Does Africa need to embrace AI to keep its music centre stage?

Described as a virtual singer powered by artificial intelligence (AI), Mya Blue says: "I am not the enemy, I am just a music lover exploring the different sounds of the world."

Her Instagram account, where she makes this statement, has the tag line: "I may not be human but I sing from my soul" - and is the creation of Nigerian musician and producer Eclipse Nkasi.

She features in his recently released remix of Joromi, a classic tune by the late Nigerian highlife artist Sir Victor Uwaifo.

She and her creator want to calm the fears that many musicians the world over have about the impact of AI on the music industry.

Earlier this year, for example, high-profile artists such as Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj called for a halt to the "predatory" use of AI tools which they say steal artists' voices.

And given a lack of understanding about AI throughout Africa, and the fact that AI tends to rely on data sources collated in the West, there are concerns about how African music and cultural heritage will be affected.

During her acceptance speech she hit out against the tendency of Western award bodies to group all African artists under the umbrella of "Afrobeats" - a genre of music more associated with Nigeria and West Africa.

"African music is so diverse," she said. "It’s more than just Afrobeats. I come from South Africa. I represent amapiano. I represent my culture."

Ogala feels AI would address such homogenisation and benefit African musicians by revealing to the world more of the continent’s cultural diversity.

"A lot of the academics we speak to have knowledge that is very specific about a very small area of African music. You have to build for an African audience taking note of how fragmented our listening culture is. You just cannot humanly do that," he says.

As AI continues to develop, there is consensus among African music artists, producers and researchers that there needs to be better financing.

"We need investment in the data infrastructure for the opportunities it presents to really be leveraged by people," says Ngobi.

Ogala agrees and says that raising funds to develop his digital archive AI tool is difficult.

"We, the founders, have been funding the project out of our pockets because of our belief in the industry. If we put in place the fundamental building blocks, the industry will be a lot more viable than it is now."

Added to this are the uncertainties around copyright legislation written for a pre-AI era which will need to be renegotiated. Copyright is already a huge issue for African artists whose music is often pirated, sold and played on the continent without them earning anything.

These challenges aside, there is a growing realisation that unless the African music industry embraces the new technology, it is in danger of losing control of its talent and heritage.

And Nkasi’s Mya Blue certainly has big ambitions.

During a Q&A on her Instagram, replying to a question about whether she could win a Grammy, she said: "Who knows. As an AI [artist], I don’t dream of trophies, but of resonating with hearts through music. But wouldn’t it be fun to see a virtual artist on that stage?"