AI-powered Apple Music renovation will probably generate playlists for you

AppleInsider

Future updates to Apple Music are said to feature artificial intelligence, with the service likely to get AI-generated playlists down the road.

Apple Music playlists could get the AI treatment

Apple is in the midst of an artificial intelligence push, with Apple Intelligence features slowly rolling out to users since its introduction one year ago. However, a reporter claims that a well-used Apple app will get AI changes at some point in the future.

Speaking on Discord, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg participated in a live "Stage" talk on Sunday, the night before WWDC. As part of the conversation, he was asked questions about upcoming features, including if AI was to be introduced to Apple Music at some point.

Gurman responded that it would, but stopped short of saying what exactly would change.

A reworking of Apple Music is planned, but Gurman said there wasn't any set schedule for its release. This latter phrasing indicates he doubts Apple Music's changes will be brought up during WWDC.

Apple Music already uses machine learning

Gurman's answer is fairly obvious, as Apple is keen to bring AI to all of its creations, like the rest of the tech industry. AI will arrive in Apple Music, but it has yet to be determined how it will do so.

The most obvious possibility is in using AI to recommend songs to users. Apple already has an algorithmic system for this, but AI could shake up what is offered.

It is also plausible that AI could be used to build playlists for users based on themes and topics. Doing so could replace the existing human teams that compile recommendations into playlists.

This would follow in the footsteps of main rival Spotify, which already uses AI to generate playlists for users.



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shamino

Why in the world is AI needed for this.  Algorithmic playlist generation, like the Music Genome Project (used by Pandora) work great.  No need for massive neural nets and AI software.

Apple deliberately refused to use these algorithms in the past, claiming that human-curated lists would work better.  So apparently, they're now deciding that these humans aren't that good after all?  Or too expensive?

Sounds like it's all just a PR stunt.  If I want a computer-generated playlist, I really don't care what algorithm is used under the covers - I just want it to work.  And I assume that most people actually using the tool are going to have a similar opinion.  Advertising "AI" might generate some clickbait, but I doubt it will do much else.