Holly Herndon has released a cover of Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’, produced with the help of artificial intelligence.
Created via Herndon’s deepfake AI twin Holly+, which allows other people to sing in her voice, the cover came about after a modified score of ‘Jolene’, based on new harmonies, was fed to Holly+ and then generated in the artist’s voice. Ryan Norris accompanies the voice on guitar.
The cover comes backed by a video, directed by digital artist Sam Rolfes, which you can watch above. To create the visual, Rolfes used motion-capture technology to animate a 3D model of Herndon. The model is seen swivelling around in a desk chair before standing up to sing.
Holly Herndon first unveiled "digital twin" Holly+ in July of last year, with a set-up that allowed artists to modify audio files with a length of up to five minutes into a Holly Herndon song.