Statistic of the day

1.3M: Kilograms of blackchin tilapia recently caught by fishing authorities between February and August in Thailand to slow their population. Blackchin tilapia have been found in at least 19 Thai provinces, and their damage to Thailand's aquatic ecosystem will cost the country's economy at least $293 million.
AFP

In the Spotlight

Spotify has an issue with 'fake artists'

Spotify has more than 626 million users worldwide, but some of these listeners might be unknowingly jamming out to music by "fake" artists. The world's top music streaming platform has reportedly become inundated with unlicensed covers of songs, many generated by artificial intelligence.

What are these 'fake artists'?
"Covers of popular songs were being inserted into large, publicly available playlists, hidden among dozens of other covers by real artists while racking up millions of listens and getting paid," said Slate. The artists in question "all fit a certain pattern, with monthly listeners in the hundreds of thousands, zero social media footprint, and some very ChatGPT-sounding bios."

The issue exists across genres. A group of Redditors first found the AI songs in country music, but there's also a "broader, coordinated effort by individuals using AI to create and distribute instrumental music that mimics well-known metalcore bands," music site Idioteq said. While it cannot be confirmed that all of these songs are the result of AI, many "appear to be similar versions of the same piece of poorly produced music, each differentiated by random changes in pitch," said gaming and tech site Kotaku.

What does Spotify say?
Spotify "does not have a policy against artists creating content using autotune or AI tools, as long as the content does not violate our other policies, including our deceptive content policy, which prohibits impersonation," the company said in a statement to Slate. So stopping the uploading of more of these songs presents a challenge.

"I don't know how you legislate any of this stuff," Rick Beato, a musician, producer and YouTuber who has previously testified about AI copyright in music, said to Slate. Spotify may also be "slipping both real and AI songs into playlists and harvesting listens to keep a larger percentage of the royalty pool for itself to maximize profits," so there "would really be an incentive for Spotify to police that from third parties, because they want to be the ones doing it."

QUOTE OF THE DAY

'It has been a full-scale emergency for us, like a wartime situation.'

Park Seonghye, the head of South Korea's Advocacy Center for Online Sexual Abuse, on the sharp uptick in underaged victims of deepfake pornography that has led to a police investigation. With the latest advancements in deepfake technology, there's "so much more footage than there used to be," she said. And they are "worried it's only going to increase.”

the explainer

The rise of rental rewards

Rent prices haven't dropped much, but some renters are being enticed by rental rewards programs, which have become increasingly popular. Landlords are getting in on the credit-card-like rewards, offering incentives like 2% cash back or points they can exchange for home goods or gift cards.

What kind of rewards can renters earn?
Currently, more than 2 million renters in the U.S. are enrolled in a program that rewards them for paying their rent on time, signing a new lease or renewing their rental agreement.
Traditionally, landlords would offer more expensive concessions such as a month of free rent or a discount on utilities. But new incentive programs from companies such as Stake, Incentco and Piñata provide smaller monthly rewards. The monthly payouts might not seem like much, but when you are "being overcharged for rent and you're unemployed, getting even that [amount] back every month is a blessing," Ernest McKee, a renter in Texas, said to The Wall Street Journal.

Why are landlords offering more concessions?
The number of rental listings offering a concession jumped sharply in the fall of 2023 and has "persistently remained near one in three rentals with a concession in the months since," Zillow said in its July 2024 Rental Market Report. The trend is driven mainly by a multifamily construction boom that continues to rise, and the abundance of empty apartments is "opening up new options for renters and spreading demand across more homes."

Are rental rewards worth it?
While earning a small amount of cashback or prizes is "better than nothing," the rewards are "relatively tiny compared with the cost of rent," said the Journal. In the first half of 2024, the average rental concession was equivalent to 5% of annual rent, according to Moody's Analytics, which estimated the average rent for the year at $1,750 monthly.

By contrast, Piñata renters make about $125 in rewards a year if they pay their rent on time, which is about 0.6% of Moody's average annual rent figure. A tenant "would have to stay in their unit at least nine years to get a value comparable to the average concession," the Journal said.

Good day ✝️

… for Southeast Asian Catholics. Pope Francis kicked off the "longest trip of his pontificate" (and the longest foreign tour any pope has taken), landing in Indonesia for the beginning of a 12-day visit to four Southeast Asian and the South Pacific countries, said CNN. The trip "underscores a significant shift taking place inside the Catholic Church: its tilt to Asia," the outlet said.

