KUALA LUMPUR: While AI has been described as a "godsend" to music technology, popular hip-hop and pop trio KRU believes that it should not be "abused" by overzealous netizens to create cheap thrills.
KRU, comprising Datuk Norman, Datuk Yusry and Edry Abdul Halim strongly believe that AI should be solely used by artistes to enhance their music videos, and neither artistes nor netizens should "play God" or be "music magicians" by making other singers peform well-known Malaysian songs.
The popular brothers said that doing so would be unethical and unfair, unless the said artistes give their permission for their voices to be used.
Norman said: "On our part, we only use AI for our music videos such as our latest one for the new single Voodoo. Using state-of-the-art technology to make international artistes of the past and present sing our songs is an insult to the artistes especially those who are no longer with us."
Yusry said: "It's sad to note that legends such as Freddie Mercury have had their voices 'used' to sing hits by Malaysian icons such as Datuk Sudirman Arshad, and our very own icon Datuk Seri Siti Nurhaliza's voice has been 'used' to sing Adele's songs."
Edry said: "It would be good for Malaysia to have laws to strictly regulate the use of AI, lest it could be abused. Nobody should randomly use the voice of a legend to sing the songs of a contemporary artiste he or she never met."
KRU was met at the launch of their latest song Voodoo and its music video at Courtyard By Marriott KL South in Jalan Puchong yesterday.
Voodoo, a dance pop number, is the trio's first song that uses AI for its music video.
The video features a supernatural and somewhat scary story of a boyband played by themselves in AI form which is manufactured in a secret laboratory back in the 1990s, by a psychotic female scientist.
The video is partly inspired by Stephen King movies and depicts Norman, Yusry and Edry as young "Frankenstein monster teen idols" who immediately come to life and display superb singing and dancing skills.