With a crooning voice and wistful lyrics, singer Eddie Dalton surged to the top of the UK music charts, gaining fans who have streamed his songs millions of times. But there is just one problem: he isn’t real.
Marketed online as an African-American bluesman, Dalton is in fact an AI invention, and there are concerns that “his” astounding chart performance has been amplified using technology.
Separate AI-generated tracks released under this fictional avatar peaked at No. 2 and No. 3 in the official UK singles chart.
The computer-created song Another Day Old, a soulful meditation on ageing, in the style of Otis Redding or Marvin Gaye, has amassed more than a million views on YouTube despite Dalton having no public profile to speak of.
He appears to be the latest creation of Crusty Records, a group whose previous experiments include scores of AI-generated country songs that mock the genre with expletive-laden lyrics about cousin marriage and gay acts in the backwoods of America.
Songs in this vein include “Drunk Driving to Your House” and “I Ain’t Gay”, which managed to garner more than five million streams on Spotify.