Update: August 21, 2026
Things moved since I wrote this.
On August 2 the EU AI Act transparency deadline kicked in. Article 50 now requires machine-readable labels on AI-generated content.
On August 13, FIMI and the three majors (Sony, Universal, Warner) published their principles for the Top of the Music charts.
NiQ/FIMI suspended “Dimanche Midi Pile” from the charts, and RTL 102.5, Radio Zeta and Radiofreccia pulled it from rotation the same day. Suraci, RTL’s president, made it pretty clear that he wants this stuff out of every radio rotation.
Streaming is catching up. Apple Music will put AI labels on tracks “later this year”, and providers will have to tag anything “materially generated” with AI.
Last Thursday, my brother and I were driving and decided to put on the FM radio.
We don’t usually listen to it because of the audio quality, but it suited the chill drive. After a few songs, we heard something that sounded off. Synthetic. I looked into it later, and it turns out my intuition was right: we were listening to a song built by artificial intelligence.
The song is “Dimanche Midi Pile” by Gisèle. It was released in early July 2026, published and distributed directly by Warner Music Italy.
As of this week, this artificial track is sitting in the top 20 most aired tracks on Italian radio. I find it utterly disgusting and disrespectful to human artists and listeners.
Gisèle does not exist. She is a brand persona created entirely by artificial intelligence.
The song’s composer, writer, and prompter is credited as “Valerio Pastore”. Pastore, allegedly, is a sound engineer and technician who is well-connected in the Italian pop scene (and widely known as the partner of Italian pop superstar Alessandra Amoroso).
What makes this release particularly insidious is the lack of transparency:
- On digital platforms like YouTube, Warner Music Italy includes a small, legally-required disclaimer indicating the video contains “altered or AI-generated content.”
- On the radio, however, this transparency disappears. The track has charted on EarOne (the official Italian radio airplay monitoring service) in the international and TV airplay tables. Radio hosts introduce the track simply as “the new single by Gisèle,” presenting it alongside real, human artists as if she were a flesh-and-blood singer.
I hate the world we are building.