Spotify’s AI DJ will talk to you while it plays your favorite songs

Spotify’s newest feature aims to use AI to create your own personal DJ…and it talks to you.

In a blog post, the company announced AI DJ, a new feature that not only uses artificial intelligence to create a custom lineup of music that it thinks you’ll love but actually talks to you in a realistic voice like you’re own personal DJ. The company says that the feature is starting to roll out today but in a beta, so you’ll have to check your app to see if you have access to your DJ already.

If you want to take a look at what the experience is like, check out the video below. It is wild to see the AI DJ talk to the listener like their own personal radio host.

The company says that it was able to create the AI DJ using the following:

• Spotify’s personalization technology, which gives you a lineup of music recommendations based on what we know you like. 
• Generative AI through the use of OpenAI technology. We put this in the hands of our music editors to provide you with insightful facts about the music, artists, or genres you’re listening to. The expertise of our editors is something that’s really important to our philosophy at Spotify. 
• A dynamic AI voice platform from our Sonantic acquisition that brings to life stunningly realistic voices from text.

I recognized the voice of the AI when I watched the video, and many of you might as well. The AI is actually voiced by the company’s Head of Cultural Partnerships and previous host of Spotify’s Get Up morning show, Xavier “X” Jernigan. While Jernigan is currently the only voice option for the DJ, Spotify says that it will continue to “iterate and innovate,” so more voices could be available in the future.

To use the AI DJ, Spotify has outlined the following steps:

• Head to your Music Feed on Home in the Spotify mobile app on your iOS or Android device.
• Tap Play on the DJ card.
• Let Spotify do the rest! The DJ will serve a lineup of music alongside short commentary on the songs and artists, picked just for you. 
• Not feeling the vibe? Just hit the DJ button at the bottom right of the screen to be taken to a different genre, artist, or mood.

The news comes as Spotify also added ways to exclude music from your taste profile and will be one of the first third-party apps to support widgets on Windows 11.