Google Launches YouTube Music Service With Creepy AI To Predict Listening Habits (audioholics.com)

Audiofan writes: Will the new YouTube Music streaming service provide the soundtrack to your life? Google believes that its ability to harness the power of artificial intelligence will help the new service catch up to its rivals in the music streaming business. Google's latest attempt to compete with Spotify and Apple Music may finally have what it takes if it doesn't creep users out in the process. While the service officially rolls out on Tuesday, May 22nd, only some users will be able to use it at launch. What separates YouTube's music streaming service from the competition is its catalog of remixes, live versions, and covers of official versions of songs. It also uses the Google Assistant to make music recommendations based on everything it knows (and can learn) about you and your listening habits. "When you arrive at the gym, for example, YouTube Music will offer up a playlist of hard-hitting pump-up jams (if that's your thing)," reports Audioholics. "Late at night, softer tunes will set a more relaxing mood."

YouTube Music is free with ads, but will cost $9.99 for ad-free listening. There is also YouTube Premium, which will cost $11.99 per month, and will include both the ad-free music service and the exclusive video content from the now-defunct YouTube Red.

Comments

Not creepy at all

[AvitarX]

Google Play Music already does this, and it's great (time, location, past activity for time and location), the addition of covers and live bringing it to YouTube sounds excellent. The last YouTube music wasn't so good, barely (if at all) better than using plain old YouTube to find things.

It was how they integrated the curated playlists from the company they purchased before launching Play Music. At work, suggests playlists designed for focusing (no lyrics) or with radio edits for example.

Here's the problem

[Peter P Peters]

The biggest flaw with the Internet is the Echo Chamber effect and Google and Facebooks algorithm's are just feeding that beast.
I want an Internet where I'm exposed to new and different ideas, not wrap me up in a comfort blanket of things I already know.
The echo chamber effect is the biggest threat to democracy and Google/Facebook are leading the charge.

Re:Here's the problem

[rudy_wayne]

The biggest flaw with the Internet is the Echo Chamber effect and Google and Facebooks algorithm's are just feeding that beast.

I want an Internet where I'm exposed to new and different ideas, not wrap me up in a comfort blanket of things I already know.

Exactly right.

Every so often I pick up something random and say "Hmmm . . . this looks weird and interesting, I'll give it a try".

A lot of it sucks and turns out to be crap. But almost all of my favorite books, movies and music were found that way.

Re:Here's the problem

[LynnwoodRooster]

Create many different Pandora streams. Then you can use the Pandora app to randomly mix those as well... That's an easy way to get a LOT of variety.

"AI"

[110010001000]

""When you arrive at the gym, for example, YouTube Music will offer up a playlist of hard-hitting pump-up jams (if that's your thing)," reports Audioholics. "Late at night, softer tunes will set a more relaxing mood."

No it won't. Companies always claim things like this but it never happens. They can't even deliver relevant advertising.

It's not AI

[DogDude]

It's not AI. It a fucking database. [type of person] with [interests] and [characteristics] tend to like music by [musician].

Won't work

[Askmum]

If it is anything like their algorithm on youtube it is not going to work. "Oh, you've wachted one cute cat movie? Let's spam you with cute cat movies because that's the only thing you're interested in".
Nope.

AI is serving Google

[DrYak]

The purpose of the AI is *not* to serve you.
The purpose of the AI is to serve *Google's* interest, and Google earn money by selling your eyeballs to advertisers (with the exception of a couple of paid service like the non-free Youtube Music and Youtube Premium), which means the AI optimizes for one single thing :
- make you stay as much as possible on youtube (thus prolonging your exposure to lucrative ads).

And as has been already demonstrated with old media (studied with TV), what works best on most people is :
- showing increasingly more extreme content
- trying to appeal emotion
- even better if that emotion is fear (increases even more ads success).

By having the AI automatically trying to learn "Which video should I auto-play next, so that the user stays longer", the old media research tells us that the AI will eventually end up favoring those videos, which happens to be more biased fear-mongering and will considers less other video which happen to be the "different ideas" you're longing for.
Wraping viewer in a comfort blanket will unknowingly be what happens, because research has shown that this is what works best for what the algorithm has been written to optimise for (increasing viewer retension and increasing revenue stream).

The echo chamber effect is an unintended consequence of how human psyche works and what corporations like Google and FB are optimizing for.

For the first time, paid service (like todays' Youtube Music / Youtube Premium) Google is having a platform where they don't need to actually maintain viewer retention, only need to optimize for people keeping their subscription.
(e.g.: if Google releases one cool movie per month as exclusive on youtube, and users end up thinking that this monthly so cool that it is totally worth paying the fee, we'll end up a situation where the platform doesn't need to optimize for minutes spent, only for quality making people keep their subscription.
That still doesn't fix people's biased interests, but reduces the "whatever crap makes them stay" current bubble making click bait)