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The long history of slop in music

Top of the Slops — The term might be everywhere now, but the act of copying and enshittifying has been around for decades, explains Ian McQuaid.

  • Music
  • Ian McQuaid

The Pope has declared holy war on AI

The New Butlerian Jihad — In his first encyclical letter, Pope Leo XIV addressed the increasing pervasiveness of artificial intelligence as a threat to the already fragile structures of society. Newsletter columnist Emma Garland makes sense of it all.

  • Activism
  • Emma Garland

OpenAI announces new ‘human powered’ ChatGPT-6

HLMs — It comes as users have reported widespread ‘hallucinations’ in answers from the popular chatbot, with the company believing the move will increase accuracy and answer quality.

  • Tech
  • Al Goritham

Artifaxing: “We’ve become so addicted to these supercomputers in our hands”

Framing the future — Predominantly publishing on Instagram and X, the account is one of social media’s most prominent archiving pages. We caught up with the mysterious figure behind it to chat about the internet’s past, present and future, finding inspiration and art in the age of AI.

  • Culture
  • Isaac Muk
Smartphone displaying Bandcamp website with colourful album artwork, positioned in front of blurred Bandcamp logo on computer screen.

Bandcamp bans AI generated music

Human creativity — The new policy applies to music created “wholly or in substantial part” using artificial intelligence tools, with its team reserving the right to remove any suspected tracks from the platform.

  • Music
  • Isaac Muk
Digital collage with neon yellow text "2026: THE 'SURE, WHY NOT' OF YEARS" on dark background, surrounded by bright green and orange outlined images of people, planes, and objects.

Remembering 2025: The ‘Sure, Why Not’ of Years

Huck’s year end wrap-up — From Gen Z uprisings and Katy Perry becoming an astronaut, to the growing omnipresence of AI, the past 12 months have been weird and endlessly revolving. Newsletter columnist Emma Garland attempts to make sense of it all. 

  • Culture
  • Emma Garland
High-contrast black and white illustration of figure with flowing hair holding microphone. Yellow text reads "Slop Era" and "huck".

With The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift has entered her slop era

Huck’s monthly dispatch — The pop giant’s latest album landed with big fanfare but little impact. Against the toll of superstardom and years of consistent output, as well as accusations of AI usage, newsletter columnist Emma Garland asks: has Taylor Swift lost her touch?

  • Music
  • Emma Garland
Black and white high-contrast image with yellow text reading "Endless Bummer" and small white sign stating "Live Facial Recognition In Operation".

Surreal celeb turns and creeping surveillance: Goodbye 2025’s endless bummer

Huck’s August dispatch — Justin Bieber’s stock up, Lana Del Rey’s down? The Sydney Sweeney jeans fiasco? Newsletter columnist Emma Garland rounds up a strange, psychedelic summer in culture.

  • Culture
  • Emma Garland
Black-and-white image of two men in suits, with the text "EVERYTHING IS COMPUTER" in large bright yellow letters overlaying the image.

Donald Trump says that “everything is computer” – does he have a point?

Huck’s March dispatch — As AI creeps increasingly into our daily lives and our attention spans are lost to social media content, newsletter columnist Emma Garland unpicks the US President’s eyebrow-raising turn of phrase at a White House car show.

  • Culture
  • Emma Garland

“Welcome to the Useless Class”: Ewan Morrison in conversation with Irvine Welsh

For Emma — Ahead of the Scottish author’s new novel, he sat down with Irvine Welsh for an in-depth discussion of its dystopic themes, and the upcoming AI “tsunami”.

  • Culture
  • Irvine Welsh

Holly Herndon: Mind-bending music for a digital apocalypse

Beyond human — As a leading light in experimental music, Holly Herndon is reimagining how we use technology – from crypto-raves to collaborations with artificial intelligence – at what's starting to feel like a pivotal moment in history.

  • Magazine
  • Maya-Roisin Slater

Meet Trauma Doll: The AI making its own mental health memes

Siri, I think I'm sad — After being prescribed Tramadol for back pain, Sofia Crespo started creating collages under the pseudonym Trauma Doll. Now, the project is being developed into a fully automated AI, trying to deal with the digital version of mental illness.

  • Art
  • Biju Belinky

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