Grimes Talks Drake/Weeknd AI Track: ‘I’ll Split 50% Royalties on Any Successful AI Generated Song’ With Her Voice

Though many artists are skeptical about the inclusion of artificial intelligence in music, Grimes is ready to embrace it. The Canadian singer is open to splitting 50 percent of royalties for any successful AI-generated song that uses her voice.

Grimes took to Twitter over the weekend to comment on the Drake/Weeknd A.I. track to say that she’d allow artists to use her voice in songs without repercussions.

“I’ll split 50% royalties on any successful AI generated song that uses my voice,” Grimes wrote. “Same deal as I would with any artist I collab with. Feel free to use my voice without penalty.  I have no label and no legal bindings.”

Grimes posted her tweet with a screenshot of a New York Times article that recapped what had happened with an A.I. generated song featuring the voices of Drake and The Weeknd. After gaining traction and sparking more debate on the ethics of A.I. in art, the track was removed from streaming services.

The “Oblivion” singer followed up her initial tweet with an explanation of her reasoning.

“I think it’s cool to be fused w[ith] a machine and I like the idea of open sourcing all art and killing copyright,” she said.

In addition to Grimes’ blessing to use her voice, she added that she’s in the process of making a program that could simulate her voice as well as upload stems so people could train. While this program isn’t complete, Grimes claims that her team is advanced in the development stages.

She later added exceptions, like if her voice is used for something “toxic.” “Like no baby murder songs plz,” she said, or “don’t wanna be responsible for a Nazi anthem unless it’s somehow in jest a la producers I guess.”

Grimes also recently renamed her one-year-old daughter with Elon Musk “Y.”