A Canadian man identified only by the pseudonym Andrew Frelon has admitted to orchestrating an intricate hoax that involved creating a non-existent AI-generated band called The Velvet Sundown. The scheme, which recently made headlines, misled journalists and catapulted the fictitious group to over a million monthly listeners on Spotify.
In an exclusive phone interview with CBC News, Frelon said he had no official affiliation with The Velvet Sundown other than playing the role of a fabricated spokesperson. He apologized to anyone who may have been negatively affected by the deception, but maintained that he found the outcomes of the experiment too curious and compelling to abandon.
The hoax involved disseminating fabricated press materials and media outreach claiming that The Velvet Sundown was an up-and-coming band using cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools to produce music. Influenced by growing public curiosity about the role of AI in the creative industry, media outlets picked up the story, giving it considerable legitimacy.
Frelon’s actions ignited widespread discussions about media literacy, the ease of misinformation in the digital age, and the ethical implications of artificial intelligence in art. He told CBC News that the primary goal of the experiment was to explore how quickly and easily false information can be accepted as truth, especially when aligned with current trends like generative AI.
Spotify, which had unknowingly hosted the music under misleading pretenses, has not yet publicly commented on the incident. It remains unclear who created the actual music attributed to The Velvet Sundown or whether the tracks were genuinely produced using AI tools.
This incident sheds light on the importance of critical verification by media institutions and raises ongoing concerns about authenticity in the era of AI-generated content. While Frelon insists the experiment was intended to provoke thought, it serves as a cautionary tale about the potential for technology to blur the lines between fiction and reality.
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