Celebrities speak out after AI artist signs multimillion dollar record deal

Watch Celebrities speak out after AI artist signs multimillion dollar record deal - Straight Arrow News on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00What did you think of that?

00:05Did you like the singing?

00:08Well, what if I told you that was an entirely AI-generated voice

00:12and that artist on the screen just signed a multi-million dollar record deal

00:17that real artists aren't too happy about?

00:22Grammy-nominated singer Kehlani is making her feelings clear about it.

00:26Nothing and no one on earth will ever be able to justify AI to me,

00:32especially not f***ing AI in the creative arts in which people have worked hard for.

00:39So how did we get here?

00:42Like other AI artists we've reported on, there's always someone behind the scenes.

00:47For Zania Monáe, that someone is Mississippi poet Talisha Jones who writes the lyrics.

00:56Her voice is built using Suno, the same AI music platform backed by Timbaland,

01:03who posted that Zania is, quote, killing it.

01:06Billboard reports the bidding war ended with a $3 million deal at Hallwood Media,

01:11suggesting the payout will go to Jones and her team.

01:14While Jones can sing on her own, a marketing executive told Billboard not as well as Zania.

01:20That executive also said most of the lyrics are based on Jones' true stories,

01:26and fans in the comments section relate to what the AI artist is singing.

01:32And it's not just Kehlani.

01:34Artist SZA says AI devalues music and posted about the environmental and physical costs data centers bring to communities.

01:42This AI artist already has just under 700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and 7 million views on YouTube.

01:52But it's still unclear what the label actually bought,

01:55since the songs themselves are AI-generated and monetizing them gets complicated.

02:01Meanwhile, Suno is still facing several lawsuits related to copyright infringement.

02:07With Straight Arrow news, I'm Kennedy Felton.

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02:12For more information, please visit www.fema.gov.au