YouTube awash with fake AI videos of Adele, Justin Bieber paying tribute to Charlie Kirk

A video, circulating on YouTube, pays tribute to Charlie Kirk, a right-wing political activist recently killed in an attack. Beneath it, a comment thanks singer Adele for a “beautiful song.”

However, the emotional ballad wasn’t sung by Adele at all, nor did she authorise it. The track was produced entirely using AI, and the voice barely resembles the British superstar.

With easy-to-use AI tools now available to the public, anyone can generate music based on simple prompts, replicating the sound of popular musicians. These tools have given rise to a flood of tribute songs online, often credited to big-name artists like Ed Sheeran or Justin Bieber.

Many of these videos include manipulated thumbnails showing the artists in tears, adding to the illusion of authenticity. The result? Millions of views and thousands of heartfelt comments from fans unaware that the music is fake.

One video features an AI-generated voice singing, “Rest in peace, Charlie Kirk,” over footage of the conservative activist. The lyrics continue, “The angels sing your name. Your story’s written in the stars, a fire that won’t wane,” creating an emotionally charged tribute that has no basis in reality.

While the voices in these songs often sound nothing like the real artists, many viewers don’t question the legitimacy. That’s a growing problem, say media experts, who warn that this type of AI-generated content blurs the line between reality and fiction.

“I’m concerned that what made the internet so cool to begin with really weird, creative people doing things they’re passionate about for fun, is gone,” said Alex Mahadevan of the nonprofit media watchdog Poynter. “It’s been replaced by AI slop created by grifters aiming to make money. We’re becoming passive consumers of ‘content’ and not active, conscious digital citizens.”

YouTube does have policies in place that require content creators to clearly disclose when their videos use altered or synthetic media, especially when it appears realistic. However, many of these AI tribute videos include disclosures only in small print, buried deep in the video description—easy to miss unless viewers deliberately expand the text.

Platforms like Suno, one of many AI music generators, invite users to “make any song you can imagine.” From jazz songs about watering plants to house tracks about quitting a job, the tool lets users generate original music in seconds.

Meanwhile, a new AI music project known as The Velvet Sundown has attracted over 200,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. The virtual band, which markets itself as “not quite human. Not quite machine,” is another example of how AI is changing the landscape of music—challenging ideas of artistry, identity, and authenticity in the process.

As AI tools become more sophisticated and accessible, the spread of synthetic content is only expected to grow, raising urgent questions about transparency, ethics, and the future of creative expression online.