Lorde scolds Spotify over its new AI “About the Song” feature
“We don’t want this,” the singer wrote about the new gadget that provides AI-generated details about currently playing songs.
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Lorde has been on an anti-AI tear recently. After delivering a warning last week that railed against Meta’s AI glasses, she took to Instagram yesterday to call out Spotify for its new AI-generated “About the Song” feature. The tool, currently in beta, was introduced in February; it combs third-party sources for background information about the song being played and offers an AI-generated summary of contextual fun facts and “behind-the-scenes moments.” As Lorde revealed yesterday, artists are not allowed to opt out of the service: “I’m going to go out on a limb and say we don’t want this,” she wrote in an Instagram Story after discovering that the feature had misrepresented one of her songs, “Current Affairs.”
A screenshot shared by the singer of the “About the Song” section for “Current Affairs” shows text claiming that, while on her Ultrasound Tour, Lorde turned “‘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.” In response, Lorde wrote, “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. At least make it possible for artists to opt out please.”
The “performance piece” cited by Spotify’s AI was actually “GRWM,” not “Current Affairs.” A representative for Spotify confirmed the disputed portion of the song’s “About the Song” section has since been removed, though a different version still appears beneath the tune.
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