Jimi Hendrix’s guitar laid flat in front of a wall of his performances at an exhibition at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture” width=”970″ height=”647″ data-caption=’Displayed at MOPOP, Jimi Hendrix’s guitar embodies the accidents and defiance that shaped modern sound, and that A.I. can’t replicate. <span class=”lazyload media-credit”>Courtesy Museum of Pop Culture</span>’>
Open Spotify and you’re sure to find endless playlists tailored precisely to your exact music preferences. Whether sorted by artist, genre or even mood, I know this curation will deliver Lenny Kravitz to my headphones every time. This isn’t an accident. It’s algorithmic curation. Spotify’s recommendation engine now drives 30 percent of all songs streamed on the platform, and similar systems power what we watch, read and buy.
Whether we realize it or not, A.I. now plays a central role in the pop culture we consume each day. From Netflix’s “Because you watched…” rows to YouTube’s “Up next” queue to the search results we see on Google, algorithms have become our cultural gatekeepers. While we have access to more music, movies, games and television than ever before, we’re discovering less. Infinite choice has collapsed into predictable familiarity. A gap is being created, causing consumers to miss the context that gives culture its depth and meaning and thus experience things on a more superficial level.
As someone who spends her days immersed in the artifacts that define pop culture—and much of our collective memory—A.I. is reshaping not just what we consume, but how we understand it. We must ask ourselves: Is culture too important to leave to A.I.-driven curation? While technology is great at telling us what it thinks we want, it cannot preserve the context, accidents and history that make pop culture meaningful. We’re at an inflection point. A.I. is already here, but it needs cultural understanding. Museums and cultural institutions must step up, not to oppose technology, but to partner with it for the future.
The context that A.I. misses
Revolutionary moments in pop culture are often born from mistakes, risks and acts of defiance. Jimi Hendrix’s electrifying, feedback-laced rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock in 1969, an improvised protest against the Vietnam War, defied every convention of its time. The Blair Witch Project terrified moviegoers in the 1990s, leaving many unsure whether what they watched was actually real and giving birth to a new genre in the process. Safety pins became a defining accessory for the Punk movement, not because they were stylish, but due to their utility in keeping fabrics together—a counterculture symbol created out of necessity.
Many culturally crucial works weren’t immediately enjoyable or commercially viable. They were often the result of accidents of creativity, created through friction, risk and cultural tension. They’ve challenged, confronted and demanded context. A.I. tools, however, are designed to predict preference, not provoke it. Without the storytelling that human curation and cultural preservation provide, all of this context is missed, or worse, misunderstood. While A.I. avoids friction, culture usually requires it.
When A.I. becomes the curator
Much is at stake if we leave cultural curation entirely to algorithms. When engagement becomes the metric, nuance disappears. Complex topics are distilled down to their most palatable elements. Netflix genre tags cannot indicate how horror films reflect current social anxieties, or how independent games explore serious themes beyond “adventure” or “puzzle.” We enter an echo chamber of sameness. A.I. feeds us more of what we have already seen, optimizing for engagement and homogenization rather than delivering transformative experiences. A system built to maximize attention inevitably rewards the familiar and the profitable.
We see the results everywhere:
- Homogenization: TikTok’s “For You” page has produced waves of near-identical trends, blurring the lines between creator and copy. Social media algorithms are designed to prioritize content with viral potential, even over authenticity.
- Misinformation: Viral outrage often outpaces verified truth as algorithms reward emotional reactions over accuracy.
- Cultural amnesia: Younger audiences encounter art, music and fashion through feeds tailored to their engagement profiles, rather than through historical continuity. What doesn’t fit the model simply disappears.
When discovery is dictated by engagement, challenging albums, experimental films, political fashion and boundary-pushing games are left behind. Commodification becomes king, and cultural preservation gives way to metrics and commercial interests. This loss of context is not merely an abstract concern. It has real consequences for how culture evolves and endures.
What human curators preserve
Human curation restores what algorithms erase. At the Museum of Pop Culture (MPOP), visitors encounter context, contradiction and connection—things A.I. cannot replicate—and attain a better understanding of the narratives behind the artifacts. Seeing Jimi Hendrix’s handwritten lyrics or an original Star Wars lightsaber offers insights into how creative rebellion, politics and identity intersected to shape these cultural moments.
Museum curators preserve the “why” behind items. They surface contradictions, discomfort and even problematic aspects of culture that A.I. is actively being trained to avoid. Humans recognize nuance: the tension between appreciation and appropriation, between innovation and influence. They can celebrate an art form while recognizing its challenging history. Where A.I. may spit out a one-page summary on hip-hop’s origins, human curators can trace how sampling changed music, while unpacking the racial and legal dynamics that defined the genre’s evolution.
This provides important juxtapositions between elements of culture. It helps us understand how punk influenced both music and fashion, how Sci-Fi shapes gaming aesthetics, films, and books, and even how meme culture is not just humor but also a meaningful form of political discourse. That’s the work of preservation: revealing the connective tissue that binds art, innovation and identity across generations.
It’s about partnership, not opposition
There is a place in the world for A.I. in cultural work. It’s a helpful tool for optimization, especially for streamlining internal operations to ensure the most effective use of funding. It can be integral to the expansion of digital archives, making artifacts available to wider audiences. Used responsibly, A.I. can amplify storytelling and efficiency. And we, as consumers and leaders in culture, have a duty to provide context. Without human insight, we risk flattening culture into content. Infinite information without interpretation is just noise.
The question isn’t whether A.I. will continue shaping pop culture; it will. The question is whether we’ll let it do it alone. Pop culture is more than entertainment. It’s a living record of how we process change, challenge power and imagine a different future. If we surrender all cultural discovery to A.I., we risk losing the accidents, uncomfortable contradictions and radical experiments that push us forward. So the next time Spotify serves you another perfectly curated playlist, remember: somewhere in the 100 million songs you didn’t hear might be the sound that changes everything.
