Universal Music pulls AI-generated fake Drake and Weeknd track after 600,000 Spotify streams and 15m TikTok views
Published · updated · curated by AI Is Going Just Great
Source: theguardian.com ↗
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A track with AI-generated Drake and Weeknd vocals racked up 600,000 Spotify streams, 15m TikTok views and 275,000 YouTube views over a weekend before Universal Music Group had it removed from all three platforms on 17 April. Heart on My Sleeve was posted to TikTok by a user called Ghostwriter977 and distributed to streaming services under the artist name Ghostwriter. UMG called it "infringing content created with generative AI" and declined to say whether it had filed formal takedown requests.
The label told Billboard the viral postings "demonstrate why platforms have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the use of their services in ways that harm artists." A week earlier it had urged streaming platforms to block AI companies from accessing its catalogue, saying certain services had been trained on copyrighted music "without obtaining the required consents." It was Drake's second AI problem that week: on the Friday before, he responded to a fake verse of himself on Ice Spice's Munch with an Instagram story reading "This is the final straw AI."