The Atlantic created a searchable database of the music used to train AI

The Atlantic reporter Alex Reisner identified four music datasets used to train AI systems and made them searchable by the public. Two contain millions of tracks, while the smaller sets still include more than 100,000 songs each; Google and Stability have cited use of some datasets in research papers.

The database makes opaque AI training practices more visible, especially for artists trying to determine whether their work may have been included. It also adds pressure around music licensing and copyright as generative AI companies face growing scrutiny over training data sources.