Woman baffled to meet Spotify’s AI DJ X in real life

A Spotify user was left stunned after encountering the music app's AI DJ in person.

The streaming service has an artificial intelligence disc jockey, known as DJ X, which launched in 2023 as part of its premium subscription service.

It provides commentary tailored to the user, acting as an in-app DJ while music fans listen to their favourite playlists.

While many presume that Spotify's DJ X is simply AI, the voice behind the feature is actually modelled on a real-life person.

Xavier Jernigan, also known as X, is Spotify's head of cultural partnerships and is the person behind DJ X, which was created using his voice, generative AI and synthetic voice technology.

Taking to Instagram and TikTok, Grace Brassel shared clips of her chance encounter with Xavier, who has worked at Spotify for over 10 years.

She excitedly spoke to the camera in the clip, telling her followers, "I’m fangirling so much right now. I just met the AI DJ from Spotify."

Xavier then appeared in the shot and provided an example of one of his Spotify song introductions, choosing Maggots For Brains by Olivia Rodrigo as the record.

"Hey Grace, what’s going on? My name is Xavier, my friends call me X. Coming up next I’ve got Maggots For Brains by Olivia Rodrigo. Check it out!" he laughed.

Evidently starstruck by the interaction, Grace continued to share her disbelief, adding, "I'm freaking out!"

Her followers were just as surprised as she was, with many seemingly unaware that DJ X is voiced by a real human.

Taking to the comments, one person said, "The only form of AI I use... so glad to hear he is a real person!!!"

"I thought his voice was AI. Crazy to see he's a real person," someone else added.

Others branded Xavier an 'icon' and said the interaction was 'hilarious'.

Xavier also found Grace's posts, leaving a comment that read, "Great meeting you!"

To create DJ X, Xavier's voice was trained using almost 300 episodes of his podcast The Get Up, as well as recordings that captured his speech patterns, pacing and pitch.

The editorial team at Spotify provided scripts and phrases to make sure the AI technology could replicate his conversational style, working together with writers, music experts and data curators on the process.

DJ X is available to Spotify users across the globe and in 2024, a Spanish-speaking version, voiced by Olivia Quiroz Roa, was launched.