Discoveries in the app’s code indicate that the company is developing AI-generated suggestions, allowing users to create playlists using prompts
Following the successful launch of features such as the virtual DJ powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and support for AI-translated podcasts, Spotify appears to be exploring new ways of integrating AI into its app, with the development of playlists suggested by the new technology.
The rumor gained traction after Chris Messina, technology veteran and now investor, revealed screenshots of Spotify’s app code that mention “AI playlists” and “playlists based on your prompts”.
Messina speculates that the creation of these playlists could be an option within the Blend genre, where the tastes of different users are combined to create a playlist with songs that appeal to everyone.
Spotify may have already prepared the ground for AI playlists created with prompts by developing a feature called Niche mixes. This feature allows users to build unique playlists based only on a description.
Despite the initial appearance, Spotify said that Niche Mixes are not AI-powered, being driven by the company’s personalization technology and algorithms.
All the lines of code were discovered in the latest version of the Spotify app, clearly indicating that this is a feature in development.
Research team focused on AI
Nevertheless, not all features that a company develops internally for testing reach the public, but this is an indication of how Spotify is reflecting on the role that AI could play in music personalization.
The company has previously suggested that features such as the AI DJ would not be the limit to Spotify’s adoption of AI technologies. According to TechCrunch, there is a team at Spotify working on Large Scale Language Models (LLMs)
And indeed, Spotify has a few hundred people working on personalization and machine learning techniques, including a large research team exploring “all the possibilities in LLMs, in generative voice and in personalization”.