“This is the future rave sound/I’m getting lost in the underground,” Eminem says to the massive crowd at the top of David Guetta’s set. David Guetta and Eminem on stage at the same time, sick right?
Only, it’s not Eminem, it’s a robot.
‘Emin-AI-em’ is how Guetta introduced the computer-generated voice that sounds scarily like Marshall Mathers.
The world-famous DJ says he made ‘Emin-AI-em’ while messing around with AI bots online.
“Eminem, bro,” he says in the video. “There’s something that I made as a joke and it worked so good I could not believe it!”
“I discovered those websites that are about A.I. Basically, you can write lyrics in the style of any artist you like,” he continues. “So I typed: ‘write a verse in the style of Eminem about Future Rave'.”
“And I went to another A.I. website that can recreate the voice. I put the text in that and I played the record and people went nuts!
Now, what started as a bit of fun for David soon turned into a debate around the ethics of doing such a thing.
A few commenters wanted to know if the real Slim Shady is cool with his voice being used like this, and why Guetta, a hugely successful DJ, couldn’t just ask Em for a few lines.
“What did Eminem say about this!!?,” one person asked.
“The real question is. Is it copyright to mimic someone’s voice for a song without their permission??” one more questioned.
“why didn't he just ask the man himself for a feature?” a third pondered.
It should be noted that in the comments Guetta states: “Obviously I won’t release this commercially.” Which is somewhat of a statement that using AI voices of someone is copyright theft.
Who knows how realistic A.I will get in the next few years. All we can ask is that the real artist please stand up.
