Charli XCX and Sia selected to trial Youtube AI Experiment- 'Dream Track'

The nine artists selected for the new Youtube Shorts AI project 'Dream Track' are Charlie Puth, John Legend, Sia, T-Pain, Demi Lovato, Troye Sivan, Alex Benjamin, Papoose and Charli XCX.

The Google-owned video platform Youtube, is using a music generation model created by the search company’s AI unit to produce unique 30-second clips for their Shorts feature in a limited trial.

'Dream Track' creates pieces of music — both vocals and musical accompaniment using AI.

The feature works off of text prompts that are up to 30 seconds in length, which then generates music emulating the voices of the selected artists.

For now, around 100 U.S.-based creators will have Dream Track access.

“By simply typing an idea into the creation prompt and selecting a participating artist that appears in the carousel, an original Shorts soundtrack featuring the AI-generated voice of that artist will be produced for the creator to use in their Short,” wrote YouTube executives Lyor Cohen and Toni Reid.

YouTube has leased out limited access to the tool to about 100 Shorts creators and creatives in the US, but Shorts users can then deploy and remix the track themselves once it appears by using the “use this sound” and “cut this video” features.

Speaking on Dream track the executives continued "The artists, songwriters and producers in the Music AI Incubator are helping us test, learn, gain feedback and hear ideas so that we can develop the best experiences possible for our community of artists, viewers and fans".

This initiative also acts as a boost for the Youtube Shorts feature which is the platform's answer to Tiktok.

In the blogpost shared by Youtube to promote the new scheme, an example clip was debuted, featuring an AI generated T-Pain song.

Speaking on the initiative T-Pain said: "I have always been about pushing the boundaries of technology and harnessing it to make the most interesting music for my fans".

Additionally, YouTube said this week that it was introducing a tool that would allow music labels and distributors to complain about unsolicited AI content that mimics an artist’s voice.

It will also allow people to complain about deepfakes, although it added that parodic content or deepfakes of public officials and well known individuals might be kept up on the platform.

The news comes after an AI generated song 'Heart on my Sleeve' featuring vocals that mimic Drake and The Weeknd was submitted to the Grammys this year, in spite of being banned from Youtube.

The song was not sanctioned by the artists or their record company, Universal Music Group.

AI has been a recurring headline in creative industries this year, impacting artists both positively and negatively, with The Beatles finally able to release their last song 'Now and Then', with the help of AI which remastered the original demo and help retrieve John Lennon's vocals to complete the track.

However, there have been plenty of negative interactions with AI technology for artists with the Hollywood actors and writers strike calling for greater artistic protection surrounding AI.

In the music world, major record labels have brought a law suit against AI Lyric generating platform Anthropic. 

Anthropic is owned by Google, who also own Youtube.