In a post-ChatGPT world, it is not far-fetched to imagine that more and more artificial intelligence developments are to come that will take over the jobs humans have done for years. The music streaming platform Spotify has already found a seemingly suitable replacement for the niche job of the DJ.

On February 22, Spotify released the beta version of its AI DJ feature as part of the premium version of Spotify in the United States and Canada. Right now, it is only available in English. The DJ goes through recent music that has come out and a user’s listening history to choose songs for the listener. If you don’t like the song the DJ picks, you can tap the DJ button for a new song to start playing. According to Spotify, the more you use the feature, the better the DJ will predict the music you will enjoy.

The AI DJ uses Generative AI, a type of artificial intelligence that can generate images, text, audio, synthetic data, and more based on past and current data it’s aware of. The Generative AI used in the DJ is powered by OpenAI technology, the California-based company which developed ChatGPT.

Currently, the DJ has the voice of Xavier “X” Jernigan, who used to serve as one of the hosts of Spotify’s morning show “The Get Up” and is Spotify’s head of cultural partnerships. Spotify’s recent acquisition of the dynamic-AI voice company, Somatic, has enabled Spotify to have their DJ relate multitudes of text in the voice of X.

Of course, the development of this groundbreaking and distinct DJ has been met with some scrutiny. Some find that the voice of the DJ feels unnatural no matter how advanced the technology is and that a DJ interjecting between songs can get annoying.

The job of the DJ first emerged in the 30s and 40s to play music for groups of people at parties and clubs; however, the Spotify DJ is clearly made for an individual. The curated playlists Spotify already makes are better for listeners who mostly use headphones or AirPods than an artificial DJ. The extreme push towards outwardly artificial intelligence in our day-to-lives can undoubtedly be perceived as unsettling.

The music we listen to is a huge part of who we are. When we take the time to choose our music, we take a look inside ourselves to see how we are feeling and how we want to feel. Although Spotify’s AI DJ can do a fairly good job at figuring out a person’s taste in music, self-reflection and making your own decisions should be preserved in the AI gold rush.