Young woman using artificial intelligence. Photo: Denisismagilov | Dreamstime.com
Differentiating a song generated 100% by artificial intelligence (AI) from a song of a similar genre but created by humans has become almost impossible for a listener, an Ipsos poll for streaming platform Deezer showed, published on Wednesday, according to AFP.
Of the 9,000 people who took the survey, “97% couldn't tell the difference between music generated entirely by AI and music created by humans in a blind test that included two AI tracks and one real track,” the French streaming platform revealed.
This study was conducted online from October 6-10 in eight countries: the United States, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Japan.
Almost half of respondents believe that AI can guide them in discovering new songs, but are more pessimistic about the consequences of creating music through AI.
People want to know if the song is made by AI
Thus, 51% of respondents believe that AI will lead to the emergence of “lower quality, more generic” songs, and almost two-thirds (64%) believe that artificial intelligence risks leading to “a loss of creativity in music production”, the study points out.
These results “clearly show that people are interested in music and want to know if they're listening to a track created by a human or an AI,” Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier said in a statement.
The French company is so far the only audio platform that systematically signals titles generated entirely by AI, through a mention addressed to users.
In January, the company said that one in ten tracks appearing on its site in a day was, in fact, a track generated entirely by AI.
Ten months later, that percentage has reached “34% of total tracks,” or nearly 40,000 per day, the company notes. Despite the increase, these tracks currently represent a very small proportion of listens.
The sudden popularity in June of an AI group on the Spotify platform, The Velvet Sundown, caused a lot of backlash, with their most popular song surpassing three million listens.
Repeatedly accused of AI opacity itself, the Swedish company in September announced several measures to encourage artists and publishers to be more transparent about their use of AI.
Photo: Denisismagilov | Dreamstime.com
