AI-generated songs are creeping onto the music charts in various scenes. Photo: Screenshot
A country-music song featuring a male singer's voice generated by artificial intelligence reached the top of the US charts for the first time this week.
"Walk My Walk" by Breaking Rust - an artist with no identity but widely reported by US media to be powered by generative AI technology - made it to the top spot on Billboard magazine's chart ranking digital sales of country songs, according to data published Monday (local time).
AI-generated songs are creeping onto the music charts in various scenes, and country music - a uniquely American genre made famous by artists like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks - is no exception.
On its social media and streaming profiles, Breaking Rust does not claim to have used AI to create their hit song.
But the fact that the voice on the track is not associated with any singer's name - and that the group's illustrations, photos and clips were clearly created by artificial intelligence - has led the music industry to label Breaking Rust an AI artist.
Several AI music identification software tools used by AFP all indicated, with a probability ranging from 60 to 90 percent, that "Walk My Walk" was indeed a song generated by artificial intelligence.
The credits of the track mention Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor as the songwriter - a name that only appears online in association with the group Def Beats AI, which is clearly identified as an AI project.
The creators of the Breaking Rust Instagram page did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on Tuesday.
Since the advent of AI generative platforms dedicated to music, such as Suno or Udio, songs entirely created with artificial intelligence have been proliferating on streaming platforms.
In July, the creators of the Velvet Sundown project confirmed that the classic rock group was indeed a product of AI, after one of its tracks surpassed 1 million listens.
In September, the AI singer Xania Monet, whose genre is R&B and soul music, became the first virtual artist to enter the bestselling charts in the United States.
A small record label, Hallwood Media, signed Xania Monet to their label for an amount estimated at US$3 million by several American media outlets.
A young woman in her thirties from Mississippi, Telisha Jones, has since revealed that she used Suno to produce Xania Monet's songs.
To date, Deezer is the only major audio platform to systematically label tracks entirely generated by artificial intelligence.
- AFP
