Survey: 97 percent of people can’t tell if a song is AI

ai music Music streaming libraries are starting to fill up, and many music lovers aren’t happy about it.

However, according to one new study 97 percent of people surveyed by French music streaming service Deezer and Ipsos couldn’t tell that a song was completely composed by an AI rather than a human. Of that group, the majority, or 52 percent, felt uncomfortable about the fact that they couldn’t tell the difference.

AI-generated music has certainly advanced over the past few years, but that’s not the only reason people may have difficulty recognizing AI songs. A lot of popular music is formulaic, which means it’s quite easy for AI to imitate it, at least when it comes to instrumentals.

The study by Deezer and Ipsos is interesting, because it shows that people are not completely opposed to AI. For example, 46 percent of those surveyed thought AI could be used to help them discover new music. Additionally, 66 percent of people said they would try AI music at least once out of curiosity.

However, it seems as if people start to feel aversion towards AI music when they feel betrayed. The survey found that 80 percent of people want AI music to be clearly labeled on platforms. Another 72 percent would like to know if a platform is recommending them completely AI-generated music. Nearly half, or 45 percent, of users will filter out AI-generated music, and 40 percent will skip AI music when they encounter it.

Music fans also have a negative attitude towards AI songs when it comes to supporting music artists. The survey found that 65 percent of people do not think AI should provide training on copyrighted music, and another 70 percent believe AI threatens artists’ livelihoods.

Only 11 percent of those surveyed believe AI music should be given equal status on top music charts.

It is important to note that most of the critical reaction towards AI-generated music is entirely specific to AI-generated songs. Music artists and producers have long used emerging technologies like Autotune to digitally fine-tune or alter their music. However, those tools also require human expertise and input to actually create the final sound or composition.

According to Deezer, approximately 50,000 completely AI-generated music tracks are uploaded to streaming services every day, which is 34 percent of all daily music releases.

AI-generated creative works, such as AI-generated images and videos, have received a lot of feedback online in the past few years. In fact, the push against AI in art has been so strong that some social media platforms like pinteresthas given its users the option to filter out AI content completely.

As AI-generated music continues to evolve and the backlash against AI continues to grow, it will be interesting to see how streaming platforms like Spotify and Deezer treat AI-generated music on their platforms.