The first artificial intelligence (AI)-generated song has finally hit the top of the charts. Breaking Rust's Walk My Walk has just made number one on Billboard's chart ranking digital sales of country songs - see below clip of the song.
Breaking Rust's Walk My Walk:
Now I'm not disposed to liking AI-generated music, because I believe the human soul is needed to make good music, and nor am I into country music, but this song is very good and convincingly very good. Though the reclusive 'artist' behind the song hasn't admitted that AI created the song, many music experts argue and several AI music identification software tools strongly suggest Breaking Rust's Walk My Walk song is entirely AI-generated. Country music artists, nor musicians generally, aren't exactly happy about the situation.
According to Deezer, a popular French music streaming service, over 50,000 AI-generated songs are uploaded to its platform every day. Given these numbers, it was only going to be a question of time before AI topped the charts. (Deezer, as far as I'm aware, is the only major platform which tags songs as AI-generated.)
Given the now well established practice of sampling in music, largely thanks to the rise of hip hop, it's perhaps not surprising that it's difficult to tell whether a song is AI-created or not. And I don't buy the argument that prog rockers like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, Yes and even Pink Floyd wouldn't have gone down the AI road. Likewise, I think many synth-based new wave bands like Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Ultravox! and even Human League would have walked down the AI road. And I'm pretty sure artists like Giorgio Moroder, Gary Numan, Mike Oldfield, Vangelis and maybe even David Bowie would have embraced AI. Who knows what Wolfgang Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, The Beach Boys, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones would have made of AI?
Do you like Breaking Rust's AI-created song?
How good are you at spotting AI-generated content?
I think I'm okay at spotting AI-generated images and AI-generated text even without using any software tools but I don't think I'm good at detecting AI-generated music.
PS. This debate about AI reminds me of the debate when genetically-modified (GM) food was launched in the 1990s. There were many (not me though I did want more tests and trials) who wanted such foods to be banned unless it can be proven safe in the long term, and there were many (this time me) who wanted such food to be labelled as GM food so consumers can decide whether to buy and eat it. I gave up asking for such labelling when GM food entered the mainstream food chain.
With AI, my initial reaction was for a pause to review the likely effects of AI. When this didn't happen as Big Tech and governments wanted to embrace AI as the future, I toned down my resistance to simply asking for those who use AI to acknowledge that so that others know. But I suspect AI will go the way of GM food and will become the norm. But I'd still like AI tools to acknowledge their sources because it's blatant plagiarism and a massive breach of intellectual property rights. People who create content, whether text, image or music, should be credited and even remunerated.
Clyde Stubblefield, an American funk drummer, is a cautionary tale - his drumming has been sampled many times but he never earned a penny from his funky drumming being sampled! 
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29 comments
Is this an AI generated song, or did a person use AI to generate it? In my mind there is a big difference. I strongly suspect the later in this case, so it was simply an artist using another (new) tool to make music.
I kind of like that song, though think it is definitely more Blues than Country.
It's all a bit of a mystery how this song came about.
To my non-muscian's ear, I can't tell if it's real or AI. Yesterday, I saw a recent video about copyright and AI for photographers. The bottom line is that the law is still being decided. Based on current guidelines and law, someone who provides explicit details to AI to generate a photo, can not claim copyright.
Governments have been very slow to act in regulating AI.
As a musician I am both fascinated and terrified about AI music. On one hand it is a great creative tool when you are trying to come up with new ideas. Kind of like a digital muse. On the other, the AI gets all of its knowledge by ripping off other musicians without credit (monetary or otherwise). I have played around with Suno (an AI music tool) and it is scary good. With with just a little bit of work and some good prompts you can get something like this song without any musical talent.
Perhaps I shouldn't yet give up hope of 'writing' a number one song!
Thanks for sharing this simple song with us. But I don't believe AI should be involved in music or any of the arts for that matter. This is going to affect the singers and artists that are in the entertainment business and not in a good way.
I hope you enjoy your Thursday my friend..
For better or worse, the AI genie is well out of the bottle.
Though no AI expert, more like a Luddite concerned about its rise, I've blogged a lot about AI - see CHATTING AROUND, THE LAST SCREENWRITER, AMERICAN FOOTBALL GOES NUCLEAR, WILL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CANNIBALISE ITSELF?, AND NOW FOR THE NEWS, ARTIFICIAL (UN)INTELLIGENCE and A-EYE NEWS. For those who want a great and simple explanation of what AI is all about, please see @CarriedBack's An AI Primer...or AI for Dummies excellent blog post.
