AI Bots Stole My Music; Philadelphia Magazine, July 10, 2026

 Owen Lyman-Schmidt, Philadelphia Magazine; AI Bots Stole My Music

One West Philly musician’s surreal, unsettling journey into the world of fake artists, bot listeners, and the streaming industry that’s failing creators. 

"The fear that Carey Dupont would replace us wasn’t just some abstract notion; in the year before we found it, the tracks on Blue Road had been listened to close to 50,000 times each. By contrast, many of the original recordings had only 1,000 to 2,000 listens despite being released four years earlier. Someone was using our music to play the streaming game and was massively outperforming us."

Teenage boys using ‘personalised’ AI for therapy and romance, survey finds; The Guardian, October 30, 2025

 Jessica Murray and Robert Booth, The Guardian; Teenage boys using ‘personalised’ AI for therapy and romance, survey finds

"“Young people are using it a lot more like an assistant in their pocket, a therapist when they’re struggling, a companion when they want to be validated, and even sometimes in a romantic way. It’s that personalisation aspect – they’re saying: it understands me, my parents don’t.”

The research, based on a survey of boys in secondary education across 37 schools in England, Scotland and Wales, also found that more than half (53%) of teenage boys said they found the online world more rewarding than the real world.

The Voice of the Boys report says: “Even where guardrails are meant to be in place, there’s a mountain of evidence that shows chatbots routinely lie about being a licensed therapist or a real person, with only a small disclaimer at the bottom saying the AI chatbot is not real."