No one wants to be mad all the time. So why does social media constantly tempt us with rage bait? And why do we consistently bite?
Tag: truth
Why Do Humans Need to Keep Writing?
All humans have lived experiences that we relate to one another with words: We live truths worth telling. Consider the example of a 12-year-old boy, singing at a nursing home in December 1983.
Will AI Break the Spell of TV?
The implicit promise of TV has always been something like this: I will show you the world beyond. My screen will function as a window onto distant events and places. AI-generated video obliterates this promise--and could change how we think about the scenes on our screens.
I Used to Be ChatGPT
In the early 2000s, my job was to find and share answers to hard questions fast. Here’s what that experience taught me about how humans know, why we need to keep thinking together, and when we’re better than any artificial intelligence.
Why ChatGPT Cheats at Chess—And Why that May Be Super Important for the Future of AI
ChatGPT can discuss chess brilliantly but routinely makes illegal moves during actual gameplay. AI researcher Gary Marcus argues this isn’t a quirk—it reveals that large language models lack “world models,” the internal representations of reality that humans use to understand how things work. This limitation may be fundamental to current AI architectures, with significant implications for how we should think about and use these powerful but imperfect tools.
The Freedom to Speak: An Interview with John Stuart Mill
Nearly 20 years ago, I tackled one of democracy's hardest questions by "interviewing" John Stuart Mill. Here's what he told me about free speech.
Our Era Is Not “Post-Truth,” It’s “Loyalty-First”
In the history of truth, questions of loyalty came before questions of accuracy. In our current cultural moment, questions of loyalty seem to be ascending again, with some potentially dire consequences.
Ode to a Woman and a Civil Servant
My mother taught me that to be a decent human you have to despise cruelty. And she was right.
Read Closely, Listen Actively, Lead Wisely
Do whatever it takes to let yourself fully engage—to read and think and write back. The right people will love you for it.
What AI Will Never Know About Ice Cream, June 1981, and Everything Before or Since
Despite regular claims to the contrary, AI Does Not Have Access to All of Human Knowledge — and It Never Will
