At first, the YouTube videos look like scenes from Nickelodeon’s popular “SpongeBob SquarePants” cartoon.
SpongeBob, the title cheery yellow character, appears outside his pineapple-shaped home, while Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob’s cranky boss, is at the Krusty Krab restaurant he runs. But unlike in the show, the characters in the videos aren’t singing jolly songs about life in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Instead, they’re rapping about drugs and guns.
The mastermind behind the raps is an artist named Glorb. Their music, which has been streamed millions of times on Spotify and YouTube, appears to use artificial intelligence to replicate the iconic characters’ voices.
As AI tools continue to evolve rapidly, it has become easier for artists like Glorb to make music using generative AI — and become successful in their own right. However, experts who focus on AI and music said questions surrounding copyright and ownership still linger as a new era of technology dawns in the music industry.
“It opens up so many more possibilities for someone, you know, to essentially have, like, a fan fiction version of a song because they love the artist,” said Josh Antonuccio, an associate professor and the director of the School of Media Arts & Studies at the Ohio University Scripps College of Communication.
The SpongeBob-inspired tracks have turned Glorb — who keeps their identity anonymous — into an online sensation. On Spotify, Glorb averages just under a million listeners a month — their most popular song, “The Bottom 2,” has amassed more than 11 million streams. The artist’s music videos, which feature character models from the show, have also racked up millions of views on YouTube.
Glorb, who declined to be interviewed, isn’t publicly affiliated with Nickelodeon. A spokesperson for the Paramount-owned network…
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