YouTube trials AI hosts on its music streaming services

YouTube is trialling AI hosts on radio and mixes in the YouTube Music app.

According to an iannouncement, hosts will aim to “deepen your listening experience by sharing relevant stories, fan trivia, and fun commentary about your favourite music”.

The feature will only be available through YouTube’s Labs initiative, which is dedicated to AI-focused experiments on the platform, for now. If you want to see if you’re eligible for Labs, visit YouTube’s website. It’s currently limited to US-based participants.

YouTube has also announced that some of its Premium-only features have now expanded to more platforms. Among those is the jump ahead feature, which uses AI to skip to the most interesting part of a video. It’s now “fully available” on YouTube for TV and game consoles, the company has revealed.

The move by YouTube mirrors recent AI developments at Spotify, such as the introduction and expansion of its AI DJ feature.

Last week, it was reported that Spotify had removed 75 million AI-generated tracks from its platform over the past year aspart of a new crackdown on “spam” music.