Eminem or artificial intelligence? AI-generated songs raise copyright questions

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Artificial intelligence has been used to write essays, ads, and now, create music, but when is it crossing legal lines?

That's a question posed after a video of DJ David Guetta playing an AI-generated track that sounds like Detroit rapper Eminem.

While this wasn’t released commercially, some social media users are sharing songs on platforms like TikTok and Spotify, which feature other artists. An AI-generated track "Heart on my Sleeve" featuring rapper Drake and singer The Weeknd, was recently pulled after getting millions of listens online.

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"There’s a very fine line here between creativity and copying, or stealing. I think the ethics of whose material that we’re tampering with become a huge part of the problem," said Jonathan Anderson, an associate professor of composition at Wayne State University.

"If our music is being used in a way we don’t approve, that is probably the scariest thing of being an artist today. A lot of us are by ourselves. We don’t have representation of huge conglomerations," Anderson said.

Lack of consent doesn’t matter if it’s a multi-award-winning artist or a musician who teaches students at a local university.