AI Song Contest

The AI Song Contest (AI Songfestival) is an international music competition for songs that have been composed using artificial intelligence (AI). The inaugural edition took place on 12 May 2020 and was organised by the Dutch public broadcaster VPRO, in collaboration with NPO 3FM and NPO Innovation. Since 2021, the contest has been held by Stichting AISC, as part of an annual conference organised by Wallifornia MusicTech until 2022, and in 2023 with the support of RTVE Play.

Format
The format of the competition was created by the Dutch programme creator Karen van Dijk (VPRO) and was inspired by the Eurovision Song Contest. Participating teams are tasked with the composition of a song using artificial intelligence. Each submission is then evaluated by a jury, which assesses the use of AI in the songwriting process, and by the public, which assesses the quality of the song through online ratings. The team who receive the most votes from the public win the Audience Trophy, and the Overall Winner is determined using a combination of the jury scores and audience votes.

Unlike Eurovision, countries can be represented by multiple teams. While the 2020 edition only allowed teams from "Eurovision countries" to compete, this rule was dropped in 2021 to allow teams from outside Europe and Australia to enter as well. In addition, entries would no longer be judged for their "eurovisioness" sense, open up to all music genres, and the maximum song length was extended from three to four minutes. A Semifinal was introduced since 2022 in which the jury selected a dozen of entries to advance to the Grand Final.