Spotify has announced that it’s partnering up with OpenAI’s ChatGPT to improve the listening experience. The idea is that the chatbot will be able to make personalised recommendations.
The new service launched yesterday (October 6), allowing Spotify Premium and Free users to link their accounts to ChatGPT, thus allowing it to assist in finding new artists, songs, playlists, albums, or podcast episodes.
Those who are sceptical about AI may be rolling their eyes at this point. But Spotify has insisted that no audio or video content will be shared with OpenAI for training purposes. It should also be pointed out that the feature is entirely optional – Spotify users will be required to opt into this feature, and of course they can disable it at any time.
In a statement, Spotify said that they were “continuing to invest in personalisation technology and the expertise and insights of our human editors, so that we have something that matches every moment.”
“Spotify’s vision has always been to be everywhere you are,” Sten Garmark, Spotify’s Global Head of Consumer Experience, said, somewhat-terrifyingly. “By bringing Spotify into ChatGPT, we’re creating a powerful new way for fans to connect with the artists and creators they love conversationally, whenever inspiration strikes.”
This announcement comes a couple of weeks after the streaming platform said that it was cracking down on AI ‘slop’ and had removed 75 million ‘spam’ tracks that have come from fraudsters using AI to game the system. These have resulted in AI songs appearing on the pages of both deceased and living artists, as well as this summer’s most notorious fake AI ‘act’, The Velvet Sundown.
It remains to be seen whether ChatGPT will indeed be a useful addition to listeners’ experience, or if the OpenAI partnership will benefit the people Spotify really should be looking after: the musicians and artists.
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