“AI has changed my life, absolutely,” Lucas Horne tells Sky News. “When I play my music, I’m happy because the words I know mean a lot to me can now be heard by everyone else.”

Lucas was 17 when, in December 2016, with no warning, he suffered a large, traumatic bleed across his brain.

He didn’t wake up until almost four months later.

Unknowingly, he had been living with a defect in the blood vessels known as an AVM (arteriovenous malformation), a ticking time bomb which had ruptured, and the next three years of his life were spent in recovery in a care home.

He couldn’t walk and struggled to talk. Writing down his thoughts, almost like a diary, was something he says he wanted to do from very early on.

“During my care home days when I couldn’t really express myself very well – I still can’t – but I could write about it, it was an outlet for me,” he says. “Since I woke up, I’ve been writing… but for a long time I couldn’t record anything.”

Lucas, now 26, has spent years working on his physical recovery and speech. But when he was eventually physically able to record the songs he had been writing himself, he became frustrated by the way his voice had changed.

“It never sounded how I had [it in] my head,” he says. “I’m very monotone in how I speak, I struggle to really display emotion.”

And so he turned to AI (artificial intelligence). Now, Lucas is also known as The BTO Kid, and is one of 15 creators from around the world, shortlisted from more than 500 entries, for the inaugural Future Sound Awards – celebrating artificial intelligence in music.

While some artists such as will.i.am, David Guetta, Grimes, Timbaland and even Sir Paul McCartney have embraced certain aspects of AI, it can be a controversial subject in the creative industries – with concerns raised by many in the about issues including copyright, human replacement, fakes, and regulation.

It was one of the issues behind the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes in 2023 – and the more recent video game actor strike, which ended in June after nearly a year of industrial action.

Despite the criticism, AI isn’t going away. Last year was a “breakout” year for the technology in music, according to the International Music Summit’s latest annual business report, with 60m users using AI software.

Lucas says he is a perfect example of how the technology can be used for good.

“I’ve been able to use AI to express how I’m feeling,” he says. “It’s been big for me to create [music] that I’m proud of. I can see the arguments [against it], but from my view I know AI helped me create something I couldn’t before. I’m not Adele, but I have been able to make something that I’m proud of and that expresses my view point of what’s happened to me.”

Read more on AI in the music industry:
Will.i.am on embracing AI
AI used to help create ‘the last Beatles record

‘AI is lowering the barriers’

BTO stands for Beat The Odds and his shortlisted track is titled AI Gave Me A Voice. “I pinch myself every day because this just can’t be true,” is the opening line – which he says reflects how far he has come from the moment he woke up and discovered what had happened.

“That comes from reality. I do have moments where I think so much has happened that it must not be true… every line means something to me.”

Lucas, who lives in Nottingham, used the AI-powered music production platform TwoShot to create the track, using prompts on what he wanted for the sound alongside his lyrics, inspired by melodic rap.

“I think we’re gonna get quite a lot more people like me that can’t record music and have been given a voice through AI,” he says. “AI is lowering the barriers to entry for a lot of things.” Which can be a negative as well as a positive, he acknowledges. “We’ll have to see where it goes.”

Launched by the Fanvue World AI Creator Awards, The Future Sound Awards aim to highlight the ethical use of AI in music, organisers say. Fanvue is a subscription creator platform with more than 180,000 users.

Some 15 artists from the US, Europe, Australia and Asia, as well as the UK, have been shortlisted for prizes, and the winners will be announced later in September.

Lucas is one of two British creators on the list, alongside Gallis, from Essex. The 31-year-old first dipped his toe into the waters of the music industry about 10 years ago, after joining the urban-pop boy band Mr Meanor, but says the industry was hard and “it all got a bit too much”.

He is now a tattoo artist and fine painter, but continued his songwriting and started to try out AI music production tools about 18 months ago.

Read more on AI in the music industry:
‘Regulate it before we’re all finished’
‘It’s like saying you can burgle my house unless I ask you not to’
Silent album released in AI protest

AI has ‘made me more creative’

As an artist, he says he had his own concerns about AI before he started using it himself, particularly after image generators started becoming prominent online.

