Lil Durk Says AI DeepFakes Are Taking Over His Music

The rapper has made a point to emphasize that technology will never be able to replace him as a genuine human being an artist. He recently sat down with a journalist at his NFT-based trainer’s collection NXTG3NZ and discussed the new technology that has been making waves.

Artificial intelligence deep fakes are an emerging threat to music culture as technology is quickly becoming more and more accessible. Last year, Capitol Records shut down a robotic rapper called FN Meka after the artificially generated MC used the N-word frequently in his lyrics.

This technology now targets rappers and celebrities in the form of so-called “deepfakes” – fake videos that use a computer to create a video with the exact voice of a famous person, usually a musician or politician. This is different to so-called “cheapfakes”, which do not involve AI but are instead created through re-edited footage to distort the truth.

This trend was highlighted in April 2020, when YouTube channel Vocal Synthesis faced a copyright claim by Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation LLC. The channel was then forced to halt its Jay-Z-voiced covers of Billy Joel and Hamlet’s famous soliloquy.