YouTube is going to start cracking down on AI clones of musicians

That’s the explicit distinction laid out today in a company blog post, which goes through the platform’s early thinking about moderating AI-generated content.

It is going to be wildly complicated — there’s no definition of “parody and satire” for deepfake videos yet, but Malon again said there would be guidance and examples when the policy rolls out next year.

Making things even more complex, there will be no exceptions for things like parody and satire when it comes to AI-generated music content from YouTube’s partners “that mimics an artist’s unique singing or rapping voice,” meaning Frank Sinatra singing The Killers’ Mr. Brightside is likely in for an uphill battle if Universal Music Group decides it doesn’t like it.

There are entire channels dedicated to churning out AI covers by artists living and dead, and under YouTube’s new rules, most would be subject to takedowns by the labels.

The only exception YouTube offers in its blog post is if the content is “the subject of news reporting, analysis or critique of the synthetic vocals” — another echo of a standard fair use defense without any specific guidelines yet.

This special protection for singing and rapping voices won’t be a part of YouTube’s automated Content ID system when it rolls out next year; Malon tells us that “music removal requests will be made via a form” that partner labels will have to fill out manually.

Saved 75% of original text.