Entertainment
People can’t tell AI-generated music from real thing anymore, survey shows
It’s become nearly impossible for people to tell the difference between music generated by artificial intelligence and that created by humans, according to a survey released Wednesday.
The polling firm Ipsos asked 9,000 people to listen to two clips of AI-generated music and one of human-made music in a survey conducted for France-based streaming platform Deezer.
“Ninety-seven percent could not distinguish between music entirely generated by AI and human-created music,” said Deezer in a statement.
The survey was conducted between October 6 and 10 in eight countries: Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States.
Deezer said more than half of the respondents felt uncomfortable at not being able to tell the difference.
Pollsters also asked broader questions about the impact of AI, with 51 percent saying the technology would lead to more low-quality music on streaming platforms and almost two-thirds believing it will lead to a loss of creativity.
“The survey results clearly show that people care about music and want to know if they’re listening to AI or human made tracks or not,” Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier said in a statement.
Deezer said there’s not only been a surge in AI-generated content being uploaded to its platform, but it’s attracting listeners as well.
In January, one in 10 of the tracks streamed each day were completely AI-generated. Ten months later, that percentage has climbed to over one in three, or nearly 40,000 per day.
Eighty percent of survey respondents wanted fully AI-generated music clearly labelled for listeners.
Deezer is the only major music-streaming platform that systematically labels completely AI-generated content for users.
The issue gained prominence in June when a band called The Velvet Sundown suddenly went viral on Spotify and only confirmed the following month that it was in fact AI-generated content.
The AI group’s most popular song has been streamed more than three million times.
In response, Spotify said it would encourage artists and publishers to sign up to a voluntary industry code to disclose AI use in music production.
Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis enjoyed a lovely pre-Christmas day out in Norfolk with their mum, Princess Kate, it has been revealed.
On Tuesday, December 23, the Princess of Wales took Charlotte, 10, and Louis, 7, to watch the Christmas Spectacular at Thursford. However, the eldest Wales child and future heir to the throne, 12-year-old Prince George, was apparently not in attendance, nor was his father, Prince William.
The trio’s attendance was confirmed in an Instagram post made last week by Lloyd Hollett, who appears in this year’s production.
Alongside a photo of the blue-lit stage, he wrote, “What a day… Today we were honoured by the presence of Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, alongside Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, who attended our matinee performance.”
No official photos were released of the royals inside the venue as it was a private family outing instead of a public engagement. The future queen and her children reportedly watched the show from a royal box.
The Christmas Spectacular is a three-hour festive show featuring a mix of singing, dancing, and more. With a high production value and a cast of 130 performers, the show is one of the largest and most beloved Christmas events in Europe.
The event runs annually from November 8 to December 23, which means that Kate, Charlotte, and Louis managed to catch the final show.
By Washington Post book critic Ron Charles
2025 offered a feast of great books. To help build your never-ending reading list, here are five titles we particularly enjoyed over the past 12 months:
Simon & Schuster
Lucas Schaefer’s debut novel, “The Slip” (Simon & Schuster), won this year’s Kirkus Prize for Fiction. The story takes place in and around a boxing gym in Austin, Texas, where two lonely teenagers are eager to remake their identities wherever that might lead them.
This sweaty comic masterpiece tackles our most pressing social debates, and delivers a knockout.
Read an excerpt: “The Slip” by Lucas Schaefer
“The Slip” by Lucas Schaefer (Simon & Schuster), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Sourcebooks Landmark 
Susie Dent’s debut novel, “Guilty by Definition” (Sourcebooks Landmark), introduces a dictionary editor in Oxford who begins receiving strange messages about her sister’s long-ago disappearance.
As she follows these clues, she is led into literary puzzles and unresolved parts of her past. Readers who savor wordplay as much as suspense should look up this clever mystery.
Read an excerpt: “Guilty by Definition” by Susie Dent
“Guilty by Definition” by Susie Dent (Sourcebooks Landmark), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Riverhead Books 
“Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State” (Riverhead Books), by Caleb Gayle, traces the rise of Edward McCabe through Kansas and the Oklahoma Territory as Black migrants pursued land, safety and power in the Jim Crow era.
Confronting hostile politics and violent resistance, McCabe fought for community and self-determination, and Gayle lays out this charged landscape to reveal a crucial but long-obscured chapter in the struggle for freedom.
Read an excerpt: “Black Moses” by Caleb Gayle
“Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State” by Caleb Gayle (Riverhead Books), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
calebgayle.com (Official site)
Knopf 
Karen Russell’s “The Antidote” (Knopf) is a dazzlingly original novel that hovers between fable and history.
This wild tempest of a tale set in Depression-era Nebraska follows a prairie witch and a high school girl swept up into a tumultuous western epic about the tragedies and ambitions of Manifest Destiny.
Read an excerpt: “The Antidote” by Karen Russell
“The Antidote” by Karen Russell (Knopf), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Crown 
Rick Atkinson’s “The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780” (Crown), the second book in his planned trilogy, delivers a chronicle of the American Revolution with irresistible narrative drive.
Moving between battles and diplomacy, he brings Washington, Franklin and their rivals to life while tracing the nation’s fight for independence. The result is an immersive work of history just in time for America’s 250th anniversary.
Read an excerpt: “The Fate of the Day” by Rick Atkinson
“The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 (Volume Two of the Revolution Trilogy)” by Rick Atkinson (Crown), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Historian Rick Atkinson (Official site)
Rick Atkinson on how the U.S. Army was born – and a free nation realized (“Sunday Morning”)
That’s it for the Book Report. It’s been great fun to talk to you about good books over the past year. Here’s to many more in 2026.
I’m Ron Charles. Until next time, read on!
For more info:
For more reading recommendations, check out our library of previous Book Report features from Ron Charles:
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