AI in music: The top artists who are for and against the technology

With the rise of AI, we've all seen how powerful this new technology can be particularly when it comes to music.

As a result, people have been using AI to perfectly replicate the singing voices of different artists such as Drake, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift and Harry Styles in order to make AI covers of different songs.

For example, there is a viral AI cover of Harry Styles singing in a duet with Taylor Swift on her track Style which fans have been going crazy about.

While AI can also be used to create deep fakes of celebrities too - where the celeb's face is digitally imposed on someone else's body which is often used to spread misinformation or for malicious intent.

But what do artists think about this issue?

Here are the celebrities who have spoken out so far on the topic of AI:

Drake

Drake speaks onstage during Drake's Till Death Do Us Part rap battle on October 30, 2021 in Long Beach, California.Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images

An AI song called "Heart on My Sleeve" that used Drake's and the Weeknd's voices went viral before being taken down by music streaming services.

While Drake himself hasn't commented on all the AI songs that have been created, he did express his disapproval of the practice after the rapper responded to an AI-generated cover of him rapping Ice Spice’s “Munch”, writing: “This is the final straw AI.”

Grimes

Grimes attends the Los Angeles World Premiere of Marvel Studios' "Captain Marvel" at Dolby Theatre on March 4, 2019 in Hollywood, California. Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney

Grimes has expressed enthusiasm towards the new AI-generated songs - and has told her fans they can use her voice to create their own tracks.

Taking to Twitter, she shared a New York Times article about the viral AI-generated song using Drake and The Weeknd's voice.

She wrote: "I'll split 50 per cent royalties on any successful AI-generated song that uses my voice. Same deal as I would with any artist I collab with. Feel free to use my voice without penalty. I have no label and no legal bindings."

"I think it's cool to be fused w a machine and I like the idea of open-sourcing all art and killing copyright," she added.

Though, later she did add a clarification on the platform as to what circumstances would cause her to get certain AI songs taken down for copyright - where "rly rly toxic lyrics," are used with her voice.

"Ok hate this part but we may do copyright takedowns ONLY for rly rly toxic lyrics w grimes voice: imo you'd rly have to push it for me to wanna take smthn down but I guess plz don't be *the worst*. as in, try not to exit the current Overton window of lyrical content w regards to sex/violence. Like no baby murder songs plz," she wrote.

"I think I'm Streisand effecting this now but I don't wanna have to issue a takedown and be a hypocrite later. ***That's the only rule."

Rly don't like to do a rule but don't wanna be responsible for a Nazi anthem unless it's somehow in jest a la producers I guess

"- wud prefer avoiding political stuff but if it's a small meme with ur friends we prob won't penalize that. Probably just if smthn is viral and anti abortion or smthn like that.

Grimes added: "Rly rly don't like adding rules so I apologize but this is the only thing."

Most recently, the singer and producer has shared a guide on how to do this, and shared the link in a tweet: "HOW TO MAKE MUSIC FEAT GrimesAI - we can distribute it for you and you can earn royalties from your work."

Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish attends The 2023 Met Gala Celebrating "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 01, 2023 in New York City.Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

During an appearance on The Late, Late Show with James Corden back in May this year, Billie Eilish shared her thoughts on AI.

"I feel like my approach is not as optimistic, I'm a little bit scared of it," she admitted.

"I'm a little scared of what someone could create of me doing something with it."

Eilish added: "Scary, scary to me, it just looks so real," as she went on to note how it's "One of the most impressive things I've encountered in my life."

The singer's comments come after deepfake porn' of singer Eilish was promoted on people's TikTok in December last year.

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