Artificial intelligence has been one of the primary talking points for the music industry so far this year. With hitmakers like Paul McCartney, Pharrell Williams, Ed Sheeran, Garth Brooks, Nile Rodgers, Timbaland, Grimes, and more all chiming in on the benefits and dangers of AI in the past couple of months, it’s clear that the software has already been able to find its way into mainstream circles, capturing the attention of many the artists it has been used to mimic. Most recently, this became a reality for Selena Gomez, who noticed an AI-generated copy of her voice used in an Instagram post this month.
Videos by American Songwriter
On June 16, the Instagram account @funnylyric uploaded a remix of The Weeknd’s 2016 smash hit single “Starboy,” where the vocals for the song come from an AI version of Gomez. Though the post had been up for nearly two months, Gomez wouldn’t notice it until last week, when she succinctly commented “Scary” in the replies.
This is now the second time this summer Gomez has been linked to her ex-boyfriend The Weeknd for unfortunate reasons. In July, about a week after The Weeknd’s HBO original drama series The Idol wrapped up its first season, Gomez’s team revealed to DailyMail that she believed the show’s main character Jocelyn was based on her, and not in a good way.
[RELATED: Selena Gomez Believes ‘The Idol’ Character is Based on Her]
Throughout Season 1, Jocelyn is a troubled rising pop star, who is continuously manipulated and erroneously influenced by the co-main character Tedros, played by The Weeknd. According to those close to her, Gomez believes many of the antics Jocelyn is involved in, such as her tendency for blowing air kisses and insistence on having a nude album cover, were taken from things Gomez has actually done in her career.
Around 2016 and 2017, the same time “Starboy” and its accompanying studio album of the same name released, Gomez and The Weeknd shared a widely-publicized romance, as Gomez believes this is how The Weeknd picked up on her mannerisms. Though The Weeknd never responded to DailyMail‘s report earlier this year, he has alluded to his relationship with Gomez previously, such as his lyric in the 2018 song “Call Out My Name.”
I almost cut a piece of myself for your life
Guess I was just another pit stop
‘Til you made up your mind
You just wasted my time
Regardless of this passive aggression, though, The Weeknd likely had nothing to do with the AI Gomez remake of “Starboy,” another eerie addition to a growing collection of AI songs that have frightened artists. Check out the clip posted to Instagram below.
Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images
