Bridgit Mendler deepfake on Spotify | Matt Connnarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Right now, though, you know, we were talking about this earlier.

0:02 Speaker 1: A little more music industry news for you. This is

0:05 Speaker 1: from Digital Musicnews dot Com again one of my favorite

0:08 Speaker 1: websites for music industry news, and this relates to something

0:10 Speaker 1: that we were talking on the show about very recently,

0:13 Speaker 1: you know, because in the AI era and as we

0:17 Speaker 1: watch how AI is affecting the music industry or infecting

0:21 Speaker 1: the music industry depending on your point of view, there's

0:24 Speaker 1: and again we were even talking about this well. We

0:28 Speaker 1: touched on on this a little bit with UH with

0:30 Speaker 1: Mick from Corners of Sanctuary in the first hour. But

0:34 Speaker 1: AI is really causing a lot of One of the

0:37 Speaker 1: things that people are concerned with with AI, it's not

0:39 Speaker 1: just that you're able to easily generate really professional, well

0:44 Speaker 1: produced music with just a few prompts, like with apps

0:48 Speaker 1: like Suno and whatnot. So obviously people are concerned about

0:51 Speaker 1: musicians being replaced by AI. You know a lot of

0:54 Speaker 1: people are worried about their jobs losing their jobs to

0:57 Speaker 1: AI in various ways as we see the acceleration of

1:01 Speaker 1: automation and all of these things. But you wouldn't necessarily

1:04 Speaker 1: if it's not something that if the music industry isn't

1:07 Speaker 1: something you're actively thinking about. And I know we have

1:09 Speaker 1: a lot of listeners of this show who are involved

1:11 Speaker 1: in the music industry. But if you're outside of it

1:13 Speaker 1: and you're not necessarily thinking about it, you wouldn't particularly

1:16 Speaker 1: be worried about musicians necessarily having their jobs replaced by AI.

1:22 Speaker 1: But if you are a musician or you're in the

1:24 Speaker 1: music industry in any capacity, you are thinking about this.

1:27 Speaker 1: But there's also an increased potential for fraud for people

1:33 Speaker 1: pretending to be who they're not, impersonating celebrities. We talked

1:37 Speaker 1: about that recently on the show. On TikTok Ai impersonations

1:42 Speaker 1: of Taylor Swift, for example, selling memberships to some service

1:46 Speaker 1: on TikTok and then you wonder, well, if you're a

1:49 Speaker 1: discerning person using logic and reason, you might wonder, why

1:52 Speaker 1: would Taylor Swift, who has all the money in the

1:54 Speaker 1: world and is so hugely successful, a global icon, why

1:57 Speaker 1: is she on TikTok selling memberships? Because it's not really

2:01 Speaker 1: Taylor Swift, it's AI generated, but it's it wants you

2:04 Speaker 1: to think it's Taylor Swift. It's fraud. So Spotify. We

2:07 Speaker 1: talked about this on the show Spotify has They've got

2:13 Speaker 1: this new artist profile protection thing where if you're an

2:18 Speaker 1: artist on Spotify, if you have music on Spotify, you

2:21 Speaker 1: can become verified. It's similar to what other social media

2:24 Speaker 1: platforms have done, like you know X formerly Twitter you

2:28 Speaker 1: can be verified. You can do something like that on

2:32 Speaker 1: Facebook now too. For your business you can be verified.

2:34 Speaker 1: I don't know if Facebook calls it verified or if

2:36 Speaker 1: they call it something else. I can't remember, but it

2:38 Speaker 1: costs money, so I haven't done it. But now they

2:43 Speaker 1: have it for artists, so you can be a verified artist.

2:45 Speaker 1: And what this is supposed to prevent in theory is somebody, say,

2:52 Speaker 1: somebody wants to pretend that they're Tailor's Swift and they

2:55 Speaker 1: create some music, presumably during using AI. Some AI gener

3:00 Speaker 1: rated tracks that sound like Taylor Swift, and then they

3:03 Speaker 1: upload them to Spotify and they call themselves Taylor Swift,

3:06 Speaker 1: but they're not really Taylor Swift. It's supposed to help

3:09 Speaker 1: to prevent that. But is it working? And this question

3:13 Speaker 1: this article asks that question from Digital Musicnews dot com.

