More and more, our “mediating technologies” are in the business not of enhancing our own senses to encounter the world better, but in replacing authentic experience with “experiences.” - The Point
“Before Jaws premiered in 1975, most shark research was conducted by the U.S. Navy. Much of it involved experimenting and testing repellents to prevent shark attacks on sailors.” - The New York Times
Minnesota’s nonprofit Sahan Journal "has been working on ways to support internal workflows with AI. Now, it’s even testing a custom ChatGPT bot to help pitch Sahan Journal to prospective advertisers and sponsors.” - Nieman Lab
“As the most popular Korean dramas are desperately trying to tell us, you can’t fix a first-world problem when crucial areas of your society are still stuck in an outdated mentality.” - The New York Times
“Trump knows that culture in the hands of subjugated peoples is a political weapon that he can’t best. His lavish attempts at conjuring a culture via pageantry seem pathetic because they are. In a culture war fair fight, ... he will lose.” - The Guardian (UK)
One young adult fantasy author “doesn't say a single word in the video, but her captions on the screen speak volumes. ‘Using GenAI to write a book doesn’t make you a writer, it makes you a thief,’ reads one.” - Wired
Studies link loneliness and social isolation to increased mortality, dementia and stroke. Among adults, loneliness is linked to chronic diseases such as heart disease and obesity, and it is known to worsen job performance and commitment. - Aeon
A growing body of research correlates persistent use of AI with a drop in critical thinking; humans become reliant on AI and unwilling, perhaps unable, to verify its work. As chatbots creep into every digital crevice, they may continue to degrade the web gradually, even gently. Today’s jankiness may, by tomorrow, simply be normal. - The Atlantic
The phrase “impostor syndrome” often elicits a fierce sense of identification, especially from millennial and Gen X women. When I put out a call on Twitter for experiences of impostor syndrome, I was flooded with responses. - The New Yorker
"For example, one respondent’s online collection included a semi-private archive that normally received a handful of visitors per day. That archive was discovered by bots and immediately overwhelmed by the traffic, even though other parts of the system were able to handle similar volumes of traffic.” - 404 Media
The importance of monasteries for the emergence of the Renaissance can hardly be overstated. Their number increased many times over from the sixth to the fifteenth century, from about one thousand to over twenty thousand. They were agents of cultural transmission. - LitHub
What is the difference between great and mediocre art? Why do some songs, poems, and paintings move us profoundly, while others—even if they impress us with their technical skill—leave us cold? - Psychology Today
Who, exactly, owns the outputs of a generative model? The user who crafted the prompt? The developer who built the model? The artists whose works were ingested to train it? Will the social forces that shape artistic standing—critics, curators, tastemakers—still hold sway? Or will a new, AI-era hierarchy emerge? - MIT Technology Review
Generally, we want geniuses to be good with their minds rather than with their hands, but we can make an exception for a surgeon or a chef. We expect them to discover new realms of knowledge; Their talent should be incomprehensible to the masses, unless they’re a politician. - The New Yorker
