Sienna Rose is having a good month. Three of her dusky, jazz-infused soul songs are in Spotify's Viral Top 50. The most popular, a dreamy ballad called Into The Blue, has been played more than five million times.
If she continues on this trajectory, Rose could become one of the year's hottest new stars. There's only one problem: All the signs indicate she's not real.
Streaming service Deezer, which has developed tools to tackle AI music, told the BBC that many of her albums and songs on the platform are detected and flagged as computer generated.
Look closer and you'll see the indications of an AI artist. Rose has no social media presence, has never played a gig, has no videos, and has released an improbable number of songs in a short space of time. Between 28 September and 5 December, she uploaded at least 45 tracks to streaming services.
Her Instagram account, which is currently deactivated, featured a strangely homogenous series of headshots, all showing the gauzy, unreal lighting characteristic of AI image generators.
Then there's the music itself. Songs like Into The Blue and Breathe Again sit neatly next to Norah Jones or Alicia Keys, full of jazzy guitar lines and buttery smooth vocals. But many listeners have noted AI artefacts in Rose's music.
There are other signs: Inconsistent drum patterns, bland lyrics, and a singer who never strays from the melody. This generic sound has raised concerns among listeners.
Some fans were disappointed to learn that Sienna Rose might not be real, suggesting that if she is AI-generated, her music lacks the emotional depth typically found in human creations.
The case of Sienna Rose underscores the ongoing debate about AI's role in the music industry and the potential for computer-generated artists to compete with genuine musicians.