3:16 Speaker 1: Is Spotify's Artist profile protection actually working? Fans confused after

3:22 Speaker 1: Bridget Mendler's new EP appears so let's see what's going

3:28 Speaker 1: on here, It says Bridget Mendler says a surprise EP

3:32 Speaker 1: attributed to her on Spotify and Apple Music is not her,

3:38 Speaker 1: raising questions about streaming platforms efforts to curb AI impersonators.

3:43 Speaker 1: Last week, fans of former Disney Channel star Bridget Mendler

3:48 Speaker 1: were thrilled to see she had released a new EP

3:50 Speaker 1: titled Once Again on Spotify and Apple Music, but Mendler

3:55 Speaker 1: confirmed on social media that the release wasn't her, raising

4:00 Speaker 1: concerns about streamer's efforts to prevent AI impersonation. Sorry to

4:05 Speaker 1: disappoint everyone, the Spotify release wasn't me, wrote Mendler on

4:11 Speaker 1: the former Twitter on Wednesday. When it is trust me,

4:15 Speaker 1: you'll know, oh boy. Spotify confirmed that the fakep had

4:20 Speaker 1: been removed from the platform. Here's what Spotify spokesperson had

4:25 Speaker 1: to say about this quote. Protecting artist's identities is a

4:28 Speaker 1: top priority for us, and we continue to invest heavily

4:31 Speaker 1: in detection and prevention. Spotify is the only streaming service

4:35 Speaker 1: to offer artist profile protection, currently available in beta, which

4:39 Speaker 1: lets artists opt in to review and approve or decline

4:44 Speaker 1: incoming releases before they go live on their profile. Unquote

4:48 Speaker 1: which seems like a pretty simple system. Actually, you know

4:51 Speaker 1: a lot of this stuff is complicated, and I always

4:54 Speaker 1: worry about people getting caught in the net. For example,

4:57 Speaker 1: when we talk about software that can detect AI and

5:02 Speaker 1: then either block that track or that content or label

5:07 Speaker 1: it as AI and so it's not monetizable on YouTube

5:10 Speaker 1: for example, things like that, I always worry about people

5:12 Speaker 1: getting caught in the net, people who are actually making

5:15 Speaker 1: quote unquote legitimate content or legitimate music, but they get

5:18 Speaker 1: tagged as AI when in fact, for example, if you're

5:21 Speaker 1: making music, you know, any modern recording studio has programs,

5:26 Speaker 1: has software in it that they're working with that uses

5:30 Speaker 1: AI in some way, so you know there's there's going

5:32 Speaker 1: to be error there. This system seems like it would

5:36 Speaker 1: be pretty foolproof, though. If you are a verified artist

5:39 Speaker 1: on Spotify, if someone uploads something with your name on it,

5:44 Speaker 1: you're going to get an email. I presume this is

5:47 Speaker 1: how it works from Spotify saying hey is this you

5:52 Speaker 1: do you approve this, and then you either approve it

5:54 Speaker 1: or you deny it, and if you deny it, it

5:57 Speaker 1: doesn't go up. That seems like a really simple system,

6:00 Speaker 1: but it is in beta and apparently there are already

6:03 Speaker 1: problems with it because it did not work for Bridget Mendler. Okay,

6:07 Speaker 1: so let me just read that part again. But this

6:12 Speaker 1: is from the uh. This is what the spokesperson said.

6:17 Speaker 1: The system lets the artists opt in to review and

6:20 Speaker 1: approve or decline incoming releases before they go live on

6:23 Speaker 1: their profile. So it says here that implies that Mendler

6:28 Speaker 1: had not opted in to Spotify's artist profile protection, making

6:32 Speaker 1: her an easy target for impersonation. Okay, so she didn't

6:35 Speaker 1: opt in. The former Wizards of Waverley Place star hasn't

6:39 Speaker 1: released new music since her four track EP Nemesis in

6:43 Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, followed by a single Driving in twenty seventeen. Okay,

6:48 Speaker 1: so she hasn't been active. I assume she's doing more acting.

