17. Spotify’s former data alchemist: Evaluating when & how to use GenAI [Glenn McDonald]

Episode 17. Our guest is Glenn MacDonald who was Spotify’s Data Alchemist, building it into an algorithmic powerhouse.
We’re critically evaluating algorithms' effectiveness and why GenAI probably isn’t the best technology for many problems.
The episode is hosted by:
Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Head of product strategy, PH1 Research)   / adragffy  
Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge)   / brittanyhobbs  


Glenn McDonald is a music evangelist, algorithm designer, software engineer and technology strategist. He created the music-exploration website Every Noise at Once, and for 12 years was the Data Alchemist at the Echo Nest and Spotify. He has written about music online since before "blog" was a word, and his first offline book, You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song: How Streaming Changes Music, is available now from Canbury Press


00:24 Meet Glenn MacDonald: Spotify's Data Alchemist
01:50 The Evolution of Music Discovery
08:39 The Role of AI in Music and Beyond
13:29 Challenges and Future of AI in Music
29:14 Navigating AI in the Workplace
31:25 Designing User-Friendly Algorithms
34:59 Challenges with Algorithmic Recommendations
39:42 Evaluating AI and User Testing
47:41 The Future of Music and AI


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