Over the long weekend, a perceptive Reddit user noticed that a YouTube application used artificial intelligence to create personalized radio stations for users. The function hasn’t been publicly announced by the company, but Redditor kater_pro discovered it when using the YouTube Music app.
This could indicate that the feature is currently only being tested with a small number of people. A large “Experiment” tag in Kater Pro’s screenshots lends credence to that claim, so there’s presently no timeline for when (or if) this functionality will be made available to the general public.
When the option is activated, a little text box with the words “Ask for music any way you like” appears on the user’s screen, according to kater_pro. According to Kater_pro, they instructed the AI to create a radio station with tracks like Lil Nas X, RuPaul, and Janelle Monáe, and the result was “queer hip hop beats.” According to the station’s description, it “celebrates queer pride in hip hop’s art through rhymes and flows from the heart.” Okay, that was a little weird to say.
With a little chat box at the bottom of the screen and many suggestions above it, allowing the user to search for anything from “Upbeat pop anthems” to “Moscow rock scene,” it appears that you may adjust your AI-generated stations on the go. Respondents have the option of speaking or typing.
This feature is comparable to Spotify’s current “AI DJ” as well as PlaylistAI, a third-party program for Apple Music and Spotify. Though it’s still early to tell if it will outperform more conventional recommendation services like Discover Weekly, it’s a more practical approach to obtain AI assistance with music than simple text recommendations from ChatGPT.
It is unknown whether Kater_pro is a paid subscriber because they did not indicate whether or not the feature will be behind a paywall (although this has happened with previous AI YouTube features).