artificial intelligence Archives

A world where you can communicate with advertiser in real time is right around the corner.

Have you ever wanted to respond to an ad while streaming content? Maybe you want more information, or perhaps you just want to explain why it’s not a good ad to you. Whatever the case, Pandora users may soon be able to talk back to the platform’s audio advertisements in real time, thanks to the power of AI.

That’s the idea behind Pandora’s new partnership with San Francisco-based, voice-enabled ad platform Instreamatic. With the agreement, Pandora will begin testing interactive voice ads later this year.

Traditional audio ads are not clickable. As a result, advertisers have never really know how consumers react to the ads they buy on platforms such as Pandora, Spotify, etc. Do they ignore the ads? Do they mute them? Do they make purchases?

Instreamatic’s software may be a solution. Once implemented, Pandora users will be able to react to ads as they play by asking for more information, requesting to not hear the ad again, or skipping the advertisement altogether. The insight provided will strengthen Pandora’s advertising algorithm, as well as provide advertisers with useful feedback about their campaigns. Plus, the new audio ads could help Pandora reach listeners who may be unable to engage with visual ads while cooking, working out or doing other activities.

“The age of voice has arrived, yet there’s remained a stark need for meaningful consumer engagement — and measurable metrics — in the audio ad space,” said Stas Tushinski, Instreamatic.ai CEO, in a release. “We believe provides the ideal ad platform to serve this marketplace.”

The technology goes further than recognizing “yes” and “no” responses to prompts in advertising. Instreamatic’s AI functionality can study, interpret and understand user intent, and the platform will continue to learn and increase its vocabulary and predictive power with every interaction.

“Voice interactivity has already changed the way consumers interact with brands on smart speakers, and we believe voice will change the very nature of the way consumers interact with brands on Pandora,” added Pandora’s VP of Product Engagement, Eric Picard. “We intend to foster an ecosystem of demand-side technology parties to scale voice ads and working with to support this capability has been a true joy.”

If the trials are successful, it is likely other streaming services will implement similar technology in the near future. After all, data is king, and the more consumer feedback available to advertisers will inevitably produce better, more specific ad campaigns. Better ads lead to increased sales, and increased sales lead to more ad buys. Everyone (involved) wins!

We all knew this day would come. As long as there has been science fiction, there have been stories foretelling an era when robots began outperforming humans in all areas of life. We’ve known they were faster at math for over half a century, but many believed that the arts were something we could keep to ourselves. After all, many believe that great art comes from somewhere deep within our souls and that no amount of computing power could possibly duplicate human emotion.

As far as we know, that last part remains true. Artificial intelligence, otherwise known as AI, has yet to perfect human emotion. There are many trying to change that, of course, but at this point, it’s still a work of fiction.

Our dominion over the arts, however, is another story.

Some music startups have begun focusing their efforts on creating AI that, in theory, exists to help artists create better songs. That includes a company called WaveAI, whose music creation app is called Alysia. Using Alysia, the ‘author’ inputs a few details to guide the AI in creating an entirely new composition.

Recently, a three-song EP titled Invisible Waves was made available on Spotify. The release features lyrics and music composed entirely by Alysia. There are three other artists credited for the material as well, but none of them (Gwendolyn, Igor Verkhovskiy, and Dusti Miraglia) are easily found online. The only material any of them have released is this EP, which leads one to questions whether or not they’re even human.

Take a listen to the EP below (via Spotify):

Invisible Tides is unlikely to spawn a hit single, but it does offer a peek at what the future may hold for the music business. Do you think AI created music will one day top the Billboard charts? Send us a tweet and let us know your thoughts!