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As AI creeps into nearly every realm of our world, it feels like you need to be in investigation mode all the time to sniff it out. The tension between the literary world and AI is especially present these days. ChatGPT is now a tool for creation, with writers being encouraged to use the large language model to write stories — but consumers aren't asking for it. In fact, they're asking how to avoid. Libby users have been especially keen to spot the presence of AI, which has infiltrated audiobooks in a big way.

As pointed out by user @ems.book.shelf_ on TikTok, AI audiobooks have arrived on Libby, the app that connects public library card holders with their library's e-book and audiobook collections.

This isn't the first instance of AI and Libby crossing over. On Nov. 20, 2025, Libby posted an article launching its 'Inspire Me' feature, which uses large-language-model generative artificial intelligence to recommend and suggest books to users.

The 'Inspire Me' feature is easy enough to avoid, but an underlying issue on Libby is the presence of audiobooks that are narrated by AI. For dedicated audiobook listeners, losing the human touch of a real person's narration is devastating. So if you want to steer clear of AI, here's how to spot AI audiobooks in Libby.

How to spot AI audiobooks and Libby

After sharing the news that AI content is available on Libby, TikToker @ems.book.shelf_ also shared how to spot it within Libby. Which AI audiobooks are available will vary from library to library, so rather than provide an extensive list of AI audiobooks, you'll need to do some searching.

Total Time

• 5 min

What You Need

• Libby app

Step 1: Search for AI voices

In the Libby app, go to the search bar and look at two specific terms: Digital Voice and Synthesized Voice. This will display all the titles that feature AI voice narration, which is commonly referred to as either a digital or synthesized voice.

Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

Step 2: Browse through results

Once you've searched, click into individual book listings. In each book's details, the narrator will be listed. Any books that use AI will have the narrator listed as either a 'synthesized voice' or 'digital voice.' If you're looking to avoid AI, don't borrow these books.

Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

As AI creeps into nearly every realm of our world, it feels like you need to be in investigation mode all the time to sniff it out. The tension between the literary world and AI is especially present these days. ChatGPT is now a tool for creation, with writers being encouraged to use the large language model to write stories — but consumers aren't asking for it. In fact, they're asking how to avoid. Libby users have been especially keen to spot the presence of AI, which has infiltrated audiobooks in a big way.

As pointed out by user @ems.book.shelf_ on TikTok, AI audiobooks have arrived on Libby, the app that connects public library card holders with their library's e-book and audiobook collections.

This isn't the first instance of AI and Libby crossing over. On Nov. 20, 2025, Libby posted an article launching its 'Inspire Me' feature, which uses large-language-model generative artificial intelligence to recommend and suggest books to users.

The 'Inspire Me' feature is easy enough to avoid, but an underlying issue on Libby is the presence of audiobooks that are narrated by AI. For dedicated audiobook listeners, losing the human touch of a real person's narration is devastating. So if you want to steer clear of AI, here's how to spot AI audiobooks in Libby.

How to spot AI audiobooks and Libby

After sharing the news that AI content is available on Libby, TikToker @ems.book.shelf_ also shared how to spot it within Libby. Which AI audiobooks are available will vary from library to library, so rather than provide an extensive list of AI audiobooks, you'll need to do some searching.

Total Time

• 5 min

What You Need

• Libby app

Step 1: Search for AI voices

In the Libby app, go to the search bar and look at two specific terms: Digital Voice and Synthesized Voice. This will display all the titles that feature AI voice narration, which is commonly referred to as either a digital or synthesized voice.

Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

Step 2: Browse through results

Once you've searched, click into individual book listings. In each book's details, the narrator will be listed. Any books that use AI will have the narrator listed as either a 'synthesized voice' or 'digital voice.' If you're looking to avoid AI, don't borrow these books.

Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

Sabrina Carpenter has gone day drinking with Seth Meyers, joining the Late Night host for a Christmas-themed edition of his regular alcohol-fuelled segment. Eschewing espresso martinis for beer and Long Island iced tea, the duo began with a game of Truth or Drink, in which Meyers quickly hurt his own feelings by asking Carpenter to rate him. Apparently, seven was not the score he was hoping for.

"I thought seven was sort of giving!" Carpenter later exclaimed, defending her assessment. "Like, I thought seven was sort of like, there's room to grow! I don't know, like, I thought seven was more than five!"

Despite Carpenter's good intentions, 51-year-old Meyers did not agree with her claim that he is still growing.

"I feel like I've just met a ghost on Christmas," quipped Meyers, referencing Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. "You're like, 'I'm from the future! You're an eight!"

They also inexplicably played with red light therapy masks, attempted to make animal noises, and partook in classic Christmas games such as "unwrap alcohol while wearing oven mitts then make the other person drink it" and "drunkenly decorate Meyers like a Christmas tree while singing 'Silent Night.'"

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

Empty.

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BLANK

Hurdle Word 2 hint

Unmarried.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for December 17, 2025 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

UNWED

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Payment receiver.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for December 17 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for December 17, 2025 Hurdle Word 3 answer

PAYEE

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Another time.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for December 17 Hurdle Word 4 answer

AGAIN

Final Hurdle hint

A predatory fish.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

MORAY

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

The teaser trailer for Disclosure Day has been released, offering a glimpse at Steven Spielberg's upcoming sci-fi film. Ironically, Disclosure Day's teaser doesn't actually disclose all that much. What we do know is that aliens appear to be involved.

