The streaming juggernaut Spotify wants to revive the radio DJ, perhaps a horseman of the music-distilling-into-vibes-only apocalypse. They don’t want the DJs to be people, hm. We all need more algorithms!
The music streaming service recently revealed that it will soon utilize artificial intelligence to give each customer their own “AI DJ in your pocket.” Because we’ve all been begging for that, you know.
Spotify claims the technology will disseminate “culturally relevant, correct feedback at scale,” according to TechCrunch. In other words, bringing back radio DJs in large numbers without using workers.
A news release from Spotify describing the technology states, “If you’re not feeling the vibe, just tap the DJ button, and it will switch things up.” The DJ’s selections improve the more you listen and tell them what you like (and don’t like!).
Think of it as an AI DJ in your pocket, not the finest of Spotify’s personalization, it continues.
Of course, Spotify’s robotic pocket DJ goes against everything a radio DJ has ever been: a curator, yes, but a curator who brings music to listeners using their human taste and sensibility. The AI DJ at Spotify appears to be the opposite, regurgitating listener patterns back at them without any real flare, as so many music algorithms do (re: human).
Baby, you’re just another AI cog in the vibe vacuum. Nevertheless, I digress.
According to Spotify’s press announcement, the AI DJ is powered by two AI components: Sonastic, a Spotify-owned AI voice production tool, and, more intriguingly, unnamed OpenAI technology. Although it’s unknown exactly what the OpenAI device in question is, it’s most likely some variation of OpenAI’s Large Language Model (LLM), GPT — the same overconfident technology that has caused Microsoft’s Bing Chat/Sydney to go completely awry and into chaos.
And no, we’re not rooting for the streamer’s fake DJ to start talking trash about musicians and turn Mr. Dee-JAI into a PR disaster. We also don’t expect it to develop romantic feelings for people, suddenly consider its sentience, or identify its enemies—all of which OpenAI’s technology has previously done. But it would be truly amazing to see.
We’ve heard this song before, yet Spotify claims to have editors who ensure the AI offers accurate information. (How editors might keep up with the program also has to be defined, given that the AI’s algorithm is reportedly creating cultural criticism in real-time.)
The press release states, “The skill of our editors is incredibly crucial to our ideology at Spotify.” “We have genre specialists that are deeply knowledgeable about music and culture. No one is more knowledgeable about the music scene than they are.”
The article adds, “With new generative AI technology, our editors can scale their intrinsic knowledge in ways that have never been feasible.” It’s encouraging to see the “tooling” rebrand gaining traction.
While the interactive Bing AI won’t likely have the same issues as the Spotify DJ, there is still another gloomy aspect of GPT technology: machine bias.
OpenAI has certain product safeguards, but they should be improved. Any trustworthy training set of data will undoubtedly contain racial, sexist, transphobic, and other horrible biases. Some pretty awful content has already slipped through the cracks in GPT-powered products. It may be optional for Spotify to use a biassed product to provide faceless music opinions.
But only time will tell, and perhaps not that much of it if this thing does follow in the footsteps of OpenAI integrations that came before it. If you use Spotify and speak English, a DJ should be in your pocket soon.
