New Delhi

Slowly but steadily AI is infringing into all spaces in society. An AI-generated song featuring the stimulated voices of Drake and The Weeknd has now been pulled down from streaming services by the Universal Music Group for 'infringing content created with generative AI'. This after the track went viral over the weekend and streamed 600,000 times on Spotify and received 15m views on TikTok and 275,000 views on YouTube. The song was pulled down on Monday. 

Titled Heart on My Sleeve, is believed to have been created using AI programming trained with artists' music, something which UMG said 'represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law'.

Many speculated that the song was a publicity stunt by a startup tech firm and was originally posted on TikTok by a user called Ghostwriter977 and shared on streaming platforms under the name Ghostwriter. 

The music label told Billboard magazine that 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'. 

They added that the episode 'begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation.

'We're encouraged by the engagement of our platform partners on these issues – as they recognise they need to be part of the solution.'

Drake's History with AI

Interestingly, this is not the first time rapper Drake has been dragged into the world of AI. His voice has been used to create his AI version for a song by New York rapper Ice Spice. Drake last week criticised the move and said 'this is the final straw AI.'

The new song used Drake's voice in the opening verse, which transitions into a chorus from an AI simulation of the Weeknd.

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So far none of the artists have responded to the viral song but it has surely raised concerns on what the future of music entails with multiple companies trying the AI module for various mediums. 

Drake and The Weeknd previously collaborated during Drake's Nothing was the Same tour in 2014. The two have also collaborated on music, including Crew Love and The Zone.