Offering more vibes than plot details, the trailer features Emily Blunt as a Kansas City weather presenter who begins making strange sounds while on air — sounds which are definitely not the weather forecast. Meanwhile, Colin Firth is wired up to a machine and appears distressed by whatever is on the screen in front of him, while Josh O'Connor is determined to give "full disclosure to the whole world, all at once." What is he disclosing? It isn't clear. However, the crop circles and extremely suspicious deer may have something to do with it.

Disclosure Day will arrive in theatres June 12.

HBO Max has released the official trailer for The Pitt's second season, bringing back Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) for a fresh shift at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. Unfortunately for him, it looks no less gruelling than the first one we saw.

Picking up 10 months on from the last season, The Pitt Season 2 takes place during a busy July 4 weekend in the emergency room. It'd be unsurprising to see some firework-related injuries, which tend to significantly increase around Independence Day. If that wasn't stressful enough, it looks as though a cyber attack will take the emergency room's computer systems offline during this shift, forcing the team to "go analogue." It seems like a perfect recipe for chaos in an already busy emergency department.

Alongside Dr. Robby, Season 2 sees the return of Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa), Dr. Mohran (Supriya Ganesh), Dr. McKay (Fiona Dourif), Dr. King (Taylor Dearden), Dr. Santos (Isa Briones), and medical students turned interns Whitaker (Gerran Howell) and Javadi (Shabana Azeez). Also joining them will be new physician Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi).

The Pitt Season 2 arrives Jan. 8 on HBO Max.

There's moment in Fallout Season 2 that isn't directly an ode to the late, great David Lynch but it absolutely, 100 percent is.

In the very first episode of the second chapter, there's a fleeting scene that Twin Peaks fans might find unexpectedly heartwarming in the middle of this forsaken Wasteland. And it involves a damn fine cup of coffee.

SEE ALSO: 'Fallout 2' is full of game details. Here's a handy guide.

Late in Season 2, episode 1 of the TV adaptation of Bethesda's Fallout game franchise, we meet up with former Vault 33 overseer Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan) who has trudged across the Nevada desert in T-60 power armor all the way to a massive underground Vault-Tec tower. It's completely devoid of life, instead a silent shell of a pristine office building.

Plus, Hank's got over 400,000 unread messages to attend to — it's been at least 200 years since anyone's checked them. With an aim for caffeination and his golden Pip Boy strapped on, Hank makes himself a pot of coffee and takes a sip — and if you don't think MacLachlan's character is about to remark that it's a "damn fine cup of coffee," you need to watch more Twin Peaks.

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In this scene, MacLachlan could very well be paying tribute to his longtime friend and Twin Peaks/Blue Velvet/Dune director, who died at 78 in January this year. The actor has long been synonymous with the phrase after playing Agent Dale Cooper in Lynch's iconic mystery series. The FBI special agent insists on taking a moment for his daily brew, and giving oneself a daily present while investigating horrific crimes, preferring "two cups of good, hot black coffee" for himself.

While Hank doesn't actually utter the words despite subtle "say the line, Bart," teasing, there's definitely a smile and a pause — enough for Lynch fans to fill in the famous line themselves.

If you're a U.S.-based TikTok user who was anxiously counting down the days until the social media app was banned on Dec. 16, 2025, then there's good news. Christmas came early — you can start counting down the days until Jan. 23 instead.

Dec. 16 was, in theory, the latest deadline for TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech firm ByteDance, to wrap up a sale of its U.S. business. That was supposed to happen by law (the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act of 2024, if you're feeling formal) on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2025; in fact, there was a brief shutdown.

The deadline has been extended four times, via executive order, since the Trump administration gained power on that date. The first delay took us to April 4, 2025. On that date, another executive order gave ByteDance until June 19, 2025 to sell. Then, guess what: a June 19 executive order pushed the deadline back until Dec. 16, 2025.

In the meantime, we seem to be no closer to a TikTok sale. By multiple accounts, negotiations have become bogged down, in part because the Chinese government takes a dim view of the U.S. strong-arming one of its companies and views the deal as leverage. Not to mention that a constantly-extended deadline isn't a real deadline at all.

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Trump, who has repeatedly drawn attention to his own following on TikTok, may appear like he's tactically delaying the ban. But he's also keen to take credit for the possibility of a sale, and it doesn't exactly take an international diplomacy expert to see weaknesses in this game of hardball. You just have to know one of 2025's most popular political truisms: TACO.

Indeed, on Sept. 25, Trump issued another executive order directing the U.S. Attorney General to take "no action for noncompliance" against TikTok for "120 days from the date of this order" — which brings us to Jan. 23, 2026. Why? Because, Trump wrote, "a plan has been presented to me to undergo a qualified divestiture of TikTok’s United States operations."

That plan was said to involve a $14 billion sale of the U.S. arm of TikTok to a consortium including Oracle, which is led by Trump backer Larry Ellison. But no further details have materialized, and the Chinese government insists the sale isn't going ahead — leading to widespread confusion.

So will TikTok be officially banned in the U.S. on Jan. 23, 2026, 368 days after the original ban was said to go ahead? Your guess is as good as ours — but given the evidence of the past year, it probably wouldn't be wise to bet your life savings on it.