YouTube users trip over fake AI tributes to Charlie Kirk

“Thank you, Adele, it’s such a beautiful song,” reads a glowing comment beneath an emotional YouTube tribute to slain US activist Charlie Kirk. But the music is AI-generated — and bears little resemblance to the British icon’s voice.

Rapidly evolving artificial intelligence tools can now create songs from simple text prompts, mimicking the voices of celebrity artists to produce tributes or entire performances on demand, often without their knowledge or consent.