Bridgit Mendler deepfake on Spotify | Matt Connnarton Unleashed

0:00 Right now, though, you know, we were talking about this earlier. A little more music industry news for you. This is from Digital Musicnews dot Com again one of my favorite websites for music industry news, and this relates to something that we were talking on the show about very recently, you know, because in the AI era and as we watch how AI is affecting the music industry or infecting the music industry depending on your point of view, there's and again we were even talking about this well. We touched on on this a little bit with UH with Mick from Corners of Sanctuary in the first hour.

0:33 But AI is really causing a lot of One of the things that people are concerned with with AI, it's not just that you're able to easily generate really professional, well produced music with just a few prompts, like with apps like Suno and whatnot. So obviously people are concerned about musicians being replaced by AI. You know a lot of people are worried about their jobs losing their jobs to AI in various ways as we see the acceleration of automation and all of these things. But you wouldn't necessarily if it's not something that if the music industry isn't something you're actively thinking about.

1:08 And I know we have a lot of listeners of this show who are involved in the music industry. But if you're outside of it and you're not necessarily thinking about it, you wouldn't particularly be worried about musicians necessarily having their jobs replaced by AI. But if you are a musician or you're in the music industry in any capacity, you are thinking about this. But there's also an increased potential for fraud for people pretending to be who they're not, impersonating celebrities. We talked about that recently on the show.

1:39 On TikTok Ai impersonations of Taylor Swift, for example, selling memberships to some service on TikTok and then you wonder, well, if you're a discerning person using logic and reason, you might wonder, why would Taylor Swift, who has all the money in the world and is so hugely successful, a global icon, why is she on TikTok selling memberships? Because it's not really Taylor Swift, it's AI generated, but it's it wants you to think it's Taylor Swift. It's fraud. So Spotify. We talked about this on the show Spotify has They've got this new artist profile protection thing where if you're an artist on Spotify, if you have music on Spotify, you can become verified.

2:22 It's similar to what other social media platforms have done, like you know X formerly Twitter you can be verified. You can do something like that on Facebook now too. For your business you can be verified. I don't know if Facebook calls it verified or if they call it something else. I can't remember, but it costs money, so I haven't done it. But now they have it for artists, so you can be a verified artist. And what this is supposed to prevent in theory is somebody, say, somebody wants to pretend that they're Tailor's Swift and they create some music, presumably during using AI.

2:58 Some AI gener rated tracks that sound like Taylor Swift, and then they upload them to Spotify and they call themselves Taylor Swift, but they're not really Taylor Swift. It's supposed to help to prevent that. But is it working? And this question this article asks that question from Digital Musicnews dot com. Is Spotify's Artist profile protection actually working? Fans confused after Bridget Mendler's new EP appears so let's see what's going on here, It says Bridget Mendler says a surprise EP attributed to her on Spotify and Apple Music is not her, raising questions about streaming platforms efforts to curb AI impersonators.

3:43 Last week, fans of former Disney Channel star Bridget Mendler were thrilled to see she had released a new EP titled Once Again on Spotify and Apple Music, but Mendler confirmed on social media that the release wasn't her, raising concerns about streamer's efforts to prevent AI impersonation. Sorry to disappoint everyone, the Spotify release wasn't me, wrote Mendler on the former Twitter on Wednesday. When it is trust me, you'll know, oh boy. Spotify confirmed that the fakep had been removed from the platform.

4:23 Here's what Spotify spokesperson had to say about this quote. Protecting artist's identities is a top priority for us, and we continue to invest heavily in detection and prevention. Spotify is the only streaming service to offer artist profile protection, currently available in beta, which lets artists opt in to review and approve or decline incoming releases before they go live on their profile. Unquote which seems like a pretty simple system. Actually, you know a lot of this stuff is complicated, and I always worry about people getting caught in the net.

4:56 For example, when we talk about software that can detect AI and then either block that track or that content or label it as AI and so it's not monetizable on YouTube for example, things like that, I always worry about people getting caught in the net, people who are actually making quote unquote legitimate content or legitimate music, but they get tagged as AI when in fact, for example, if you're making music, you know, any modern recording studio has programs, has software in it that they're working with that uses AI in some way, so you know there's there's going to be error there.

5:34 This system seems like it would be pretty foolproof, though. If you are a verified artist on Spotify, if someone uploads something with your name on it, you're going to get an email. I presume this is how it works from Spotify saying hey is this you do you approve this, and then you either approve it or you deny it, and if you deny it, it doesn't go up. That seems like a really simple system, but it is in beta and apparently there are already problems with it because it did not work for Bridget Mendler.

6:07 Okay, so let me just read that part again. But this is from the uh. This is what the spokesperson said. The system lets the artists opt in to review and approve or decline incoming releases before they go live on their profile. So it says here that implies that Mendler had not opted in to Spotify's artist profile protection, making her an easy target for impersonation. Okay, so she didn't opt in. The former Wizards of Waverley Place star hasn't released new music since her four track EP Nemesis in twenty sixteen, followed by a single Driving in twenty seventeen.

6:48 Okay, so she hasn't been active. I assume she's doing more acting. Maybe I don't know. I don't know anything about her, but she hasn't been active in terms of releasing music in almost a decade. So it makes sense. And you know, this is a relatively new thing, this artist profile verification, so I can see how she would have fallen through the cracks here. So it says here, in fact, Mendler stepped away from the entertainment industry. Oh, she's not even acting. She stepped away from the entertainment industry to focus on her college education and pursue a career in tech.

7:20 Oh. Okay, Now she's the co founder and CEO of Northwood Space and Aerospace communications startup launched in twenty twenty three. Okay, so she's out of the game completely. Given Mendler's pivot away from music, it seems she was ripe for Ai impersonation. Since she had presumably not opted into Spotify's beta service to protect her profile, and was not focused on releasing new music, her presence was easier to mimic than someone actively involved and with a massive following like Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande Weather.

7:53 Spotify's efforts to protect artists with artist profile protection will ultimately make a difference in curbing bad actor remains to be seen. Since currently artists must opt into the service once the feature enjoys a wider rollout, and artists are not required to opt in such functionality could make a massive difference. Hopefully, Spotify has plans to expand the release so that artists like Mendler who aren't actively engaging with their streaming presence can rest easy knowing they won't be the target of AI deep fakes.

8:24 Okay, I but I have a question. Why can't you, like, why does it have to be something you have to opt in for? It just seems to me, wouldn't it not be the easiest thing in the world to just make it so that whoever the artist profile is registered to, they get an I mean, jeez, we all have two step verification now just to log in to our email or whatever, right or to social media, Like, there's all kinds of stuff now to verify things when you're logging into things. Why can't there be something And maybe if they opt into the artist's profile protection, maybe there's even an additional step.

9:06 But why can't there be something basic where if it's your account, if it's your name, and someone is uploading something with your name on it, you automatically get an email saying hey, just making sure this is you and that you approve of this. Why does it have to be something you have to opt into? Because again, this is a problem. And you know, I thought this sounded like a great idea the first time we talked about it on the show, But yeah, there is a great giant, gaping hole in this whole thing.

9:34 Right, If you're not someone who's actively making new music and you're not paying attention to what's going on on Spotify because you're you don't have anything new to put there, then yeah, then you're ripe for this kind of thing. She hasn't put out new music since twenty seventeen, so they're gonna have to figure it out and listen again, this is in beta, and hopefully they will figure it out.