Doreen Mokoena, the founder and CEO of Cybrsec Clinique, shared that the company’s audit of major artificial intelligence identified several South African artists in “publicly documented training corpora.”
The artists’ work was used to enhance future AI music systems, with Kabza De Small topping the list.
Also see: The pros and cons of artificial intelligence
The businesswoman shared the findings on her X account on 21 June 2026 after music industry executive Lindiwe Dhlamini noted that The Atlantic published a searchable database of music used by tech companies to train generative AI models. She found many South African artists during her search.
Doreen wrote in her X post, “The biggest export South Africa never authorised may be its culture… As artists, rights holders, and policymakers begin to examine the scale of this practice, it may prove to be one of the most significant data laundering controversies the global music industry has ever faced.”
South African artists found in AI datasets
On a chart, Cybrsec Clinique revealed that Kabza’s presence across audited datasets was 360, followed by DJ Maphorisa with 270, Spirit of Praise with 212, Nasty C with 193, and Thomas Chauke with 183.
Other local artists who featured on the list included Emtee, A-Reece, Major League DJz, Sol Phenduka, Hug Masekela, Oskido, and MaWhoo.
The biggest export South Africa never authorised may be its culture.
Our audit of major AI training datasets identified dozens of South African artists appearing across publicly documented training corpora used to develop the next generation of AI music systems.
As artists,… https://t.co/2EPX3foLx3 pic.twitter.com/LnUpl1u8zO
— ParrotOS (@MokoenaDee) June 21, 2026
Also see: Oskido weighs in as AI music sparks industry debate
South Africans weigh in
Many social media users took to X to express their thoughts, including Sol Phenduka, who wasn’t too pleased.
@itsLord_za shared with the public, “South African artists built culture. If AI is learning from their work, the conversation about consent, credit and compensation cannot be ignored.”
“This is actually scary,” wrote @thvbyx.
@wati___ pointed out, “AI amapiano is taking over.”
“Very interesting that Tyla and Black Coffee aren’t in this list. Is their music being better controlled overseas?” @mabasadi wondered.
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