A new song that sounds like it was released by Justin Bieber and whose lyrics mention being at a “Diddy party” has gained huge popularity on social media, raising questions about its authenticity.
It first appeared on social media platforms such as TikTok, X and YouTube in April, but has garnered even more views since the arrest of rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Lyrics include: “I got lost in Diddy's party / I didn't know it would be like this / I was driving for a new Ferrari / But it cost me much more than my soul.”
Another verse says, “I signed the document so I would never have to apologize.”
The new song, which sounds like it was released by Justin Bieber, includes lyrics like: “I got lost at Diddy's party/I didn't know it would be like this/I was in that new Ferrari/But it cost me much more than my soul “ (Getty Photos)
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Bieber's representatives did not respond to a request for comment on the song, but several experts agree that the melody is more than likely created using artificial intelligence or other digital tools.
Artificial intelligence expert Marva Bailer told Fox News Digital: “The reason this is being generated is because the artist is not posting it publicly. And when we say “AI-generated,” it can mean many things. And so the artificial intelligence actually trains the voice and what can happen. It could be an artificial intelligence tool or it could be an actual digital tool. These digital music tools are really getting attention with the idea of artificial intelligence because it happens so quickly and it looks so realistic, so everyone thinks it must be someone using something with artificial intelligence for it to look so realistic.
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She continued: “Part of the experience of releasing new material is the before and after of the experience and the engagement with digital technology. So we immediately know it's not real unless the artist is excited about it and hasn't told us about it. We like surprises and you see a lot of gamification to find out what's in the vault, what the new song will be and what the hidden song is. We haven't seen it in this scenario, that's why fans say this isn't my Justin Bieber.”
“It's very hard to say, but I think the fact that it seemed very relevant and timely, it seemed too coincidental that it came about,” said Rob Rosenberg, founder and director of Telluride Legal Strategies.
Experts say the song is most likely artificial intelligence for a variety of reasons, including Bieber's lack of promotion for it. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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She told CBS that they ran the song “through multiple AI audio detection tools; several results indicated that the sound, or at least part of it, was likely generated by artificial intelligence.”
On the technical side, experts from Pindrop, a voice authentication and security company that has been heavily involved in the banking industry since 2011 but recently expanded its technology to detect AI-generated deepfakes, told Fox News Digital that certain elements highlight this song as AI-generated.
“The reason it's generated is because it's not something the artist puts out.”
“When we speak, our speech takes place in a specific frequency range. We noticed that these AI generation systems sound really good, but they don't actually match the way we speak at the exact frequencies that we normally would. That's why we're able to detect this kind of frequency variability in AI-generated speech,” said Sarosh Shahbuddin, senior Chief Product Officer at Pindrop.
Elie Khoury, Ph.D., and vice president of research, further explained that there are three main categories of these artifacts, including acoustic, phonetic and temporal inconsistency, and the “digital fingerprint” of the model that generated the AI.
Experts from Pindrop, a voice authentication and security company, said Bieber's song contains so-called “digital artifacts” that suggest it is not authentic. (Joseph Okpako/WireImage)
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Shahbuddin also pointed out that their own technology is often combined with independent fact-checking to determine whether an image or piece of audio was created using artificial intelligence.
Pindrop recently entered the social media space with its Pindrop Pulse tool, and Shahbuddin and Khoury said they are seeing a “huge increase” in people checking for deepfakes, with 10,000 “suspicious files” appearing on their site per month.
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They noted that “the distribution of media files that we have identified as synthetic and non-synthetic is quite large and alarming,” thanks in part to publicly available open-source tools for creating deepfakes.
“There is very little that can be done to stop the use of these models. This is crazy,” Shahbuddin said.
Experts at Pindrop said they are seeing a “huge increase” in the number of people checking for deepfakes. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
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Beyond the issue of song content, there are also financial implications of continued deepfakes of Bieber and other artists.
“(The goal of) TikTok is that you create your funny little creations, you add cartoons and talking heads and new, funny creations, and people use that as background music to these new creations. And so it goes on. and so on. And normally, if it was a licensed song, every time one of these works was played, you would receive royalties. And then no one in the world would receive any royalties,” Bailer said.
Bieber did not address the song or rumors that it was spoofed by artificial intelligence. (Mike Rosenthal/Getty Images)
“These social media platforms will start to see music-related deepfakes as a completely different category of media compared to political deepfakes or other types of deepfakes,” Shahbuddin explained. “The reason is that there are labels and certain types of organizations that license these singers and artists, which affects how royalties are distributed among these artists. So these singing deepfakes are actually a new class where there is a significant revenue impact. “I think platforms like YouTube will start to take this much more seriously than non-singing or music-related deepfakes.”
He added: “Imagine if the person who created this deepfake actually uploaded it as a song on Spotify and then got thousands of plays. “It's money that goes to someone who you know the money doesn't belong to that person.”
“There is little that can be done to stop the use of these models. This is madness.”
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Bailer said that even when money is involved, Bieber won't bother with the deepfake issue for several reasons.
“Bieber doesn't address this issue because he has millions of followers on Instagram and even (reportedly) makes almost $2 million per Instagram post,” she said. “So if his PR team handled every unauthorized remake of his music, that would be all they would do. By the way, he just had a baby three months ago, so he's busy with his family. He and his PR team don't want to draw unwanted attention to people who are trying to damage his brand. You could also argue, are they damaging his brand?”
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Since Combs' arrest and charges, Bieber's former friendship with the disgraced mogul has been under the microscope along with other stars, with fans panning over re-released videos of the two interacting.
Bieber began his career in 2009 after signing with Usher and later connected with Combs. (Getty Images)
Rosenberg, however, advises people to be cautious with any new media coverage that emerges as the allegations against Combs continue to be cracked down.
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“I actually think there will be a lot more new information coming to light, but at the same time I think there will be new disinformation,” he said. “There will be deepfakes, people who use all their creativity to create images, videos and stories, so people will really need to carefully analyze the things they see and discover to make sure they are not just having fun with it.”
