“Laid-off lawyers, history PhDs, and scientists are now part of a miserable gig economy in which they’re teaching AI how to do their old jobs.”
data
Posted inEditor's Pick
When I’m 125?
“What it means to live an optimized life and why Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint just doesn’t get it.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Century-Scale Storage
“If you had to store something for 100 years, how would you do it?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Your Data’s Strange Undersea Voyage
“The internet is a series of tubes. In the ocean.”
Posted inCuration
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories from Josh Dzieza, Mark Krotov, Wendy Brenner, Paul Brown, and Andrew Normal Wilson.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Memory Machines
“Data centers have proliferated across Ireland, at great cost.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How the AI Industry Profits from Catastrophe
The demand for data labeling in the artificial intelligence industry — tagging videos, sorting photos, and transcribing audio in order to train AI — has created a massive need for cheap labor, leading data-labeling platforms such as Appen to hire low-pay workers in countries like Venezuela, the Philippines, and Kenya to do these tasks. In […]
Posted inCulture, Nonfiction, Reading List, Story
What We Remember: A Reading List on Archives
Why do we keep what we keep — and who decides? An archivist digs and collects longreads on how objects and materials shape public memory.
Posted inEditor's Pick
How to Map Nothing
“What if we took each sourdough selfie, each Zoom class, each Peloton ride, each Netflix binge and mapped the ecology of resources and services that have made it possible for some of us? And at the same time impossible for others?” On pandemic maps and the Great Pause.
Posted inEditor's Pick
How a Young Activist Is Helping Pope Francis Battle Climate Change
“Molly Burhans wants the Catholic Church to put its assets—which include farms, forests, oil wells, and millions of acres of land—to better use. But, first, she has to map them.”