Essays

Essays

Toni Morrison’s Native Figures

A new reading of race in her novels
Namwali Serpell
Folio

How LLMs Set My Fiction Free

Writing no longer felt like experimenting. AI made it fun again.
Christopher Sorrentino
Folio

My AI Boyfriend

A cynic enters the data pool
Lauren Oyler
Folio

Chasing Alice

The life and death of a chatbot
Sheila Heti
Folio

Donna Haraway’s Utopian Promise

We were supposed to become feminist cyborgs. Instead, we got ChatGPT.
Meghan O’Gieblyn
Folio

Jagged Intelligence

The dangerous unknowns at the heart of LLMs
Melanie Mitchell

Browse

Essays

Photo of gears and machinery
Essays

The Anti-Extinction Engine

Langston Hughes and my friend, the apocalypse actuary
Anne Boyer
December 1, 2020
Pillars at National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery, Alabama
Essays

The Hauntologies of Slavery

On a journey across the sea
Jonah Mixon-Webster
December 1, 2020
black and white photo of low and heavy clouds
Essays

The Heavy Air

Capitalism and its affronts to common sense
Anne Boyer
December 1, 2020
The activist Gloria Richardson walking past National Guardsmen during a civil rights march in Cambridge
Essays

Unbothered

The grace of black nonchalance
Namwali Serpell
December 1, 2020
Portrait of Samuel Delany at his desk turning to look over his shoulder
Essays

Why I Write

Getting ready not to be
Samuel R. Delany
December 1, 2020
various sizes of metallic squares with gold borders
Essays

Wildness

Feminism, identity, and the willingness to be defeated
Maria Tumarkin
December 1, 2020
Cracks in ice
Essays

Did I Write a Feel-Good Book?

I survived a terrorist attack. I never expected my story might console others.
Philippe Lançon
and
Steven Rendall
November 23, 2020
Art

Untitled (Event)

Loss, language, counting the nameless, and the art of Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Ann Lauterbach
November 16, 2020
Essays

The Wondrous Banality of Democracy

Counting the votes in one Pennsylvania county during the 2020 presidential election
John Fabian Witt
November 13, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Surviving COVID-19

Waking up after six days on a ventilator
Slavenka Drakulić
November 9, 2020