FKA twigs has proactively taken AI into her own hands to develop a deepfake version of herself to handle fan interactions while she focuses on music, Rolling Stone reports.
“In the past year, I have developed my own deepfake version of myself that is not only trained in my personality but also can use my exact tone of voice to speak many languages,” FKA twigs shared in written testimony ahead of her appearance before Senate on Tuesday (April 30th).
Praising the technology as a “highly valuable” tool “when under the control of the artist,” the British musician continued, “I will be engaging my AI twigs later this year to extend my reach and handle my online social media interactions, whilst I continue to focus on my art from the comfort and solace of my studio.”
FKA twigs will be giving testimony about “AI twigs” during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property about the NO FAKES Act, a bipartisan bill seeking to create a federal law protecting actors and musicians from unauthorized AI deepfakes of their “image, voice, or visual likeness.”
Elsewhere in her written testimony, FKA twigs warned against the potential dangers of AI when used unchecked and argued for protections against it:
“Our careers and livelihoods are in jeopardy, and so potentially are the wider image-related rights of others in society. You have the power to change this and safeguard the future. That the very essence of our being at its most human level can be violated by the unscrupulous use of AI to create a digital facsimile that purports to be us, and our work, is inherently wrong. It is therefore vital that as an industry and as legislators we work together to ensure we do all we can to protect our creative and intellectual rights as well as the very basis of who we are.”
Short for “Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act,” the bill was sponsored by senators Chris Coons, Marsha Blackburn, Amy Klobuchar and Thom Tillis in October 2023. It arrived shortly after an artist named ghostwriter went viral for “heart on my sleeve,” a song featuring AI-generated vocals created to mimic Drake and The Weeknd.
In a strange turn of events, Drake himself was recently embroiled in an AI controversy when he used deepfake vocals made to sound like Tupac and Snoop Dogg in a Kendrick Lamar diss track. Days later, he was sent a cease and desist letter from Tupac’s estate describing the AI-generated vocals as “a flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the estate’s legal rights.”
Earlier this month, Billie Eilish, Greta Van Fleet, and Pearl Jam were among more than 200 prominent musicians who signed an open letter calling upon tech companies to “stop devaluing music.” Tennessee recently became the first state to make strides to protect songwriters and artists from unauthorized use of AI with the ELVIS Act.
As for FKA twigs, she has a techno-inspired album on the way and stars in an upcoming Crow remake opposite Bill Skarsgård. The film arrives in theaters on June 6th.