🍳Quake resistant real estate, Xania Monet and more…

Hey folks!

Xania Monet just became Billboard’s latest sensation, with a No. 1 R&B hit, over 44 million streams, 1,46,000 Instagram followers, and a multimillion-dollar record deal.

Sidebar: Billboard is a company that tracks music popularity, and R&B stands for Rhythm and Blues, a genre that blends blues, jazz, and gospel music.

All this, without ever stepping into a studio. Because Xania Monet isn’t real. She’s an AI-generated artist. Her vocals are created by Suno, an AI music platform that turns a few typed prompts into a full-blown R&B track.

Now, many singers and record labels aren’t exactly cheering. They’ve accused AI acts like Xania of building success on copyrighted material used to train these tools, without crediting anyone. In fact, Suno was sued by major record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America last year for that very reason.

So then, how are labels still signing deals with AI artists like her?

Well, Xania’s songs sound so real that fans can’t tell the difference. Her manager says it’s no different from how remixes of Michael Jackson’s or Prince’s songs keep releasing years after they passed away. And the human behind Xania, Telisha “Nikki” Jones, says she writes the lyrics for every track, only using AI to generate the vocals. In short, if the song hits the right chord, they don’t see a problem.

But that’s where things get tricky. Real artists now worry about being replaced by technology that can make endless content — fast. And with streaming services and record labels pouring millions into AI acts, visibility for human musicians could take a hit. Not just that. The Suno lawsuit we mentioned earlier was eventually settled out of court, with Universal Music Group, one of the plaintiffs, now partnering with AI music firms like Udio.

Looks like the industry that swore it would never dance with AI… is now moving to its beat.

Would you?

On that note, here’s a (non-AI 😁) soundtrack to put you in the mood 🎵

Salad Days by Jatayu

You can thank our reader, Sharang Sharma, for the rec.

Ready to roll?

What caught our eye this week 👀

Can earthquake resistant buildings be the future of Indian real estate?

This week, our team discussions have revolved a lot around climate change. And somehow, the conversation drifted to earthquakes.

We started wondering if climate change could actually make cities that weren’t too prone to quakes a little more vulnerable now. Think of Delhi NCR. It’s not sitting on a major fault line, but because it’s close to the Himalayas, it does feel the occasional tremor. Officially, it falls in Seismic Zone IV, the second-highest risk category in India.

And as we were reading and talking about all this, we stumbled upon something fascinating. Japan’s real estate market has long earned people’s trust, thanks to its incredibly strict building codes that make structures more resistant to earthquakes.

That got us thinking, “Could earthquake-resistant…