Award-winning singer Emily Portman was shocked to discover last month that an AI-generated album, strongly resembling her own sound, had been released.
The music was said to have shared such an uncanny similarity to her songs that she received compliments on the new album, despite not having knowingly or willingly contributed to the tracks.
A fan had sent the UK artist the link to the album after being complimented for the songs, but she told the BBC that she "didn't recognize it because I hadn't released a new album.”
"I clicked through and discovered an album online everywhere - on Spotify and iTunes and all the online platforms,” she recounted. "It was called Orca, and it was music that was evidently AI-generated, but it had been cleverly trained, I think, on me."
The 10 songs on the album had carefully selected names, such as "Sprig of Thyme" and "Silent Hearth," which were "uncannily close" to the type of titles favored by Portman.
Listening to the music, she found a “really creepy” voice singing in "a folk style probably closest to mine that AI could produce."
The instrumentation was also similar.
'AI slop'
The album listed Poortman as the performer, writer, and copyright holder. The producer listed in the credits was Freddie Howells, someone she said was unknown to her.
Only a few days after the initial album was discovered by Portman, another "20 tracks of instrumental drivel" appeared under her name. This time, though, the songs were "just AI slop," she said.
Portman has since filed copyright complaints to have the albums removed, but stressed to the BBC that the incident had reaffirmed her "belief in the importance of real creativity, and how it moves people."
"I hope that the AI music didn't do that for people," she added. "Although I did get an email from somebody saying, 'Where's Orca? That's been on repeat.' So people have been hoodwinked by it."