Johnny Marr has issued a warning to fans over fake AI-generated voice messages that may appear to be him. The musician and former member of The Smiths posted on his official Twitter account to advise fans to be aware of fake messages that may be spreading which appear to be from him but were created with the use of artificial intelligence.

“Just a warning to people to watch out for fake messages from me generated by AI, including voice messages. If anyone receives one please send them my details as I’d quite like to have a dialogue with AI Johnny, who I really hope isn’t actually smarter than me…than I,” said his tweet.

Fans reacted, with one person responding with: “What if this is the AI Johnny trying to convince us all it’s the real Johnny?” while another said, “Not even AI can play the guitar like you Johnny. I’m sure of that.”

Marr recently released his first ever solo Best Of compilation titled ‘Spirit Power’. Speaking to NME, Marr opened up about the album and what he has learned about his journey as a solo artist, “Every solo album I’ve made has a sort of atmospheric, moody, slower, or cinematic song. It’s almost a bit of light and shade to all the bangers,” he said.

Concerns have also been made around issues relating to copyright and payment for creatives. UK Music Interim Chief Executive Tom Kiehl urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to respond to the music industry’s concerns around artificial intelligence by introducing some form of legal protection around the developing technology. The outlined five key objectives to ensure that all training, licensing, and commercialization of music-making generative AI models in the music sector can be developed in a way that is both helpful to creators and respective of their rights.