What AI pop will sound like: As Google and Universal negotiate a 'deepfake' music tie-up, how the cloned voices of Harry Styles, Rihanna and Kanye offer a blueprint for the songs of the future

Streaming may have killed off MP3s in the same way the iPod put paid to CDs and cassettes ended the dominance of vinyls. Each time the music industry has adapted and evolved. But what do record labels have up their sleeves to ward off the threat of artificial intelligence (AI)? Well, after the emergence of a string of'deepfake' songs where the likes of Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra and Drake have had their voices convincingly mimicked, the world's largest record label is taking action. Universal Music is now in talks with Google to license artists' voices and melodies so they can be used for songs generated by AI.