A Canadian who cheated journalists in an elaborate music deception of AI says that he apologizes with any injured by his experiment, but that he has been “too fascinating” to get away.
A man who used the pseudonym Andrew Frelon passed through the spokesman of a band called The Velvet Sundown, with whom he later said he had no participation, creating a media frenzy that drove the “band” assisted by AI to a million monthly listeners in Spotify.
He spoke with CBC News on Friday on condition that his real name is not revealed. CBC News agreed not to use its real name because it fears harassment depending on the hate messages that you received online, and worries that it lost your job if you identify.
The sticky online saga began when the band appeared on music transmission platforms several weeks ago and accumulated hundreds of thousands of transmissions of two long -term albums.
Its combination of relaxed rock inspired by the 1970s and modern independent pop appeared in several popular spotify reproduction lists, including one with Vietnam’s war songs.
But the intelligent listeners noticed that something was wrong. The supposed members of the band did not have a fingerprint, and there was no record of them having acted live. The album and the profile photo, with four furry hair rockers, also wore distinctive seals of generative.
But as the controversy won steam, an account about X Social Network Platform Allowing representing the band emphatically denied that any of the music was created by artificial intelligence, calling “lazy” and “without foundation” accusations.
CBC contacted the X account on Wednesday and tried to organize an interview through a Gmail account that sought to represent the band.
So, a man who calls himself Andrew Frelon He told Rolling StoneIn an article that was published online later that day, which is behind Velvet Sundown and the X account, and used the Suna generative platform to create the songs. He called the project as an “art deception.”
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But just when the mystery seemed to be resolved, a different X account linked to the official Velvet Slown Spotify page published a statement saying that Frelon has nothing to do with the band.
“Someone is trying to kidnap the identity of the velvet sunset,” said the statement, which also appeared in the Spotify and Instagram accounts of the band on Thursday.
That same day, Frelon, who gave Rolling Stone’s interview, published a long blog confirming that he had nothing to do with the band and that almost everything he told the magazine, including his name, was a lie.
The identity of the Royal Band was once again a mystery. It turned out that the deception was, in fact, part of a bigger hoax.
‘It is too fascinating of a mystery’
Talking to CBC News on Friday, Frelon said he has a “zero” connection with the Atercojo.
When asked about his motivation to maintain such a complicated trick, Frelon said that the way everything has developed has become “artistic aircraft fuel.”
“There are so many strange cultural and technical things here. It is a mystery too fascinating for me to move away,” he said.
The true person behind Andrew Frelon is an expert in security and policy problems of web platforms, with extensive experience using generative AI. He was born in the United States but lives in Canada.
Several important American publications have interviewed him about their other AI projects and their security and policy work.
CBC News verified its identity through screenshots and a signal video chat. Frelon sent screenshots of his correspondence with Rolling Stone to confirm that he was the person who did that interview.
Frelon said he tried last year to monetize his own AI music project with a friend. Surely the AI generated the sunset to the velvet, and surprised by its success during the night, he decided to become the de facto publicist of the band as an “Social Engineering” experiment.
To sow more confusion, Frelon shared publications made by the official Velvet Slown X account, to make it look that he was connected to the account he executed. He also generated and published “photos” of AI of the band in several environments and stages, and said that he used ChatgPT when he initially responded to journalists.
Part of his intention with the Velvet Sundown experiment, he said, was erasing reality and trying to see how diligently the media members would work to verify their identity.
“I’m really exploiting uncertainty,” he said. “And I think that is art.”
His experiment also highlighted the ease of creating deceptive content and the speed with which it spreads.
Frelon said he finally expects to advance in the conversation about the generative AI and its risks and benefits.
More than 200 artists, including Sheryl Crow and the Bob Marley estate, have written a letter that begs the protection against the unusual use of artificial intelligence, such as unauthorized reproduction of their voices and similarities.
In the process, however, he said he received an avalanche of hate messages and acknowledged that the joke has bothered some people.
“I didn’t want to do it maliciously, although obviously some of the techniques I used were less and not very great,” he said. “I recognize that, and I apologize for the affected people.”
Frelon’s deception supercharged the success of Velvet Sundown; The band audience has grown in about 700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify since its deception began, hitting a million on Saturday.
In another turn, the Band official’s account admitted on Saturday to its use of AI after playing shy for weeks, saying in a declaration of social networks that it is a “synthetic music project guided by the human creative direction, and composed, expressed and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence.”
It is still not clear who is behind Velvet Sundown, and its X account has not responded to the requests for CBC News interviews.
Frelon said he received a message from Velvet Sundown X on Saturday, insisting that he renames his account and eliminates all the references to the fact that the band is “100% generated by humans.”
Frelon’s X page is now marked as a “parody” account.
Infiltrate transmission platforms of ‘Bands’ AI
Electronic music generated by AI, and AI songs imitating existing artistsThey have become a common place, but the “bands” of AI are a newer phenomenon.
Laszlo Tamasi, the man behind hard-rock at the devil Inside, who has millions of spotify transmissions, admitted in June that he uses AI to make music and generate the images of the band, after fans and music writers raised questions.
Other popular artists, such as the act of “Dark Country” Aventhis and the provocative singer of Soul Nick Hustles, have been revealed in a similar way that they are creations of AI with contributions behind humans.
The singer and composer based in New Scotland, Ian Janes, who had His own battle with the music of AI After a project apparently generated by AI appeared in Spotify using its name, he said in some way, the music industry has prepared the stage for an acquisition of AI when he depends both on techniques assisted by technology and quantification and tone correction.
He said that listeners have become accustomed to “perfection” with the help of technology in recorded music that when they listen to a song generated by AI, it may seem indistinguishable from something done by real people. On the contrary, when a human voice comes out of the key, or a song accelerates or slows down, people could perceive that as an error.
“The conditioning of our ears to algorithmic perfection in music has prepared the stage so that AI is prepared to take that job,” said Janes.
The Velvet Sundown initially raised suspicions in part because its name seemed derived from acts such as the Velvet Underground and Sunset Rubdown, and its titles and lyrics of the song also seemed to lack originality. Your most transmitted song, Dust in the windFor example, remember the success of Kansas of 1977 Dust in the wind.
But Alexander Olson, associate of senior research at the Faculty of Applied Sciences and Engineering of the University of Toronto that investigates the AI, said that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the average person to identify the AI in all means.
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“It has become even more difficult in this environment, because many people trust Spotify to choose songs for them and make those recommendations,” he said.
The music critic based in Winnipeg, Darryl Sterdan, calls the music of Velvet “generic” and “forgettable”, and said that the AI is not yet at the point where the soul can reproduce and the “indefinable humanity” behind the valuable songs.
But he predicts that it will not spend much time before AI generates true global pop success that turns on the table, forcing institutions such as the Grammys and Junos to “formally reward” the creations of AI in an attempt to continue being relevant. “Then, the flood will really start,” he said.
