‘Heart on my sleeve’ a viral AI generated Drake and Weeknd Song sparks copyright debate

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‘Heart on my sleeve’, an AI-generated rap song replicating the voices of famous Canadian singer-songwriters Drake and Weeknd, became viral, sparking copyright concerns. The music was created by an anonymous musician known as a ghostwriter. Typically, an AI song like this can be made by writing and recording a track, then using an AI model to replace their vocals with a famous artist’s voice. In a now-deleted TikTok video, the ghostwriter explained that an AI was used to create the song but did not disclose the program used. Ghostwriters said that after writing the song, they replaced their voice with Drake’s.

The song has been removed from streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, Amazon, YouTube and Tidal because of Universal Music Group’s (UMG) copyright claims. While streaming services have satisfied UMG’s demands, as per Edward Klaris, a media lawyer and managing partner at Klaris LawKlaris, they are not legally required to prevent these AI-generated songs under the United State’s Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This section protects internet service providers from their users’ content.

Previously, UMG had urged streaming services to prohibit AI programs from using their copyrighted music for self-training purposes.