YouTube is working on AI that lets you sing like famous music artists

Ben Schoon | Oct 19 2023 - 8:29 am PT

AI can be a wonderful tool, but it also has some dark sides. YouTube, though, is trying to help implement AI “responsibly,” and that reportedly includes a new tool that lets creators use AI to sing like their favorite music artists.

Bloomberg reports that YouTube is developing an AI tool that would allow creators to change their singing voice to sound like famous music artists, such as Drake. The tool is described as being able to “record audio using the voices of famous musicians.”

This use case first went viral earlier this year when AI was used to create authentic-sounding songs from Drake, that weren’t actually by Drake at all. Rather, the AI had created a song and the vocals itself, and it was terrifyingly convincing.

The issue with that use of AI was that there were a lot of legal issues with using the artist’s voice, and that’s the problem YouTube is apparently trying to solve.

YouTube originally wanted to debut this AI music tool last month, but held off as it was still working out the rights needed to make the tool legal. So far, major record labels have yet to sign off on the AI.

The video site has approached music companies about obtaining the rights to songs it could use to train this tool, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential. Major record labels have yet to sign off on any deal, though discussions between the two sides continue.

Previously, YouTube detailed that it was working with the music industry to “responsibly” embrace AI, as well as adapt existing copyright tools such as Content ID to better handle the use of an artist’s voice and/or content is used in the context of AI.