YouTube Launches AI Tool That Mimics Top Artists' Vocals

Facts

• YouTube has launched a new tool that will allow select users to make music with the AI-generated vocals of nine famous artists, including Demi Lovato, Charli XCX, John Legend, and Troye Sivan.¹
• Called Dream Track, the experimental AI tool will permit a 'small group of select US creators' to generate song snippets for up to 30 seconds for use in YouTube Shorts — YouTube's short-form video section.²
• In a blog post on Thursday, YouTube said that, 'the technology could be used to create deeper connections between artists and creators,' and shared samples of what AI-generated music experiments would sound like.³
• YouTube has already launched an AI music incubator in partnership with music giant Universal Music Group, reportedly in order to inspire creativity while protecting artists' copyrights.⁴
• In September, the video-sharing platform announced a slew of AI-powered tools, including AI-generated photo and video backgrounds, called Dream Screen.⁵
• YouTube's foray into AI has reportedly raised the alarm over potential intellectual property rights issues and the spread of misinformation via deep fake images.⁶

Sources: ¹Rolling stone, ²Forbes, ³CNBC, ⁴Coingeek, ⁵Verge and ⁶CNN.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Platformer. YouTube's 'approach to responsible AI innovation' is greenlighting the widespread posting of 'synthetic media.' While major-label musicians' requests for video-takedown might be being taken seriously by the platform, all that its statement says about deepfakes is that the company will 'consider a variety of factors when evaluating' such reports. Youtube needs to make much more convincing reassurances.
• Narrative B, as provided by Forbes. Google Deepmind — the UK-based AI research lab that has launched YouTube's Dream Track — has already reassured those concerned about deepfakes and copyright that any synthetic audio it publishes will be watermarked. This watermarking will be 'inaudible to the human ear and doesn't compromise the listening experience,' but allows for detection even after manipulation. This fact ought to lay to rest any fears among skeptics.

Predictions