Lorde called out Spotify over the streaming service’s “About the Song” AI feature on Thursday, after the AI shared incorrect information regarding the context of one of her songs.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say we don’t want this,” Lorde wrote in an Instagram Story.
“About the Song” is an AI tool from Spotify that is currently in beta, released to limited users back in February. The tool scrapes third-party sources to compile additional information and context about individual tracks. In the case with Lorde, according to her screenshot, the AI appears to have pulled from the website themusic.com.au, writing that on her recent Ultrasound tour, the singer “turns Current Affairs into a full-on performance piece, stripping down to underwear while a dancer pours water over her stomach so the song plays out like the shower scene she talks about on stage.”
“Not only is this inaccurate (not the song i did that in) but reducing a song to an ai generated meaning right at the source feels like it limits free interpretation imo,” Lorde wrote. “At least make it possible for artists to opt out please.”
Lorde’s comment reflects the sensitivity that still surrounds AI among artists and creatives in the entertainment industry. SZA, for example, told I-D earlier this year that she feels she’s “at war because of AI.”
“I’m not up against the pop girls. I’m not up against the R&B girls,” SZA said. “I’m up against anti-intellectualism and doing things easy. The type of blend of information my human experience provides, AI can’t even be prompted to fuck with.”
The issue reflects the widespread information issues tech companies’ AI data-scrapers have run into. Google’s AI summaries, for example, have faced similar criticism, with an April New York Times report detailing that its AI answers take data from a wide range of sources, including news sites to Facebook posts, leaving at least room for error. In the end, these AI scrapers will only be as good as the data that feeds them.
When asked for comment, a spokesperson confirmed that “the text has been removed.”
“About the Song” is a beta feature that presents cited information from third-party sources,” the spokesperson said. “We’re continuing to improve it based on feedback from artists and fans.”
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