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

Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

The Dancing Drum

Joy amid the anger of the protests
Roger Reeves
June 29, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Thucydides in Times of Trouble

Rereading the ancient historian after my father died
Emily Greenwood
June 24, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

The Jail Crisis

Riker's Island has been devastated by Covid-19, but getting out is just the beginning
Russell Morse
June 23, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Reading the Decameron through the Lens of COVID-19

The fallacy of “literary distancing”
Millicent Marcus
June 22, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Giving Up the Ghost

There are a million ways to teach a Black boy about death
Hafizah Geter
June 18, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Safe

The world is collapsing, but we go on
Elisa Gabbert
June 18, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Coronavirus and the Danger of Disbelief

Why was it so hard even for doctors to see what was coming?
Randi Hutter Epstein
June 16, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

I Can’t Sleep

After days of witnessing racial violence, respite is no longer a given
Emily Bernard
June 15, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

How I Became a Prophetess

Joyelle McSweeney
June 9, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Why Does Every Ad on TV Sound Exactly the Same?

How “In these uncertain times” became ad agencies’ favorite slogan
Ben Purkert
June 9, 2020