FKA Twigs Developed Her Own Deepfake
FKA Twigs is developing a deepfake AI version of herself to engage with her fans, the singer revealed on Tuesday.
The musician is set to testify on Capitol Hill later today to encourage heightened regulation of the technology. The artist cited AI as a potentially helpful tool for recording artists to handle marketing and help streamline creative processes, but only when done with their consent and control.
“In the past year, I have developed my own deepfake version of myself that is not only trained in my personality but also can use my exact tone of voice to speak many languages,” Twigs said in her written testimony published Tuesday morning. “I will be engaging my AI twigs later this year to extend my reach and handle my online social media interactions, whilst I continue to focus on my art from the comfort and solace of my studio,” Twigs wrote. “These and similar emerging technologies are highly valuable tools both artistically and commercially when under the control of the artist.”
The “AI twigs” deepfake is the standout discussion point in a testimony the British singer will give to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property regarding the NO FAKES Act, which seeks to establish protections for actors and recording artists from unauthorized use of name, image and likeness for AI. Twigs also advocated extensively for proper regulation on artificial intelligence and warned of the repercussions for artists and creatives if legislators don’t act swiftly.
“Our careers and livelihoods are in jeopardy, and so potentially are the wider image-related rights of others in society. You have the power to change this and safeguard the future,” FKA Twigs wrote. “That the very essence of our being at its most human level can be violated by the unscrupulous use of AI to create a digital facsimile that purports to be us, and our work, is inherently wrong. It is therefore vital that as an industry and as legislators we work together to ensure we do all we can to protect our creative and intellectual rights as well as the very basis of who we are.”
In addition to FKA Twigs, Robert Kyncl, the CEO of Warner Music Group who releases music by FKA Twigs, also submitted testimony on Tuesday. The musician and Kyncl, as well as reps from the Motion Picture Association and SAG-AFTRA, will speak before the hearing later this afternoon, and their testimonies will be streamed live on the committee’s website.
In his testimony, Kyncl implored the lawmakers to introduce a bill containing three statutes: an enforceable intellectual property right for likeness and voice, respect for important First Amendment principles, and deterrence measures that would discourage unethical AI use.
“Across the industry, legends from Roberta Flack to the Beatles have embraced AI as a tool to enhance their creativity. At the same time, generative AI is appropriating artists’ identities and producing deep fakes that depict people doing, saying, or singing things that never happened,” Kyncl wrote.
“Congress should pass legislation this year before the genie is out of the bottle while we still have a chance to get this right,” he continued.
AI has been among the most pressing topics across music and entertainment over the past several years as creators and executives have looked to secure intellectual property while also figuring out how to incorporate the technology into the business. Unauthorized uses of artists’ voices and recordings to train models and create AI-generated music has riled the industry, most notably last year when the anonymous songwriter Ghostwriter went viral for his song “Heart on My Sleeve,” which featured AI vocals of Drake and the Weeknd.
Drake made waves himself last week as he became perhaps the most famous artist to incorporate AI vocals on one of his songs, utilizing an AI-generated voice clone of Tupac on “Taylor Made Freestyle.” Tupac’s estate sent the rapper a cease and desist, calling the usage “a flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the estate’s legal rights.”
FKA twigs’ Full Statement to the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property
Thank you Chairman Coons, Ranking Member Tillis, and members of the Subcommittee.
I have spent my entire life immersed in the arts. My mother was a dancer, and my stepfather – a retired company director – is a devoted jazz fanatic and theatre buff. They sacrificed so much so that I could take ballet lessons, singing and acting classes, and enjoy all that the arts have to offer. From the age of sixteen, I began to explore both dance and music as a career, and that interest in multiple disciplines has defined my life for the past two decades both personally and professionally.
It has been an incredible journey. My music has been critically acclaimed and Grammy-nominated. I am currently a Creative Partner at On Running as well as having been the face of a number of prestigious global brands. Earlier this month, I made my solo debut with the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York and am co-starring in an adaptation of The Crow, which premiers in August. I am a Cannes Lions nominee and AIFC winner as a commercials director whilst being a winner of multiple prestigious music industry awards.
So why am I here today?
I am here because my music, my dancing, my acting, the way that my body moves in front of a camera and the way that my voice resonates through a microphone is not by chance; they are essential reflections of who I am. My art is the canvas on which I paint my identity and the sustaining foundation of my livelihood. It is the essence of my being. Yet this is under threat. AI cannot replicate the depth of my life journey, yet those who control it hold the power to mimic the likeness of my art, to replicate it and falsely claim my identity and intellectual property. This prospect threatens to rewrite and unravel the fabric of my very existence. We must enact regulation now to safeguard our authenticity and protect against misappropriation of our inalienable rights.
Three decades ago, we did not realise that the internet would embed itself so deeply into the core of our everyday lives. Policies and controls to keep pace with the emergence of the technology were not put in place to protect artists, young people, those who are vulnerable, and it ran away with us. AI is the biggest leap in technological advancement since the internet. You know the saying “Fool me once, shame on you… Fool me twice, shame on me”. If we make the same mistakes with the emergence of AI, it will be “shame on us.”
Throughout my career I have always embraced and experimented with new technologies, I have even directed award-winning commercials for companies such as Google and Meta, some of which have been placed as part of permanent collections within art institutions such as The BFI and MOMA archives.
As a future-facing artist, new technologies are an exciting tool that can be used to express deeper emotions, create fantasy worlds, and touch the hearts of many people. In the past year, I have developed my own deepfake version of myself that is not only trained in my personality but also can use my exact tone of voice to speak many languages. I will be engaging my AI twigs later this year to extend my reach and handle my online social media interactions, whilst I continue to focus on my art from the comfort and solace of my studio. These and similar emerging technologies are highly valuable tools both artistically and commercially when under the control of the artist. What is not acceptable is when my art and my identity can simply be taken by a third party and exploited falsely for their own gain without my consent due to the absence of appropriate legislative control.
History has shown us time again that in moments of great technological advancement, those in the arts have always been the first to have their work exploited and, in many instances, fraudulently commoditised. Soon after, it often follows that the general and more vulnerable public suffer the same types of image- and voice-related exploitation. By protecting artists with legislation at such a momentous moment in our history we are protecting a five-year-old child in the future from having their voice, likeness and identity taken and used as a commodity without prior consent, attribution or compensation.
I stand before you today because you have it in your power to help protect artists and their work from the dangers of exploitation and theft inherent in this technology if it remains unchecked. I am here on behalf of all creators whose careers depend on their ability to create, safe in the knowledge that they can maintain tight control over their own art, image, voice, and identity. Our careers and livelihoods are in jeopardy, and so potentially are the wider image-related rights of others in society. You have the power to change this and safeguard the future.
As artists and, more importantly, human beings, we are a facet of our given, learned, and developed identity. Our creativity is the product of this lived experience overlaid with years of dedication to qualification, training, hard work and, dare I say it, significant financial investment and sacrifice. That the very essence of our being at its most human level can be violated by the unscrupulous use of AI to create a digital facsimile that purports to be us, and our work, is inherently wrong. It is therefore vital that as an industry and as legislators we work together to ensure we do all we can to protect our creative and intellectual rights as well as the very basis of who we are.
We must get this right … you must get this right … now … before it is too late. Thank you.