Björn Ulvaeus

Björn Ulvaeus (born 1945) is the co-founder, guitarist, and co-songwriter of ABBA, half of the Ulvaeus–Andersson partnership behind “Dancing Queen” and Mamma Mia! Since 2020 he has also served as president of CISAC, the global confederation of authors’ societies representing millions of creators — making him simultaneously one of pop’s great songwriters and its most senior rights lobbyist.

Avatars, AI co-writers, and the training question

Ulvaeus has embraced the technology personally on a scale few peers match. ABBA Voyage, the 2022 London concert residency performed by digital “ABBAtar” versions of the band’s 1979 selves, became a template for virtual performance. By 2025 he announced he was writing a new musical with AI as a collaborator, and at the UN’s AI for Good summit in July 2026 he described the tools as “a fantastic tool… really an extension of your mind.”

The nuance is that Ulvaeus pairs enthusiasm with the industry’s sharpest compensation demand. As CISAC president he has argued that the legal fight should target training, not outputs — “tracing the output was always the wrong question” — and has called for Spotify-style collective licensing of catalogues, noting that creators’ works were ingested “without agreed permission, without payment, and without so much as a postcard.” A CISAC-commissioned study he championed projects billions in creator losses absent such rules.

His formulation — “bring on the AI revolution, but stay true to safeguarding creators’ rights” — has made him a bridge figure: proof that the pro-AI and pro-artist positions can live in one person.