Harry Styles, One Direction fans debate alleged AI ”leaks”

Harry Styles and One Direction fans are reportedly engaged in a heated debate over the authenticity of several alleged “leaks.”

According to a new report from 404 Media, there are now dozens of snippets available on Discord, TikTok, and YouTube, all of which are supposedly taken from unreleased material recorded by Styles and his former boy band. Except no one actually knows whether the clips and the songs themselves are real, and it's apparently led to a “days-long crowdsourced investigation” that’s taken over the entire fandom.

While hawkers initially found plenty of people willing to pay hundreds for these clips, a number of fans also became suspicious and claimed the so-called “demos” could be the potential work of an algorithm. In fact, 404 found that the snippets even sowed doubt amongst the AI-analysis companies, who couldn’t say for sure whether they were real or not. But with sellers now threatening to leave if people stop paying and the scrutiny doesn’t let up, we may never know the truth, unless someone ends up finding evidence via copyright databases or known associates of One Direction.