‘Fake AI Album Scam Made Me Realise We Need Stronger Copyright Laws’: Award-Winning Artist Emily Portman

12.06.2026: Award-winning artist Emily Portman has written a powerful and insightful account of how an AI scam jeopardised her career when an AI-generated album was released under her name and image.

In an astonishing piece for Rolling Stone UK, the folk artist discusses how the fake AI-generated album tricked fans into thinking she released a brand new album, and how the experience highlighted the need for strong copyright and transparency laws to protect creators and their copyrighted works from being stolen.

The article provides a unique first-hand perspective of the enormous damage unchecked generative AI can cause, from eroding artistic integrity to undermining fans' confidence.

Emily said: "My experience revealed how far behind the law currently is. Unless I trademark my name (something usually only world-famous artists do), I have little protection against this happening again. And because the music is newly generated, it would be extremely difficult to prove any infringement, even when the music is uploaded to my own platforms under my name and bears uncannily similar sounds and themes.

"The most distressing impact was the erosion of fans' trust. One listener contacted me, distressed that they had unknowingly streamed the fake album. But why would they doubt it? Fans should be able to trust that the music under an artist's name is genuinely theirs. Instead, listeners were left feeling foolish for believing it was real, while others dismissed it as 'obviously fake'."

You can read the piece in full here.