--- description: Find out why Ed Newton-Rex made TIME’s list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence. title: TIME100 AI 2025: Ed Newton-Rex image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2572fc578d1fea1d/6998c92693610c231dc2fe8a/Ed-Newton-Rex.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 26, 2025 # Ed Newton-Rex Founder and CEO, Fairly Trained by [Harry Booth](/author/harry-booth/) ## Harry Booth Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Booth is a reporter at TIME.  Photo-Illustration by TIME (Courtesy Photo) When Stability AI [announced its position](https://www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Stability-AI-COLC-2023-0006-8664%5Fattachment%5F1.pdf "undefined") that training AI on copyrighted material without consent is “fair use” in late 2023, head of audio Ed Newton-Rex decided he had one choice: he quit. While the position is shared by most major AI companies, it was a non-starter for Newton-Rex, whose own team had carefully licensed all the data for its tool, [Stable Audio](https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2023/6327139/stable-audio/ "undefined"). “I couldn't live with myself if I stole everyone else's work to compete with them,” he says. His resignation marked the beginning of a broader campaign for creators’ rights. By early 2024, Newton-Rex founded Fairly Trained, a non-profit that certifies AI companies using licensed data. The organization has so far verified roughly 20 small developers. He also spearheaded an [open letter](https://www.aitrainingstatement.org/ "undefined") condemning unlicensed AI training, which has since gathered over 50,000 signatures, and organized a “[silent album](https://www.isthiswhatwewant.com/ "undefined")” with more than 1,000 musicians to protest proposals to soften U.K. copyright law. Creators were dealt a [setback](https://www.wired.com/story/meta-scores-victory-ai-copyright-case/ "undefined") in June after a judge ruled that Meta did not violate copyright law by training its AI models on 13 authors’ books, citing insufficient evidence that the use of the books caused harm. Still, the landmark case also left the door open for authors to sue for copyright infringement in the future—which Newton-Rex says is evidence that the debate is far from settled. “People shouldn't give up on the fight over copyright, " Newton-Rex says. “I think it would be incredibly premature to do so." Ed Newton-Rex: The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2025 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305844/ed-newton-rex/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305844/ed-newton-rex/"},"headline":"Ed Newton-Rex","datePublished":"2025-08-26T19:02:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T11:54:43.301Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305844/ed-newton-rex/","keywords":["Tech","list","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","TIME100 AI 2025"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2572fc578d1fea1d/6998c92693610c231dc2fe8a/Ed-Newton-Rex.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Harry Booth","jobTitle":"Booth is a reporter at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/harry-booth/"}],"creator":"Harry Booth","articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2572fc578d1fea1d/6998c92693610c231dc2fe8a/Ed-Newton-Rex.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305844/ed-newton-rex/","name":"Ed Newton-Rex"}}]}] ```