Spotify Wrapped is always eagerly anticipated, but the 2024 iteration has been met with a fair bit of disappointment. The usual features are all present, but, unsurprisingly, the big new thing involves AI, and it’s incredibly weird.

My Wrapped AI Podcast

ForWrapped 2024, Spotify and Google teamed up to create apersonalized mini-podcast episodecalled “My Wrapped AI Podcast” to go along with the recap for everyone. This was made possible through NotebookLM, which is described as an “AI Research Assistant.”

The idea with NotebookLM is you can upload a bunch of different sources of information–PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, Google Docs, etc–and it will present it in an easier-to-digest format. One such format is “Audio Overview,” which essentially converts the information into a podcast episode with multiple hosts.

You can find your AI Podcast in the “Wrapped” section of the mobile app or by visitingspotify.com/wrappedAIpodcastin a browser.

Creepy, Cringey, or Pointless?

The “Audio Overview” feature is what was used to generate a podcast for Spotify listeners. Two AI “hosts” go over your Wrapped as if they’re providing a commentary track while scrolling through it on your phone. As an example, my personal AI Podcast is below (3:17).

First thing first, like a lot of AI features and products, I’m not sure what to do with this. The majority of the podcast is spent just reciting stats I already saw in my Wrapped. A commentary generally adds some extra insight, but this is mainly the same exact stuff in audio form.

I get the feeling that Google is trying to make NotebookLM look impressive, but that is not at all how I came away feeling. Two real humans who know nothing about me could look at my Wrapped and record a very similar podcast episode. It would almost certainly be more entertaining, funny, and useful. Nothing special was accomplished with the use of AI here.

Well, I shouldn’t saynothing–I did get creeped out. There is something inherently creepy and offputting about hearing two completely fabricated personalities having a fake conversation about yourself. It’s not cute, it’s not funny, it’s just odd. In the back of your head, you know it’s not real. You know everything they say is pulled from an internet search. There’s nothing genuine about it, and that matters.

Beyond creepy and somewhat pointless, it reeks of cringe.I recently wrote about tech companies being desperate, and AI is a big part of that. Google desperately wants people to care about its AI services, and it saw Wrapped as a way to get in front of more people. The sad thing isI’ve been pretty happy with Spotify’s previous use of AIbecause it focused on music discovery. Teaming up with Google has killed some of that good feeling.

At the end of the day, I’m sure most Spotify users are never going to listen to their Wrapped AI Podcast (which won’t offset the carbon footprint of generating the podcast for nearly 640 million users). It’s simply another example of tech companies giving us things we never asked for.