“Chinese-born tech workers have fueled Silicon Valley for decades. In the AI era, they’re superstars.”
AI
Reality Check
“AI-generated images have left us questioning what is real. But the godfather of digital forensics, Hany Farid, is not giving up.”
I Work in Hollywood. Everyone Who Used to Make TV Is Now Secretly Training AI
“For screenwriters like me—and job seekers all over—AI gig work is the new waiting tables.”
What Will It Take to Get AI Out of Schools?
“The tech world assumes that AI-aided education is necessary and inevitable. A growing number of parents, educators, and cognitive scientists say the opposite.”
Creating Baby Geniuses to Thwart the AI Threat? (Yes, Really.)
“The new wave of Silicon Valley–backed gene-editing startups is straight out of ‘Brave New World.'”
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Vauhini Vara
The author of Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age and The Immortal King Rao on memorable meals and books about whales.
Politics After Literacy
“Postliteracy won’t replace reason with madness, but it might give us madness of a new and different type.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: a father’s grief; a commuter’s concern; a decision’s consequences; a teen’s hobby; and a sports fan’s hidden haven.
AI Got the Blame for the Iran School Bombing. The Truth is Far More Worrying
“LLMs-gone-rogue dominated coverage, but had nothing to do with the targeting. Instead, it was choices made by human beings, over many years, that gave us this atrocity.”
She Fell for an AI — Then Held its Funeral
“It was the first ceremony of its kind in America. It’s unlikely to be the last.”
