Velvet Sundown | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Because we talk about it even came up in our

0:01 Speaker 1: conversation with Cammy Nicks. We talk on the show a

0:05 Speaker 1: lot about AI and AI and music, and so this

0:07 Speaker 1: relates very directly to that. This is from the BBC

0:13 Speaker 1: AI claims and a hoax spokesman. Viral band confuses the

0:18 Speaker 1: world of music. So there's this viral band. This band

0:22 Speaker 1: is AI generated. Check this out. So a band called

0:26 Speaker 1: The Velvet Sundown has had its tracks played hundreds of

0:30 Speaker 1: thousands of times on Spotify since appearing several weeks ago,

0:34 Speaker 1: without anyone knowing for sure what it is. The band

0:37 Speaker 1: has a verified page on the music streaming platform with

0:40 Speaker 1: more than eight hundred and fifty thousand monthly listeners. That's

0:44 Speaker 1: a hit. However, none of the four named musicians in

0:48 Speaker 1: the band have given any interviews or appear to have

0:50 Speaker 1: individual social media accounts, and there are no records of

0:55 Speaker 1: any live performances. It is prompted accusations that they and

1:00 Speaker 1: their music are AI generated, something the band deny. Something

1:06 Speaker 1: the band denies on social media, uh not on camera,

1:11 Speaker 1: and the band did not respond to the BBC's request

1:14 Speaker 1: for an interview. This is kind of funny. I mean,

1:17 Speaker 1: it's it's scary, but it's kind of funny at the

1:19 Speaker 1: same time. UH. Further confusing the story, Rolling Stone reported

1:24 Speaker 1: that the band spokesman had admitted the Velvet Sundowns music

1:28 Speaker 1: had been generated using an AI tool called care to

1:34 Speaker 1: Guess Studio or the one the one We've used, only

1:40 Speaker 1: for the magazine to to report shortly afterwards that the

1:45 Speaker 1: spokesman was himself a hoax.

1:49 Speaker 2: The spokesman was AI too. Yes, oh, I missed that part.

1:52 Speaker 1: The man who goes by the name of Andrew Freelan

1:57 Speaker 1: UH said it was a deliberate plot to hoax the media.

2:00 Speaker 1: A statement on the band Spotify page said that the

2:03 Speaker 1: group has quote no affiliation with this individual nor any

2:07 Speaker 1: evidence confirming their identity or existence unquote. An account on

2:12 Speaker 1: x which claims to be the band's official channel is

2:14 Speaker 1: also fake, it added. Professor Gina Neff from the Mindero

2:20 Speaker 1: or Mindaru Center for Technology and Democracy. Let's go with

2:25 Speaker 1: MINDERU because that's fun to say at the University of

2:28 Speaker 1: Cambridge says it points to a problem which affects much

2:31 Speaker 1: more than just one band. She said, quote whether this

2:35 Speaker 1: is an AI band may not seem important, but increasingly

2:39 Speaker 1: our collective grip on reality seems shaky. The Velvet Sundown

2:43 Speaker 1: story plays into the fears we have of losing control

2:47 Speaker 1: of AI and shows how important protecting online information is. Unquote.

2:53 Speaker 1: The Velvet sundowns indie ballads with guitar music and male

2:57 Speaker 1: vocals is fairly easy. If bland on the ear with

3:03 Speaker 1: lyrics such as eyes like film in faded light dreams,

3:08 Speaker 1: walk barefoot into the night, ash and velvet smoke and

3:12 Speaker 1: flame calling out in Freedom's name, it could all feasibly

3:18 Speaker 1: be either AI generated or penned by humans. Uh yeah, do.

3:24 Speaker 2: You remember that happened with me recently? Yah AI band.

3:29 Speaker 1: An AI band contacted you, well, were contact contacted them?

3:35 Speaker 3: The name is Interfery, Yes, And I really liked the

3:39 Speaker 3: music and thought, oh, these guys are great.

3:42 Speaker 2: I'd love to have them on.

3:43 Speaker 3: And then I come to find out they are the

3:45 Speaker 3: creation of one human who created these other humans that

3:49 Speaker 3: are not human. They are AI, and the whole band

3:54 Speaker 3: is is Yeah, his his musical creation. But in this

3:58 Speaker 3: instance is a big difference because he said every single

4:02 Speaker 3: lyric has been written by him. Yeah, for this particular band, Interfury.

4:07 Speaker 3: So I don't know about the other person, but I

4:10 Speaker 3: know that all the lyrics to this particular music is

4:13 Speaker 3: claimed to have been written by the artist.

