July 2025
Don't always agree with me!
09/07/25 10:23
Why is my AI telling me what I want to hear?
I was chatting (odd choice of words I know but that's what it felt like) with "my" AI about music and it recommended two composers to me… oddly, two composers that I already listen to and my AI knew that because of an earlier interaction. I asked it if it was recommending those composers because it thought they were aligned with my interests and tastes OR because it knew I already listened to them… it was the latter. Which is disturbing to me - I DON'T want an AI telling me what it thinks I want to hear; that's worse than telling me nothing at all. I did a bit of digging and as you might have guessed there is a very active conversation going on about this issue. It's complicated I know… but if keep getting pushed, whether by chatGPT or Spotify's recommendations, towards what the machine thinks we'd like, then how to we get exposed to new material?
I was chatting (odd choice of words I know but that's what it felt like) with "my" AI about music and it recommended two composers to me… oddly, two composers that I already listen to and my AI knew that because of an earlier interaction. I asked it if it was recommending those composers because it thought they were aligned with my interests and tastes OR because it knew I already listened to them… it was the latter. Which is disturbing to me - I DON'T want an AI telling me what it thinks I want to hear; that's worse than telling me nothing at all. I did a bit of digging and as you might have guessed there is a very active conversation going on about this issue. It's complicated I know… but if keep getting pushed, whether by chatGPT or Spotify's recommendations, towards what the machine thinks we'd like, then how to we get exposed to new material?