Singer Grimes is OK with AI using her voice

Canadian singer Grimes has put the word out that she is fine with her voice being used for AI-generated songs, as long as she gets half the royalties.

Singer Grimes says she would treat an AI song using her voice as she would a collaboration with any artist. Picture: Getty Images

Canadian singer Grimes has put the word out that she is fine with her voice being used for AI-generated songs, as long as she gets half the royalties.

The 35-year-old songwriter, producer and performer said in an Instagram post that she would treat an artificial intelligence hit using her voice as she would a collaboration with any artist.

“Fee free to use my voice without penalty,” Grimes posted. “I’ll split 50 percent royalties on any successful AI generated song that uses my voice.”

Grimes added that she has no obligations to a recording label so she can uphold the offer.

The singer’s post contained a reference to news about AI being used to imitate Canadian singers Drake and The Weeknd.

The viral song released last Friday, Heart On My Sleeve, was briefly available on platforms including Spotify and Apple Music before Universal Music Group – which publishes both artists through a subsidiary – said it violated copyrights and asked for its removal.

The use of AI in music is the subject of debate in the industry, with some denouncing copyright abuses and others praising its prowess.

Steadily improving generative AI from OpenAI has fuelled debate about whether the software respects intellectual property.

Grimes is a former partner of Tesla chief Elon Musk, with whom she had two children, including one by surrogate mother. Mr Musk has called AI a threat to humanity while simultaneously investing in the technology.

Another case generating debate over intellectual property involves British pop star Ed Sheeran, whose has been accused of plagerising US music legend Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On in his 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud.

The heirs of Ed Townsend, a musician and producer who co-wrote Gaye’s 1973 soul classic, allege there are “striking similarities and overt common elements” between Gaye’s sultry classic and Sheeran’s song.

Sheeran is among the potential witnesses to be called in this New York trial, in which opening arguments were due to begin on Tuesday after a jury was selected.

Sheeran’s team contests the allegations, saying “there are dozens if not hundreds of songs that predate and postdate” Gaye’s song, “utilizing the same or similar chord progression’’.

AFP