Fake Drake & The Weeknd Song Created With AI Gets Pulled Off Streaming Sites

No, Drake and The Weeknd haven’t released a new track together. Turns out, the tune that’s gone viral on the internet was not a genuine recording but generated by artificial intelligence. Universal Music Group (UMG) has since pulled the song off all music streaming sites.

According to Billboard, the song—Heart On My Sleeve—was released by TikTok user @Ghostwriter977 and uploaded onto streaming platforms under the name ‘Ghostwriter’. Sounding uncannily like the two singers, the track garnered more than 600,000 plays on Spotify.

The original TikTok video racked up over 15 million views, while a separate YouTube video caught the attention of 275,000 viewers. Intriguingly, the creator commented that this release was “just the beginning,” though it’s unclear what that means.

However, it seems the fun has come to an end, as the track disappeared from Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal, and YouTube following a takedown notice. Drake and The Weeknd themselves have yet to comment on the incident.

In a statement to the publication, UMG remarked that music services had the “legal and ethical responsibility” to prevent harm to artists and that training AI models on its singers’ music was an infringement of copyright law.

Tony Rigg, a lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, told the BBC it would take time before issues pertaining to AI-generated voices were solved. The most troubling, he said, was the ability of the technology to mimic anyone’s brand, sound, and style.

Calling the tool a “double-edged sword,” the music advisor posited that the industry has to contend with the dichotomy of AI stifling human creativity while at the same time helping to augment it. 

[via Billboard and BBC, cover image via Carrienelson1 | Dreamstime.com and Featureflash | Dreamstime.com]