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Millions of social media users interact with copyrighted music every day. On many global platforms, popular songs from Europe and the United States are automatically detected, restricted or monetised to ensure rights holders receive compensation.
However, experts say Zimbabwean artists may not enjoy the same level of protection because the country’s current copyright legislation was enacted long before the rise of social media and generative AI technologies.
Intellectual property expert Mr Moses Nkomo said the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, promulgated in 2001, does not adequately address emerging digital challenges.
“The current Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act was promulgated in 2001. Back then, the issues that are being raised today were not even heard of. The primary thing that needs to be done is to update the law to cater for the new phenomena that are arising,” he said.
Mr Nkomo noted that the challenge extends beyond piracy on social media, as AI systems rely on vast amounts of online content to learn and generate new material.
“Once music is uploaded to digital platforms, questions arise over who controls that content and whether creators should be compensated when it is used to develop commercial AI products,” he said.
Technology expert Mr Patel Mafuratidze said Zimbabwe’s emerging AI strategy could provide a foundation for protecting local artists.
“This AI strategy is the starting point for us as Zimbabweans to establish protocols that will help artists. Artists should be able to document and create a digital footprint of all their work so that if it is used within AI systems, it can be traced back to them,” he said.
AI expert Dr Evans Sagomba said the accessibility of online content presents a major challenge for musicians.
“AI uses data that is freely available on the internet. As long as music is on platforms such as YouTube, it becomes accessible data. Companies can gather that information and use it to train their algorithms,” he said.
Dr Sagomba added that stronger policies are needed to ensure Zimbabwean artists benefit when their work is used by AI technologies.
“We need policies that protect Zimbabwean music and ensure that if it is used, artists are compensated for their work. Most of our musicians distribute their music through YouTube. Once that content is placed online, it becomes available data that can be accessed by different technologies, including AI systems,” he noted.
He also called for the development of a dedicated national AI policy for the creative sector.
“What we want to propose is for the government and the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe to come up with a specific AI policy to safeguard the music of Zimbabwe,” he said.
Experts said Zimbabwe cannot address the issue in isolation and called for stronger collaboration through regional and international bodies to ensure African creators have a voice in global discussions on copyright, data ownership and artificial intelligence.
