Washington, YouTube is currently developing an AI-powered tool that allows users to replicate the voice of famous musicians while recording audio.
The video streaming giant has reportedly approached music companies to obtain the rights to train its new AI tool on songs from their music catalogs. No deals have yet been signed by any major record label.
YouTube unveiled several new AI-powered tools for creators last month, including AI-generated photo and video backgrounds and video topic suggestions.
YouTube had hoped to include its new audio cloning tool among those announcements but was unable to secure the required rights in time.
It isnt currently clear if the discussions behind YouTubes AI voice cloning tool will help soothe potential copyright issues being raised by record labels amid the rise in AI-generated tracks that emulate popular musicians.
Some musicians have embraced AI-generated music, while many others have called for regulations to protect their voices from being duplicated without consent.
AI-generated music currently sits in something of a legal gray area due to the difficulties in establishing ownership rights over songs that replicate an artists unique voice but dont directly feature protected lyrics or audio recordings.
It isnt currently clear if training AI voice cloning tools on a record labels music catalog amounts to copyright infringement, but that hasnt soured interest in developing AI-generated music features: Meta, Google, and Stability AI have all released tools for creating AI-generated music this year.
YouTube is pitching itself as a partner that will help the industry navigate using generative AI technology. It remains to be seen if it can legally provide YouTube creators with AI voice replication tools without sparking numerous copyright lawsuits.
Source: Qatar News Agency