Is it just me or has anyone else seen a pattern with how big business is using AI? First there was an assurance that AI will not lead to job losses but that AI will help workers do their jobs better. And then there is now a wave of big companies (eg Accenture, Amazon, Chegg, Duolingo, IBM, Klarna, Lufthansa, Microsoft, Salesforce, UPS) laying off lots of workers because of AI. The weasel words of big business! As a result of such technology, a few people will get very rich but many who lose their jobs will struggle to pay the rent and put food on the table. Disruptive technology, don't you just love it? I realise that I'm still sounding like a Luddite but I fully realise that what I think doesn't matter. The march of capitalism, and its technology, keeps going on!
AI-generated whatever is fine, but I don’t think they qualify for copyright. A human didn’t put heart and soul in the work.
AI does raise some very interesting copyright questions.
Walk my Walk sounds great to me, I would prefer a human singer instead of a sofware, but it has rhythm ... not bad
I was surprisingly impressed with the song, though i approached it with very low expectations.
Luckily Spunky, I already have plenty of my fav Cd's and DvD's, thus my fav music is still authentic! Guess I'm also not a fan of of anything "AI", and truly think it means a person doesn't have to have natural talent in almost anything anymore - such a pity. My kids are pretty good sussing out "AI", I could still be conned. and def don't use it at all - um ..... actually don't know how to use it - maybe I'll be forced to figure it all out in the future - who knows?
I've not used AI either unless you count Google's AI-based searches.
I saw the Terminator movie. ALl this AI stuff is bad! LOL
I've not seen any of The Terminator films and you're not encouraging me to see them!
Yep
The AI genie is well out of its bottle now!
i enjoyed this song...it reminds me of a group that i used to listen to a lot that now I can't remember the name of it lol maybe you can? I am pretty sure it had the word Bones in the name...gold star if you can figure it out for me!
Is it Rag 'n' Bone Man's Human song?
@spunkycumfun yes! And you get the gold store! thank you! I don't know why I stopped listening to this guy but I will get back to it now.
@AmyGood4Mea Thanks for the gold star!
I am not a fan of anything AI related. I’m old school, remembering when ‘seeing is believing’ and ‘a picture is worth 10,000 words’. I see AI taking us down a dangerous road, where we don’t believe anything or where it is used for nefarious/plain evil purposes. What made people great was their soul, their creative spirit, that was what reached out and touched us. It was their music, their art, their singing voice, the energy, ideals, passion that was put into their work. The feelings that were stirred within us as they expressed their happiness, their sadness, them sharing with us a connection we can recognize. I fear what we can loose, what will be silenced in us, our loss of creativity. What would we have left??
I too am probably old school. I try hard not to be, but I'm very wary, suspicious and even alarmed about the march of AI.
After listening once, I'd change the channel if it came on again. It sounds commercial, like he listened to the Thursday Night Football theme one too many times.
The song is very commercial. I'd be interested to know the algorithm involved in making the song but no doubt that's top secret!
It's....OK. The lyrics are pretty hackneyed, not surprising for A.I. And I have to admit, if I had listened to it "cold" I wouldn't have guessed it was A.I.
And the image is like a bastardized Van Gogh, also not surprising for A.I.
It doesn't sound very country to me but I'm not au fait with country music.
At some point music is judged by whether you like it or not. Does it matter if it is a drum machine or a real drummer? Auto tuned, synthesizer? Melotron or AI?
It doesn't matter in one sense. But it does matter if artists whose music is being used aren't being remunerated or even credited.
@spunkycumfun while that is true. It is not an AI problem. It is an industry problem that goes way back. Led Zeppelin ripped of a lot of songs for instance ( and lost a bunch of lawsuits)
@LT121969 I accept that. But AI just aggregates everything and then regurgitates it as if it was its own thoughts, etc.
I find it all a bit sinister. Who is making money from these hits? Certainly not talented human musicians, though the music industry has historically been the preserve of the wealthy/newly wealthy.
So far, as far as I'm aware, no one has tracked down the 'artist' or company behind the song.
Not impressed, the AI just took common themes of pop music and repackaged them. It is just I'm going to be what I am and if you don't like it you can kiss my go to hell song. Obviously nothing original about it like a lot of pop music just boring to me. I like classical music and when AI can write a symphony that compares to Mozart or Beethoven then I will be impressed. I don't see that happening.
I didn't think I'd be impressed with the song. It's not a song I'd want to listen to though.