Artificial intelligence has become a hot-button topic within the world of entertainment. A number of public figures and powerful entities, including Young Guru and Roc Nation, have taken to social media and court to share their concerns regarding the use of the technology in music, film, television and other art forms. Most notably, Drake found an AI generated soundbite of himself rapping the lyrics of “Munch” by Ice Spice. Shortly thereafter, the Toronto native took to Instagram to share his thoughts on the clip.
“This is the final straw AI,” he wrote on Instagram.
It is entirely possible that Drake may have been joking, but he also may have been completely serious. If his mood leaned toward the latter, he may not happy about a recent development regarding the use of his voice in AI settings. According to Tech Crunch, an AI-generated track called “Heart On My Sleeve,” using the voices of Drake and his longtime collaborator, The Weeknd, garnered over 250,000 streams on Spotify and 10 million views on TikTok before being pulled from streaming platforms.
Drake and The Weeknd are hardly the only artists to have their voices used to create a track. In recent years, the stylings of Eminem, Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar have all been used to create deepfake and AI-powered tracks and visuals. In response, UMG has called on streaming platforms to ban uploads of AI-generated tracks.
“The training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation,” a spokesperson for UMG said.
“We’re encouraged by the engagement of our platform partners on these issues – as they recognize they need to be part of the solution.”
