Survey finds humans can no longer tell AI music from real songs

APP/AFP

Paris: A new global survey has found that it has become nearly impossible for listeners to distinguish between music generated by artificial intelligence and that composed by humans.

The survey, conducted by polling firm Ipsos for France-based music streaming platform Deezer, asked 9,000 respondents to listen to two AI-generated clips and one human-made track. According to the findings, 97 percent of participants failed to identify which songs were produced by AI.

The poll, carried out from October 6 to 10 in eight countries — Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States — also revealed that more than half of the participants felt uneasy about their inability to tell the difference.

Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier said the results highlight the need for transparency in the age of AI-generated art. “People care about music and want to know if they’re listening to AI or human-made tracks,” he said in a statement.

Over half of respondents (51 percent) said AI would lead to more low-quality music on streaming platforms, while nearly two-thirds feared it could reduce creativity in the industry.

Deezer reported a sharp rise in AI-generated content on its platform. In January, one in 10 tracks streamed daily were entirely AI-produced, but by October that number had increased to nearly 40 percent — around 40,000 songs per day.

Eighty percent of listeners surveyed said they want AI-generated music clearly labeled. Deezer is currently the only major streaming service that systematically labels such tracks.

The debate over AI in music intensified earlier this year when a virtual band, The Velvet Sundown, went viral on Spotify. The group later confirmed its songs were created using AI, with its most popular track surpassing three million streams.

Following the controversy, Spotify announced it would encourage artists and publishers to adopt a voluntary industry code to disclose the use of AI in music production.