Photo credit: Eva Rinaldi / CC from 2.0
AI-generated music has caused a stir in the music industry, especially after the Drake/The Weeknd mashup went viral on TikTok. Now musicians get involved.
Grimes is all about AI and has already used the technology to create a digitized version of her voice that can be used to create music. But not everyone agrees with using artificial intelligence to replicate a human voice. Sting recently spoke to the BBC and said he sees it as a struggle to defend organic creative work against the rise of AI-generated work.
Now in an interview with Full Shipping, Ice Cube shares his take on AI-generated music and why it’s not the future of the industry. The show’s hosts asked Ice Cube to comment on the viral track “Heart On My Sleeve,” which went viral on social media. The rapper called AI mashups like this “demonic,” adding, “I don’t want to hear an AI Drake song. Yes. I don’t want to hear that nonsense. He should sue whoever did it.”
He also says he would sue anyone who created an AI-generated voice of him, adding that he considers it sampling without permission.
“I’m going to sue the bastard that made it and the people and platform that play it,” the rapper continues. “It’s like a rehearsal. Nobody can take your original voice and manipulate it without paying for it. I think AI is demonic, I think AI will get a backlash from organic humans.”
The backlash from the “organic people” has already begun. One of the demands of the writers represented by the Writers Guild of America is guarantees that their writers’ rooms are not replaced by AI script generators designed to “refresh” them rather than write from scratch. Meanwhile, UMG, WMG and Sony have taken enforcement action to ensure AI-created tracks don’t dominate Spotify’s playlists either.