Why my albums don't go through AI — though I build AI — Ioan „Click” Mihalca [Intersections](https://ioanclickmihalca.ro/en/articles?category=intersections) · 5 min · 19 July 2026 By day I build AI systems. My albums, I make with people. ========================================================= I'm releasing two albums made the old way — people in a room — while by day I build the very technology that could replace that room. It's not a contradiction; it's a criterion, useful to anyone working with AI. This year I'm releasing two albums. "Altfel" ("Otherwise") — hip-hop, drum & bass, reggae — with Style da Kid producing. And "Inimă Română" ("Romanian Heart"), together with Gavrila: hip-hop from home, from Maramureș. Both made the old way: people in a room, arguing until something good comes out. Meanwhile, by day, I build the very technology that — in theory — could replace that room. ClipYo generates short videos. AIpoftă generates recipes. I write my code with Claude Code. I bet on generative AI, and that bet pays my bills today. So the question is fair: if you believe in this tool so much, why doesn't your music go through it? Because I have a criterion. And I think it's useful to anyone working with AI, not just musicians. I'm not the skeptic in this story --------------------------------- Let me be clear from the start about what this article is not: it's not the artist scared that AI will take his job, defending himself with big words about the soul. I'm the one who builds the tools. When AIpoftă pulls a good recipe out of whatever's in your fridge, nobody mourns the poetry of the recipe. When ClipYo cuts the social clips out of a long video, nobody asks whether the machine felt anything at the edit. There, only the result matters, and the result is good. That's my day job, and I do it without any inner conflict. That's exactly why the decision about music isn't fear and isn't nostalgia. It's a choice made by someone who knows precisely what these tools can do — because he builds them. The criterion: is the process the product, or just the result? -------------------------------------------------------------- Everything you produce falls into one of two categories. The first: things where only the result matters. The invoice, the boilerplate, the promo clip, Tuesday night's dinner. Nobody asks how you got there, and nobody loses anything if the road disappears. These you automate without mercy — every human hour spent there is an hour stolen from something that matters more. The second: things where the process is the product. There, if you remove the road, you've removed everything. My music is in the second category. Not music in general — mine. "Inimă Română" isn't a collection of sounds that simply had to exist; it's what was left after Petrova, after Sighet, after Cluj and Bucharest, after the kitchen in Mallorca, after the decision to come home. A model can write you a song about longing. It's just that it has never longed for anything. A good tool gives you what you ask for. A good partner gives you what you didn't know to ask for. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AI, however good, is an amplifier of your intention. You ask, it delivers — often faster and cleaner than you'd have managed alone. But it all starts in your head and stays within its perimeter. Style da Kid doesn't work that way. Neither do the other people I work with. They bring something I didn't ask for. They reject an idea I was attached to. They hear the track differently than I heard it — and out of that collision comes a third version that was neither mine nor theirs. After two decades of music, from Camuflaj onward, I can put it simply: the best tracks never came out of the moments when everyone agreed. The model won't fight you over a chorus. It has no stake, no name on the cover, nothing to lose. A partner does — that's why they fight for their version, and that's why they're worth listening to. It's the same lesson I wrote about in the piece on kickboxing and code \[TODO: internal link to the kickboxing article\]: you need someone who sees what you can't. In code it's called code review. In the ring it's called your corner. In the studio it's called Style da Kid. Where AI does come in, even on the albums ----------------------------------------- So this doesn't read like a romantic manifesto: the machine works on these projects too. Just around the tracks, not in their place. The short clips that will carry the albums onto social media? Exactly the work I built ClipYo for. The formats for each platform, the cuts, the variations — let the machine do those. The site you're reading this on is built with Claude Code. Everything that's distribution, packaging and digital logistics gets automated, because it's category one: only the result matters. The line is simple, in a single sentence: AI works around the track, never in its place. The rule, if you want to take it with you ----------------------------------------- Before you automate anything — anything, not just music — ask yourself one question: if the process disappeared tomorrow and only the result remained, would I have lost something? If not, automate it today. Without guilt. If yes, hold on to people, even if it's slower and more expensive. That's not inefficiency. That's the value. The mistake gets made in both directions, and I see it constantly. Companies keeping good people on robot work, out of inertia or distrust. And creators handing the machine exactly the part that was theirs, because it's more convenient. The first waste people. The second waste themselves. Why I do both ------------- I believe AI makes good people exceptional — I believed it before it was fashionable, and I live it every day. But it has no one to make exceptional if you've stepped out of the equation. So the split, for me, stays this way: the machine writes my code, cuts my clips, makes me a guitar sample from a line I give it, carries the weight. And the room, the people, and the fight over a chorus stay mine. Not because the machine couldn't produce something that sounds good — but because then it wouldn't be mine. [← All articles](https://ioanclickmihalca.ro/en/articles) Share If this article was useful to you, pass it on. [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fioanclickmihalca.ro%2Fen%2Farticles%2Fai-systems-albums-with-people) [X](https://x.com/intent/post?url=https%3A%2F%2Fioanclickmihalca.ro%2Fen%2Farticles%2Fai-systems-albums-with-people&text=By%20day%20I%20build%20AI%20systems.%20My%20albums%2C%20I%20make%20with%20people.) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fioanclickmihalca.ro%2Fen%2Farticles%2Fai-systems-albums-with-people) [WhatsApp](https://wa.me/?text=By%20day%20I%20build%20AI%20systems.%20My%20albums%2C%20I%20make%20with%20people.%20https%3A%2F%2Fioanclickmihalca.ro%2Fen%2Farticles%2Fai-systems-albums-with-people) Copy link Share… Newsletter Get new articles by email --------------------------- No spam, no forced digests — just one email whenever I publish something new. Unsubscribe anytime, in one click. Email Subscribe → Sending… Want to build something together? ----------------------------------- A product to build, a track to make, a podcast, a partnership for the club. Write to me directly with what’s on your mind — no introductions, no “I hope this message finds you well.” [ Write to me → ](https://ioanclickmihalca.ro/en/contact)