Survey reveals that 97% of listeners can't tell if music is made by AI or humans

As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, so too has the culture of discerning whether new content is AI-made. But new research suggests that when it comes to music, determining whether it's AI-made can be particularly difficult.

Deezer and Ipsos study: AI fools 97% of listeners

Music streaming platform Deezer, in collaboration with research firm Ipsos Digital, conducted an online survey of 9,000 people in eight countries: Japan, the US, Canada, Brazil, the UK, France, the Netherlands and Germany.

Deezer is a platform that has applied for a patent for AI detection technology, and has shown a stance of not actively supporting AI-generated content, such as tagging AI-generated music and excluding it from recommendations. However, with approximately 50,000 AI-generated songs being posted to Deezer every day, accounting for more than 34% of the total daily streams, it is said that the growing influence of AI cannot be ignored.

In the study, subjects were randomly asked to listen to three pieces of music and asked whether they were created by AI. Two of the pieces were created by AI and one was created by a human. 97% of the subjects answered incorrectly. 71% of the subjects were surprised by the results, and 52% were uncomfortable with the results.

When asked about AI-generated music, 66% answered that they would listen to it at least once out of curiosity. However, 45% said they wanted to remove AI-generated music from platforms, and 40% said they would skip AI-generated music 100% of the time.

While expectations and dislike for AI are mixed, there is a common opinion about transparency regarding AI. When asked whether it should be clearly displayed that a product is made by AI, 80% of respondents answered 'yes.'

Additionally, 73% said they would like to know if platforms are promoting AI-generated music, 52% said AI-generated music should not be placed alongside human-made music on major charts, and only 11% said AI-generated music should be treated equally on charts.

When asked about the relationship between AI and music, 46% said 'AI will help people discover music they like,' 51% predicted 'AI will play an important role in music production in the next 10 years,' and 51% feared 'AI will lead to an increase in low-quality music on streaming platforms.' 64% also said 'AI will lead to a loss of creativity in music production.'

When asked about fairness to artists, 65% said that AI models trained on copyrighted material should not be allowed to generate music. 70% believe that AI-generated music threatens the livelihoods of current and future musicians, artists, and composers. 73% believe that it is unethical for AI companies to use copyrighted material to generate new music without the explicit permission of the original creators. To ensure fairness, 69% also argued that AI-generated music should be paid less than music created by humans.

Alexis Lanternier, CEO of Deezer, said: 'We have been leading the industry in ensuring transparency and creating solutions to minimize the negative impact of AI-generated content. The survey results clearly show that people value music and want to know whether the songs they listen to are AI-generated or human-made. There is also no doubt that there is concern about the impact AI-generated music will have on artists' livelihoods and musical creativity, and that AI companies should not train their models on copyrighted material. It is encouraging to see such widespread support for these efforts.'