Olympic Figure Skaters spark controversy with AI-generated music at Milan Winter Games

An ice dance duo skated to AI music at the Olympics | TechCrunch

Czech ice dancers Kateřina Mrázková and Daniel Mrázek made their Olympic debut on Monday, an unfathomable feat that takes a lifetime of dedication and practice. But the sibling duo used AI music in their rhythm dance program, which doesn't break any official rules, but serves as a depressing symbol of how absolutely cooked we are. As Mrázek spun his sister in a crazy cartwheel lift sort of move that made them look superhuman, one of the NBC commentators mentioned in passing, "This is AI generated, this first part," referring to the music. Somehow, that admission is even more baffling than the gravity-defying tricks that the siblings showed off on the pressure of Olympic ice. The Olympic ice dance competition is split into two events: the rhythm dance, where pairs must perform a routine that meets a specific theme, and the free dance. This season's theme is "The Music, Dance Styles, and Feeling of the 1990s." British ice dancing duo Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson paid tribute to the Spice Girls, while United States favorites Madison Chock and Evan Bates skated to a Lenny Kravitz medley. But, for whatever reason -- licensing issues? -- Mrázková and Mrázek danced to a routine with music that's half AC/DC and half AI. It's weird. What's even weirder is that this isn't the duo's first use of AI, nor is it the first time that this choice backfired. Per the International Skating Union, the governing body that oversees competitive ice skating, the duo's music choice for the rhythm dance this season has been "One Two by AI (of 90s style Bon Jovi)" and "Thunderstruck by AC/DC." The official Olympics website confirms that the duo is using the AI-generated song for the rhythm dance portion. The Czech siblings have faced backlash before for using AI-generated music. Earlier in the season, they played a '90s-inspired song for their routine that began with a wailing declaration: "Every night we smash a Mercedes Benz!" If that sounds familiar, it's because that lyric comes directly from the '90s hit "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals (which, by the way, has an incredible music video shot in a Staten Island mall -- the true essence of American suburbia!). The AI-generated lyrics also include the lines, "Wake up, kids/We got the dreamer's disease," and "First we run, and then we laugh 'til we cry." What a coincidence! Those lyrics also appear in the song "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals. The AI song is even titled "One Two," which are the first words of... you can probably guess what song at this point. Before the Olympics, the duo changed the song, swapping out the New Radicals lyrics for other AI-generated lyrics that sound suspiciously like Bon Jovi lyrics, as journalist Shana Bartels noted in November. For example, "raise your hands, set the night on fire." also appear in "Raise Your Hands" by Bon Jovi... and the AI "vocalist" sounds a lot like Bon Jovi, too. (Not to pour salt on the wound, but "Raise Your Hands" isn't even from the '90s!) This was the music that the duo danced to on Monday at the Olympics, before it transitioned into "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC, a real song from the 90s written by real people. While it's unclear what software the team used to generate this music, this is an LLM operating as it's supposed to. These LLMs are trained on large libraries of music, often through legally dubious means. When prompted, LLMs produce the most statistically probable response to an input. That's useful when writing code, but means a song "in the style of Bon Jovi," will likely end up using some actual Bon Jovi lyrics.. And yet, the music industry seems at least temporarily enamored with the idea of "musicians" who aren't totally real. Telisha Jones, a 31-year-old in Mississippi, used Suno to set her (hopefully real) poetry to music under the persona Xania Monet. Now she has a $3 million record deal. It's a shame that these Czech dancers' accomplishment of skating at the Olympics may be marred by discourse around their use of AI music (discourse that I am actively contributing to). But come on! Isn't this sport supposed to be creative?

Olympic Figure Skaters Get Heat for Using AI-Generated Music

The Olympic figure skating ice dancing event in Milan, Italy, on Monday required participants to go with a 1990s theme. Skaters chose music from popular artists of the era like Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, and the Backstreet Boys. But the skaters from the Czech Republic included some music you may not recognizeâ€"because it's an AI-generated song. Katerina Mrazkova and Daniel Mrazek, a brother-sister pair of figure skaters, had originally planned on performing to a song that may have some lyrics you would recognize. That's because it's an AI song that uses verbatim quotes from the 1998 song "You Get What You Give" by the New Radicals. The song was an international hit in the late 1990s. Journalist Shana Bartels first reported on the song choice back in November in her Patreon newsletter "Figure Skating for Baseball Nerds." She notes that the version they skated to on Monday included the guitar riffs, but the lyrics had been changed so as not to plagiarize New Radicals. You can hear the full song for yourself in a video from a practice routine a couple of months ago, which was identified as “One Two, Thunderstruck." You can kind of hear how the AI song in the first third of the routine is trying to muster a guitar riff along the lines of AC/DC's original "Thunderstruck," but the vocals sound nothing like singers Bon Scott or Brian Johnson. NBC, which has the rights to broadcast the Olympics in the U.S., is notoriously protective of copyright, so you'll likely have a hard time finding clips of the performance from Monday on any social media platforms. But the practice clip routine below reportedly has the same music used on Monday, but also includes just direct portions of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck," along with the AI slop. "Are you kidding me with the AI music in Olympics figure skating? So you want the world to respect your art but don't give a shit about the art of music that helps you do it?" one sound engineer wrote on Bluesky. Another user was more blunt, writing: "'Figure skating music made by AI' immediate skip, get fucked." While the Olympics are supposed to highlight athletic achievement, it seems like the focus has become more and more on intellectual property issues, even if it has nothing to do with AI. Spanish figure skater Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate was initially told that he wouldn't be able to use music from the Minions franchise, but that changed at the last minute, according to USA Today. The rights-clearing process is apparently quite complicated, and a change of song can be frustrating for singers who try to synchronize their movements to line up with the music. U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn also ran into copyright issues this year. Canadian artist Seb McKinnon, who makes music under the name CLANN, complained on social media that Glenn didn't authorize the use of her song in Glenn's performance, according to the Associated Press. McKinnon released a statement saying that she was "glad we cleared things up with Seb," but the AP notes we're still in the dark about what hiccups may have occurred with clearing the music. The International Skating Union (ISU) only started allowing music with lyrics in 2014, which opened the door to more contemporary music choices at the Olympics. The ISU works with a company called ClicknClear to get music rights, but it's a big challenge when you have different rights holders who need to get paid, according to USA Today. Mrazkova and Mrazek received a score of 72.09 for their performance on Monday and ranked 17th.