【cartoon eroticism】

Remember that AI-generated song that mimicked Drake and cartoon eroticismThe Weeknd? Well, now the person behind it wants a Grammy.

Representatives for Ghostwriter — the unknown act behind the track, "Heart on My Sleeve" — told the New York Timesthey had submitted the song for Best Rap Song and Song of the Year at next year's Grammy Awards. The Recording Academy told the paper that it was eligible for an award since it was created by a human.

Forgive me for being a cynic, but this whole saga feels like a wonderful way to drum up publicity, especially considering Ghostwriter just happened to drop another AI track, this time mimicking Travis Scott. The AI Drake song "Heart on My Sleeve" was a neat party trick, sure, but seems unlikely to really be considered for an award. It absolutely sounded like it could be a Weeknd and Drake track, but that doesn't mean it was anywhere near the best song of the year.

What it has been successful in, however, was drumming up controversy. After an outrage at using AI to mimic real artists, the track got pulled from Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and Tidal.

"The training of generative AI using our artists' music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, 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," a UMG spokesman told Billboard at the time.

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Sure, it's a huge long-shot the AI-generated song will win a Grammy — but clearly if it did, it would make lots of folks very unhappy.

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