YouTube Music is testing a new feature that sounds a lot like Spotify's AI DJ (www.techradar.com)

YouTube is rolling out an experimental "AI music hosts" feature inside a new YouTube Labs portal, letting a limited number of US users (likely YouTube Premium subscribers) enable AI-powered interjections that play between tracks. Reporters who accessed the test saw a new button on the now-playing screen next to thumbs up/down; tapping it activates short narrated segments—stories, fan trivia and light commentary—intended to "deepen your listening experience." The feature is positioned as an evolution of YouTube’s longstanding experimental page (youtube.com/new) but with an explicit AI focus, and it bears clear resemblance to Spotify’s AI DJ offering. For the AI/ML community, this is another high-profile example of generative audio interfaces moving into mainstream streaming: it signals increased competition among platforms to personalize and augment passive listening with context-aware narration. Technical implications include scalable text-to-speech and content-generation pipelines, real-time insertion between tracks, and personalization models tailored to user tastes and listening history. It also raises product and policy questions about content accuracy, creator attribution and licensing, monetization of AI-generated commentary, and regional/device rollout constraints. How YouTube balances creative value, rights management and transparency will shape broader adoption of AI-hosted experiences across music services.