6:52 Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know. I don't know anything about her,

6:54 Speaker 1: but she hasn't been active in terms of releasing music

6:56 Speaker 1: in almost a decade. So it makes sense. And you know,

6:59 Speaker 1: this is a relatively new thing, this artist profile verification,

7:02 Speaker 1: so I can see how she would have fallen through

7:06 Speaker 1: the cracks here. So it says here, in fact, Mendler

7:11 Speaker 1: stepped away from the entertainment industry. Oh, she's not even acting.

7:15 Speaker 1: She stepped away from the entertainment industry to focus on

7:18 Speaker 1: her college education and pursue a career in tech. Oh. Okay,

7:22 Speaker 1: Now she's the co founder and CEO of Northwood Space

7:26 Speaker 1: and Aerospace communications startup launched in twenty twenty three. Okay,

7:29 Speaker 1: so she's out of the game completely. Given Mendler's pivot

7:32 Speaker 1: away from music, it seems she was ripe for Ai impersonation.

7:36 Speaker 1: Since she had presumably not opted into Spotify's beta service

7:40 Speaker 1: to protect her profile, and was not focused on releasing

7:43 Speaker 1: new music, her presence was easier to mimic than someone

7:48 Speaker 1: actively involved and with a massive following like Taylor Swift

7:52 Speaker 1: or Ariana Grande Weather. Spotify's efforts to protect artists with

7:56 Speaker 1: artist profile protection will ultimately make a difference in curbing

7:59 Speaker 1: bad actor remains to be seen. Since currently artists must

8:03 Speaker 1: opt into the service once the feature enjoys a wider rollout,

8:07 Speaker 1: and artists are not required to opt in such functionality

8:10 Speaker 1: could make a massive difference. Hopefully, Spotify has plans to

8:14 Speaker 1: expand the release so that artists like Mendler who aren't

8:17 Speaker 1: actively engaging with their streaming presence can rest easy knowing

8:22 Speaker 1: they won't be the target of AI deep fakes. Okay,

8:25 Speaker 1: I but I have a question. Why can't you, like,

8:29 Speaker 1: why does it have to be something you have to

8:31 Speaker 1: opt in for? It just seems to me, wouldn't it

8:34 Speaker 1: not be the easiest thing in the world to just

8:36 Speaker 1: make it so that whoever the artist profile is registered to,

8:41 Speaker 1: they get an I mean, jeez, we all have two

8:45 Speaker 1: step verification now just to log in to our email

8:49 Speaker 1: or whatever, right or to social media, Like, there's all

8:52 Speaker 1: kinds of stuff now to verify things when you're logging

8:57 Speaker 1: into things. Why can't there be something And maybe if

9:03 Speaker 1: they opt into the artist's profile protection, maybe there's even

9:05 Speaker 1: an additional step. But why can't there be something basic

9:08 Speaker 1: where if it's your account, if it's your name, and

9:11 Speaker 1: someone is uploading something with your name on it, you

9:15 Speaker 1: automatically get an email saying hey, just making sure this

9:20 Speaker 1: is you and that you approve of this. Why does

9:23 Speaker 1: it have to be something you have to opt into?

9:26 Speaker 1: Because again, this is a problem. And you know, I

9:28 Speaker 1: thought this sounded like a great idea the first time

9:30 Speaker 1: we talked about it on the show, But yeah, there

9:32 Speaker 1: is a great giant, gaping hole in this whole thing. Right,

9:35 Speaker 1: If you're not someone who's actively making new music and

9:38 Speaker 1: you're not paying attention to what's going on on Spotify

9:41 Speaker 1: because you're you don't have anything new to put there,

9:46 Speaker 1: then yeah, then you're ripe for this kind of thing.

9:50 Speaker 1: She hasn't put out new music since twenty seventeen, so

9:56 Speaker 1: they're gonna have to figure it out and listen again,

9:58 Speaker 1: this is in beta, and hopefully they will figure it out.