Challenging the Algorithm with Octavian Cristea | Putting Human Judgment Back into Music

When it comes to Internet, what we usually consider to be an algorithm is a way to search content and recommend content to the audience.

I mean, as for example, if you are a platform like YouTube or Spotify or whatever, You are bombarded with content and in order for you to know what to recommend to people to watch, you need to use some tricks, some algorithms.

Right.

So basically, I'll use like TikTok for an example.

If I start watching videos of, you know, cute puppies, the algorithm is going to recognize that I like those kind of videos and I'm going to see more of those.

The platform is going to put in my direction on my viewing screen things that they believe I like.

exactly they believe you like and that's the tricky part i mean because if you think about how you can do this is as a platform i mean you have to to check for metrics like for example you liked a specific video or maybe you spend 10 seconds watching something or you skipped or whatever So the platform takes into account all of your behavior and based on that tries to determine what content merits to exist and what content doesn't.

But here lies the problem.

The problem is that your behavior on the platform is superficial, in my opinion.

It doesn't speak about what you are thinking of while you consume content.

I mean, you know, for example, those movies that are really good, But you don't want to rewatch them.

You need some time to think about what you have experienced and things like this.

The problem with the algorithms that are using shallow metrics is that they miss those kinds of things.

So do

you think it's kind of taking away creativity or whatever, because people aren't necessarily able to seek out, well, they're able to, but they don't need to seek out things because it's being done for them?

When it comes to Internet, what we usually consider to be an algorithm is a way to search content and recommend content to the audience.

I mean, as for example, if you are a platform like YouTube or Spotify or whatever, You are bombarded with content and in order for you to know what to recommend to people to watch, you need to use some tricks, some algorithms.

Right.

So basically, I'll use like TikTok for an example.

If I start watching videos of, you know, cute puppies, the algorithm is going to recognize that I like those kind of videos and I'm going to see more of those.

The platform is going to put in my direction on my viewing screen things that they believe I like.

exactly they believe you like and that's the tricky part i mean because if you think about how you can do this is as a platform i mean you have to to check for metrics like for example you liked a specific video or maybe you spend 10 seconds watching something or you skipped or whatever So the platform takes into account all of your behavior and based on that tries to determine what content merits to exist and what content doesn't.

But here lies the problem.

The problem is that your behavior on the platform is superficial, in my opinion.

It doesn't speak about what you are thinking of while you consume content.

I mean, you know, for example, those movies that are really good, But you don't want to rewatch them.

You need some time to think about what you have experienced and things like this.

The problem with the algorithms that are using shallow metrics is that they miss those kinds of things.

So do

you think it's kind of taking away creativity or whatever, because people aren't necessarily able to seek out, well, they're able to, but they don't need to seek out things because it's being done for them?