A new track featuring the popular singer Drake is anything but. A track purported to be by the Canadian musician is instead the product of an artificial intelligence (AI) program. The quick reaction to track may be a sneak preview of important cultural and legal battles over the use of AI
The new track, “Heart on My Sleeve” was drafted by an AI program to mimic both Drake and The Weeknd. The song quickly became a major theme of discussion, especially on Tiktok. It soon made its way onto Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube.
However, following a warning from the artists’ label Universal Music Group the music came down from Apple Music and Spotify.
The company wrote that such AI-created music shows “why platforms have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the use of their services in ways that harm artists.”
The publisher also said that the use of AI to create such music is “both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law.”
The track soon made the rounds on the internet, receiving considerable popularity. In fact, the video was swiftly taken down from a number of video streaming sites.
This is NOT Drake & The Weeknd
This is AI. pic.twitter.com/T9N82iE2Zw
— Altcoin Daily (@AltcoinDailyio) April 17, 2023
There are severe implications for both AI technology and potential litigation. Following the warning, YouTube and TikTok followed the other streaming services in taking it down, bringing even more attention to the music. Following this were a number of bootleg copies and a new upload to YouTube.
The attention also shows that the exact intellectual property regarding AI-generated work is still early and nebulous. It also demonstrates that there will likely be a number of serious lawsuits regarding the use of such technology.
The Drake fake is not the only major recent concern about the use of AI technology.
New artificial intelligence programs can create images out of thin air. One of the most popular programs, Stable Diffusion, can create photo-like images.
One of the most rapidly-advancing uses of AI is creating videos from text prompts. The technology is moving rapidly due to major funding and research from major tech firms, including Facebook’s parent Meta.
