Youtube introduced Music AI Incubator to help inform its approach as the platform works with artists, songwriters, and producers across the industry and genres.
Heaptalk, Jakarta — Youtube revealed Music AI Incubator as a place to facilitate artists and musicians in further exploring artificial intelligence (AI) in music (08/21). To develop the AI framework, Youtube established collaborations with several music partners, one of which is Universal Music Group.
“To kick off the program, we’re working with Universal Music Group—a leader in the space—and their incredible roster of talent,” stated CEO of Youtube Neal Mohan in a written statement.
The incubator will help inform Youtube’s approach to embracing AI as the platform works with a number of artists, songwriters, and producers across the industry, a diverse range of cultures, genres, and experiences. Universal Music’s talents participating in this project include Anitta, Björn Ulvaeus, d4vd, Don Was, Juanes, Louis Bell, Max Richter, Rodney Jerkins, Rosanne Cash, Ryan Tedder of One Republic, Yo Gotti, and Frank Sinatra.
In addition, Youtube also declared three fundamental AI principles to enhance music’s unique creative expression as well as to protect artists and the integrity of their work. The Music AI Incubator is a part of the first principle, which is to embrace the presence of AI responsibly together with the partners.
Regarding the first principle, the video-sharing platform recorded over 1.7 billion views of videos related to the generative AI tool solely in 2023. According to Mohan, YouTube creators have embraced AI to streamline and boost their creative processes.
Investing in AI technology to protect the Youtube community
The second principle is to ensure AI includes the right safeguards and opens opportunities for music partners. The Google-owned platform will continue to invest in AI-powered technology in protecting the community of viewers, creators, artists, and songwriters. This protection covers content ID, policies, as well as detection and enforcement systems to keep the platform secured.
The last principle is to scale the trust and safety organization and content policies to meet the challenges of AI. “We spent years investing in the policies and trust and safety teams that help protect the YouTube community, and we’re also applying these safeguards to AI-generated content. One example is our policies prohibiting certain technically manipulated content,” added Mohan.
Meanwhile, the Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group Sir Lucian Grainge in a separate statement said that the partnership with Youtube was established based on a shared commitment to lead responsibly as outlined in Youtube’s AI principles which state that AI is built to empower human creativity.
“AI will never replace human creativity because it will always lack the essential spark that drives the most talented artists to do their best work, which is intention. From Mozart to The Beatles to Taylor Swift, genius is never random,” Grainge concluded.
