Move over, autotune. Deepfake vocals could be the next big tool for musical manipulation.
This week, Grammy-winning artist David Guetta claimed the crowd at a Feb. 3 performance “went nuts” when he played a track featuring the voice of Eminem — despite the fact that the 50-year-old rapper never recorded the song.
The French DJ shared his computer-generated Marshall Mathers impression on social media, in which a voice eerily similar to that of the “Not Afraid” rapper’s sings: “This is the future rave sound / I’m getting awesome and underground.”
Guetta, 55, also stated that he won’t release the song commercially, but is “opening a conversation about how AI is going to change the music industry.”
“There’s something I made as a joke, and it worked so good I could not believe it,” Guetta said about the track in a video shared to his social media followers.
The artist added, “I discovered those websites that are about AI; basically, you can write lyrics in the style of any artist you like. So I typed ‘write a verse in the style of Eminem about future rave. And I went to another AI website that can recreate the voice. I put the text in that and I played the record and people went nuts!”
It is unclear whether the DJ sought permission to use Slim Shady’s vocal likeness for the song. The Post has reached out to reps for Guetta and Eminem for comment.
“It’s very funny, actually, because a lot of people are reacting,” Guetta continued, discussing the ethics behind using an artist’s voice via artificial intelligence. “Some of them are like, ‘Oh, this is genius.’ Some of them are getting super mad at me, but I’m not going to release the record.
“It is impossible to think that it’s a real collab, but it sounds exactly like him,” he admitted.
“The future of music is AI,” the “I’m Good (Blue)” songster claimed to the BCC on Sunday at the 2023 Brit Awards. Later that night he snagged the award for Producer of the Year.
“There’s no doubt — but as a tool,” he clarified. “Nothing is going to replace taste. What defines an artist is, you have a certain taste, you have a certain type of emotion you want to express, and you’re going to use all the modern instruments to do that.”
He went on to list other technical innovations that have moved music forward, including electric guitars and synthesizers.
“Probably there would be no rock ‘n’ roll if there was no electric guitar,” he said. “There would be no acid house without the Roland TB-303 [bass synthesizer] or the Roland TR-909 drum machine. There would be no hip-hop without the sampler.”
“I think really AI might define new musical styles. I believe that every new music style comes from a new technology,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, Eminem is mourning the loss of his former stunt double, who was fatally struck by a pickup truck last month.