What is taste?
It would have been nice if good taste were something we humans got to keep an edge on for a while longer.
“Taste” is about more than what you like. It is also the ability to see what works, choose what is worth pursuing and understand what is missing for something to become really good. Whether it is a text, a product, an image or a song.
Many have optimistically thought that AI can handle the production while we decide what is good. When everyone can make almost anything, being able to choose becomes all the more important.
But I think the newest models are starting to challenge us there too. Not just at making things, but at the judgements along the way. What should be kept? What should be discarded? What would make this better? I am not so sure our role will be to sit on top with better judgement than the machine.
It is a little bittersweet. On the one hand it is fantastic to be able to make things you would never have managed alone. On the other hand this too seems like an area we may have to stop counting as ours. Taste feels personal. It is shaped by what we have experienced, liked and spent time on. So it is a little strange if a model can become just as good at hitting what moves us.
That does not mean we stop having taste, or that it becomes less worthwhile to make something yourself. But having good taste may not be the lasting competitive advantage many hoped for either.
And then there is this song: “I’m Upping My P(Doom)”. The newer recording was made with Suno, according to the person who shared it, and the music video below with Opus 5.5. A banger, for real. Not just “good for AI”. The focus here is the music video; it was made 100% by Claude Opus 5.5, in one take.
One song obviously does not prove that AI has taken over our taste. But it is gloriously absurd to be swept along by AI music about p(doom), the probability that AI ends in catastrophe.
So yes, I think ASI is coming. But at least we will get some proper bangers along the way!
“Banger” YouTube video by Claude Pop: I’m Upping My P(Doom)
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