Boy George Joins Artist Included's AI Music Venture

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By Conner Tighe

Boy George has never been an artist who plays by convention, so it makes sense that his newest project is one of the more unconventional moves in music right now. Released on June 15 to coincide with his 65th birthday, his AI-assisted re-recording of "Karma Chameleon" isn't a novelty stunt. It's the flagship release from an entirely new company built around giving legacy artists more control over their own catalogs.

Boy George and Artist Included: A Company With a Different Pitch

The company behind this is called Artist Included, and its pitch is different from most AI-music ventures making headlines lately. It was founded by entrepreneur Paul "PK" Kemsley, who also manages Boy George, along with entertainment attorney and film producer Jeremy Rosen, with Planet Hollywood founder Robert Earl serving as Chairman of the Board. The company's stated goal is to help established artists create new, artist-owned master recordings rather than replacing their creative involvement. That distinction matters, since so much of the current AI-in-music conversation centers on artists losing control rather than gaining it. As George told The Hollywood Reporter, "It's hard to get excited about something that you don't control."

Why "Karma Chameleon" Specifically

Choosing "Karma Chameleon" as the first release is a deliberate flex. It's one of the most recognizable songs of the 1980s, which means any reworking of it was always going to get attention, for better or worse. Notably, this isn't a fully synthetic AI vocal. Boy George returned to the studio and recorded new vocals himself, with AI used to shape the performance to more closely match his voice on the original 1983 track. That distinction is doing a lot of work here. Revisiting a song this deeply embedded in pop culture, using a real new performance rather than a cloned one, is as much a statement of confidence as it is a product demo. If Artist Included can make this work without backlash, it's a strong proof of concept for other legacy artists considering the same move.

The Ownership Angle Is the Real Story

Most AI-and-music headlines lately have been about lawsuits, unauthorized voice cloning, or labels scrambling to protect old recordings. Artist Included is positioning itself as the opposite of that story, with this launch coming through a partnership with BMG Rights Management. The company frames its approach as ethical voice AI technology that supports artists in producing updated recordings rather than substituting for them, which is a different pitch than tools built to mimic artists without their involvement. Whether that framing holds up under scrutiny will likely determine whether other veteran artists follow Boy George and Artist Included's lead.

What This Could Mean for Other Legacy Artists

If this model catches on, it opens up an interesting option for artists whose original masters are tied up with old label deals, or who simply want a modern, ownership-friendly version of their most famous work. Instead of re-recording an entire album the traditional way, which is expensive and time-consuming, AI-assisted vocal tools could let artists revisit their catalogs more efficiently while retaining rights to what comes out.