Grimes invites artists to use her voice for AI-generated songs, says she’ll split royalties

The singer Grimes is inviting artists to produce new music using versions of her voice generated by artificial intelligence. 

She said on Sunday that she will split royalties 50-50 with “any successful AI generated song that uses my voice.” Fans can register their music with her website. The singer, whose real name is Claire Boucher, is planning to upload vocal stems to help AI artists with the process.

“I think it’s cool to be fused w[ith] a machine and I like the idea of open sourcing all art and killing copyright,” the singer tweeted Sunday.

Her announcement comes days after a song that sounded like it was performed by Drake and The Weeknd, generated by artificial intelligence, was pulled from music streaming platforms. Major record labels have said songs using AI versions of singers’ voices violate copyright law.

Grimes said that in some instances she may do copyright takedowns, but only if her voice is used for really “toxic” lyrics. The artist said she would have to really be pushed to want to take a song down.

“Like no baby murder songs plz,” Grimes tweeted.

“We expect a certain amount of chaos,” the artist said. “Grimes is an art project, not a music project. The ultimate goal has always been to push boundaries rather than have a nice song. The point is to poke holes in the simulation and see what happens even if it’s a bad outcome for us.”

This isn’t Grimes’s first foray into AI. Her 2018 song “We Appreciate Power” is about artificial intelligence. The song lyrics say “People like to say that we’re insane / But AI will reward us when it reigns / Pledge allegiance to the world’s most powerful computer / Simulation: it’s the future.”

Grimes’ former partner Elon Musk recently signed an open letter that called for a six-month pause in AI development, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.”