Luminate survey finds most people want AI disclosed in music, TV and games

Most media consumers want to be told when generative AI played a meaningful role in creating what they watch or listen to, according to three separate surveys Luminate covered in an August 5 report by analyst Audrey Schomer. The surveys, run by three different research firms, asked about AI transparency across music, TV and film, and video games.

In television and film, 93% of US consumers said viewers should be informed when a company uses AI to make a show or movie, with 72% saying that disclosure should happen every time, according to Hub Entertainment Research. Among gamers, 97% told National Research Group that developers should disclose AI use in production in some form, though opinions varied on how specific that disclosure needs to be.

Music listeners showed a similar appetite for transparency: nearly three-quarters of streaming users want to know if a service is recommending them a fully AI-generated track, according to an Ipsos survey commissioned by the streaming service Deezer. That preference held even though, in a blind test included in the same survey, 97% of respondents failed to tell the difference between two AI-made songs and one human-made recording, and 52% said not being able to tell them apart made them uncomfortable.

Luminate's report says music faces a more immediate and technically complicated version of the disclosure question than film, TV or games, since large numbers of AI-generated tracks have already reached streaming services and racked up plays, often without listeners realizing it. Several platforms, including Deezer, Spotify and Apple Music, have already begun labeling AI-generated or AI-assisted tracks, though each uses its own detection and labeling approach.

Earlier this month, a coalition of music industry trade groups led by the Recording Industry Association of America and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry proposed a shared labeling system with standard tags for AI-generated or AI-assisted recordings that streaming services could display on tracks. The survey lands the same week a federal judge declined to dismiss independent artists' copyright suit against Udio, and as Universal Music asked a New York court to dismiss the musicians' union's Udio lawsuit.