Grimes Is Cool With Deepfake Music... If She Gets Paid

Grimes has weighed in on the deepfake music controversy, after the AI generation "Drake and The Weeknd" song "Heart on My Sleeve" went viral earlier this month. On Twitter, the singer and frequent Elon Musk baby collaborator wrote: "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." She added that fans should "Feel free to use my voice without penalty. I have no label and no legal bindings.”

Related | M.I.A. and Grimes on What 'MATA' and What Don't

Grimes also said, “Im just curious what even happens and interested in being a Guinea pig." No shocker there really, considering she just recently boasted about her "custom brain interface" from Neuralink competitor Neurosity.

Elsewhere in the comments, Grimes admitted she had an album finished but scrapped it for the meantime. "It got held so long I'm bored of it, I'll put it out but I wanna release the new songs I just made first." Perhaps she can use some AI creations instead!

Back to "Heart on my Sleeve" for a bit: the song was made by the anonymous Ghostwriter977, who claims to have been a "ghostwriter for years and got paid close to nothing just for major labels to profit." The song, and the social media chatter around it, posit that AI generated music will break down barriers in the industry and flatten the playing field between upcoming music producers and major record labels.

What everyone fails to mention, however, is that the song sounds like it would be included in a now-problematic 30 Rock bit from 10 years ago as a joke about what Tina Fey thought popular music sounded like.

Photo via ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty