YouTube has revealed an artificial intelligence tool that allows users to imitate pop stars like Demi Lovato and John Legend.

Axar.azv reports that the experimental feature, called Dream Track, allows users to create short songs by describing qualities including lyrical content and mood.

Nine artists have allowed their voices to be "cloned" by the software, including Charli XCX, Troye Sivan, T-Pain and Sia.

For now, about 100 creators in the US have been given access to the tool, which can only be used to soundtrack videos on YouTube Shorts - the platform's rival to TikTok.

The company released two sample videos created with Dream Track, featuring passable, but inferior, imitations of Charlie Puth and T-Pain.

The Puth track was generated by the prompt: "A ballad about how opposites attract, upbeat acoustic."

The result feels like a low-quality MP3, full of digital artefacts. At times, Puth's voice sounds "smudged" with consonants that are occasionally muddied and indistinct.