Even if you didn't watch last weekend's episode of Saturday Night Live, you still probably saw it. You may already even know what "it" I'm talking about: Timothée Chalamet, and other similarly-dressed cast members, booty-shaking in tiny little red undies. He was, the sketch goes, "an Australian YouTube twink turned indie pop star and model turned HBO actor Troye Sivan being played by an American actor who can't do an Australian accent." Chalamet and his cohort were Troye Sivan Sleep Demons, and they'd been haunting straight women all over the place. It was a funny bit and, ironically, the least nightmarish Sivan impression to come out this week.

YouTube has sidestepped controversies surrounding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate new music with a new tool that clones singers' voices. The new feature, called Dream Track, is available in YouTube Shorts – the Google-owned platform's answer to TikTok that lets users post short videos. Users can enter a prompt about what sort of music style they want – such as'upbeat' or'ballad' – and select the artist they want the AI to imitate. Nine artists have allowed their voice to be copied for the tool, including Alec Benjamin, Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, John Legend, Sia and Troye Sivan. YouTube posted a short clip of what the clone version of US singer Charlie Puth sounds like – and it's impressively close to the real thing.

YouTube on Thursday unveiled some new experimental AI services, including a feature called Dream Track in YouTube Shorts. It creates up to 30-second soundtracks using AI-generation versions of artists' voices. Though musicians have mostly pushed back on AI (and their voices being used for training models without permission or compensation), YouTube got nine big names from the music industry to participate, including John Legend, Troye Sivan, CharliXCX and T-Pain. The company hoped to announce the feature at its Made on YouTube event in September, but it's been tied up in negotiations with recording companies over rights and payments. Users can access Dream Track by typing an idea into the creation prompt and choosing from one of the participating artists.

TikTok's tools for adding music to short videos helped turn short-form video into a phenomenon. Now Google is giving some YouTube Shorts creators an AI feature called Dream Track that can generate songs, including lyrics, melody, and accompaniment, in the styles of seven different artists including Charlie Puth, Demi Lovato, Sia, and T-Pain with a tool called Dream Track. To whip up a 30-second clip with Dream Track a creator just has to enter a prompt, such as "a ballad about how opposites attract, upbeat acoustic," then select which artist the song should be styled on. The new AI capabilities might help Google lure users from TikTok, where AI tools for adding visual or audio effects are hugely popular. YouTube says it is looking into how artists whose work helped train its music-generating algorithms will receive a cut of future ad revenue generated by videos featuring AI-generated audio.