Drake and The Weeknd’s Heart On My Sleeve went viral on social media, but the artists never recorded it, AI did

A new song called Heart On My Sleeve has gone viral on social media, but Drake and The Weekend have never recorded such a track, reports BBC. It was created by using artificial intelligence (AI) to clone voices. The song was recorded by an individual known as @ghostwriter, who claims that the AI training software was trained on the voices of the two artists.

The track features simulated vocals from Drake and The Weeknd trading verses about singer and actress Selena Gomez, who previously dated The Weeknd. The full version of the song has been streamed over 254,000 times on Spotify and has garnered over 8.5 million views on TikTok since its release last Friday.

The song opens with a repetitive piano melody that transitions into a bass beat as Drake raps about Selena, and The Weeknd responds with a verse in which he “alleges” that Gomez cheated on him before their 2017 breakup. The track even features a reference to music producer Metro Boomin’, who has worked with artists such as 21 Savage, Future, Nicki Minaj and Kanye West. While some people praised the song’s innovation and creativity, others criticized its low-quality scratchy sound, as well as the sometimes slurred and distorted vocals, believed to be an artifact of the artificial intelligence process.

Both artists have not yet reacted to the track Heart On My Sleeve, but recently Drake has already expressed his displeasure that his voice is being cloned. This comes after a fan-filmed video of him purportedly rapping to Ice Spice’s track, Munch (Feeling U). Universal Music Group (UMG) has also asked streaming services, including Spotify and Apple Music, to prevent AI companies from accessing their music libraries. Some companies are believed to be using popular music to train their software, which has raised concerns in the music industry.

The development of artificial intelligence technology has sparked a backlash from the Human Artistry Campaign, which is supported by the Recording Industry Association of America, the Association of Independent Music, and the BPI. The group aims to ensure that AI does not “blur” human creativity, and has outlined seven principles that protect best practice in the use of AI, stressing that copyright protection should only be granted to human-created music.

Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, launched the initiative, saying, “It’s very important that we understand this early on so we don’t risk losing the artistic magic that only a human can create.”