Jay-Z takes action against 'deepfakes' of him rapping Hamlet and Billy Joel

Jay-Z's company Roc Nation have filed takedown notices against "deepfake" videos that use artificial intelligence to make him rap Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire and Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy. The two aforementioned videos have been removed, though others remain, including one of the rapper taking on the Book of Genesis. Vocal Synthesis said – via a deepfake video using the ersatz voices of Barack Obama and Donald Trump – that they had "no malicious purpose" and were "disappointed that Jay-Z and Roc Nation have decided to bully a small YouTuber in this way". The Guardian has contacted Roc Nation for comment. Deepfake videos have already caused great controversy in political and celebrity circles, with California outlawing them in 2018, and Facebook banning them in January.