In 2023, DeepMind announced a pared-down version of the Orca project named Lyria, which could generate music using the voice and music style of some artists who had explicitly worked with Google on the project. However, it was far more limited in scope than Orca. Some employees who worked on Lyria and Orca left to found a new startup named Udio, which makes an AI music creation app.
Key takeaways:
- Google's DeepMind and YouTube developed an AI music tool called Orca, which could generate music mimicking artists based on user prompts, but the project was shelved due to copyright issues.
- Orca was developed as part of Google's strategy to compete with OpenAI, and despite Google's previous avoidance of using copyrighted videos for AI training, they used copyrighted YouTube music videos for Orca's development.
- Despite promising developments, the release of Orca was halted due to legal risks associated with copyright issues, and music labels' reluctance to agree to a revenue-share agreement for the music and artists Orca trained from.
- A pared-down version of Orca, named Lyria, was released by DeepMind, which allowed users to generate music using the voice and music style of some artists who had explicitly worked with Google on the project.