Bad day 🐘

… for Namibian wildlife. The African country has announced plans to cull 723 wild animals to "feed parts of its population as it grapples with its worst drought in 100 years," ABC News said. The culling will be done by "professional hunters and safari outfitters" in "national parks and communal areas with sustainable game numbers," where the population exceeds available resources, Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism said.

Puzzles

Daily crossword

Test your general knowledge with The Week's daily crossword, part of our puzzles section, which also includes sudoku and codewords

Play here

The Week recommends

One great cookbook: 'Truly Mexican'

Many cookbooks are devoted to unabridged endgames, but a less common approach is to shape a cookbook around the DNA of a cooking style or culture. Starting at the baseline, with building blocks rather than a neoclassical mansion, is a sublime way to learn to master, or even dabble in, a cuisine. Such is the import and impact of Roberto Santibañez's 2011 cookbook, "Truly Mexican."

Four chapters, four keystones
Santibañez, a native of Mexico City, is the chef of the Fonda restaurants in New York City and Mi Vida restaurants in Washington, D.C. In "Truly Mexican," he pares the essence of Mexican cuisine down to four requisite categories: salsas, guacamoles, adobos, and moles and pipianes.

Each section, in its comprehensiveness and loyalty to regional authenticity, dispatches any clichéd notions of Mexican cuisine's sameness. In the salsa chapter, for example, Santibañez tours a collection of salsas, both fresh and cooked. Fruits such as peaches, papayas and pineapples appear. Fusion frippery this is not. Each salsa and guacamole has a point of regional origin or a personal genesis tale.

Two bonus chapters
The final eighth of the book includes two mini-chapters, "More Ideas for Using Mexican Sauces" and "Sides." The second chapter demands your meal go holistic, with four bean recipes and vegetable dishes like zucchini and corn with cream. You blink, and suddenly you can assemble not only a mean tomatillo salsa and black mole but also a rounded Mexican meal.

Poll watch

Americans are increasingly enthusiastic about voting in the presidential election, according to a Gallup poll. The poll found that 69% of adults are "more enthusiastic than usual" about voting, up from 54% in March. This uptick was largely driven by a July surge after Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee. In March, 55% of Democrats said they were more enthusiastic than usual about voting compared to 78% now.

INSTANT OPINION

Today's best commentary

'Think of the children working graveyard shifts right under our noses'
Sally Greenberg at USA Today
It's a "bitter reality" that organizations are "once again having to make child labor reforms an urgent priority," says Sally Greenberg. What's "incomprehensible is that, instead of trying to correct a situation that is so obviously wrong, efforts have been made to weaken restrictions on hazardous work for teenagers," making it "easier for them to be exploited." Lawmakers should "toughen existing penalties for employers who choose to ignore the law and exploit and endanger children."

'Why anti-Zionism is antisemitic'
Rebecca Cypess at The Wall Street Journal
Anti-Zionism "undermines the millennia-old ties between Judaism and the land of Israel" and gives "license to religious litmus tests against traditional Judaism," says Rebecca Cypess. Criticizing "Israel's government, the behavior of some of its citizens, its policies or its prosecution of the current war isn't inherently antisemitic." And "protests against the government, its policies, and the war aren't the same as anti-Zionism," which "is antisemitic because it attacks a core belief of Judaism."

'A failing grade for the Electoral College'
Theodore R. Johnson at The Washington Post
The Electoral College has "become increasingly unrepresentative even as our democracy has become more accessible," says Theodore R. Johnson. The "people's shift is of little interest in the college. There, states matter most." The "Electoral College is overdue an overhaul. Few generations of Americans know that as well as ours," and the "need for reform is glaring." The "only open question is if we are brave enough to finally make the College our own."

WORD OF THE DAY

slugging

The name is a bit of a misnomer, as this skin care trend has little to do with mollusks. Originating in the K-beauty (or Korean beauty) world, slugging involves "applying a thin layer of occlusive ointment, like Vaseline or Aquaphor, on your face to help prevent water loss," dermatologist Dr. Adarsh Vijay Mudgil said to Cosmopolitan.

Why are Democrats suing Georgia's election board?