Podcast Episode 3: AI and Vocals: Putting Music Ethics Center Stage
For Kyle Billings, the mission at Kits.ai has always been clear: ethically trained AI tools with a focus on professional-grade quality. From its early days as a sample pack marketplace to becoming one of the leading licensed AI voice model platforms on the market, Kits has positioned itself essentially as a company “for artists, by artists.” Every vocal model on the platform is trained on licensed data from real singers, who are compensated, can track usage, and can remove their voices at any time.
In this episode of AI Music Unmuted: Real Talk by RealMusic.ai, we talk with Kyle Billings, musician and Head of Audio at Kits.ai, about what it really means to build ethically trained AI tools for professional music producers — and why trust, transparency, and artistic credit are essential to AI’s foundation.
Key Topics We Explore:
How Kits.ai builds ethically licensed, high-quality AI voice models
Why attribution and transparency are central to trust in AI music
The difference between legal credit and artistic recognition
How AI can enhance, not replace, human creativity, while providing accessibility for any skill level
How voice modeling opens new income streams for singers
Kyle explains that AI’s role in music is not about replacing artists but about helping them streamline their creative workflows, experiment more freely, and help artists become “unstuck”. Many challenges come along with the power AI gives to artists, and also raises concerns about disclosure of usage and how the music must be credited. The ambiguity of such a new form of creating music is why ethics and building an ethical company in the AI space are so important.
For Billings, scaling AI ethically isn’t the slower path — it’s the smarter one. Smaller, higher-quality models trained with consent lead to better, more trustworthy results.
At RealMusic.ai, we believe innovation and integrity can coexist. This conversation with Kyle Billings shows how AI, when built transparently and used intentionally, can expand what’s possible for both producers and vocalists alike.
Listen to the full episode now on AI Music Unmuted: Real Talk by RealMusic.ai to learn how Kits.ai is redefining trust and creativity in AI music.
Watch or listen to the full episode.
Video Episode: YouTube and Spotify
Audio Episode: Apple Podcast, Podbean, Amazon Music/Audible, iHeart Radio, Player FM, Spotify, Listen Notes, Podchaser, Boomplay