"Robot Drake is more "Drizzy"": Drake and The Weeknd's Heart On My Sleeve AI song takes the internet by a storm

On April 14, 2023, a TikToker named Ghostwriter posted a video of a song called Heart On My Sleeve, featuring Drake and The Weeknd, on all their social media accounts. The two-minute-long song looked incredibly realistic to fans who learned that it was created using Artificial Intelligence. Heart On My Sleeve features Drake and The Weeknd as lead vocalists, and they both sing and rap throughout the song.

Since its release, the song has received over a million plays on social media, with people marveling at how authentic it sounds. Additionally, Heart On My Sleeve has also racked up a number of plays and views across the internet.

While people believed that the song would soon become a charting song, major digital providers like Apple Music reportedly began deleting the track from their platforms after Universal Music Group made a copyright claim. It is worth noting that the account responsible for creating the AI-generated Heart On My Sleeve, has not divulged any details about the development or production of the song.

Responding to the popularity of Heart On My Sleeve, several netizens took to social media to talk about the lyrics and style, with some commenting on the technical aspects of the song as well as the AI takeover in music.

User calls the robot Drake more "drizzy" (Image via YouTube/Sepehr)

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Netizens are amazed by the AI-generated song Heart On My Sleeve with Drake and The Weeknd's voice

Several netizens took to Twitter to discuss the song and its origins. While few were confused but loved how the song "slaps," others shared the song, in case Twitter banned the music. Several peopl discussed how if the song were real, everyone would have loved it without a doubt.

Many users talked about how Drake and The Weeknd need to release Heart On My Sleeve in their original voices, without any AI involvement. Others tried to guess TikToker's real identity while also appreciating the new Bad Bunny and Rihanna mix they made using AI.

Meanwhile, a large number of users turned the internet into a memefest with jokes and gifs about the AI situation in Heart On My Sleeve, that uses the musical style of Drake and The Weeknd.

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Universal Music Group made a copyright claim on Heart On My Sleeve

Heart On My Sleeve by AI Drake and The Weeknd was streamed more than 600,000 times on Spotify and had over 15 million views on TikTok and a little over 275,000 views on YouTube. In the two-minute 16-second song, the voices of Artificial Drake and The Weeknd sound remarkably similar to real singers.

The song has two distinct verses and a chorus, while the lyrics in Heart On My Sleeve refer to Wolves singer Selena Gomez, who also dated The Weeknd in the mid-2010s.

However, the song was taken down by Apple, Deezer, and Tidal on Monday afternoon after a copyright claim was made by Universal Music Group, which publishes Drake and The Weeknd's music through Republic Records. The viral music video for Heart On My Sleeve now reads,

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Universal Music Group."

Meanwhile, explaining why they made the claim, Universal Music Group told Billboard,

"Platforms have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the use of their services in ways that harm artists."

The Music Group also commented on the episode and remarked,

"[It] begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation."

The concept of AI being introduced in the music industry has been very recent, and there aren't many legal rules and regulations that can be evoked to protect the artists' from plagiarized voices. New laws on copyright, with respect to AI, are the need of the hour, according to several individuals.

UMG controls a third of the global music industry and is reportedly asking several streaming companies to cut off their music catalogs from AI-generated songs and albums. Additionally, they said:

"We’re encouraged by the engagement of our platform partners on these issues-as they recognize they need to be part of the solution."

From a legal point of view, music and AI litigation have only just arrived in the court of law. Entertainment lawyer Craig Averill said that it is an "emerging area" and the courts "have not weighed in" yet. According to Averill,

"The author has to be a human as the law stands. It can't be completely computer-generated."

However, he said that there are numerous questions that arise about the amount of human intervention that is required to produce AI-generated work and how the copyright would work. Hence, netizens are left to wonder--if the face behind the work isn't human, who holds the copyright claim?

Earlier this month, Universal Music Group had to take down another track that featured an AI-generated version of Eminem's voice in a song about cats. The company cited infringement of copyright in this case as well.