A contemporary new rock band that rapidly shot to Spotify’s prime ranks introduced that it’s truly wholly generated by synthetic intelligence, only one month after its celebrated debut album earned it a million listeners.
The ’60s-inspired rock-and-roll band, the Velvet Sunset, revealed on Saturday that nothing about it’s actual after followers of the up-and-coming artists observed there have been nearly no traces of any individuals related to it on-line.
Its debut album, “Floating on Echoes,” was launched on June 5 to mass enchantment on-line.
The most well-liked music within the album, pro-peace folks rock music “Dust on the Wind,” clinched the No. 1 spot for Spotify’s day by day “Viral 50” chart in Britain, Norway and Sweden between June 29 and July 1.
All of the whereas, the a million month-to-month listeners who began following the Velvet Sunset had no concept they had been simply listening to a mass of synthetic intelligence made by faux musicians.
The pictures of the band shared on-line and featured on the album’s cowl had been unnaturally easy and matte and the guitarist’s hand was wonky with fused fingers gripping his instrument — a traditional hallmark of AI-generated photos.
The band’s lyrics, too, had been an ideal mesh of generic anti-war sentiments and different clichés like “Nothin’ lasts forever but the earth and sky, it slips away, and all your money won’t another minute buy.”
The fake rockstars had been additionally pumping out new albums scarily — and inhumanly — quick, releasing two in June alone and one other set for mid-July.
The band lastly revealed its secret over the weekend.
It up to date its Spotify biography Saturday to replicate the AI twist, assuring that the mission hadn’t been attempting to bamboozle its viewers.
“The Velvet Sundown is a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence. This isn’t a trick – it’s a mirror. An ongoing artistic provocation designed to challenge the boundaries of authorship, identity, and the future of music itself in the age of AI,” the biography reads.
Some individuals who had seen by means of the band’s ploy early tried to make the most of its viral success earlier than the reality got here out.
A Quebec-based net security knowledgeable posed as a spokesperson for the Velvet Sunset underneath the pseudonym Andrew Frelon, which interprets to hornet in French, and even slid false info to Rolling Stone journal about his supposed shoppers.
However the man behind the Frelon rapidly confessed that he was simply attempting to troll individuals on-line.
It’s unclear if the Velvet Sunset will face any backlash from Spotify or another platforms the place it might be eligible for streaming income.
Beginning on July 15, YouTube introduced that it could be reducing all monetization, together with commercials, for any content material generated by AI.
In late June, in style YouTuber Mr.Beast introduced a device that may use AI to make thumbnails for movies. He rapidly eliminated it after receiving backlash for supporting a man-made intelligence engine, which regularly requires huge quantities of power that may steadily offset his years of environmental work and reforestation efforts.
