When Stick Figure's six-year-old song shot up the charts, the band was thrilled. But its viral moment was spurred by unauthorized AI remixes. The California-based reggae band Stick Figure has been around for 20 years, eight albums, and countless hours on the road, but lead vocalist and guitarist Scott Woodruff has never seen a track take off like "Angels Above Me" did this past week. The six-year-old song hit number one on the iTunes sales charts in six different countries, including the United Kingdom, Austria, and Canada, skyrocketing "out of nowhere," according to Woodruff. Stick Figure has had plenty of thrilling milestones before, with albums repeatedly hitting number one in the reggae category, and hit singles amassing hundreds of millions of streams.

Spotify adds'Verified' badges to distinguish human artists from AI Spotify is introducing a'Verified' badge to help users identify when artists on its platform are human, not AI-generated. The world's most-used music streaming service said the'Verified by Spotify' text and green checkmark icon would appear next to artist names when they meet defined standards demonstrating authenticity. This could include having linked social accounts on their artist profile, consistent listener activity or other signals of a real artist behind the profile, the company said, such as merchandise or concert dates. In its blog post, Spotify said more than 99% of the artists listeners actively search for will be verified, representing hundreds of thousands of artists. It said the process would prioritise acts with important contributions to music culture and history, rather than content farms, with the platform rolling out verification and badges over the coming weeks.

Intelligent, egoless the artist in Grayson Perry Has Seen the Future. Intelligent, egoless the artist in Grayson Perry Has Seen the Future. From people marrying digital companions to CEOs excited about how people whose jobs are replaced can'adapt', this is terrifying watching. T here is a fun game you can play while watching Grayson Perry Has Seen the Future, the two-part documentary presented by the artist on the subject of artificial intelligence, its uses and its possible ramifications. Gather a group of friends, press play, and see which of you loses your mind first.

How the artists in this year's survey do or, more often, don't acknowledge those who paved the way for them. Machado makes pieces that one might call documents of reverence, excavated burial grounds. If nothing else, the 2026 Whitney Biennial, curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer (at the Whitney Museum through August 23rd), introduces viewers to what I call ChatGPT art--facsimiles of facsimiles by makers who have little if any relationship to what they're putting out there, aside from its being a product in service of a career. Indeed, it's difficult to think of the people who grew up with and apparently condone the use of A.I. sources in the creation of "art" as artists themselves, especially if you define art as a creative expression of thoughts or feelings that have changed, and contributed to the vision of, the artists who made it. It's true that, nearly from the beginning, postmodern art challenged the notion of originality, or, more specifically, the weight of originality--often with great joy and wit and not a little fear.

Nvidia's new AI upscaling gaming technology struck gamers as uncanny and off-putting. Developers don't seem to like it, either, but it could be "the default" in a few years. Nvidia announced a new version of its DLSS AI upscaling technology for its graphics cards earlier this week at its GPU Technology Conference (GTC), which it calls the Super Bowl of AI . But unlike previous versions of DLSS that used AI to improve frame rates in video games, DLSS 5 has a much more ambitious calling: using generative AI to make character faces in games look more realistic and detailed. The demonstration received sharp blowback on social media, with many finding the effect off-putting, reacting with outright disgust, and calling it yet another example of AI slop .

Sir Paul McCartney was among the artists who spoke out on the issue. After significant backlash, the UK backed off from that position. We have listened, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said on Wednesday. However, the government's new stance is, well, not a stance at all. It currently no longer has a preferred option about how to handle the issue.

Sony removes 135,000 'deepfakes' of its artists' music Music giant Sony Music says it has requested the removal of more than 135,000 songs by fraudsters impersonating its artists on streaming services. The so-called deepfakes were created using generative AI, and targeted some of the company's biggest acts, who include Beyoncé, Queen and Harry Styles In the worst cases, [the deepfakes] potentially damage a release campaign or tarnish the reputation of an artist, said Dennis Kooker, president of Sony's global digital business. The company says the number of songs generated in this fashion is only increasing as artificial intelligence technology becomes cheaper and easier to access. It believes the 135,000 tracks it has discovered to date represents just a percentage of the total uploaded to streaming services. Since last March alone, it has identified some 60,000 songs falsely purporting to feature artists from their roster.

We have listened, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said on Wednesday, saying the government no longer favours that approach. However, the government's position is now unclear, saying it no longer has a preferred option for what to do next. Kendall said the government had engaged extensively with people in the creative and AI industries. It is attempting to balance the interests of the two sectors by giving creatives control how their work is used, while recognising AI models need to be trained on work such as writing, music and video. In a report published on Wednesday, the government said there was no consensus on how these objectives should be achieved.

However, their utility is limited by their entanglement with respect to different visual attributes.

Our findings reveal that even small collectives (controlling less than 0.01% of the training data) can achieve up to