If it hasn't happened already, it is inevitable that someone will try to push a beatmap with AI generated vocals. This involves taking a voice actor or celebrity's voice to create song vocals. For example, I could make a Pishifat cover of Harumachi Clover.
More examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PXMDqZcy9U

While I have no interest in using AI, it does pose some questions for the RC and Content Usage Permissions. I am making this thread to be proactive in updating the RC/Rules to clarify such situations before they happen in the future.

1. Should AI generated vocals be allowed without permission from the vocalist.

There has been many twitter dramas in the past where voice actors have been pissed off that their voice was used without permission. Songs can be about things that may not align with the vocalist's views, and they have no control over it.
Excluding the artists on the song content list, mappers and BNs don't enforce getting song permission. In my opinion, proof of permission for AI generated content should be enforced.

I admit that this is a rather strict approach but I do believe it's the most fair/logical option.

1. Assuming permission is granted, should the artist be the creator or vocalist?

Treating it like a vocaloid song and credit the song creator doesn't seem logical.
Do we treat it like a normal song and credit the vocalist? (Eg Spongebob (CV: Tom Kenny) - )

My opinion:
- Unlike vocaloids or using vocal samples in a song, AI covers require no skill from the creator. All skill and creativity belongs to the vocalist and song's original artist, crediting them makes more sense.
For covers, I think the best solution is:
Original Song Artist - Title (Character AI Cover)
Eg. Hanasaka Yui(CV: M.A.O) - Harumachi Clover (Pishi AI Cover)
Yes we are crediting the song's original vocalist, but I think consistency is best.
I would suggest crediting only the character and not the CV, else it gets too long. The CV wasn't involved so it kinda makes sense? Open to changing this point though.
- Original songs using AI vocals are probably handled by the existing RC just fine


My suggested changes:

Add a rule to the Content Usage Permissions:

1. If a song uses generative AI vocals with a voice that can be traced back to a person, it is required to reach out to that person for permission before use in a beatmap. Voice synthesizers created with the intent of generating vocals or speech do not require permission. (Eg. vocaloids, utaus, etc.)

Note that "can be traced back to a person" is included as stuff like AI toothbrush covers are no issue, eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GRnrFfURYo

Add a rule to the Metadata RC:

1. Songs that are AI generated covers must use the song's original artist and title, and append (Singer AI Cover) to the title.

Useful links:
wiki/en/Rules/Content_usage_permissions
wiki/en/Ranking_criteria/Metadata

personally i feel that allowing AI songs / covers would do a massive disservice to osu!'s attempts to work with artists, and would be a step backwards for the game as a whole.

There are enough real artists out there with songs that took time and effort to make, those should be prioritized over low-effort AI slop covers.

Adding any rules about it would be treated by the community as an explicit 'The game allows and encourages this', which is a BAD look.

Might just be my own personal opinion, but i feel that AI songs probably shouldn't even be allowed in the ranked section.

I didn't really a blanket ban since having permission seemed like a valid use case, but yeah just not allowing any is the more sensible approach to it.

Simplest approach probably seems like the better option, thanks for feedback

I genuinely don't see the issue with using this type of AI cover as long as it's labeled as such. It's not like it would be framed as that artist actually singing it themselves, so it shouldn't matter whether the lyrics align with the vocalist's views, after all the same situation can happen with a simple remix or mashup (where it's also labeled as such). Also, it doesn't make sense to require explicit permission from the vocalist as opposed to regular songs since they are not the actual creator of the cover.

Also, this doesn't cover how to credit AI generated songs in general, which is probably an important point of discussion here.

everything here should concern exclusively content usage permission, all the uploaded content must be the responsability of the mapper. the original artist could still claim dmca if necessary (that should be already covered with the existing rules).

tbf all content related to ai in general, bg, audio, beatmap, and all techniques that involves ai should be labeled at bare minimum, i'm fine with (AI Cover) as the marker for the song and also in tags. permissions, usage and credits is really debatable for the years to come because it's still "new" tech stuff as there's currently no real-life consensus on that topic.

i'm fine either way of allowing/banning ai content. however, i do feel that's quite inevitable that if we are banning it, it should be case-per-case, because there's no accurate way to distinguish content made by a real artist using assisted ai-generated content with 100% generated ai content.

suggestion: use (AI cover) if it's a cover 100% generated by ai, including persons that are completely artificial (ex: Neuro-sama), and put `ai generated` in the tags if the beatmap uses 100% generated content

you know what, after seeing it in action I'm actually in favor of just deleting this thread because it looks fine the way it is and having to deal with this seems like an extra mess that isn't needed.

beatmapsets/2273774#osu/4848402

apologies for switching opinions twice on this

totally fine to withdraw an idea but I do think it may be worth splitting off chromb's concern into a different thread - they introduced some good points that should be discussed further imo

My opinion is that:

1. AI covers must be clearly marked with something in the title, like "(AI cover)".
2. In order to rank a map with AI-generated vocals, the explicit permission of the person the vocals are from, as well as the original artist, even Featured Artists, must be obtained.
3. If a song with AI vocals is considered Explicit, permission from the person the vocals are from must be obtained before uploading the map. Violations can be treated like violations of the Song Content Rules, with a warning the 1st time and 43-hour silences thereafter.

This doesn't go far enough, we should completely disallow all AI generated content from ranked; vocals, songs themselves, BGs, storyboards, everything

There is a lot to be said about the morality of using AI generated content in this game, since osu! is pretty much *entirely* dependent on artists providing songs and artwork for usage in maps. This all comes crumbling down with the usage of AI generated content in the game, because it breaches the already semi-strained trust we have with our artists. AI is a complete gongshow when it comes to training data acquisition, general power consumption, usage permissions, pure morality. The concept of "art" as a whole is muddied with AI, and I'd rather osu! took the stance of not allowing it at all, for the sake of our not only our players, but our many esteemed artists, no matter who they are. They keep this game alive, and I'd rather not sabotage them with random artificially generated slop content pumped out from a computer with no soul.

I don't see the point of trying to hash out details for an incredibly specific case before it has a single example. the people involved in the supposedly inevitable discussion can figure that out with the context of the situation and amend RC if necessary

How would this coincide with songs built with programs like NEUTRINO, VOCALOID6 and Synth V which those use AI (in the same style as of the AI song covers but with commercially made products for their voice banks)? Would that mean that songs built with those are disalowed? If so, would that mean songs built using the Synth V version of Kasane Teto is disallowed from osu! due to the version used is built with AI technology?

I don't like AI being used to copy others off unwilling participants of course. It's just food for thought as I feel adding "(AI Cover)" to tracks like Igaku, HITO Mania, Mesmerizer would cause some confusion to both the players and mappers.

why do u need permission for AI specifically? u already assume mapper has permission like any other song. if u want ban AI then u should remove any map that's not feature artist.

because there's just less weight to using a person's work than there is to making an audio file of that person saying any sequence of words you want and implicitly claiming it's their work. there's a completely new layer to it.