NBC News99%
The future of Prince’s legacy in the age of AI a decade after his death 96%
4/22/2026, 12:32:01 AM
BS Summary: This video contains 30 faulty reasoning types, including Anecdotal, Negativity Bias, and Availability Heuristic, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 23.2% saturation with 181 hits. Analysis detected 2,369 faulty-reasoning hits from 779 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 92.9% and a BS Rank of 96% (823 of 16,813 videos). This video is worse (more manipulative) than 95.10% of the video peer group.
voice that spans genres and generations.
Prince now gone for 10 years
>> because he was the greatest artist musician of all time. A true artist.
>> That's El Londell McMillan, Prince's longtime attorney who helped the artist fight his record label to gain control of his music back in the9s. Now he says that he works to protect Prince's legacy as a manager of his estate, a task that has to evolve with time and technology.
I spy a purple piano behind you. He's at Paisley Park, Prince's home turn museum.
>> Well, I am now in the coveted Studio B live room.
>> Prince Rogers Nelson rose to fame in 1984 with his breakout hit Purple Rain.
The film and its soundtrack becoming a cultural phenomenon. The project produced chart topping hits and the winner IS PRINCE FOR PURPLE RAIN.
>> earned him an Oscar. I could have never imagined this in my wildest dreams.
>> Across his career, Prince sold millions of records. His fight to own his music still shapes conversations today about artist rights.
>> He wanted to free himself from the incumbrances and the contracts and those people that he felt had restrained him at the time.
>> Prince's legacy is no stranger to controversy. From the start, Prince died without a will, triggering years of legal battles over control of his estate worth more than $100 million, which was split between family members. Half of them later sold their stakes to a music company, Primary Wave, which came in a bigger wave of some major artists selling their cataloges in 9 figure deals, while others, like Taylor Swift, fought to buy her own master recordings back. More recently, Prince's estate made headlines after settling a trademark lawsuit with a former Prince collaborator. Balancing fortune with fans is not always simple.
>> You have to super serve an audience who they just want what they want no matter how they get it.
But my role as a fiduciary is to make sure that they get the product uh in a way that respects Prince's wishes.
There are no federal laws governing what's called right of publicity or the use of someone's name, image, or likeness after death.
Instead, there's a patchwork of state laws. And now, a new challenge.
>> I'm very much concerned about how technology in general, AI in particular, is uh moving.
>> Some see potential exploitation like the criticism this video received after Ozie Osborne's death, posing with other deceased artists' likeness, including Prince. McMillan doesn't approve. Others see it as a way to extend a legacy.
An AI generated version of the late actor Val Kilmer will star in a movie with the estate and family's permission.
>> That is a legal gray zone whether you are allowed to a use the artist's works as training data and b whether you are permitted to generate outputs in the style of that um deceased artist.
>> Prince spent his entire career deciding how the world would hear his music.
Prince was very authentic. He didn't believe in a lot of smok and mirrors and a lot of artificial anything.
And so holograms are not our thing.
>> 10 years later, that question of control has hasn't gone away. It's only grown more complicated.
>> Chloe Malas is joining us now. It's so interesting.
Chloe, we're glad to have you on this. Um, the estate released that new song.
We played it right at the top there. They're holding a celebration at Prince's house today. All of it is to kind of remember this person who's a legend and who really was, as you have laid out in this piece, like kind of on the on the leading edge of figuring out his estate was like the the or trying to raise these questions of of legacy and what that looks like in this in this age of technology that's evolving so quickly.
Yeah. Hi, it's clear that he had a really good idea as to how he wanted his legacy to look. And there is going to be that celebration with a lot of performances, VIP tours, more unreleased music, shaka, more daycat Graham, you name it. So if you're in Minnesota, go by Paisley Park. They're going to be celebrating Prince's life and legacy June 3rd through 7th.
>> Chloe Malas, thank you very much.
>> We thank you for watching and remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.
Analysis
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