The magazine DJ Mag awarded him the title of “the most popular DJ in the world”, he also won no later than Sunday February 12 the prize for best producer of the year at the Brit Awards. Frenchman David Guetta, 55, in turn enters the bubbling debate on artificial intelligence, in particular its place in the world of music. A few days ago, he posted on Twitter a video of himself mixing in public and suddenly launching a song sung by rapper Eminem, or rather what we believe to be the voice of Eminem since in reality it is a reconstruction by an artificial intelligence.
Let me introduce you to… Emin-AI-em pic.twitter.com/48prbMIBtv
— David Guetta (@davidguetta) February 3, 2023
Commenting on his video, he explains that he obviously has no intention of making it a commercial title, that he did that “to have fun“, and that it was to see what we could do with an AI, an artificial intelligence. He says that he first asked software to invent a sentence in the style of Eminem, then to another to recreate the rapper’s voice and have him say this line, which, as he puts it himself, “works great“. In the room, the public gives him an ovation, and on social networks, many DJs congratulate him, but others wonder about the dangers of appropriating a vocal identity, as for these videos of deep fake where some software can make a face say anything.
“A tool to create new sounds”
“I think artificial intelligence is the future of musicanswers David Guetta in an interview with the BBC. Of course, nothing will ever replace taste, emotions, and everything that defines an artist, but we will use artificial intelligence as a tool, a tool to create new sounds, just like rock’n’roll used electric guitars, like techno used drum machines, like rap used samplers, all new musical styles are born from new technologies.”
Something to remember that we have already been copying voices for decades. David Guetta himself copied and was copied. Seen in this way, artificial intelligence as a tool is neither good nor bad, it only prolongs the legal debate on intellectual property. And this is what is interesting in the point of view proposed by David Guetta: the question is to know what we do with artificial intelligences, how we manage them as a tool, not necessarily how to fight against them. Just like for cell phones, computers, networks, and any new technology since the invention of fire.