Spotify has come under fire for its use of artificial intelligence after pop star Lorde publicly criticized the music streaming service for sharing completely incorrect information about her work.
The controversy centers around Spotify’s new AI feature “About the Song,” which angered the singer on Thursday after generating an inaccurate summary regarding the live performance and meaning of one of her tracks.
The feature in question is an AI-powered tool currently in beta testing, which was rolled out to a limited number of users in February.
It works by scraping third-party sources from the Internet to compile additional background information and context for individual songs.
In Lorde’s case, the AI pulled data from an Australian music website to claim that during her recent Ultrasound tour, the singer turned a specific song into a performance by stripping down to her underwear while a dancer poured water on her stomach to imitate a shower scene.
Lorde shared a screenshot of the AI text on her Instagram Story to firmly correct the error and express her frustration with the technology.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say we don’t want this,” the singer wrote.
She pointed out that not only was the description inaccurate because it named the wrong song completely, but she argued that reducing a song to AI-generated meaning directly on the streaming platform limited the freedom of interpretation for the listener.
Lorde concluded her post with a direct appeal to the tech giant, asking them to at least allow artists to opt out of the feature.
The New Zealand star’s backlash highlights the ongoing tension and sensitivity around artificial intelligence among creatives in the entertainment industry.
She is far from the only prominent artist to express major concerns; Earlier this year, R&B star SZA expressed similar frustrations, saying she felt at war because of AI.
SZA explained that she does not feel in competition with other pop or R&B artists, but rather against anti-intellectualism and the desire to do things the simplest way, saying that a machine could never be tricked into replicating the unique blend of information provided by its own human experience.
