Kateřina Mrázková and Daniel Mrázek fulfilled a lifelong dream when they made their debut at the Winter Olympics in Milan. The siblings from Czechia performed incredible acrobatic elements on the ice that looked superhuman. However, their Olympic debut was overshadowed by a controversial choice of music – part of their performance was accompanied by music created by artificial intelligence.
NBC Commentator Revealed the Truth During the Broadcast
During the live broadcast, one of the NBC commentators mentioned that the first part of the music was AI-generated. This revelation shocked viewers around the world. As Mrázek spun his sister in a dizzying cartwheel-like element that seemed to defy gravity, the music in the background was not the work of real musicians, but of algorithms.
Choice of Music
This year's Olympic ice dance competition consists of two parts: the rhythm dance and the free dance. This year's theme for the rhythm dance was "Music, Dance Styles and the Feeling of the 1990s." British duo Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson paid tribute to the Spice Girls, while American favorites Madison Chock and Evan Bates skated to a medley of Lenny Kravitz songs.
However, the Czech duo opted for an unusual combination – half of the performance featured AI music, while the other half featured AC/DC's "Thunderstruck". According to official information from the International Skating Union (ISU), the duo's music selection for the rhythm dance was listed as "One Two by AI (in the style of 1990s Bon Jovi)" and "Thunderstruck by AC/DC."
This is not the first time Mrázková and Mrázek have run into trouble over their use of AI music. Earlier in the season, they used a song that began with the words "Every night we smash a Mercedes-Benz!" – a direct quote from the 1998 hit "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals. The AI-generated song also included other lines such as "Wake up, kids/We got the dreamer's disease" and "First we run, and then we laugh 'til we cry" – all of these lyrics come directly from the original New Radicals song. The AI song was even titled "One Two", which are the first words of the original song.
Change Before the Olympics
Before the Olympics, the duo changed the song and replaced the New Radicals lyrics with different AI-generated lyrics that sound suspiciously similar to Bon Jovi lyrics. In November, journalist Shana Bartels pointed out that, for example, the line "raise your hands, set the night on fire" appears in the song "Raise Your Hands" by Bon Jovi – and the AI "vocal" sounds very similar to Jon Bon Jovi. An ironic detail: the song "Raise Your Hands" is not even from the 1990s!
The duo used this revised version at the Olympics on Monday before transitioning to the actual AC/DC song "Thunderstruck."
Criticism Over the Use of AI Music
It is unclear what software the team used to create the music, but large language models (LLMs) are trained on vast libraries of music, often in legally questionable ways. When prompted to create a song "in the style of Bon Jovi," they are likely to use actual Bon Jovi lyrics because they produce the statistically most likely response to the prompt.
The Czech duo's decision sparked a wave of criticism on social media. One sound engineer wrote: "So you want the world to respect your art, but you don't care about the art of the music that helps you do it?" Another user was even more direct: "Figure skating with AI-generated music? Instant skip, go to hell."
The Olympics are increasingly grappling with intellectual property issues. Spanish figure skater Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate was initially not allowed to use music from the Minions franchise, but that changed at the last minute. American figure skater Amber Glenn also encountered copyright issues when Canadian artist Seb McKinnon (performing under the name CLANN) complained that he had not authorized the use of his song.
The ISU (International Skating Union) only began allowing music with lyrics in 2014, opening the door to more modern music choices. The ISU works with ClicknClear to obtain music rights, but the process becomes complicated when different rights holders need to be paid.
Our Duo's Result
Mrázková and Mrázek received a score of 72.09 points for their performance on Monday and finished in 17th place. Unfortunately, their Olympic achievement was overshadowed by the debate over the use of AI music instead of genuine works of art.
Sources: sports.yahoo.com and gizmodo.com
