(AFP) Research published on Wednesday suggests that recognizing the difference between music made by artificial intelligence and that made by humans has become almost impossible for listeners.
In a study for the French streaming service Deezer, Ipsos surveyed 9,000 participants, asking them to listen to two AI-created music clips and one human-created clip.
“97% couldn’t tell apart the fully AI-generated music from the human-made tracks,” Deezer reported.
This study follows the recent U.S. chart success of a country song featuring an AI-generated male voice, marking a notable milestone.
“Walk My Walk” by Breaking Lust, an artist known for using generative AI, has reached the top of Billboard’s digital country sales chart, according to data shared on Monday.
More than half of those surveyed expressed discomfort over not being able to distinguish the origins of the music.
When asked about AI’s influence, 51% of respondents believed it would result in an increase in low-quality music on streaming platforms, while nearly two-thirds felt it could stifle creativity.
“These results indicate that people really care about their music and want clarity on whether it’s produced by AI or humans,” said Alexis Lanternier, CEO of Deezer.
1/3 of streaming tracks are AI
Deezer noted a notable increase in AI-generated content being uploaded and consumed on its platform.
In January, 10% of daily streamed tracks were entirely AI-generated; by October, that figure had surged to over a third, with nearly 40,000 daily listeners.
80% of the respondents expressed a desire for clearly labeled, fully AI-generated music.
Deezer is unique among major streaming platforms in its systematic labeling of completely AI-created content.
This topic gained attention in June when a band called The Velvet Sundown went viral on Spotify, only to be revealed the following month as an AI-generated act.
The most popular songs from this AI group have racked up over 3 million streams.
In response to these developments, Spotify announced plans to motivate artists and labels to adopt a voluntary code disclosing the use of AI in music production.
The Deezer survey was conducted from October 6th to 10th across eight countries: Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States.
