Grimes to share royalties with AI musicians

Grimes tweets her support for AI-generated music that uses her voice, saying she is ready to be a “guinea pig” and share royalties with AI creators.

The Canadian musician and producer Grimes has expressed her support for AI-generated music that uses her voice, saying she is ready to be a “guinea pig” for the new technology. 

She tweeted that she would share 50% of the royalties with any AI creator who makes a successful song with her voice.

She also said she has no label or IP rights issues and finds it “cool to be fused with a machine” and “killing copyright.” 

I'll split 50% royalties on any successful AI generated song that uses my voice. Same deal as I would with any artist i collab with. Feel free to use my voice without penalty. I have no label and no legal bindings. pic.twitter.com/KIY60B5uqt

— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) April 24, 2023

Grimes was reacting to a Verge article that covered the controversy over AI-generated tracks by Drake and The Weekend, which prompted Universal Music Group, a major music company, to email streaming services to block AI from its catalogs.

Grimes also announced her voice simulation project, which she plans to open-source. By doing this, she hopes to inspire other artists to experiment with AI and share their voice simulations.

She views open-sourcing art as the future and AI-generated music as inevitable.

We're making a program that should simulate my voice well but we could also upload stems and samples for ppl to train their own

— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) April 24, 2023

While many have noted copyright infringement issues with AI-generated art, not all artists oppose combining AI and their intellectual property. 

Reports indicated that Google employees were concerned about the company's upcoming AI chatbot, and concerns are circulating among companies generating the technology.