Not My Album?

Tiffany Sun

August 22, 2025

Plagiarism has always been a heavily condemned issue that has plagued society for countless years, especially in the creative industries, such as art, music, and writing. With the rise of fancy technology, it has become ever easier to plagiarize, or just use AI to create what one does not want to create. But what if I told you someone did the opposite of plagiarizing with AI? What if someone, somehow, for some reason, put content under another person’s name and got them recognized for it, even praised?

Last month, Emily Portman, a prominent folk singer and songwriter, received multiple messages from fans complimenting her new album, Orca. Except that album wasn’t hers.

To her disbelief, someone had uploaded an entire album under her name on iTunes, Spotify, and other music streaming services. The album consisted of 10 songs, all uncannily similar to her own. Clearly, the AI that had generated these songs (as they were evidently the work of artificial intelligence) had been thoroughly trained to replicate Portman’s style, writing, tunes, and even song names. Emily Portman herself admitted that some of the songs, such as Sprig of Thyme and Silent Hearth, may well have been titles she would’ve chosen for her own songs.

Although the songs were very on par with Portman’s style and even convinced some of her fans, they sounded too pristine, too clean, and lacked a human touch. Everything was perfectly in tune, everything was perfectly aligned, everything was perfect like a computer designed it. Portman herself responded by pointing out that she doesn’t want her songs to sound that perfect because she’s not perfect, she’s human. That’s where AI will always fall short of truly replicating the soul of creativity.

Unfortunately, Portman has not been the only one who’s experienced such absurd “reverse plagiarism.” Despite AI music having been around for some time now, only recently have smaller established artists been targeted with fake music created under their names. Even some dead musicians have “released” new songs.

These singers are falsely credited for the music, but the royalties are being funneled towards whoever is behind these AI songs. However, the money earned from such content is not substantial because these fake songs are detected early on as a result of fan messages, and such content is not posted under the names of superstars (likely because they receive more protection) who receive millions of plays in an instant.

Nonetheless, the blatant use of someone else’s name to publicize AI-generated content is a violation of the singers and must be condemned. AI’s presence in the creative industries has already posed a threat to artists, yet now it is used to poorly misrepresent them—those who devote their entire lives to the creation of original and human art.