“Thank you Adele, this is a beautiful song,” reads among hundreds of enthusiastic comments on a YouTube video paying tribute to slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. For many Internet users, this article was written by the British star. Mistake. This was generated by artificial intelligence (AI) and has nothing to do with Adele.
Similar AI-created tributes posted to YouTube and attributed to stars like Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber have racked up millions of views and thousands of comments.
In many cases, the voices bear little resemblance to those of the original artists, but many Internet users continue to believe and worry about the fake AI-generated content flooding the Internet, made possible by cheap and widely accessible tools.
“I’m afraid that what made the Internet so interesting – really weird, creative people doing things they were passionate about for fun – has disappeared. It has been replaced by mediocre content created by scammers looking to make money,” Alex Mahadevan of the Poynter media institute told AFP.
“We are becoming passive consumers of ‘content’ and no longer active and conscious digital citizens,” he added.
“Subhuman”
However, YouTube policy requires creators to make their use of AI public. But this mention does not usually appear visibly, often buried in the description of the video, where it can easily go unnoticed.
A new AI-generated band called The Velvet Sundown released albums and amassed over 200,000 listeners on a verified Spotify account. On social media, the group describes itself as “neither quite human nor quite machine.”
This trend raises thorny questions about whether vocal and visual images should be copyrighted.
“I absolutely believe that a person’s image should be protected from reproduction with artificial intelligence tools. This also applies to deceased people,” Mahadevan said.
“Misuse”
Lucas Hansen, co-founder of the NGO CivAI, considers a total ban unlikely, but expects restrictions in the commercial sphere.
“There could also be restrictions on distribution, but existing laws are much less strict regarding non-monetized content,” Hansen told AFP.
In June, the Recording Industry Association of America said major record labels had sued two music generators, including Suno, for alleged copyright infringement.
Source: BFM TV
