If anyone was wondering how music streaming giant Spotify plans to handle AI content, we got some answers today.
Just after an interview in which its CEO said the company wasn’t going to remove all AI-generated content from the platform, but only songs that impersonate a real artist, Spotify announced a feature based on artificial intelligence which allows a podcast recorded in English to be translated into other languages with the original voice of the speaker.
In an interview with BBC News, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said that artificial intelligence in the music world is an issue that will be debated for a long time. In recent months, AI-generated content, like Elvis singing Sir Mix-a-Lot’s hit “Baby Got Back” or Drake and The Weeknd collaborating on “Heart on My Sleeve,” has gone viral on TikTok. These songs were uploaded and then removed from Spotify.
Impersonate the hosts
But AI-based songs still have a place on Spotify.
This technology has valuable uses, Ek said. Songs that impersonate a person without their consent will be removed, but “middle songs”, which can simply be inspired by an artist, or songs generated entirely by AI, can remain.
At the same time, Spotify is implementing a feature for podcasts that allows the identity of hosts to be impersonated. The difference, of course, is that these creators agreed.
Trevor Noah and The Ringer podcasts soon available in French
This tool is one of the first to use OpenAI’s new voice generation feature, which has just announced new capabilities for ChatGPT, making it possible to reproduce a person’s voice from a sample of a few seconds of his speech.
This means that users might be able to listen to a podcast in their language while retaining the creators’ own style and nuances. “We believe a thoughtful approach to AI can help build deeper connections between listeners and creators,” wrote Ziad Sultan, vice president of personalization at Spotify, “a key part of Spotify’s mission. Spotify which is about unlocking the potential of human creativity.”
Trevor Noah and The Ringer podcasts should soon be available in French.
This feature is available to all Spotify users, whether free or premium. A full list of translated works is available on Spotify’s “Voice Translation” page.
Source: “ZDNet.com”