I am skeptical of AI\u2019s ability to serve up the music I want<\/a> to begin with, but even I was caught slightly off guard by how underwhelming Apple\u2019s new Playlist Playground<\/a> beta is. YouTube Music\u2019s AI playlist generator<\/a> is far from perfect, but when I gave it the same prompt for instrumental black metal, it wasn\u2019t until the fifth track that it delivered something with lyrics, and that was the exception, rather than the rule. Apple Music failed to deliver from moment one, and did so repeatedly.<\/p>\n I was in a metal mood yesterday, so I also asked Playlist Playground to create me a playlist from the prompt, \u201cmodern ambient black metal from the American South.\u201d Apparently, Apple could only find three songs that would possibly fit that criteria. And one of those was by the band Woman is the Earth<\/a> from South Dakota. Now, I am an American, and we\u2019re notoriously<\/a> bad at geography<\/a>. But, I\u2019m 99.999 percent sure that South Dakota is not the South.<\/p>\n Maybe Apple just isn\u2019t up on black metal. So I tried something I thought would be a bit easier and prompted it for \u201ckid-friendly modern hip hop.\u201d The first track was just the censored version of Kendrick Lamar\u2019s \u201cDNA.\u201d I suppose you could argue that, since it\u2019s the censored version, it technically qualifies.<\/p>\n Next, it served up the censored version of Kid Capri\u2019s \u201cWe\u2019re Unified<\/a>,\u201d which came out in 1998. I am a middle-aged man with a pretty generous definition of what qualifies as \u201cmodern,\u201d but this is not it. Six of the 16 songs it added to the playlist were over 15 years old. Three were over 25 years old.<\/p>\n The biggest problem was the inclusion of \u201cABC<\/a>\u201d by Chicken P, which is an alphabetical list of all the women he\u2019s slept with and includes lines like, \u201cDesiree, take dick, she be telling me \u2018go deeper.\u2019\u201d I\u2019m not sure I need my four-year-old repeating that to their classmates.<\/p>\n The failure here is particularly galling when the Spider-Verse<\/a> soundtracks<\/a>, Tyler the Creator\u2019s The Grinch EP<\/a>, and Aesop Rock<\/a> exist<\/a>.<\/p>\n I figured a prompt for \u201cindustrial-influenced dance punk\u201d would be simple enough. I was wrong. I was thinking of two specific bands, Model\/Actriz<\/a> and Special Interest<\/a>. Neither appeared on the playlist. Half of it was just straight old-school industrial: Cabaret Voltaire, Einst\u00fcrzende Neubauten, Ministry, Front 242, and Nine Inch Nails each made an appearance. But so did New Order\u2019s \u201cBlue Monday\u201d and Irish rappers Kneecap.<\/p>\n Playlist Playground is in beta, and obviously, some issues are to be expected. But based on my results, I\u2019d say it\u2019s not even ready for a public beta yet. Even when it wasn\u2019t failing in spectacular fashion, the results were just kind of dull and rarely served up artists I wasn\u2019t already familiar with. Apple didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Apple\u2019s AI playlist maker clearly struggles with understanding genre, geography, time, and lyrical content. So I gave it one last test and asked it to create a playlist for \u201cSchool pickup on a chilly day with no children\u2019s music.\u201d I might as well have just put on the Garden State soundtrack (Shins, Nick Drake, Jos\u00e9 Gonzalez). But, at least I didn\u2019t have to listen to any Parry Gripp<\/a>.<\/p>\n Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Terrence O’BrienClose Terrence O’Brien<\/p>\n Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All by Terrence O’Brien<\/a><\/p>\n AIClose<\/p>\n AI<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All AI<\/a><\/p>\n AppleClose<\/p>\n Apple<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All Apple<\/a><\/p>\n EntertainmentClose<\/p>\n Entertainment<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All Entertainment<\/a><\/p>\n MusicClose<\/p>\n Music<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All Music<\/a><\/p>\n ReportClose<\/p>\n Report<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n![\"Terrence](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Terrence-OBrien-headshot-1.jpg\"\/)
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