[vanviegen]

Under your logic someone playing a CD is a musician.

I'm exaggerating a bit to make the point that the amount of human creativity put into a work of art is not binary. Just pasting a rehashed joke as a genAI video prompt is not much of a creative process.

[narcindin]

We call them DJ's and many are quite famous.

[epolanski]

DJs are rated on their ability to read the dancefloor and get people to dance.

[soiltype]

Yes, well, that sounds exactly like the skillset of a meme creator in a slightly different form factor.

Most arguments against gen-AI are bad arguments - you can (and should) admit this even if you (like me) don't respect gen-AI.

[epolanski]

I haven't stated anything about meme creators using AI, I just pointed out a DJ's skill isn't based on randomly playing songs.

[WackyFighter]

I think a lot of people mean "Wedding DJ" or "Radio DJ".

However there is a whole small subculture around this. A friend would go hunting for records to sample in Charity shops for old vinyls (this was pre-ebay). This apparently is known a "Digging" and lot of Music Producers, DJs etc would do this to find samples for their sets/albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6aQgZFrVKE

Similar you have people using tracker software on old Amigas / Ataris to play sets.

e.g.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkTQ-15jGD0&list=RDCkTQ-15jG...

[soiltype]

Oh. Why? I didn't see anybody arguing that DJing was random or unskilled.

[Tallain]

Do you honestly believe that DJs, particularly the very famous ones, just play CDs?

[Sohcahtoa82]

Discussions about "DJs" are difficult because there's a WIDE range of skills behind what we call a DJ.

Yes, some have zero skill and will basically just show up with a pre-determined Spotify playlist. They won't even have mixing/transitions between songs.

Some are in the middle and will be able to do basic transitions between songs (ie, just simple beat matching) and know how to carry a vibe.

At the far end of the spectrum are actual composers that are effectively making new mixes of songs on the fly.

And so you have the problem where someone says "Being a DJ takes a lot of skill" because they're thinking of the last category, while the person hearing that message replies with "How does it take skill to just press Play?" because they're thinking of the first.

[redwall_hp]

"What do DJs actually do?" https://youtube.com/shorts/9WqICdFQqkE

[vanviegen]

I think many of them don't even do that live anymore, as the entire set has been mixed upfront in order to preprogram visual/light/pyro effects. :-)

[WackyFighter]

> Under your logic someone playing a CD is a musician.

No. That isn't my logic at all.

> Just pasting a rehashed joke as a genAI video prompt is not much of a creative process.

That isn't what is happening. What people are doing is taking people from different online streaming shows, making new content based on jokes made on those show and turning them into music videos, which are usually a cover of a well known song.

People have been doing this online without AI for quite a while. Usually this was with various music software. All AI does, it make this process easier.

[SoftTalker]

Any time something is made easier and you get more of it, it becomes worth less.

There might be a claim that there is still some human creativity involved, maybe. But it's sort of like amateurs at an open mic night telling memorized jokes that they didn't write compared to a comedian who has spent thousands of hours perfecting stories, jokes, punch lines, timing, and phrasing.

[WackyFighter]

> Any time something is made easier and you get more of it, it becomes worth less.

That is only the case with commodities. Not creative works and/or entertainment.

> But it's sort of like amateurs at an open mic night telling memorized jokes that they didn't write compared to a comedian who has spent thousands of hours perfecting stories, jokes, punch lines, timing, and phrasing.

Often these amateurs are often funnier than the professionals. However that of course is subjective.