YouTube is spinning up its own AI-powered hosts for its Music app, a move that pits it directly against a similar feature Spotify launched in 2023. The test is being run through the new YouTube Labs, the company’s hub for AI experiments.
- Your personal radio host: The goal is to “deepen your listening experience by sharing relevant stories, fan trivia, and fun commentary about your favorite music,” according to a company blog post. The AI hosts will act like radio DJs, interjecting with commentary between songs on a user's own playlists and mixes.
- Not your curator: The key difference from Spotify's offering is that YouTube's version doesn’t build a playlist for you. It's designed to augment a listening session you've already curated yourself, adding commentary to your own playlists and mixes.
- More AI, less slop: The initiative is part of a wider AI push across YouTube, as the company has recently rolled out other generative AI tools for creators. The move comes as the company also attempts to crack down on the proliferation of low-quality, mass-produced "AI slop" that has flooded the service.
YouTube is walking a fine line, embracing AI-driven features to compete for user engagement while simultaneously trying to manage the AI-generated content crisis on its own platform.
Meanwhile, the battle for your screen time is heating up on other fronts, as Netflix is rolling out a new collection of party games that use smartphones as controllers, turning its streaming app into an interactive gaming hub.