Acclaimed music artist Frank Ocean has not released new music for a while, so when the artist was rumored to be releasing new music, people were ecstatic. However, scammers took advantage of the situation and passed off AI-generated music as Ocean's and sold it.
Fake AI-Generated Music
AI is now capable of copying the voice of an individual and creating new dialogue or music out of it. Of course, scammers saw this as an opportunity to be exploited and generated music to pass off as something the artist originally created.
The latest victim to having their voice mimicked is the "Pink + White" singer, Frank Ocean. A scammer claimed that a bunch of AI-generated music was genuinely created by the artists and then sold it for around $9,700 USD. The fraudster even admitted to it.
With the username "mourningassasin," the scammer revealed that they had hired someone to create "around nine" Frank Ocean tracks using snippets of his actual music or voice. They then posted the AI-generated music to a forum dedicated to leaked music to fake authenticity.
The scammer stated that people started to believe that it was the real thing. It helped that Frank Ocean also teased that he may be releasing a follow-up or his album "Blond," and that people were hoping for new music from the artists since 2016, as mentioned in Engadget.
The scam was successful as people reportedly offered large sums through private messages. Some songs were sold for $3,000 to $4,000 in April. The scammer has already been banned on the forum, but the damage had already been done.
The person who created the Discord server where the fake music was released said that it had put a major dent in the server's credibility, which will result in distrust from new and unverified sellers in the community.
It would be hard to identify fake AI-generated music as well since there are no tools for it, and this is not the first time that this has happened as well. Just last month, someone created music using the voice of mainstream artists like Drake and The Weekend.
Stolen Voices
Musicians are not the only ones affected by the ability of AI to take one's voice and create new material. In February, voice actors have also spoken out about how companies would ask them to sign their voices away, which means that they will not be needed anymore.
They were either given a different contract for the arrangement, or a clause is included in new contracts saying that they approve of the deal. There are even voice actors that were unaware that the clause was in the contract until after they signed it.
Voice actor from Apex Legends, Fryda Wolff stated that companies that work with voice actors can get away with getting performances out of her by feeding her voice to AI, and then not paying her for using the "likeness" of her voice, as stated in Gizmodo.
