AiTunes 🎸🔌

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover Spotify’s move to (finally) provide verification badges for human artists on the platform. It comes after users offer a chorus of disapproval for the volume of AI-generated music (including a lot of slop) permeating music streaming algorithms. Is a badge enough to fix the issue, though? We have news on the closure of Ask.com, marking the end of the 90s internet legend. We also have a look at the “Dumphone” app for our App of the Week, and we marvel at just how much Greg Brockman is worth due to OpenAI. We’ll also bring you the latest from the team at 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

📱📵 Streaming – Music Fans Demand Transparency on AI-Generated Tunes

A question for our readers: Would you still enjoy a pop song if you knew it was generated by AI? For many, the answer seems to be no. And you can understand why. Take Dolly Parton’s Jolene, for example. Is it not all the more powerful when you know Dolly’s jealousy and anger are based on real-life marriage struggles? The heart-wrenching Tears In Heaven is doubly poignant when you learn Eric Clapton wrote it after the death of his infant son. We could go on, but you get the idea. Yet, as AI-generated music starts to infuse streaming algorithms, users want – at the very least – to have the choice of listening to AI content or not. Deezer has an AI filter button, but Spotify and YouTube Music do not, causing some criticism. Spotify has acted this week, though, bringing in a new verification badge to show you that an artist is human. AI slop has become a huge issue – almost half (44%) of new tracks on some streaming platforms are AI-generated - so it’s not clear whether this alone will solve it, but it’s evidence, at least, that Spotify understands there is a problem to address in the first place. None of this means to say that AI music is inherently bad, nor that it should not have a place on streaming platforms. But as with social media, users want transparency, and they are frustrated with platform operators’ attempts to deliver it. #AITunes Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Dumbphone Homescreen

“Dumbphones” are all the rage now among Gen-Z, as it seems that young adults are doing a better job than the rest of us at tackling their screentime habits. A Dumbphone is basically a smartphone without the smarts, i.e., stripped back to the necessities. Dumbphone Homescreen is an application that aspires to do the same, leaving you with the bare bones, such as messages and a clock on your home screen. It works a little bit like Brick without the need for a physical device, though it adds friction rather than outright blocking. There is a paid version and a free version, but the latter works just as well in our view. Check it out here for Android and here for iOS. 

🧐 Stat of the Week: 67%

📈📉 AI – Models Trump Human Doctors in Harvard Study

It’s just one study, so we shouldn’t get carried away, but an experiment led by Harvard Medical School found that AI, under certain tests, could be more accurate in diagnoses than human physicians when presented with the same information. The humans were accurate 50% and 55% of the time, whereas the (OpenAI) models were exact or very close in 67% of cases. #ModelDoctors Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

One of our favorite builds just got a big refresh. Footsteps with Jesus – the app that connects faith and fitness by letting you virtually walk the path of Jesus using your phone's or watch's step counter – is back with a brand-new version on iOS and Android. We've been with founder Dan from the very start, and it's been a real labor of love. The new build is cleaner, more beautiful, and comes with 30 days completely free – no credit card, no strings. After that, the full journey is a one-time $2.99. No subscription, no catch. If you've been meaning to check it out, now's the time. Download on iOS or Android.