The 2024 Spotify Wrapped this Dec. 4 was reportedly made with AI and has disappointed students as a result of inaccuracy and laziness. 

Due to the rise of AI being used to supplement and completely replace man-made work, it has become a trend for companies to resort to lazy tactics for quickly developed and emitted products in the hopes of saving money. 

Relying on a robotic stem that is not always accurate is cheaper than spending money on real, passionate employees who need a salary. Ironically, most of these AI bots have stolen craft programmed into them, which is what happened with this year’s wrapped.

Just last year, Spotify laid off 17% of its employees, which is up to 1,500. This includes Jewel Ham, the original developer of the wrap. Because of this, 2024 was Spotify’s opening to hopping onto the AI bandwagon using Ham’s code, and following came discontent users with complaints to fire.

Students, like sophomores Kevin Youngren and Desirae Smith, commented on how faulty the top artists and songs seemed, which gave the first impression that Spotify has not been accurately tracking listener activity. Then people took note of how ill-defined the metrics looked compared to previous years. Additional parts of it, like the top playlist, top genre, and other elements that users considered to encapsulate the wrap, were missing.

Some have speculated that the reason the wrap took so long to come out was that Spotify was rushing with AI to snowball stats for every account without inspection, thus giving away poorly packaged wraps. 

All in all, people have dubbed it a rushed product that eliminated all of the joy and creativity that usually came with the anticipated gift. It became another prime example of how AI uplifts corporate greed, which values soulless automation over artistic passion. 

AI is a double-edged sword that most have wielded irresponsibly over the past two years. Ideally, it should be used as a tool to further enhance knowledge of fields, and yet people have been abusing it by forcing AI to do the content for them. Apps like ChatGPT and those that construct AI “art” encourage behavior like this, thus companies like Spotify have lost credibility. 

Spotify choosing to experiment with a harmful structure such as AI caused backlash and for a good reason. AI cannot mimic purposely sewn frameworks like the wrap without the love needed in order to be authentic. To satisfy audiences and be feasibly applauded, one must first put the work in, or human capability is doomed forever.