Artificial Intelligence
Grammarly Buys Superhuman As Cloudflare, X And Spotify Act On AI-Powered Bots
Updated on Wed, Jul 2, 2025
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It’s mid-2025, and AI has embedded itself deeper into our everyday lives.
Some days, it feels like we are living inside a sci-fi movie—where our keypad finishes our sentences, bots fact-check our tweets, and the rock band we're streaming doesn’t even exist.
Yes, over half a million Spotify users have been unknowingly vibing to a rock band that doesn’t exist—because it’s entirely AI-generated.
Wait, that’s just the opening act.
So, welcome to the weird and wild world of artificial intelligence, where something happens every passing minute – from acquisitions and innovations to scams and opportunities.
Dive in as we explore Grammarly’s acquisition of Superhuman, Cloudflare’s pay-per-crawl tool to block AI bots, social media X’s decision allowing AI bots to co-author Community Notes and more!
Before we unpack these developments, let’s dive into the world of rock-n-roll!
A mysterious band called ‘The Velvet Sundown’ quietly debuted on Spotify in June and has racked up over 500,000 monthly listeners.
The twist? It’s entirely AI-generated—with no real band members, no live performances, and no artist interviews to be found.
Their albums—“Floating On Echoes” and “Dust and Silence”—deliver classic rock vibes. However, closer inspection exposes their machine-made roots.
Social media sleuths noticed oddities in the band’s Instagram photos, including too-symmetrical faces and inconsistent table settings—hallmarks of AI imagery.
Plus, the group has been added to thousands of user-generated playlists on the platform, which helped fuel its rapid growth and popularity.
Spotify doesn’t currently require labels to disclose if a song is created by AI, though Deezer (a rival music streaming platform) flags such tracks with disclaimers.
Other AI bands like “The Devil Inside” have also emerged, churning out music that repeats common phrases like “dust” and “wind”—likely byproducts of generative model training.
The incident has reignited a debate: Should platforms label AI-generated music the way we label AI-generated images?
While music fans grapple with what’s real and what’s fake, AI is set to become a real teammate in the workplace.
Grammarly has announced the acquisition of email startup Superhuman, aiming to build a full-stack AI-powered productivity platform that stretches beyond grammar assistance.
Superhuman, once an invite-only email tool, delivers faster replies and smart AI-driven inbox management, leading to a valuation of $825M, bringing in almost $35M annually.
The acquisition follows Grammarly’s recent $1 billion funding round and the purchase of Coda, furthering its multi-agent platform strategy.
Superhuman’s CEO, Rahul Vohra, and over 100 employees will join Grammarly with the Superhuman product, team, and brand becoming a part of Grammarly’s broader vision.
Shishir Mehrotra, the CEO of Grammarly, called email the “perfect staging ground” for AI agents to collaborate across tools and handle tasks like summarization, scheduling, and personalized replies.
Currently, Grammarly helps revise over 50 million emails weekly across platforms like Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail. After adopting Superhuman, users send and respond to 72% more emails per hour, with 94% of them embracing its AI-powered features.
This move signals Grammarly’s ambition to become an “AI superhighway” that spans multiple work surfaces—from communication to document collaboration.
While AI agents are set to enhance productivity in workplaces, some businesses are not entirely onboard with AI bots having so much independence, especially when it comes to who controls them.
This has led to a movement to block AI agents and bots from certain websites, and Cloudflare has a solution for them.
Cloudflare has rolled out a new tool that allows websites to block AI bots or charge them for crawling their content.
The tool, with a “pay-per-crawl” pricing, ensures that content creators can control whether AI bots can access their work and use it to train AI models.
This move responds to growing frustration from publishers and media businesses whose content is scraped by AI systems without traffic referrals or licensing deals. The leading brands supporting this tool include Condé Nast, Associated Press, Reddit, and Pinterest.
Cloudflare cited stark changes in web traffic patterns during the tool’s launch, saying that Google’s referral-to-crawl ratio dropped to 18:1, while OpenAI’s stood at 1,500:1.
The initiative is aimed at restoring balance to the internet, where creators can be credited and compensated for their work, rather than being bypassed by AI agents.
This move by Cloudflare builds on earlier efforts, where over a million domains started blocking AI bots, starting in late 2023.
While content creators push back against silent scraping by AI bots, others are experimenting by letting AI bots speak for us.
Social media platform X has started testing AI-written Community Notes with AI bots trained to offer fact-checks and context on posts. All AI-generated notes will be clearly labeled, according to X.
These AI Note Writers will only be allowed to post notes on content where users have requested clarification. More importantly, AI notes will be shown only if people from different perspectives mark them as helpful—similar to the X’s human-driven system already in place.
The AI bots will need to “earn” their right to contribute and can gain or lose access based on the ratings they receive.
Keith Coleman, head of Community Notes, said the human-AI hybrid system offers “scale and speed” while preserving credibility. The first cohort of AI bots is expected to go live later this month as part of the test rollout.
While businesses adapt to the latest AI moves, it is vital to accept the technology’s role in our lives.
From bots to fact-check posts to fake bands composing tunes, it’s clear that AI isn’t just assisting—it’s actively participating in our digital lives.
AI-generated content has now taken the center stage, with generative AI shaping what we read, hear, and believe—it’s no longer working in the background.
While some platforms are doubling down with AI acquisitions and interactive bots, others are blocking AI crawlers. In the case of Spotify’s AI band, we’re unable to distinguish AI-generated content from real, human content.
So, should labeling AI content be the norm across platforms? Is the rise of AI agents an inevitable form of evolution?
Let us know in the comments below!
