With the scarily rapid growth of artificial intelligence, it was only a matter of time before its effects started to bleed into the music industry. Earlier this week, the emergence of a new Drake song featuring The Weeknd started blowing up on TikTok and Spotify. The only problem? The song was generated by AI.
The anonymous, white sheet wearing creator goes by the name of ghostwriter and claims to have used AI to create the song titled “Heart On My Sleeve.” Since then, the song has received massive backlash and criticism from major labels, like Universal Music Group, to boycott the song and be removed from streaming platforms.
While the song has been taken down from TikTok and Spotify, it raises a very concerning question about AI’s place in the music world. Major labels have been at war with AI generated music and have been petitioning Apple Music and Spotify to disallow users from uploading AI-generated content.
However, as we learned with Napster, technology will always evolve the way we interact with the world and that can never change. Even Spotify joined the craze earlier this year with their personalized DJ feature. We’ve only just scratched the surface of AI and its role in our world and the music industry, like everyone else, will have to learn how to adapt.
