“Deepfakes” crafted with artificial intelligence are throwing a wrinkle into the murky world of copyright law. JAY-Z and Roc Nation filed a takedown request against YouTube channel Vocal Synthesis for impersonating Hov’s likeness with AI-generated deepfakes.
The creator of the channel trained text-to-speech program Tacotron 2 to mimic Hov’s voice and eventually attracted the attention of the man himself. The account uploaded videos of the computer-generated model reciting Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and “To Be or Not To Be” from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
After receiving the takedown notice, Vocal Synthesis quickly responded with another deepfake featuring Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
“Unfortunately, for the first time since the channel began, YouTube took down two of these videos yesterday as a result of a copyright strike,” read Trump’s computerized voice. “The strike was requested by Roc Nation LLC, with the stated reason being that it, quote, ‘unlawfully uses an AI to impersonate our client’s voice.’”
The two videos were initially taken down but eventually reinstated as YouTube investigates.
“After reviewing the DMCA takedown requests for the videos in question, we determined that they were incomplete,” a Google spokesperson told The Verge. “Pending additional information from the claimant, we have temporarily reinstated the videos.”
Interestingly, other videos featuring Jigga’s likeness remained on the channel while the two in question were removed. The account also features the AI Hov “rapping” verses from the Book of Genesis and a popular Navy Seal copypasta that has circulated the internet for years. The page also uploaded a fifth video where the automated voice raps the “Darth Plagueis” copypasta.
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The anonymous creator of Hov’s deepfake argued he was protected under Fair Use during an interview with Waxy.
“I’m not a lawyer and have not studied intellectual property law,” he said. “But logically I don’t really understand why mimicking a celebrity’s voice using an AI model should be treated differently than someone naturally doing an (extremely accurate) impression of that celebrity’s voice. Especially since all of my videos are clearly labeled as speech synthesis in both the title and description, so there was no attempt to deceive anyone into thinking that these were real recordings of JAY-Z.”
Check out some of the deepfakes above.
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This is called getting ahead of a story.
This is called getting ahead of a story. A perfectly placed alibi.
You can tell Jay-Z has lost all sense of reality. Imagine having that much money and still being greedy enough to take time out of your day to have videos removed because it has your name on it. Whats next you gonna go after producers who make “Jay-Z type beats” when does it end? Anyone who says Jay-Z anywhere in the world has to pay him or what? He lost this because he has no grounds. He must be mad as hell too you know how the super rich are when they dont get there way all that money and you lost. Videos still up hundreds of millions and you spent your day trying to remove videos off You Tube? Wow….that ballin baby
You don’t have anything of value so you wouldn’t understand.
Yea don’t badmouth Jay-Z he gives hope to millions of ugly, unemployable narcissists.
Lol such words to use I guess you didn’t want to use the words you really wanted to use
You don’t know me and your also wrong but its nice to assume things to try to prove a point but it back fires when you just talk out your face hole. Also your name sounds like you do gay porn for fun. Have a great day Kennedy lol
You clearly don’t understand why he sued. He didn’t sue because of the use of his name. The are using his voice to create content, which they can’t do. What is pathetic people attack what they don’t understand
Jay-Z is pathetic with this stuff. Just an entitled rich guy who’s too good for everything now.
There can only be one King HOV, so all impersonators and others trying to be like him need to back the fuck off. Be your own person and you’ll be good. Just don’t end up broke and irrelevant like Nas. It’s the ROC in here!
Shutup BITCH!
So swallow and come up for air now. I’m sure tai tai is not liking the fact you occupy his jayz space so much.
look at all these people in their feelings
Roc nation´s legal team has been making sure youtube erases anything jay related that didnt get authorised .That´s nothing new
welcome to the world of intellectual property law.