Fake Artist Sienna Rose Dominates Spotify Viral Chart, will.i.am Says Oranges Are Oranges (?)

AI music has not only proven to be ethically uncharted territory, but also genre-fluid. This site has looked into the disturbing ambiguity of AI's take on psych-rock, metalcore, and now neo-soul. AI speculation around anonymous "singer" Sienna Rose has been ongoing since last year, but the chatter around her music was reignited with a recent social media post by Selena Gomez that featured the song "Where Your Warmth Begins." (The song has now been removed from Gomez's post.)

Remember how Spotify said they were cleaning up AI slop? Yeah, doesn't seem like they're doing a great job. Rose currently has three songs on Spotify’s Viral 50 – USA playlist (“Into The Blue,” “Safe With You,” and “Where Your Warmth Begins”). According to Rolling Stone, Deezer "confirmed that many of Sienna Rose’s albums and songs are detected and flagged as AI on Deezer.” However, on Deezer, only one of her albums Honey On The Moon displays the warning "This album includes tracks detected as AI-generated." (Deezer said in November over 50,000 AI-generated tracks are uploaded to the app daily — 34% of its all new music.)

That same album Honey On The Money also features the "artist" Let Babylon Burn, which is also definitely AI-generated. Rose's Spotify bio doesn't mention anything about AI, but Let Babylon Burn's info does. It reads:

Let Babylon Burn is an independent artist from Norway. Blending heartfelt, self-written lyrics with a unique fusion of acoustic music, production, recording, and AI-enhanced creativity. Drawing from multiple genres but leaning towards reggae, each track carries deeper meaning — often thought-provoking and emotionally resonant.

I hate it here.

Last week will.i.am, who is CEO of an AI platform called FYI.AI, tried to discuss the ethics of AI-generated music with a strange analogy about oranges. Bloomberg's Tom Mackenzie asked the the Black Eyed Peas leader if in ten years we'll be listening to more AI-created music than human-created music.

"You like fruit?" will.i.am responded. "[When] you go to the supermarket do you say, 'hey, where's the organic oranges?'"

"Sometimes," Mackenzie answered.

will.i.am:

"But then you just buy oranges. So if you're not buying organic oranges, then what the fuck were those oranges that aren't organic? Why would you have to call these organic and those just oranges? … If these are organic and that, what are those? Only reason I'm saying that is just process, to the point where you need to identify organic from non… I'm trying to elevate this conversation to everything. I'm starting with oranges to organic oranges, to music to organic music, to interviews to organic interviews."

What does any of this mean? Unclear.

The ongoing conversation around AI in music is necessary, but the only hope for understanding how to move forward with it on major platforms is for companies to take action. Which is why yesterday's announcement that Bandcamp was banning AI music sparked a bit of hope.