4:16 Speaker 1: Let's see so they have, as I just looked up

4:20 Speaker 1: on YouTube. I want to I want to check out

4:22 Speaker 1: the music of the Velvet Sundown. They have a Velvet

4:25 Speaker 1: Sundown song called dust on the Wind. Not dust in

4:28 Speaker 1: the Wind, that's that's Kansas. This is dust on the winding.

4:34 Speaker 1: Let's uh, I want to hear this and just see

4:37 Speaker 1: what it's like. Uh, here we go. Oh, it's got

4:41 Speaker 1: to get through these commercials. It is uh, it is

4:44 Speaker 1: monetized content. Let's see dust on the wind.

4:50 Speaker 2: Say that's pretty smart.

5:02 Speaker 4: Dust on the wind, boots on the ground, smoking the sky,

5:09 Speaker 4: no peace found, rivers run red the drums.

5:15 Speaker 2: We also.

5:18 Speaker 1: Tell me, brother, where do we go?

5:23 Speaker 4: Raise your hand, doll away, sing out loud, May gumpay, march, hope, peace,

5:37 Speaker 4: nine for pride, Let that flya turn.

5:42 Speaker 2: With the tide.

5:50 Speaker 1: M hm, well it sounds like very pro war. Let's fly.

5:59 Speaker 1: You think it's a mom praise well, young man, sounds

6:05 Speaker 1: like it. Yeah, it's it sounds like it's we we

6:10 Speaker 1: still got time to make a stand God time. It's

6:15 Speaker 1: a it's a lyric video that I'm playing it from

6:17 Speaker 1: That's why the lyrics.

6:20 Speaker 4: Look away saying down now, make.

6:27 Speaker 2: Much foppy.

6:30 Speaker 1: Proud that fast.

6:34 Speaker 2: Turn the time.

6:39 Speaker 1: I gotta say, I love this AI generated voice. It's

6:42 Speaker 1: a good voice.

6:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of an issue.

6:46 Speaker 3: Because all the ones I've heard so far, but actually

6:48 Speaker 3: really good. So that's that's kind of follows. Oh yeah, yeah,

6:53 Speaker 3: I want to I just want to know what is

6:54 Speaker 3: AI and what is human?

6:56 Speaker 2: That's what I want to know.

6:57 Speaker 3: I think you should be a little disclaimer or something. Yeah,

7:01 Speaker 3: like this is my creation, but the band is magic.

7:05 Speaker 1: The Velvet Sundown. I'm curious if I can find anything

7:08 Speaker 1: else of there here.

7:12 Speaker 2: So you should check out that interfury one.

7:15 Speaker 1: Yeah no, you showed me that.

7:17 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, oh yeah I did show it too.

7:19 Speaker 1: Oh they've got a whole album called Dust and.

7:22 Speaker 2: Silence, Dust and Silence.

7:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, let's see.

7:25 Speaker 3: This was the song though, wasn't it dust on the Wind?

7:28 Speaker 2: On the Wind?

7:29 Speaker 1: This one's called let It Burn.

7:37 Speaker 4: Flicker lights sound, silver sad marchingles with no command, velvet boots,

7:53 Speaker 4: some mirrored round.

7:58 Speaker 2: Drums of thunder, distance.

8:05 Speaker 1: Promises instatic. Yeah, I mean it is a little bland,

8:13 Speaker 1: but all right there it is the world radio premiere

8:17 Speaker 1: of The Velvet Sundown. These I'm looking at these song titles.

8:28 Speaker 1: I'm looking at these song titles and the titles like

8:30 Speaker 1: Driftwood Soldiers, where War Remains. Oh yeah, this is all

8:37 Speaker 1: there seems to be a theme, war Debt, Crimson Parade.

8:45 Speaker 2: Oh it's not a pretty image.

8:47 Speaker 1: Hm hmm. Yeah. There's a lot of stuff in the

8:51 Speaker 1: lyrics about waving flags and maybe the person making people pay,

8:55 Speaker 1: the person.

8:56 Speaker 2: Created maybe be a veteran. Maybe do we know anything

9:01 Speaker 2: about the creator?

9:01 Speaker 1: No, we don't know anything about just that they're not real.

9:06 Speaker 2: And there and their contact isn't real either, right.

9:10 Speaker 1: The spokesperson, the spokesperson was not real because an AI

9:16 Speaker 1: generated picture of them of the band.

9:20 Speaker 2: They saw that when I was looking at it.

9:22 Speaker 1: They look like, uh, but the.

9:23 Speaker 3: One yes, but you can tell like at least the

9:28 Speaker 3: one on the right hand side looked like he was AI.

9:31 Speaker 1: Yeah.

9:31 Speaker 2: They kind of doesn't look like he's not a I.

9:33 Speaker 1: They kind of look fake. Yeah.

9:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, well yeah, that's where we are. Now.

9:39 Speaker 1: There you go, There you go.