Viral band success spawns AI claims and hoaxes | EUROtoday

A band known as The Velvet Sundown has had its tracks performed tons of of 1000’s of instances on Spotify since showing a number of weeks in the past – with out anybody figuring out for positive what it’s.

The band has a verified web page on the music streaming platform, with greater than 850,000 month-to-month listeners.

However, not one of the 4 named musicians within the band have given any interviews or seem to have particular person social media accounts, and there are not any data of any reside performances.

It has prompted accusations that they and their music are synthetic intelligence (AI) generated – one thing the band denies on social media.

It didn’t reply to the BBC’s request for an interview.

Further complicated the story, Rolling Stone US reported that the band’s spokesman had admitted The Velvet Sundown’s music had been generated utilizing an AI instrument known as Suno – just for the journal to report shortly afterwards that the spokesman was himself a hoax.

The man, who goes by the identify of Andrew Frelon, stated it was a deliberate plot to hoax the media.

A press release on the band’s Spotify web page says that the group has “no affiliation with this individual, nor any evidence confirming their identity or existence.”

An account on X which claims to be the band’s official channel, can also be faux, it added.

Professor Gina Neff, from the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy on the University of Cambridge, says it factors to an issue which impacts rather more than only one band.

“Whether this is an AI band may not seem important,” she instructed me.

“But increasingly, our collective grip on reality seems shaky. The Velvet Sundown story plays into the fears we have of losing control of AI and shows how important protecting online information is.”

The Velvet Sundown’s indie ballads, with guitar music and male vocals, is pretty simple, if bland, on the ear.

With lyrics resembling “eyes like film in faded light, dreams walk barefoot into the night” and “ash and velvet, smoke and flame, calling out in freedom’s name”, it might all feasibly be both AI-generated or penned by people.

Deezer, a rival music streaming platform, stated that its AI detector instrument had flagged the music as being “100% AI generated”.

Spotify didn’t reply to a request for remark.

CEO Daniel Ek has beforehand instructed the BBC that he didn’t intend to ban AI-generated music from the platform however added that he didn’t agree with utilizing the tech to imitate actual artists.

Many within the inventive arts business are deeply involved in regards to the affect of AI.

Hundreds of musicians have protested about using their content material within the coaching of AI instruments to create music.

Sir Elton John and Dua Lipa joined many members of the House of Lords in combating for the UK authorities to incorporate AI and copyright in a brand new set of legal guidelines relating to knowledge use and entry. Their marketing campaign was in the end unsuccessful.

The authorities says it’s finishing up a separate session about AI and copyright.

Ed Newton Rex, founding father of Fairly Trained, which campaigns for AI companies to respect creators’ rights, stated the questions across the The Velvet Sundown bore out musicians’ considerations.

“This is exactly what artists have been worried about, it’s theft dressed up as competition,” he stated.

“AI companies steal artists’ work to build their products, then flood the market with knock-offs, meaning less money goes to human musicians.”

Sophie Jones, chief technique officer at BPI, stated it illustrated the necessity for presidency motion.

“This dialogue reinforces most of the considerations raised by the music business and artist group in current months on the essential problems with AI and music rights.