UChicago researchers develop Quicksilver, browser extension to identify AI music

A new internet tool developed with the help of the University of Chicago is making it possible for music listeners to identify songs that were created using artificial intelligence.

The Quicksilver browser extension gives listeners the ability to identify machine-made tracks while streaming music on their computer in real time.

The U of C noted that in 2024, a shift in the music world saw an explosion of AI-generated songs onto streaming platforms. They now make nearly half of all newly uploaded tracks — though few listen to most of them, the university said.

Researchers found that even professional musicians are only slightly better at distinguishing AI music from human-created music than random chance.

UChicago said the Quicksilver tool helps champion transparency and supports human creativity in a rapidly evolving digital soundscape.

Quicksilver was developed by the UChicago SAND Lab — short for Security, Algorithms, Networking and Data. The lab's research focuses on topics in security and machine learning, as well as human-computer interaction and data mining. Also involved in the development was the nonprofit Ethical Technology and Computing for Humanity, or ETCH, launched this year by UChicago Neubauer professors of computer science Ben Zhao and Heather Zheng.

"Given that there is so much AI music out there, and that normal users can't tell the difference, giving users a tool to identify these AI songs was a very natural solution," Stanley Wu, lead developer and UChicago graduate student, said in a news release. "At this scale, I think there needs to be more protections in place so that this wave of "spammy" AI music does not negatively impact human artists."

Quicksilver follows two other programs, Glaze and Nightshade, which disrupt nonconsensual AI training on artistic work.