Céline Dion warns fans of ‘unsanctioned’ AI-generated music claiming to be her: ‘These recordings are fake and not appoved’
Don't believe everything you hear. That's the word from Céline Dion's representatives, who are warning fans about "unsanctioned, AI-generated music purporting to contain Céline Dion's musical performances, and name and likeness." These tracks are "currently circulating online and across various digital service providers. Please be advised that these recordings are fake and not approved, and are not songs from her official discography."
A five-time Grammy winner, Dion has one of the most famous voices in music and recorded some of the most iconic songs of the 1990s, including "Because You Loved Me" and "My Heart Will Go On." But her musical output has slowed in recent years as Dion has struggled with stiff-person syndrome, an affliction she was diagnosed with in 2022 and which affects her singing voice. "I’ll be on stage. I don’t know when exactly, but trust me I will scream it out loud," she told the BBC last year. Her struggles were the subject of the 2024 documentary I Am: Céline Dion.
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She's not alone in calling out AI for stealing artists' voices. The non-profit advocacy group Artist Rights Alliance published an open letter to the tech industry imploring them not to "infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists. ... We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists' voices and likenesses, violate creators' rights, and destroy the music ecosystem."
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Not all AI is a bugaboo to the industry; certain machine-learning tools have been used as an aid in the recording process. The Beatles' "Now and Then" used such technology to extract John Lennon's vocal from a damaged demo tape and went on to win win a Grammy for Best Rock Performance. The Recording Academy did issue rules regarding the use of AI in music production: "A work that contains no human authorship is not eligible in any category," and "the human authorship component of the work submitted must be meaningful." Clearly the long lost Beatles track didn't run afoul of those rules, but an unauthorized use of Dion's singing voice probably wouldn't pass muster.
"It's really about kind of coming up with a framework for using it ethically," said Artist Rights Alliance executive director Jen Jacobsen. "I don't think we can put the genie back into the bottle, and nor would we necessarily want to, in that AI does provide some great opportunities if used responsibly."
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