It is almost impossible for a person to tell the difference between music created entirely by artificial intelligence (AI) and music of a similar genre composed by human beings, according to a survey presented Wednesday.
Of the 9,000 people interviewed, “97% did not know how to differentiate between music generated entirely by AI and music created by humans, in a blind test with two AI songs and one real song,” according to a survey conducted by Ipsos for the French streaming platform Deezer.
This study was conducted online from October 6 to 10 in eight countries: the United States, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Japan.
Nearly half of respondents believe AI can guide them to discover new songs. But about the consequences of composing music with this technology, they are more pessimistic.
51% of them estimate that AI will lead to the appearance of “lower quality and more generic” songs, and almost two-thirds (64%) think that this technique can cause “a loss of creativity in musical production,” the study emphasizes.
These results “clearly demonstrate that people care about music and want to know if they are listening to a song created by a human or an AI,” Alexis Lanternier, CEO of Deezer, said in a statement.
The French company is, for the moment, the only audio platform that systematically indicates titles generated entirely by AI, through a message to users.
In January, it detailed that one in every ten songs played on its website in a day was a track composed entirely by AI. Ten months later, that figure represents “34% of the total songs,” that is, about 40,000 a day, according to the company.
Despite this growing trend, these songs currently represent a very small part of listening.
In June, the group The Velvet Sundown recorded a smash hit on Spotify, and a month later it was confirmed that they were an AI-generated band. His most viral song surpassed three million views.
The Swedish platform, accused of opacity regarding AI, announced several measures in September to urge artists to be more transparent regarding the use of this technology