YouTube Music’s new AI host talks between songs and you can’t turn it off

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YouTube is bringing AI voices to its music app, and not everyone is going to like how it works.

On September 26th, the company introduced a new Labs feature called “Beyond the Beat.” This uses AI to occasionally pause your music and share interesting facts, stories, and insights.

The AI feature starts working as you listen to mixes or radio stations within the YouTube Music app. It creates brief spoken segments, offering fun facts and details about the songs or artists you’re currently enjoying.

A Gemini sparkle icon is now visible on the Now Playing screen. If you tap it, you can silence the AI for either one hour or for the remainder of the day. However, there isn’t a way to turn it off permanently. The only way to completely disable it is to exit the Labs program.

YouTube Music test features an annoying DJ you can’t mute

“The first experiment, AI music hosts designed to deepen your listening experience by sharing relevant stories, fan trivia, and fun commentary about your favorite music on the YouTube Music app,” YouTube explained.

YouTube describes the feature as being like a traditional radio DJ, designed to improve the listening experience without being disruptive.

This idea is similar to Spotify’s AI DJ, but instead of creating playlists like the Spotify bot does, YouTube’s AI simply engages in conversation. It just talks.

Some reviewers have noted that generative AI can sometimes produce “hallucinations”– essentially, inventing facts or adding irrelevant content that could negatively impact how people enjoy music. Ars Technica called the idea of AI-driven interaction “playful banter”, but whether it actually delivers on that promise is still uncertain.

The AI host feature is currently accessible to a small group of viewers in the US who choose to try it out through YouTube Labs. This launch happens as YouTube continues to integrate more artificial intelligence into its platform, such as a new tool that automatically creates short video clips from streams – perfect for Shorts.

However, not all updates have been problem-free. Just recently, YouTube received criticism for broadening its AI-powered age-estimation technology. This system can prevent users from watching specific videos unless they provide identification.

With artificial intelligence voices now appearing during song playback, YouTube is experimenting again to see how much users truly desire “AI enhancement” in their music listening experience.

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2025-09-29 21:50