39 years ago, George Michael wrote the iconic love song, ‘Careless Whisper’ and today it is being sung by an anthropomorphic plankton.

This is possible using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to cover the song using whatever voice the user desires. AI music covers have become prevalent in the last few months but where did it come from? And what does it mean for the future of music?

An AI voice generator is a form of text-to-speech that uses machine learning and neural networks to produce life-like voices through generative AI. It is used to create voice overs, clone voices, and create singing voices that can be used to produce original music. Though an impressive feat of technology, the real question is; how does this impact the music industry as a whole? Many songwriters and musicians are worried about how this will affect their art. The real question is, is this going to replace human made art?

The process of creating an Ai cover involves using software to train an AI to sing like the desired person by feeding it audio files and having it replicate the vocal style and pitch. Much like training an animal it takes time and feeding to correctly have the desired product. Even then, most AI covers come out sounding scratchy and disjointed. Some AI creators have combatted this by creating better Ai softwares and providing it with higher quality and quantities of audio files to create a better product.

“AI music is fine as long as it’s just used for entertainment,” Bullitt East student and musician, TJ Voils said. “But the second they go for monetary gain. Not cool,”

Voils believes that AI music that is simply a cover of an already written song doesn’t qualify as art. “Unless you’re actually writing up the lyrics and making the instrumental beats behind it, then it is not art,” Voils said.

Of course not all AI music is just a simple cover. The AI artist known as Glorb has broken the mold and started pioneering a new type of AI music. Glorb writes the lyrics, creates the beats and sings their songs before covering it with the AI voice. This unique form of AI music falls in line with Voils definition of art. “I think his stuff is pretty cool, even though he uses Mr. Krabs to sing, it’s still art,” Voils said

AI music isn’t the future of music any more than the xylophone is; it’s just another way to create and will never be able to replace the voices of human artists. However, that doesn’t mean it has no place in the music industry. As it was stated in the opening, a Plankton can sing “Careless Whisper”. Michael Jackson can sing “Baby Shark”. The possibilities are endless. AI music is a true testament to human creativity.