Apple Music has introduced a new playlist Apple Intelligence AI feature, similar to those offered by other streaming apps for years. Spotify’s AI DJ, for example, mimics an actual DJ, curating music based on your likes and ratings. Apple’s release allows users to input a prompt and generate playlists, such as upbeat, motivating, or sad song collections.
I recall the discourse when streaming players replaced mixtapes, highlighting the human effort in personalizing playlists for parties, romance, or other occasions. There’s a sense of soullessness in using AI for playlist creation. The notion of the human curator, aka master of ceremonies (MC), aligns with qualitative research questioning whether AI truly engages with themes and codes or merely assembles them. AI lacks the context of classic mixtape debates, like curating deep cuts of Bruce Springsteen or creating a gym playlist that universally motivates. AI can do the job of indexing to see what other playlists are out there, but it doesn’t know what the audience wants or how to engage a crowd. Ask any DJ or cover band on Broadway in Nashville, and they’ll tell you to be ready for the unexpected.
Apple Intelligence struggled with my request for a NOFX playlist of Fat Mike’s best bass songs. Despite Fat Mike’s popularity and over 40‑year career, the playlist was only satisfactory and included Dead Kennedys songs, which weren’t part of the request. Reddit provided better results, leading me to manually compile the playlist. I’m curious if future updates will allow AI to scan Reddit threads or even decipher the Sharpie on CD‑Rs, maintaining the human element while automating tasks.
As the robot‑clad duo once said, we are human after all. Human input remains essential, even for seemingly surface‑level tasks like creating workout playlists, to truly understand and engage the audience.
