Survey: 97 percent of people can't tell if a song is AI

AI music is beginning to fill up music streaming libraries, and a lot of music lovers aren't happy about it.

However, according to a new study conducted by French music streaming service Deezer and Ipsos, 97 percent of people surveyed couldn't tell that a song was fully generated by AI instead of a human. Out of that group, the majority, or 52 percent, felt uncomfortable about the fact that they couldn't tell the difference.

AI-generated music has certainly advanced over the years, but that's not the only reason people can struggle to identify AI songs. A lot of popular music is rather formulaic, meaning it's rather easy for AI to mimic, at least when it comes to instrumentals. 

The study from Deezer and Ipsos is an interesting one, as it finds people aren't completely opposed to AI. For example, 46 percent of people surveyed thought AI could be used to help them discover new music. In addition, 66 percent of people said they would give AI music a try at least once out of curiosity.

However, it seems like people start to feel an opposition to AI music once they feel deceived. The survey found that 80 percent of people want AI music clearly labeled on platforms. Another 72 percent would want to know if a platform was recommending fully AI-generated music to them. Nearly half, or 45 percent of users, would filter out AI-generated music, and 40 percent would skip AI music if they came across it.

Music fans also have a negative view of AI songs when it comes to supporting music artists. The survey found that 65 percent of people don't think AI should train on copyrighted music, and another 70 percent believe that AI threatens the livelihood of artists.

Only 11 percent of those surveyed think that AI music should be given equal treatment on the top music charts.

It's important to note that much of the critical reaction towards AI-generated music is specific to fully AI-generated songs. Musical artists and producers have long used emerging technologies in their work, such as autotune, to digitally fix or alter their music. However, even those tools require human expertise and input to actually create the final sound or composition.

According to Deezer, around 50,000 fully AI-generated music tracks are uploaded to streaming services every day, accounting for a whopping 34 percent of all daily music releases.

AI-generated creative works, such as AI-created illustrations and videos, have received lots of backlash online over the past couple of years. In fact, the push back against AI in art has been so strong that some social media platforms, like Pinterest, have given its users the option to filter out AI content completely.

As AI-generated music evolves and the blowback against AI continues to grow, it will be interesting to see how streaming platforms like Spotify and Deezer treat AI-generated music on their platforms.