A Canadian who duped journalists in an elaborate AI music hoax says he apologizes to anyone hurt by his experiment but that it’s been “too fascinating” to turn away from.

A man using the pseudonym Andrew Frelon posed as the spokesperson for a band called The Velvet Sundown — which he later said he had no involvement with — creating a media frenzy that propelled the AI-assisted “band” to a million monthly listeners on Spotify.

He spoke with CBC News over the phone Friday on condition that his real name not be revealed. CBC News agreed not to use his real name because he fears harassment based on the hateful messages he’s received online, and worries he would lose work if identified.

The sticky online saga began when the band appeared on music streaming platforms several weeks ago and amassed hundreds of thousands of streams from two full-length albums.

Its blend of laid-back 1970s-inspired rock and modern indie pop appeared on several popular Spotify playlists, including one featuring Vietnam War songs.

But savvy listeners noticed something was off. The band’s supposed members had no digital footprint, and there was no record of them ever having performed live. The album art and profile photo, featuring four shaggy-haired rockers, also carried hallmarks of generative AI.

But as the controversy gained steam, an account on social media platform X purporting to represent the band emphatically denied that any of the music was created by artificial intelligence, calling the accusations “lazy” and “baseless.”

CBC reached out to the X account on Wednesday and attempted to arrange an interview through a Gmail account purporting to represent the band.

Then, a man calling himself Andrew Frelon told Rolling Stone, in an article that was published online later that day, that he is behind The Velvet Sundown and the X account, and that he used generative AI platform Suno to create the songs. He called the project an “art hoax.”

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But just as the mystery appeared to be solved, a different X account linked to the official Velvet Sundown Spotify page posted a statement saying Frelon has nothing to do with the band.

“Someone is attempting to hijack the identity of The Velvet Sundown,” said the statement, which also appeared on the band’s Spotify and Instagram accounts on Thursday.

That same day, Frelon, who gave the Rolling Stone interview, posted a lengthy blog confirming he had nothing to do with the band and that nearly everything he told the magazine, including his name, was a lie.

The actual band’s identity was once again a mystery. It turned out the hoax was, in fact, part of a bigger hoax.

‘It’s too fascinating of a mystery’

Speaking with CBC News on Friday, Frelon maintained that he has “zero” connection to the Velvet Sundown.

Asked about his motivation for maintaining such a complicated ruse, Frelon said the way the whole thing has played out has become like “artistic jet fuel.”

“There’s so many weird cultural, technical things at play here. It’s too fascinating of a mystery for me to turn away from,” he said.

The real person behind Andrew Frelon is an expert on web platform safety and policy issues, with extensive experience using generative AI. He was born in the United States but lives in Canada.

Several major American publications have interviewed him about his other AI projects and safety and policy issues work.

CBC News verified his identity through screen shots and a Signal video chat. Frelon sent screen shots of his correspondence with Rolling Stone to confirm he was the person who did that interview.

Frelon said he attempted last year to monetize his own AI music project with a friend. Certain that The Velvet Sundown was generated by AI, and surprised by its seemingly overnight success, he decided to become the band’s de-facto publicist as a “social engineering” experiment.

To further sow confusion, Frelon shared posts made by the official Velvet Sundown X account, to intentionally make it look like it was connected to the account he runs. He also generated and posted AI “photos” of the band in various settings and scenarios, and said he used ChatGPT when initially responding to reporters.

Part of his intention with the Velvet Sundown experiment, he said, was blurring reality and trying to see how diligently members of the media would work to verify his identity.

“I’m really exploiting the uncertainty,” he said. “And I think that’s the art.”

His experiment also highlighted the ease of creating deceptive content and the speed with which it spreads.

Frelon said he ultimately hopes to advance the conversation around generative AI, and its risks and benefits.

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In the process, however, he said he’s received a flood of hateful messages and acknowledged that the prank has upset some people.

“I didn’t mean to do it maliciously, although obviously some of the techniques I used were underhanded and not very cool,” he said. “I recognize that, and I apologize for those people affected.”

Frelon’s hoax supercharged The Velvet Sundown’s success; the band’s audience has grown by about 700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify since his hoax started, hitting one million on Saturday.

In yet another twist, the band’s official X account admitted on Saturday to its use of AI after playing coy for weeks, saying in a social media statement it is a “synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence.”

It is still not clear who is behind The Velvet Sundown, and its X account has not responded to interview requests from CBC News.

Frelon said he received a message from The Velvet Sundown’s X account on Saturday, insisting he rename his account and delete all references to the band being “100% human-generated.”

Frelon’s X page is now marked as a “parody” account.

AI ‘bands’ infiltrate streaming platforms

AI-generated electronic music, and AI songs mimicking existing artists, have become commonplace, but AI “bands” are a newer phenomenon.

Laszlo Tamasi, the man behind hard-rock act The Devil Inside, which has millions of Spotify streams, admitted in June he uses AI to make the music and generate the band’s imagery, after fans and music writers raised questions.

Other popular artists, like “dark country” act Aventhis and provocative soul singer Nick Hustles, have similarly been revealed to be AI creations with behind-the-scenes input from humans.

Nova Scotia-based singer-songwriter Ian Janes, who had his own battle with AI music after a seemingly AI-generated project popped up on Spotify using his name, said in some ways, the music industry has set the stage for an AI takeover by relying so heavily on technology-assisted techniques like quantizing and pitch-correcting.

He said listeners have become so accustomed to technology-aided “perfection” in recorded music that when they hear an AI-generated song, it might seem indistinguishable from something made by real people. Conversely, when a human voice goes out of key, or a song speeds up or slows down, people might perceive that as an error.

“The conditioning of our ears to algorithmic perfection in music has set the stage for AI to be poised to just take that job from us,” Janes said.

The Velvet Sundown initially raised suspicions in part because its name seemed derivative of acts like the Velvet Underground and Sunset Rubdown, and its song titles and lyrics also seemed to lack originality. Its most-streamed song, Dust on the Wind, for example, recalls the 1977 Kansas hit Dust in the Wind.

But Alexander Olson, a senior research associate at the University of Toronto’s faculty of applied science and engineering who researches AI, said it’s becoming increasingly challenging for the average person to identify AI in all mediums.

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“It’s made even harder in this setting, because a lot of people are relying on Spotify to choose songs for them and to make those recommendations,” he said.

Winnipeg-based music critic Darryl Sterdan calls the Velvet Sundown’s music “generic” and “forgettable,” and said AI is not yet at the point where it can reproduce the soul and “indefinable humanity” behind worthwhile songs.

But he predicts it won’t be long before AI generates a genuine chart-topping global pop hit, ultimately forcing institutions like the Grammys and Junos to “formally reward” AI creations in a bid to remain relevant. “Then, the deluge will truly begin,” he said.