About the piece by Saeed Saeed AI-generated band Velvet Sundown are a Spotify hit, but is the music any good? (July 2): The writer left out a key point. These AI bands aren't just about experimentation, they're a business model. Streaming models benefit when algorithm driven "safe" music fills up playlists, because it's cheap to make and easy to push. Meanwhile music of real artists gets buried. It's worth asking who actually profits when the human element gets stripped away. Hint: the platforms that host them.
Karam Touba, Dubai
Yes, AI can make amazing music, if the person or people giving it the prompts are any good.
Margaret Reynolds, Muscat, Oman
AI music has a parallel in AI-generated photography. Why do people need to generate an image of a person suffering rather than use the thousands of images taken by photojournalists in the field every single day. Those are real people risking their lives to bring us real information. These are machine generated and inauthentic. There really is no comparison.
Brenda Davies, Hoi An, Vietnam
The kidnapping of Alawite women must stop
With regard to Nada Maucourant Atallah and Adla Massoud's report 'Get the money fast if you want her alive': Syria's Alawite women and girls disappear in abductions (July 1): These scenes are unbearably brutal. How can those who call themselves world leaders speak of humanity, yet offer offenders international protection and recognition?
Norma L, Cincinnati, US
Gaza ceasefire still too far in the distance
In reference to Mohamad Ali Harisi's report Hamas reviews Gaza ceasefire proposal as Netanyahu vows 'it's over' for group (July 2): For the Hamas spokesperson Mahmoud Taha to say that US is not serious about ending the Gaza war is odd as it is not a US problem at all. I am concerned about the US economy, US debt and the size of the Pentagon.
Frederice Klinge, Hamburg, Germany
Hamas is clearly useless as a governing body. It doesn't care about Gaza at all and is perfectly alright with continuing the killings of their own people, with peace still too far away on the horizon.
Ali Faisal, Inverness, Scotland
Why is it so inconceivable for Hamas to free the hostages so the war can end and children don't have to continue to live in the line of fire?
Jamie Lucas, London, UK
