As a hip-hop enthusiast, I, like many others, came across a ‘newly released’ song by Drake and The Weeknd, early 2023. This song, titled ‘Heart on My Sleeve’, quickly gained traction, but left fans confused as to why there was no communication surrounding its release on the artists’ official channels (Veltman, 2023). It soon became clear that neither the artists nor their labels were behind the creation and subsequent release of the song. Instead, it was created by an independent music producer using voice cloning Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technology, who subsequently published it on various prevalent streaming platforms like Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music (Pearson, 2023). Before being taken down by the artists’ label (UMG) for copyright infringements, the song amassed over 600.000 streams on Spotify and over 20 million views on TikTok and Twitter (Singh et al., 2023), with a re-upload currently sitting at over 6 million views on YouTube (AzTech, 2023).
Voice cloning is one of the most widely known applications of GenAI in music, hosting a multitude of prevalent providers, such as Kits.AI, Vocaloid, Uberduck, and Speechify (Sandzer-Bell, 2023). Replicating one’s voice through GenAI entails training a machine learning model by providing an extensive range of diverse original voice audio clips, allowing it to learn the distinct vocal characteristics, styles, and nuances. The resulting voice model can then be used for voice synthesis or to overlay an existing voice (Wells-Edwards, 2022). From personal experience, I can say that creating a (somewhat) realistic voice model is surprisingly easy, although this seems to be strongly dependent on the quality of the input audio samples.
While many consider the ethical and legal considerations behind cloning living artists’ vocals, as exemplified in the scenario above, I am much more intrigued by the ethical implications of applying this technology to deceased artists. Imagine, you are a life-long Michael Jackson fan, and come across a recent AI-generated cover of ‘Love Again’ by Dua Lipa that uses his voice (which I strongly recommend) (Vargas, 2023). Are you excited to hear your favourite artist in a new and modern setting? Are you concerned for the artist’s legacy and integrity? Or do you fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum? Due to its novelty and a lack of regulations surrounding the technology (Ciccarelli, 2023), voice cloning GenAI constitutes a unique space where ethical considerations heavily rely on the judgement and responsibility of creators and individuals.
Citations:
AzTech. (2023). Drake Heart on my sleeve Ft The Weeknd OFFICIAL AUDIO Best quality. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HZ2ie2ErFI
Ciccarelli, D. (2023). Are AI Voices Legal? Voices. https://www.voices.com/blog/ai-voices-legal/
Pearson, J. (2023). Viral AI-Generated Drake Song ‘Heart on My Sleeve’ Removed from Spotify, YouTube. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgwx44/heart-on-my-sleeve-ai-ghostwriter-drake-spotify
Sandzer-Bell, E. (2023). AI-voice generators. Audio Cipher. https://www.audiocipher.com/post/ai-voice-generators
Singh, A., Hall, J., & Barnes, J. (2023). Listen: AI-generated Drake and Weeknd song streamed 20 million times causes music industry alarm. The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/17/drake-weeknd-ai-generated-song-heart-on-my-sleeve/
Vargas, S. (2023). Michael Jackson – Love Again (Dua Lipa – AI Cover). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6LapydXoVE
Veltman, C. (2023). When you realize your favorite new song was written and performed by … AI. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2023/04/21/1171032649/ai-music-heart-on-my-sleeve-drake-the-weeknd Wells-Edwards, B. (2022). What’s in a Voice? The Legal Implications of Voice Cloning. Ariz. L. Rev., 64, 1213.
Great Post, I really enjoyed reading it. It is funny as I was just commenting on another post referencing “Heart on My Sleeve” and once I got back to the blog homepage, there is a post about it.
Although I think voice cloning has immense potential, I personally believe that it is at least ethically questionable. I had previously discussed the topic with a few friends and it’s amazing how many different opinions there are about this topic. I would also like to compare this topic to debates over albums that have recently been released posthumously. In my opinion, if a music artist doesn’t want to release a certain song during their lifetime, it shouldn’t be released afterwards as well. But as you said, it is also very exciting to hear how an all-time great artists sounds like in a different style of music. All in all, I think the most important part about voice cloning is transparency about how music was created.
What I think is interesting about the article, is that it successfully provokes discussion regarding the moral, artistic, and legal implications of voice cloning technology in music. It serves as a reminder that while technology developments might foster creativity, they also bring forth complex ethical questions that require careful consideration by creators, fans, and policymakers alike. I agree with you that there needs to be transparency with voice cloning, but even with transparency I am not the biggest fan.
Hey Casper, interesting blog on bringing back the dead. I think it would be a great idea to make new songs of artists who have passed away but it would change a few dynamics. The legacy of an artists also amplifies as their music has become scarce. Which in turn makes the artist unique as it has been the trail of work which is also a historical part of the person. I think that releasing new work would also work against an artists legacy as how would we decide what makes their work authentic? All in all, I think that we experiment with this AI technology but it could not replace an artist altogether as there is no value behind the creation without the artist in my eyes. Nice blog!