Spotify and Apple Music removed an AI-generated fake song by Drake and The Weeknd

Spotify and Apple Music, two popular music streaming platforms, have removed an hit song where an AI mimicked the studio voices Canadian singers Drake & The Weeknd.

TikTok, YouTube, and Deezer will also remove the viral song "Heart On My Sleeve." The song had been viewed and streamed 15 million times by TikTok, and 600,000 times by Spotify.

Original version created by YouTuber ghostwriter who trained AI audio model on two musicians' voices. The video had been viewed over 275,000 times when it was taken down due to copyright issues. The message that appears on the link to the video says: "This video has been removed due to copyright claims by Universal Music Group."

A YouTuber by the name of XENEN released their own AI-edited version of the song. XENED described the song on YouTube as follows: "Did I think sounded nice, ghostwriter's initial is a banger. Just wanted to clean it a bit, he has all rights!"

Universal Music Group (UMG), through Republic Records, publishes the music hits of both artists. UMG released a statement stating that the use of AI in its artists' music poses a challenge.

The Recording Industry Association of America warned in October last year that the increasing use of AI for music generation ignores copyright violations: "That usage is unauthorised and violates our members' right."

It's not the first fight that Drake has had with an AI-generated song featuring his voice. The rapper was upset on April 14 when a video featuring an AI-generated version his voice rapping to Ice Spice's Munch appeared on Instagram. In an Instagram post, he said: "This is the last straw AI." Drake unfollowed Ice Spice from Instagram. Drake's voice was added by Bryson tiller to Cardi B's and Megan Thee Stallion's songs "WAP" (which features Megan Thee Stallion) and "Don't", which features Cardi B.

The music industry wants to find ways to protect itself from AI. The Human Artistry Campaign was launched last month with over 40 members including RIAA and National Music Publishers' Association.

The association has published seven AI principles that support human creativity. The association published seven core AI principles to support human creativity.

Artists in industries beyond music are challenged by the ethics of AI-generated work. German artist Boris Eldagsen declined the Sony World Photography Awards prize after revealing his work was produced using AI.