*It's rare to read an essay about "culture" which is really about the state of some nation's culture.
They Fled Trump’s America. Now They Regret It
The internet told them Europe was a social paradise. Turns out the trains are awful, the health care isn’t free, and people can be really mean.
Sarah Manavis
Wikipedians Believed AI Would Come and Go. They Were Wrong
In a world of AI Overviews, Wikipedia usage declines. But the real loss may be far more existential than website traffic.
Richard Cooke
Please Let the Internet Die
Online spaces are captured by oligarchs and saturated with slop—and they’re exacerbating humanity’s worst impulses. It’s time to start over.
Miles Klee
Inside Elon Musk’s Midterm Spending Spree
This week on Uncanny Valley, we discuss where Elon Musk’s PAC is spending millions, the latest ideology Trump claims is dangerous, and the backlash against the designer behind Muse’s logo.
Zoë Schiffer
Why AI Isn’t Ready to Tackle Our Convoluted Genomes
The DNA inside our cells isn’t just a series of instructions, but something far more dynamic. Like scientists, AI models don't yet have the data to properly decode it.
Philip Ball
Digger Is a Box Office Flop. It Might Be the Most Relevant Film of the Year
Sold by its trailer as a gag reel, Tom Cruise’s strangest movie may be the most unsettling portrait of our tech and climate moment yet.
Carla Sertin
Maybe Chatbots Shouldn’t Get to Say ‘I’ or ‘Me’
MIT professor Sherry Turkle warns that people have become dangerously enmeshed with chatbots.
Steven Levy
What the US Movement Against Data Centers Can Learn From Everywhere Else
Paris Marx, author of Hyperscale, has been tracking global data center development for years. The US has a lot to learn from what’s happened everywhere from Ireland to New Zealand.
Molly Taft
How to Hide Your Baby From the Government
“Sovereign citizens” think they can live beyond the reach of the state. Now the movement has influencers—and they’re selling all sorts of anarchist courses to expectant families.
Paula Mejia
Your Next Great Read Might Be Certified ‘Organic’
Amid a sea of AI writing slop, a new stamp for “organic literature” will help readers to pick out books authored by real, corn-fed, free-range humans.
Joel Khalili
Kevin Roose Didn’t Use AI to Write His Book About AI
The author of The AGI Chronicles says his book “was written by a very tired, overworked, under-slept human being.”
Katie Drummond