PC Gaming

I keep thinking of that manager that sent in a perfect resume for the job he posted, because HR denied all applicants, and it proved that HR was using some bogus AI or algorithmic filter to auto deny resumes.

But it doesn't have to be AI. A former colleague of mine (who had both on the factory floor experience , all the way up the ladder over decades, and an MBA) was looking for a high level job and took 6 months of bogus interviews where HR keeps having you come back only to deny it at the end. For same role some said Overqualified and some HR said not enough experience. Lol pick one.

Now that I think about it, I've only had two situations in my ~15 year career where I was able to get a job via a "cold application". One of them was the worst employement experience of my life. The other one was great.

There was some level of "getting my foot in the door" with all my other jobs. Internship after my Masters program, meeting someone at an non-work event and getting hired via former employers/colleagues.

That really sucks for your friends. I've been there and it really kills motivation.

AI is destroying everything.

I remember meeting someone at an event that told me how great it was.

His argument was, "can you even tell it's AI?"

I said my biggest problem is that it's destroying new artists and original music.

Abso-fucking-lutely. I don't think it's quite there yet, it puts too many strange artifacts in the music currently, but it's getting damn close to "good enough".

Too many people think the danger is that it's awful. The danger is that it's mediocre. Because cheap, easily reproducible, and mediocre beats excellent, expensive, and messy every time because AI doesn't get tired. It doesn't go on a bender or get caught doing something reprehensible or burn out. It's never late. It just sits there waiting to be told what to crank out next.

So you've got this thing that can't move art forward. It can't inject that one really fucking cool thing in there that changes everything. AI can't hate a song it's creating so it emphasizes things in a weird way.

Compare it with Max Martin productions. He didn't invent manufactured music but he created a hell of a pipeline for folks to rhyme fire with desire. But even that relies on people who can sing with the timidity of youth and the confidence of a person who has been told the world is theirs. Or someone with no real understanding of a song singing it in a way that gives it a different meaning than the original intent. Or someone barely hanging on and pouring their entire person into their performance because they have nothing else.

AI can't do any of that. It can't turn a word into a god damned grenade. It's going to remix everything that came before. Not in new and exciting ways. Not in thought provoking ways. But in algorithmic ways. It's flat. The lyrics will tell a story that resolves. The rhymes will be perfect. You won't get a banjo in metal or a calliope in video game music unless it's a game about a clown. It's not going to give you soul and wit. It will give you a snapshot of where music has been and is up to the point of its last training data.

I have an entire tangent about how it's being used politically currently (go look up Danny Bones) and how it does not get tired or embroiled in controversy and being "good enough" makes it the perfect propaganda machine. But that's for another day.

It depends what your standard is for good enough, honestly. If you're making art for the art, I certainly haven't seen anything from AI music that seems actually artful, and I wouldn't feel comfortable putting my music out into the world that didn't feel like art to me. If you're churning out 30 second jingles for advertising or microtransaction-riddled mobile games, maybe then the standard is lower

E: of course, if "good enough" is "enough to make a C suite douchebag give it the okay with dollar signs in their eyes" then yeah.

On the bright side, maybe an indie dev can him for cheap!

.... uggghhhhh....

It's the same in the animation industry. The greats are struggling to find work.

I've had Era's End on my playlist for years; such a fantastic album to use as focus music. After seeing this story, I'm going to pick up another album of his.

Next it'll be Inon Zur..

They are seeing them. But they aren't hiring a composer, they are hiring the AI company trained with that composer work.

For better or worse, I don't think it's viable.

Just my opinion, but I think we would need some sort of new model. 'The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.' and all that...