Clearly relishing her freedom as an independent artist, Lorde has been speaking out about technology issues lately: witness her well-timed takedown of Meta’s AI glasses at a recent festival – which was sponsored by its smart-specs partner Ray-Ban..
Now she has turned her attention to one of Spotify’s AI-powered features: ‘About the Song’. Launched in February, this is the feature that promises context for tracks “summarised from third-party sources”.
Context is good… except when it’s wrong. Which seems to have been the case with the summary of Lorde’s ‘Current Affairs’ song.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the since-pulled summary claimed that on her latest tour Lorde “turns Current Affairs into a full-on performance piece, stripping down to underwear while a dancer pours water over her stomach so the song plays out like the shower scene she talks about on stage”.
“Not only is this inaccurate (not the song i did that in) but reducing a song to an ai generated meaning right at the source feels like it limits free interpretation imo,” wrote Lorde in an Instagram story. “At least make it possible for artists to opt out please.”
Spotify’s spokesperson pointed out that ‘About the Song’ is still in beta and taking feedback from artists and fans alike. Even so, there’s a risk for the company here: that Lorde’s intervention will spur other artists to check what it’s saying about their work – and speak up if it’s slopwash.
