Music labels are worried because of AI, thanks to a surprising new song ft. Drake X The Weeknd

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have a lot of industries worried. A new song, however, has the music industry and singer-songwriters worried as well. After all, AI has the ability to render artists as we know them today, as antiques, or vestiges of an old unsustainable system.   Following the virality of a song containing the AI-generated voices of Drake and The Weeknd on Monday, the world’s largest record company sought a reckoning from streaming services. Universal Music Group (UMG), which represents both artists, has already attempted to prevent artificial intelligence programmes from accessing its catalogue, although this looks to be more easier said than done. **Also read: Clever business: Video game company makes AI robot its CEO, stock value skyrockets in record time** In just a few hours, a song named ‘Heart On My Sleeve’ had over 15 million plays on TikTok, 625,000 on Spotify, and over 230,000 on YouTube before the companies moved to remove it for copyright infringement.   Republic Records, a UMG subsidiary, represents both Drake and The Weeknd. With a market share bigger than all independents combined, the Dutch-based label is the world’s largest. Following the incident, UMG issued a statement in which they stated that having AI generate music from their artists’ catalogue “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 the side of deep fakes, fraud, and denying artists their due compensation." **Also read: Worried AI will take away software coding jobs? Here’s what Google CEO Sundar Pichai has to say** Platforms “have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the misuse of their services in ways that harm artists,” according to the label. Various AI programmes have improved to the point that they can now mimic both music and artist voices, posing a danger to UMG’s vast catalogue worth billions of dollars. The label sees AI-generated music as a threat to its economic model. UMG submitted a letter to streaming companies like as Apple Music, Spotify, and Pandora earlier this month, requesting that AI be barred from accessing its catalogue. The corporation has “a moral and commercial responsibility to our artists to work to prevent unauthorised use of their music,” a representative told CNN on Tuesday. “I’m not sure how effective this will be because AI services will likely still be able to access the copyrighted material in some way,” Karl Fowlkes, a New York entertainment and business attorney, told CNN.   **Also read: Scammers clone girl’s voice using AI in 'kidnapping scam,' demand $1 million as ransom** According to Fowlkes, the government should “explicitly prohibit” AI businesses from utilising copyrighted content to train their models. “Not works created by machines that used the original art to create new work,” he stated of copyright. In March, the US Copyright Office issued new guidance stating that it will decide whether AI-generated work can be copyrighted on a case-by-case basis, explaining that this depends on whether something is merely a “mechanical reproduction” or the result of an author’s “own original mental conception, to which [the author] gave visible form." David Guetta, a DJ and producer, demonstrated in February how simple it was to make new music using two AI programmes, ChatGPT for words and Uberduck for voices. After about an hour, he created a rap song that sounded like Eminem’s work. Guetta performed it during one of his gigs but stated that he would never commercially release it. “That is an ethical problem that needs to be addressed because it seems crazy to me that today I can type lyrics and it will sound like Drake or Eminem is rapping it,” he stated at the time.   Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.