Humans can no longer distinguish AI music from real music, study finds

New survey finds 97 per cent of people failed to distinguish AI-generated tracks

AI signage seen during the World Audio Visual Entertainment Summit in Mumbai, India, on 2 May, 2025 (Middle East Images/AFP via Getty)

The vast majority of people are unable to tell the difference between fully AI-generated and human-made music, according to a new survey.

A total of 9,000 people across eight countries were tested to see if they could identify tracks made entirely by artificial intelligence. The blind test presented listeners with two AI songs and one real song, with 97 per cent of participants failing to pick the human-made music.

The majority of people taking part in the survey, which carried out by Ipsos and streaming platform Deezer, said they were uncomfortable with not being able to tell the difference.

The survey also showed that there is strong support for AI-generated music to be clearly labelled on platforms like Apple Music, Deezer and Spotify.

Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier said fully AI-generated music had been “flooding” streaming services, despite pushback from both the platforms and listeners.

“The survey results clearly show that people care about music and want to know if they’re listening to AI or human-made tracks or not,” he said.

“There’s also no doubt that there are concerns about how AI-generated music will affect the livelihood of artists, music creation and that AI companies shouldn’t be allowed to train their models on copyrighted material.”

Deezer revealed that over 50,000 AI-generated tracks are uploaded to its service every day, making up roughly a third of all new music.

Up to 70 per cent of these AI tracks appear to be fraudulent, according to Deezer, with the primary purpose being to collect revenue for listens.

The streaming giant said that its AI detection tool can catch music generated solely using artificial intelligence. The tracks are then automatically removed from algorithmic recommendations.

“This is a first step to making sure that these tracks don’t dilute the royalty pool in any significant way,” Deezer said in a statement. “Potential future actions, including updating our supplier policy and removing/demonetizing content need to be based on careful consideration.”

Earlier this week, a country music song made by artificial intelligence climbed to the top of a Billboard chart in the US for the fist time.

‘Walk My Walk’ by Breaking Rust has been listened to more than 3 million times on Spotify.