16 June, 2023: Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides what Beatles fans craved for more than 50 years! Curious? Read on...
The new works demonstrate how far technology has advanced while also raising a number of moral and legal concerns. They range from "re-uniting" the Fab Four on songs from their separate careers to re-imagining Paul McCartney's later works with his voice restored to its youthful peak.
Heartbroken Beatles fans craved for more after the band parted apart more than 50 years ago. Today's artificial intelligence provides precisely that.
Music youtuber Steve Onotera, who goes by "SamuraiGuitarist'' said, " When he heard this, he lost it”. He started crying, Fans were denied a final "happy ending," he claimed, after the most influential band in history abruptly broke up. It's therefore quite emotional when we do have that reunion which was created artificially yet convincingly by AI.
"I'm sobbing! This is so beautiful!!!" wrote a listener in YouTube comment an AI cover created by a fan of Paul McCartney's single from 2013, "New". The version of "Grow Old With Me," which was recently remade by an AI creator "Dae Lims." was also equally impressive.
AI is present everywhere.
The term artificial intelligence (AI) is used to describe a system that can do tasks while utilising human intelligence, as the world learns
These covers employ scraping technology that examines and captures the subtlety of a particular voice, much to an earlier track called "Heart on a Sleeve" that contained AI-generated vocals of Drake and The Weeknd and amassed millions of plays on TikTok and other platforms.
Like applying a filter to a photo, the designers would have likely first sung the parts themselves before applying the cloned voice.
Although the results can be astounding, getting there isn't easy and involves trained human operators who combine new AI tools with in-depth familiarity of standard music processing software, according to Zohaib Ahmed, CEO of Resemble AI, a voice cloning business having headquarters in Toronto.
“I believe that only a very small portion of the public has access to these instruments”, she stated. To put everything together, they must "jump through hoops, read documentation, have the right computer, and then put it all together."
A recent Netflix documentary series "narrated" by late art icon Andy Warhol utilising its technology is one of Ahmed's company's early successes. Ahmed's business is one of several that is providing a platform that can make the technology more accessible to clients in the entertainment sector.
The current influx of AI tracks, according to Patricia Alessandrini, a composer and assistant professor at Stanford's Centre for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, mark the maturation of a technology that has been growing exponentially but mostly hidden from the public over the previous ten years.
"This is a great example of what AI does very well, which is anything that's similar: to train it on something existing," she said.
But, she stated, it fails when it comes to fresh concepts. There isn't much hope that it will take the place of the long tradition of human origins in art and culture.
Upcoming legal action
The implications are huge for the music industry. Software that enables users to effortlessly change their voice style into one of their favourite singers is probably not too far off as technology develops.
AI is already having a chaotic effect on the realm of copyright.
Wait, what is copyright?
The legal right of the owner of intellectual property is referred to as copyright.
Copyright simply means, the right to copy. This right to copy or duplicate can only be given by the individual or Company who have registered the product under copyright law.
The only people who have the sole right to reproduce a work are the original authors of that work and anyone to whom they grant permission.
For a specific period of time after which the copyrighted object enters the public domain, copyright law gives original material producers the sole right to continue using and duplicating their work.
In the U.S., the work of creators is protected by copyright laws until 70 years after their death.
Source: United States Patent and Trademark office and Investopedia
What all is covered under Copyright?
Under copyright law, a work is considered original if the author created it from independent thinking void of duplication. This type of work is known as an Original Work of Authorship (OWA).
Source: Investopedia
Examples: include art, computer software, graphic designs, musical lyrics and compositions, sound recording, novels, film, original architectural designs, website content etc.
Back to the main article:
Universal Music Group quickly asserted copyright claims in the instance of "Heart on a Sleeve," causing the tune to be removed from streaming sites.
However, this hasn't stopped the song from resurfacing on a few minor accounts.
Both the owners of the master recordings and the songwriters whose work is exploited may claim copyright.
However, AI developers can counter that it is "fair use" by citing a 2015 court decision that allowed Google to preserve the entire world's books because it wasn't in direct competition with book sellers and was only showing snippets.
The US Supreme Court, however, tilted the scales in the opposite direction when it ruled that a Warhol print of the late pop sensation Prince had violated the photographer's copyright.
The "right to publicity," which was established after Bette Midler successfully sued Ford Motor Company in the late 1980s for using a vocalist who sounded like her in an advertisement, allows celebrities to defend their resemblance.
