It was only a few short weeks ago that everyone's feeds were overtaken by Spotify Wrapped results. For 24 hours, it felt like we all were kids in class comparing which songs we spiraled to this year, getting exposed as Dua Lipa stans and wondering what the hell "escape room" and 4,000 other made up genres we apparently listened to this year were. Even if it was free advertising for Spotify, it was a fun way to revisit a year that most of us would sooner rather forget.
Related | Since When Was 'Escape Room' a Genre?
But what if Spotify didn't sugarcoat it? What if instead the algorithm read our library for absolute filth and called us out for listening to an obscene amount of Phoebe Bridgers? Thanks to the folks over at The Pudding, now you don't have to wonder what it would be like to have a second-year NYU film student neg you about your pedestrian music taste because they've created an AI specifically designed to thoroughly roast Spotify.
Based on "over two million indicators of objectively good music, including Pitchfork reviews, record store recommendations, and subreddits you've never heard of," the AI bot, like Spotify Wrapped, dredges up all your guilty pleasures, nostalgia listens and less-than-socially-acceptable obsessions to tear down your musical ego brick by brick and give a statistical analysis of just how basic you are. (For example, this writer's Spotify was described by the AI as being "cling-clang-pots-and-pans-music bad" and "First-in-line-for-the-Chromatica-Oreos bad," as well as being asked to choose between CHVRCHES, Lady Gaga and Oneohtrix Point Never in a fuck, marry, kill scenario.)
Suffice to say, not everyone is taking getting dragged by an AI particularly well:
Screenshot via The Pudding