A new song by Drake and The Weeknd goes viral, but it’s a fake AI

Within a few days Heart on My Sleeve, a song with the vocals of Drake and The Weeknd, has exceeded 250,000 streams on Spotify and 10 million views on TikTok (via TechCrunch). No wonder, after all we are talking about two of the most important pop stars in the world. But there is a small detail: Drake and The Weeknd never sang itis a song generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

The two artists have not responded to the phenomenon, but it is certain that AI technology is escaping any form of control. Smart algorithms are literally able to make any character sing (and say) anythingwhich throws huge concern on the deepfake issue.

At the time of writing, the song appears to have been removed from both Spotify and TikTok.

Drake, The Weeknd, Jay-Z and Eminem: all victims of AI

Then there is the problem of copyright. Last week the Universal Music Group (UMG) – one of the most important record majors in the world – has sounded the alarm: on Spotify and Apple Music there is a boom in new music generated by AI and much of this infringes copyright.

Already in 2020 Roc Nation, the agency founded by Jay-Z, had taken issue with some YouTube uploads of AI-generated deepfakes of Jay-Z. Last week the same thing happened to Eminem. UMG, which represents both rappers, has filed a copyright strike over AI-generated YouTube videos in which Eminem raps singing about kittens.

• 

  Writing is my passion, music is my life and Liam Gallagher my God. Otherwise I’m 30 and a musician, singer and songwriter. Here I mainly write about music and videogames, but everything that has to do with the creation of parallel worlds fascinates me. 🌋From Pompeii with love.🧡

  View all articles