YouTube is partnering with Universal Music, and numerous players in the industry, like singer Rosanne Cash and producer Don Was, to form a newly founded Music AI Incubator to experiment with AI’s musical capabilities.

According to Universal Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lucian Grange, the partnership will include the collaboration with the likes of artists like rapper Yo Gatti and representatives of the estate of singer Frank Sinatra, and will set out to discover how to best employ AI-related tools. Additionally, the partnership will aim to encourage more artists to get involved in the process.

Over in the YouTube camp, CEO Neal Molan shared in a post that the streaming titan aims to impose copyrights and monitor for illegal use of an artist’s voice.

AI-generated videos like the pulled down deepfake song featuring Drake and The Weeknd’s voices are getting massive views, with YouTube having over 1.7 billion views this year alone and with the incubator, the industry is looking to find ways entertainers can turn a profit from the new tech.

“We’re eager to further build on our focus of helping artists and creators make money on YouTube and will continue to do so in collaboration with our partners,” Molan said.

The fact that Universal Music has moved on from calling AI music a ‘fraud’ to learning how to best utilise the new technology shows that the music giant is ready to accept a future inclusive of AI.

Before the incubator launch, Grainge had cautioned that if AI development is left unrestricted, we would see a “flood of unwanted content on platforms” and “rights issues with respect to existing copyright law”.

Now Universal is taking the initiative with its partnership with YouTube to most likely mitigate any AI-related risks of not preparing for the way AI will change the music industry.

Establishing the three fundamental philosophies of AI, YouTube disclosed “generative AI systems may amplify current challenges like trademark and copyright abuse, misinformation, spam, and more. But AI can also be used to identify this sort of content.”