A new folk-pop track, “I Know, You’re Not Mine” (Jag vet, du är inte min), has become a viral hit.
The song tells a sad story of lost love, with soft finger-picked guitar and a haunting voice credited to an artist named Jacub.
Despite its popularity, the song has been blocked from Sweden’s official music charts because Jacub is not a real person. Fans connected with lines like “Your steps in the night, I hear them go” and “We stood in the rain at your gate… now I know you are not mine,”
Investigations revealed Jacub has no social media profiles, no live shows, and no media presence. The song is actually the work of a team at Stellar Music, a Danish company. The producers, calling themselves Team Jacub, said AI helped with the process, but experienced songwriters.
Team Jacub described AI as a tool to assist creativity rather than replace it. Still, IFPI Sweden, which manages the country’s official charts, ruled that songs mostly generated by AI cannot appear on their lists.
Sweden is actively exploring ways to balance AI innovation with human creativity. STIM, the country’s music rights society, launched a licensing system last year allowing AI developers. Lina Heyman from STIM called it “a way to embrace technology without harming human artists.”
Internationally, rules vary. Billboard allows AI-assisted tracks if they meet streaming and sales standards, while Bandcamp bans music created entirely or largely by AI, including voice cloning.
The controversy around Jacub’s song highlights the tension between AI and human musicians. AI in music is growing rapidly, but Sweden’s ban shows that human creativity still plays the key role in official chart recognition.