Some days, it feels like we are living inside a sci-fi movie—where our keypad finishes our sentences, bots fact-check our tweets, and the rock band we're streaming doesn’t even exist.
Yes, over half a million Spotify users have been unknowingly vibing to a rock band that doesn’t exist—because it’s entirely AI-generated.
Wait, that’s just the opening act.
So, welcome to the weird and wild world of artificial intelligence, where something happens every passing minute – from acquisitions and innovations to scams and opportunities.
Dive in as we explore Grammarly’s acquisition of Superhuman, Cloudflare’s pay-per-crawl tool to block AI bots, social media X’s decision allowing AI bots to co-author Community Notes and more!
Before we unpack these developments, let’s dive into the world of rock-n-roll!
Spotify’s Listeners Are Rocking Out To An AI Band—Without Knowing It
A mysterious band called ‘The Velvet Sundown’ quietly debuted on Spotify in June and has racked up over 500,000 monthly listeners.
The twist? It’s entirely AI-generated—with no real band members, no live performances, and no artist interviews to be found.
Their albums—“Floating On Echoes” and “Dust and Silence”—deliver classic rock vibes. However, closer inspection exposes their machine-made roots.
Social media sleuths noticed oddities in the band’s Instagram photos, including too-symmetrical faces and inconsistent table settings—hallmarks of AI imagery.
Plus, the group has been added to thousands of user-generated playlists on the platform, which helped fuel its rapid growth and popularity.
Spotify doesn’t currently require labels to disclose if a song is created by AI, though Deezer (a rival music streaming platform) flags such tracks with disclaimers.
Other AI bands like “The Devil Inside” have also emerged, churning out music that repeats common phrases like “dust” and “wind”—likely byproducts of generative model training.
The incident has reignited a debate: Should platforms label AI-generated music the way we label AI-generated images?
While music fans grapple with what’s real and what’s fake, AI is set to become a real teammate in the workplace.
Grammarly Buys Superhuman To Supercharge Its AI Productivity Suite
Grammarly has announced the acquisition of email startup Superhuman, aiming to build a full-stack AI-powered productivity platform that stretches beyond grammar assistance.
Superhuman, once an invite-only email tool, delivers faster replies and smart AI-driven inbox management, leading to a valuation of $825M, bringing in almost $35M annually.
The acquisition follows Grammarly’s recent $1 billion funding round and the purchase of Coda, furthering its multi-agent platform strategy.
Superhuman’s CEO, Rahul Vohra, and over 100 employees will join Grammarly with the Superhuman product, team, and brand becoming a part of Grammarly’s broader vision.
Shishir Mehrotra, the CEO of Grammarly, called email the “perfect staging ground” for AI agents to collaborate across tools and handle tasks like summarization, scheduling, and personalized replies.
Currently, Grammarly helps revise over 50 million emails weekly across platforms like Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail. After adopting Superhuman, users send and respond to 72% more emails per hour, with 94% of them embracing its AI-powered features.
This move signals Grammarly’s ambition to become an “AI superhighway” that spans multiple work surfaces—from communication to document collaboration.
While AI agents are set to enhance productivity in workplaces, some businesses are not entirely onboard with AI bots having so much independence, especially when it comes to who controls them.
This has led to a movement to block AI agents and bots from certain websites, and Cloudflare has a solution for them.
Cloudflare Launches A Tool To Help Websites Block Or Monetize AI Bot Access
Cloudflare has rolled out a new tool that allows websites to block AI bots or charge them for crawling their content.
The tool, with a “pay-per-crawl” pricing, ensures that content creators can control whether AI bots can access their work and use it to train AI models.
This move responds to growing frustration from publishers and media businesses whose content is scraped by AI systems without traffic referrals or licensing deals. The leading brands supporting this tool include Condé Nast, Associated Press, Reddit, and Pinterest.
Cloudflare cited stark changes in web traffic patterns during the tool’s launch, saying that Google’s referral-to-crawl ratio dropped to 18:1, while OpenAI’s stood at 1,500:1.
The initiative is aimed at restoring balance to the internet, where creators can be credited and compensated for their work, rather than being bypassed by AI agents.
This move by Cloudflare builds on earlier efforts, where over a million domains started blocking AI bots, starting in late 2023.
While content creators push back against silent scraping by AI bots, others are experimenting by letting AI bots speak for us.
X Welcomes AI Bots To Co-Author Community Notes
Social media platform X has started testing AI-written Community Notes with AI bots trained to offer fact-checks and context on posts. All AI-generated notes will be clearly labeled, according to X.
These AI Note Writers will only be allowed to post notes on content where users have requested clarification. More importantly, AI notes will be shown only if people from different perspectives mark them as helpful—similar to the X’s human-driven system already in place.
The AI bots will need to “earn” their right to contribute and can gain or lose access based on the ratings they receive.
Keith Coleman, head of Community Notes, said the human-AI hybrid system offers “scale and speed” while preserving credibility. The first cohort of AI bots is expected to go live later this month as part of the test rollout.
While businesses adapt to the latest AI moves, it is vital to accept the technology’s role in our lives.
What Ties It All Together?
From bots to fact-check posts to fake bands composing tunes, it’s clear that AI isn’t just assisting—it’s actively participating in our digital lives.
AI-generated content has now taken the center stage, with generative AI shaping what we read, hear, and believe—it’s no longer working in the background.
While some platforms are doubling down with AI acquisitions and interactive bots, others are blocking AI crawlers. In the case of Spotify’s AI band, we’re unable to distinguish AI-generated content from real, human content.
So, should labeling AI content be the norm across platforms? Is the rise of AI agents an inevitable form of evolution?
Let us know in the comments below!
First published on Wed, Jul 2, 2025
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