Qosmo employee interview (Senior AI Engineer Bogdan Teleaga)
Qosmo is a Tokyo-based collective consisting of AI researchers, engineers, artists, and designers, working on expanding human creativity using AI and exploring unknown music. We are exploring new possibilities of creativity and expression by making use of the latest technology including artificial intelligence in the process of creation, and is looking for people who share these values with us. To help you get to know about Qosmo, we conducted an interview with our employee. The fifth one is Bogdan Teleaga, a Senior AI Engineer.
Qosmo: Bogdan Teleaga Born in 1993, joined the Qosmo in 2019. Position: Senior AI Engineer
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Bogdan Teleaga and I am a senior AI engineer at Qosmo. I’ve done a MSc in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Amsterdam and joined right after graduation, about four years ago.
Can you tell me about your background? I’ve grown up around music in a way, my parents used to run a business selling cassette tapes and later on CDs. Eventually I picked up guitar in high school and have been playing it and other instruments ever since. I also started programming in middle school and never really stopped doing it until today. This led to studying Computer Science in university where one day I saw an article about generating music using machine learning techniques and decided that’s what I want to do.
How did you know about Qosmo? And how did you come to join the company? During my studies in Amsterdam, I spent one year doing an internship in Japan a startup called Cogent Labs where I worked closely with Max Frenzel (AI researcher who was with Qosmo from 2019 to 2023). He was also interested in combining music with AI at the time and we’d often discuss these kinds of topics. Shortly after I went back to finish my studies he also left and joined Qosmo. Next summer, as I was writing my thesis and pondering what to do next I received a message from Max asking whether I’d be keen to work together again, as Qosmo was looking for an engineer and I took that opportunity.
What expectations did you have for Qosmo? I found Qosmo’s projects to be very thoughtful with respect to the various ways they were using cutting edge technologies to both create artworks and do R&D with large companies in the music domain. Moreover, while studying in Amsterdam there weren’t that many other people working at the intersection between AI and music, so I was very excited to be able to finally pursue this full time together with a group of people passionate about the same topics.
I believe moving to Japan and starting a new life here is a big decision. What was the decisive factor in making this decision? I’d been hoping to work in this field for several years at the time and getting that message from Max just seemed like it was meant to be in a way. Also, at the time I had already spent one year in Japan before so I had some idea of how life here will be like.
How is it actually coming to Japan? Have you had any difficulties in your work? Also, can tell me about enjoyable experiences as well. Overall I find Japan to be both fun and easy to live in. The food is excellent, everything is on time and Tokyo itself is full of fascinating places to explore. There are of course language and cultural barriers to cross but everyone I’ve met so far has been kind and supportive. Our office is in a great location which is even more beautiful now with the sakura trees in bloom. Although we had to postpone a Hanami party today because of the weather I’m looking forward to the one next week!
Qosmo's annual cherry blossom viewing event is a tradition. There are several popular cherry blossom spots scattered around Tokyo near our workplace.
What is your current job description? As Qosmo is still a relatively small company I wear many hats throughout a single week, which is at times challenging, but engaging and rewarding. I handle a large part of our recruiting pipeline and lead the development across various projects, mostly on the audio side, but there are visual ones as well once in a while. The specific responsibilities I have within each of these projects can vary a lot and this provides a good opportunity to constantly learn new things.
Can you tell me about a project that left a lasting impression on you so far? There are a lot of potential candidates, but if I had to choose only one it’d probably be Neutone. What started off as just an idea at a weekly brainstorming we used to do at the time, followed by an intense weekend at a hackathon with Andrew, is now an entire ecosystem with several different products on the way and a community of artists and researchers around it. Seeing both researchers contributing to Neutone FX and artists using the products has been very fulfilling.
*Qosmo founded a new company called Neutone Inc. in July 2023 with the purpose of developing and providing a new approach to synthesis and audio effects using AI.
In mid-April, Neutone Inc. released the real-time tone morphing plugin ‘Neutone Morpho.’
Another one has been the continuous R&D work we do with Alpha Theta (Former Pioneer DJ). We have the opportunity to experiment and build prototypes using cutting edge AI technologies across various smaller projects. And it has been very rewarding to see the results of this work be integrated within software such as rekordbox that is used by DJs worldwide.
How do you feel about working at Qosmo?
The wide range of projects and diverse set of people I get to collaborate with while working at Qosmo is one of the highlights for me. While we are united by the company’s vision, we come from fairly different backgrounds and each member of the team has their own unique strengths that complements the others. Besides that, there is a great degree of freedom both in terms of being able to work remotely and around choosing the projects that we embark on. Everyone in the team is not only passionate about producing high quality work but also about its impact on the world.
End of February , our team went on a workation to Atami, Shizuoka.
Can you convey a message to those who are interested in Qosmo. If you are enthusiastic and passionate about working with cutting edge technology and producing works that inspire people and/or empower other creators to do the same do not hesitate to contact us.
We are recruiting for multiple positions, so we look forward to receiving applications from those who are interested in our company. Please check the details on our career page and contact us for inquiries.
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