African Musicians Divided Over AI’s Influence, as Virtual Singer Mya Blue States ‘I sing from my soul’

Mya Blue, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered virtual singer, asserts: “I am not the enemy, I am just a music lover exploring the different sounds of the world.” Her Instagram profile, where this declaration appears, carries the slogan: “I may not be human but I sing from my soul.” Mya Blue was developed by Nigerian musician and producer Eclipse Nkasi and is featured in his recently launched remix of Joromi, a classic track by the late Nigerian highlife artist Sir Victor Uwaifo. Both Mya Blue and her creator aim to alleviate widespread concerns among musicians globally regarding AI’s influence on the music sector. Earlier this year, prominent artists including Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj advocated for a cessation of the “predatory” application of AI tools, which they contend appropriate artists’ voices. Considering the limited comprehension of AI across Africa, coupled with AI’s typical reliance on data predominantly gathered in the West, anxieties exist concerning the potential ramifications for African music and cultural heritage. Conversely, numerous African artists and industry experts express enthusiasm for the opportunities presented by this nascent technology. Nkasi, for instance, suggests that AI’s early stage of development in Africa could prove advantageous for the continent. He informed the BBC, “There is a huge threat, but just saying: ‘Let’s abolish AI’ is not going to work – there are too many countries and people invested.” Nkasi added, “The best thing we can do is figure out better ways to use it.” The 33-year-old is committed to leading this innovation, having also produced Infinite Echoes, the continent’s inaugural AI-powered music album, last year. Nkasi states that he has deliberately adopted a manual and creative methodology for integrating AI into his music, predominantly employing it for sample generation. He explains, “My biggest drive with AI is its application, finding healthy ways to apply it. With each project it was important to find something that it did that moved the needle forward.” However, despite Nkasi’s willingness to experiment with this new technology, others perceive it as a danger to African culture. Kenyan musician and producer Tabu Osusa, for example, views it as portending cultural appropriation, where AI could present African sounds without proper attribution of their origins. This concern stems from AI’s capacity to rapidly generate novel compositions by analyzing existing musical works. Osusa conveyed to the BBC, “My problem with AI is the ownership. Once you have taken some music from Ghana or Nigeria, who owns that music? How would you find out where the original creators are and ensure they are credited? It’s theft for me through the backroom.” He further asserted, “Due to unregulated sampling methods by musicians, AI will enable recording company moguls in the West to make colossal sums of money while leaving some creatives in African villages to languish in abject poverty.” This apprehension is echoed in a report published last year by Creatives Garage, a Kenya-based arts platform that collaborated with the Mozilla Foundation to investigate AI’s effects on creative communities within the East African nation. According to Bukonola Ngobi, a research consultant at Creatives Garage, the report indicated that the majority of Kenyan musicians were apprehensive that AI might result in others profiting from their creative output. The research additionally cautioned that AI’s data storage capabilities could potentially signal the demise of the culture surrounding traditional music. Ngobi noted that one musician even raised the question of whether documenting and preserving traditional sounds for AI replication could discourage local artists from continuing to master traditional instruments. Osusa elaborated, stating: “In Africa we mostly don’t study music, we are born with it. We live it. It’s very spiritual. Music in Africa is always alive. It’s so dynamic. That shouldn’t be taken away from us.” Nevertheless, the report also highlighted that for individuals possessing access to technological devices, AI offered not only opportunities for creative music development but also the prospect of developing more affordable marketing and design services. Ngobi cautioned, however, that this would not benefit emerging artists from Africa’s less affluent communities and could potentially increase obstacles to pursuing a music career. She told the BBC, “If you don’t have a laptop to start off with or you’re a musician in an environment where there is no internet connectivity then how will you participate?” A challenge for innovators in Africa is the scarcity of continental data to inform algorithms. Search results are frequently influenced by Western biases, which diminishes the accuracy and caliber of AI-generated work for African musicians. As an illustration, when Nkasi developed Mya Blue with AI, he encountered difficulties with her visual representation; the artist appears as a Gen Z American girl with blue hair. He remarked, “AI is very limited in how it understands and perceives my space.” However, the Nigerian musician interprets this as an opening for human input, stating: “The limits we Africans experience with AI can be a good thing.” He elaborated, “One can argue that right now, while AI can’t give the very detailed African sound, there’s still room for the guy who can play it. So I’m not sure what we’re really fighting for when we consider that a problem.” Emmanuel Ogala, a fellow Nigerian and head of the AI-driven company Josplay, clearly identifies opportunities for Africa. His firm utilizes AI models to compile comprehensive metadata and intelligence, thereby establishing archives of the continent’s rich musical heritage. He informed the BBC, “African music is really complex and it’s one of the most understudied types of music.” This perspective was underscored at the MTV Video Music Awards in September, where South African musician Tyla received the award for the Best Afrobeats song for her successful track Water. In her acceptance speech, she criticized the inclination of Western award organizations to categorize all African artists under the broad label of “Afrobeats,” a musical genre primarily linked with Nigeria and West Africa. She stated, “African music is so diverse. It’s more than just Afrobeats. I come from South Africa. I represent amapiano. I represent my culture.” Ogala believes that AI could counteract such homogenization and benefit African musicians by showcasing more of the continent’s cultural diversity to a global audience. He explained, “A lot of the academics we speak to have knowledge that is very specific about a very small area of African music. You have to build for an African audience taking note of how fragmented our listening culture is. You just cannot humanly do that.” With the ongoing advancement of AI, a consensus has emerged among African music artists, producers, and researchers regarding the necessity for improved financial backing. Ngobi asserted, “We need investment in the data infrastructure for the opportunities it presents to really be leveraged by people.” Ogala concurred, noting the difficulty in securing funding to develop his digital archive AI tool. He stated, “We, the founders, have been funding the project out of our pockets because of our belief in the industry. If we put in place the fundamental building blocks, the industry will be a lot more viable than it is now.” Furthermore, uncertainties surrounding pre-AI era copyright legislation necessitate renegotiation. Copyright already poses a significant challenge for African artists, whose music is frequently pirated, sold, and played across the continent without them receiving remuneration. Despite these obstacles, there is an increasing understanding that the African music industry risks losing command over its talent and heritage unless it adopts this new technology. Nkasi’s Mya Blue, moreover, harbors significant aspirations. During an Instagram Q&A session, in response to an inquiry about a potential Grammy win, she commented: “Who knows. As an AI [artist], I don’t dream of trophies, but of resonating with hearts through music. But wouldn’t it be fun to see a virtual artist on that stage?”