Taylor Swift's new album reveals big questions about AI-generated music

Webmaster's House (ChinaZ.com) News on April 20: On Thursday, Taylor Swift posted a link to buy the first single "Fortnight" from her new album "The Tortured Poets Department" in her iconic way on Instagram Story. This may not be much of a deal for Swift, who is one of the largest recording artists in the world. She announced the TTPD when she accepted the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album in February of this year. Swift sold 19 million albums in the U.S. alone last year, and there's no need for her to post a story on Instagram to promote the new single. Still, she made the entire internet boil, as if returning to the moment of the release of the album "1989".

However, when she released the story, another thing also angered her huge fan base: The Tortured Poets Department was leaked, supposedly circulating online via a Google Drive link. Almost immediately, the fan base split between those who said that the real fans would wait until the album was officially released at midnight on Friday, and those who couldn't wait to hit the play button anyway. In the latter, there is also a small group of people who believe that the leaked content – at least in part – was generated by AI.

The "must have been AI-generated" sounds come from a few corners, but many seem to stem from a lyric in the album's song of the same name, where (allegedly) Swift sings: "You smoked a cigarette and ate seven bars of chocolate / We declare that Charlie Puss should be a greater artist." (Rumors are rife, with some speculating that it's about her ex, Marty Healy.) The audio was removed due to copyright infringement, but when User X posted the clip online, it was immediately assumed to be AI-generated.

When the album was released, everyone knew that the song was actually real. They also learned that the soundtrack that circulated before the album's release was only part of the overall work. Swift announced on Instagram at 2 a.m. on Friday that this is actually a "secret double album" — "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology," which contains a total of 31 songs. But the question of "it must be AI-generated" reactions is still a complex issue.

Online life is rife with AI-generated illusions. In just a few years, the revolution of large language models has entered, and the need not to trust your eyes has become the norm. The same goes for your ears. The bigger problem is that while skepticism and fact-checking are generally always a good idea when it comes to obtaining information online, AI has become so prevalent that it can also be an excuse. Don't like what you're seeing? Convince yourself that it's the work of AI.

What's even more tricky is that AI has advanced to the point where creating something like The Tortured Poets Department doesn't seem entirely impossible. An AI version of Johnny Cash has covered Swift's "Blank Space." In 2023, an AI-generated piece of music, Heart on My Sleeve, sounds strikingly similar to the songs that Drake and Weeknd actually made, and the resemblance is enough to make some think it might be a propaganda ploy.

When the frenzy about The Tortured Poets Department finally subsides, it may all end up being just a vignette. But it does show some unease in the online fanbase: there are many who rush to defend their favorite stars, even if the criticism makes sense. Swift's TikTok — especially now that her songs are back on the platform — has its charm, but watching people argue about her talent isn't one of them.

This becomes especially exhausting because it reminds us of the interdependence between the internet and artists like Swift like never before. In many ways, they don't really need support from an online army to protect their good names and hype their music. They are internationally renowned superstars. Even if every word they say doesn't go viral, people will still find their tours, as well as their concert movies on Netflix and Disney+.

However, watching how they go viral has become a sport in itself. Swift's Easter eggs (and weird Spotify pop-ups and surprise double albums), Beyoncé's wordless Instagram posts – these things make the news a lot and appeal to people who may not care why everyone is tweeting.

Even if this fame makes some artists very rich, it creates a series of problems. In Swift's case, prompting countless silly conspiracy theories, most of which concern the way in which she will influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Her private jet is now in the public spotlight.

But Swift's fans do rally around. When deepfake Swift feature love images went viral on social media in January, her fans held rallies to flood them with posts that read "Protect Taylor Swift." When Ticketmaster seemed to have screwed up when selling tickets for her Eras tour, fans made enough noise that American lawmakers were starting to notice. On Tuesday, Meta's regulatory committee announced that it would scrutinize deepfake content on its platform more closely. On the same day, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Justice planned to file an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, Ticketmaster's parent company.

It can't help but make one wonder what would happen if someone actually tried to impersonate the real Taylor with the AI Taylor.