“It was stealing the work that I was doing,” is how he describes his initial feelings. “But I ended up jumping on board with it and for me personally, it’s inspired me so much. It’s made me quicker at what I’m doing, it’s made me more creative. And I think it’s the same with music. I think it’s gonna, if anything, grow the industry.”

However, he says he agrees with criticism about the ethics of how some AI models are trained – following controversy about work by human music artists and authors being used without consent. “And trying to impersonate exactly someone else and using someone else’s voice, I don’t agree with that at all,” he adds.

Gallis’s shortlisted song, Chiropractor emerged from “friendly competition” with a community of creators he came across when he moved into AI, trading feedback and ratings. The genre is Trinibad, which he says there isn’t enough of “in the AI world”, and the track is designed to get people dancing.

“I mainly stick to urban music, but I like writing in a lot of different styles,” he says. “I’ve done house songs, I’ve done UK drill songs, Afrobeats, amapiano. I’m a bit of a vibes man so if it makes me dance and move and smile that’s when I really enjoy it.”

Narcis Marincat, head of AI at Fanvue, says the stories behind the selected songs show a “richness and human emotion” that appealed to him and other judges.

“The impact of AI in music continues to divide opinion,” he says. “But for the first time, via the Future Sound Awards, we’re able to show a different perspective on the positive impact of AI in music – uncovering the real people behind the technology and sharing their stories and music.”

A man has been found dead “in a pool of blood” at the Burning Man festival in Nevada, officials say.

The man’s body, described as a white adult, was found “lying on the ground” after 9pm on Saturday at the art and music festival in the Black Rock Desert, roughly 110 miles north of Reno, the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office said.

They said he was discovered while the festival’s large wooden effigy of a man at the centre of the festival was engulfed in flames – a tradition during the annual event.

Officials said a festival goer flagged down a sheriff’s deputy and reported seeing “a male subject lying in a pool of blood”.

The sheriff’s office set up a perimeter at the scene and has been treating it as a homicide, interviewing several participants.

The body, which has not been identified, was taken to a medical examiner’s office, while the festival continues until 6pm local time on Monday (2am Tuesday UK time).

“Although this act appears to be a singular crime, all participants should always be vigilant of their surroundings and acquaintances,” the sheriff’s office said.

Officials say the crime scene is being preserved, but that the case is a “complicated investigation” as the makeshift Black Rock City where the event is located will be gone by the middle of the week.

Read more:
Rudy Giuliani rushed to hospital after car crash
Afghanistan earthquake kills hundreds and destroys villages – all we know so far

Burning Man organisers said they were cooperating with law enforcement and asked participants not to interfere with their investigation.

“The safety and well-being of our community are paramount,” their statement said, adding that support services, including a crisis support team, were available and participants had access to free Wi-Fi if they need to communicate with loved ones.

Burning Man is a celebration of self-expression that culminates in the ceremonial burning of its towering 40ft effigy.

Its origins can be traced back to the incineration of an eight-foot wooden “man” on San Francisco’s Baker Beach in 1986, which eventually evolved into an annual gathering in the Black Rock Desert.

Hollywood star Rupert Everett has been working behind the bar of his village pub in a bid to keep the doors open.

Everett, known for his roles in Another Country and My Best Friend’s Wedding, has joined a roster of volunteers working to save The Swan, a local pub in Enford, Wiltshire, that is currently under threat of closure.

The pub is staffed by a rotation of 30 people after it was initially closed when the previous licensee left.

“There has been an amazing effort by our community to keep this pub open,” said the 66-year-old Shrek voice actor.

“Times are hard for rural pubs and this is the heart and hub of the village. I think that it is important to express my support. I have recently joined CAMRA – the Campaign for Real Ale – as I know that real ale is the lifeblood of pubs both locally and nationally.

“Our small local breweries need our help, cask ale must survive – it is almost a uniquely British tradition.”

Steve Stringer, secretary of the Salisbury and South Wiltshire branch of CAMRA and an Enford resident, told local media: “I am excited that Rupert has chosen to support the campaign.

“As a lover of cask ales, it is only natural that he wishes to join us and to see him behind the bar serving the locals, shows his solidarity with the community effort.”