Mariah Carey has inspired AI models. All right, throw in a bit of Ariana Grande and Kylie Minogue. This Christmas, you will hear voices that resemble them, but their birthplace is AI music generators like Suno and Udio.
During a recent visit to a popular cafe in central Calcutta, the music playing on the stereo was from “Best Christmas Music Mix 2025”, featuring the likes of The Twinkle Tone Trio and Tin Tin Jingle Voices... each with as much Internet history as a lip-sync track has honesty. Nobody was bothered, because these were just a bunch of “Christmas songs” playing in the background. When the music wasn’t in the mould of Mariah Carey, there was a touch of Motown and The Temptations.
And why wouldn’t that be the case? We are living in an era of AI slop. Take the latest Gospel Digital Song Sales chart, where Find Your Rest by Solomon Ray is trending. Don’t be misled by the cover of a handsome young singer with a flawlessly trimmed beard, for he is not human, at least not fully. Behind the AI machine is Christopher Jermaine Townsend, a rapper and content creator from Mississippi known by his stage name Topher. Ray is on a roll: In quick succession, he has been releasing music, the latest being the EP A Soulful Christmas.
If any of these AI tracks are played in the background while you chat with friends over steaming cups of coffee, nobody would even label the music as AI. Now imagine this: If music plays at one cafe for 12 hours and all of it is AI, how many musicians lose out on royalties from original music that might otherwise have been played? Not that music streaming pays enough for most musicians to live like Bruce Springsteen, but bread, milk and eggs need to be bought by all.
People expect Christmas music around December, and what they’re getting are AI tunesmiths, complete with jingling sleigh bells. They are everywhere — Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube. It’s easy to spot them: Look at their biographies and chances are you will find only a few EPs or singles attached to their names, but with surprisingly strong streaming traction.
It has only been two-odd years since AI tracks began proliferating across streaming services, replicating the voices of pop stars including Jay-Z and Drake. A few weeks ago, an AI country song called Walk My Walk reached number one on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart and passed three million Spotify streams. The person behind it is a digital avatar named Breaking Rust. In September, Xania Monet, an AI R&B singer created by a poet in Mississippi, landed a multimillion-dollar record deal. But the crowning glory of the year has been a mysterious psychedelic band called The Velvet Sundown, which passed a million plays on Spotify before its creators admitted that the group was “synthetic”.
AI music technology continues to grow more sophisticated, to the point where it is impossible for casual listeners to notice it. Last year, Universal Music Group released a Spanish-language version of Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree using a vocal stem recorded by Chilean-born singer Leyla Hoyle, which was then put through a bespoke AI model based on Brenda Lee’s 1958 voice. The 80-year-old artiste agreed to the use of AI.
AI is also running through the ad industry. A company like Coca-Cola has taken another shot at AI-generated holiday ads, even after last year’s attempts drew criticism from creative professionals concerned about the technology’s potential to hurt jobs. The wheels of the red delivery trucks in Coke’s new ‘Holidays Are Coming’ spot appear to turn instead of gliding, as some did last year. Tech giant Google has unveiled its first completely AI-generated advertisement. At least nobody will mind a nervous turkey in an ad.
Perhaps the only thing that won’t be fake about Christmas this year is how you celebrate the season with your loved ones. AI can’t take that away from you.