The track's mimicry of flesh-and-blood pop is pretty unsettling. Yet what's really disturbing is the sheer quantity of similar AI tunes sloshing around online.
Tools like Udio and Suno, trained on millions of songs crafted by human artists, are now churning out millions of their own tunes at the click of a button. Deezer, a rival of Spotify Technology, estimates 20 000 AI tracks are uploaded to its platform daily, or 18 of the total. While they only account for 0.5 of total listens, real royalties are being earned and often fraudulently so, judging by the spread of bots to amplify listens. This may not be a Napster-scale issue yet - but the US20-billion music market is clearly vulnerable.
Which is why Deezer is now trying a little more sunlight to disinfect its platform. It's going to start labelling AI-generated content, based on proprietary software. On a recent visit to the firm's Paris headquarters, I watched on a laptop as the detection tool quickly spotted the telltale signs of a computer-composed song - in this case, Echoes of Tomorrow - with what it says is 100 accuracy. It turns out that while human ears can be fooled, AI-generated music can be detected from statistical patterns used in its creation. That's helped the fight against fraud behind the scenes now it's going to empower listeners.