British singer, songwriter and dancer FKA Twigs says she will be launching an AI version of herself later this year.
The Ego Death and Two Weeks singer is scheduled to make the announcement during testimony on Tuesday (April 30) in front of a US Senate subcommittee looking into a proposed new bill to regulate AI deepfakes.
“In the past year, I have developed my own deepfake version of myself that is not only trained in my personality but also can use my exact tone of voice to speak many languages,” FKA Twigs said, according to a prepared statement shared with MBW.
“I will be engaging my ‘AI Twigs’ later this year to extend my reach and handle my online social media interactions, whilst I continue to focus on my art from the comfort and solace of my studio.”
Twigs has an Instagram account with 2.4 million followers, a YouTube channel with 735,000 subscribers, an X account with 462,000 followers, and a TikTok account with 333,000 followers.
Twigs argues that AI technologies of this sort are “highly valuable tools both artistically and commercially when under the control of the artist.”
But she’s not a fan of the technology when it’s used to create deepfakes of her image or likeness without her permission.
“What is not acceptable is when my art and my identity can simply be taken by a third party and exploited falsely for their own gain without my consent due to the absence of appropriate legislative control.”
Twigs is set to speak before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday (April 30) to voice her support for the NO FAKES Act, a proposed bill that aims to crack down on unauthorized deepfakes of individuals, including musical artists.
“My music, my dancing, my acting, the way that my body moves in front of a camera and the way that my voice resonates through a microphone… are essential reflections of who I am. My art is the canvas on which I paint my identity and the sustaining foundation of my livelihood. It is the essence of my being. Yet this is under threat,” she said in her prepared remarks.
“AI cannot replicate the depth of my life journey, yet those who control it hold the power to mimic the likeness of my art, to replicate it and falsely claim my identity and intellectual property. This prospect threatens to rewrite and unravel the fabric of my very existence.”
“What is not acceptable is when my art and my identity can simply be taken by a third party and exploited falsely for their own gain without my consent due to the absence of appropriate legislative control.”
FKA Twigs
Twigs urges the subcommittee members to “enact regulation now to safeguard our authenticity and protect against misappropriation of our inalienable rights.”
Others scheduled to speak in front of the subcommittee Tuesday include Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, National Executive Director of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Robert Kyncl, CEO of Warner Music Group.
According to his prepared remarks, Kyncl will tell the subcommittee that “generative AI is appropriating artists’ identities and producing deepfakes that depict people doing, saying, or singing things that never happened.”
Kyncl warned that artists’ livelihoods, businesses’ reputations and the privacy of individuals are all at risk from uncontrolled AI deepfakes. He said that the lawmakers on the committee themselves face potential risks from the technology.
“Your identities could be appropriated and used to mislead your constituents,” he said. “The truth is everyone is vulnerable – families defrauded by voice clones pretending to be relatives; people placed in pornography without their consent; school children having their faces inserted into humiliating scenes.”
The NO FAKES Act – which stands for ‘Nurture Originals, Foster Art and Keep Entertainment Safe’ – was introduced in the Senate as a “discussion draft” last October by a group of Democratic and Republican senators.
Though the text of the bill hasn’t been finalized, it’s expected to be similar to the No AI FRAUD Act introduced in January in the House of Representatives, which would establish “an intellectual property right that every individual holds over their own likeness and voice, allows individuals to seek monetary damages for harmful, unauthorized uses of their likeness or voice,” and “guard against sexually exploitative deepfakes and child sexual abuse material.”
That bill, which has the backing of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s largest music rightsholder, came as a reaction to the growing problem of unauthorized AI-generated deepfakes.
“What is not acceptable is when my art and my identity can simply be taken by a third party and exploited falsely for their own gain without my consent due to the absence of appropriate legislative control.”
FKA Twigs
One notorious example took place last year, when a track featuring the mimicked vocals of Drake and The Weeknd went viral on social platforms, before UMG slapped it with takedown notices.
Drake found himself at the other end of the controversy over AI deepfakes earlier this month over the purported unauthorized use of AI-generated vocals from Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg on his track Taylor Made Freestyle.
Drake removed the track from his social media accounts after a threat of legal action from Tupac’s estate, according to a report from Rolling Stone.
Earlier this year, X (formerly Twitter) found itself scrambling to remove access to pornographic deepfakes of Taylor Swift that were circulating on the platform.
“You have it in your power to help protect artists and their work from the dangers of exploitation and theft inherent in this technology if it remains unchecked,” Twigs said in her prepared remarks to the subcommittee.
“Our careers and livelihoods are in jeopardy, and so potentially are the wider image-related rights of others in society. You have the power to change this and safeguard the future.”Music Business Worldwide
