[journal] Impressively Capable, Impressively Foolish

A little report on the state of contemporary LLM-based tools. Yesterday, I decided to try to use Claude to automate a workflow I do a ton in my composing: Export the mockup audio from my notation software as a WAV file Import it into an audio editor and bump the gain a bit. Export it as an MP3. Add the relevant ID3 tags. Import it into Apple Music. Fix one thing that the ID3 tag editor I use doesn’t handle: setting the track to use “work name” rather than “title” as the primary field — pretty standard for classical works, but not something my preferred ID3 tag editor handles correctly. Wait for it to finish syncing with my Cloud Library. Update the playlist with the latest version of the new track. This is the kind of thing that automation was built for, and it seemed like the sort of thing that a tool like Claude ought to be able to do well at. Much of the process of building out the plan went about like normal when working with one of these tools — lots of overcomplicated things to…