THOUGH Singaporean singer Stefanie Sun has not released any new singles or albums, she has been dominating trending lists on Chinese social media recently. However, the reason for this is a little strange, as it is an AI version of Sun that is topping the charts. In a series of music videos which have garnered millions of views, Sun’s voice was generated entirely by so-vits-svc fork developed on GitHub that enables anyone to train their own AI model to speak in any voice and language. Many internet users left comments saying they were astonished by the fidelity of Sun’s voice generated by AI. Ziyu, a user who posted the videos, said, “It probably has something to do with Sun’s distinctive voice and the way she articulates while singing. Her voice has a grainy quality and a unique breath. These qualities somehow matched the AI model, which is probably why videos using Sun’s voice have gained the most views.” Some fans have embraced the AI-generated songs, saying they offer an option for people with different tastes in music. The AI-generated music has also made it possible to commemorate late singers, highlighted by online calls for more AI works of musicians including Teresa Teng, Wong Ka-kui, Leslie Cheung and Yao Beina. But others have also raised concerns about copyright infringement. Last week, Douyin unveiled an industry initiative that calls for users to use clear labels to differentiate AI-generated content from other content, reiterating that it is forbidden to generate content that infringes on the copyrights of others. (Global Times) | 