Earlier on in 2018, the streaming service removed a song from its catalog that featured artificial intelligence-generated clones of the vocals of the artists Drake and The Weeknd.

Daniel Ek mentioned to the BBC that there are appropriate applications of the technology within the realm of music production; nevertheless, AI should not be utilized to impersonate human musicians without first obtaining their permission.

He predicted that discussions on the use of AI in music will continue for “many, many years.”

Mr. Ek, who only infrequently interacts with the media, stated that he sees three “buckets” of applications for artificial intelligence:

Tools that enhance music, such as auto-tune, which he considered were appropriate; tools that mimic artists, which he believed were not; and a more problematic middle ground in which music made by AI was clearly influenced by music created by actual musicians, but did not directly impersonate them.
When asked about the difficulty that the sector was going to have to overcome, he responded by saying, “It is going to be tricky.”

The company does not permit its content to be used to train a machine learning or AI model, the likes of which can then make music. This is despite the fact that AI is not prohibited in all of its forms on the platform.

There has been a recent uptick in the number of artists speaking out against the implementation of AI in the creative industry.

In the previous month, the Irish artist Hozier stated that he was considering going on strike due to the threat that artificial intelligence posed to his trade.

He stated that he was unsure whether or not the technology “meets the definition of art” on BBC Newsnight.