The New Yorker (March 11, 2024): The new issue‘s cover features Peter de Sève’s “Downhill” – The artist depicts carving up the slopes, straight into spring.

Among the A.I. Doomsayers

Some people think machine intelligence will transform humanity for the better. Others fear it may destroy us. Who will decide our fate?

By Andrew Marant

Katja Grace’s apartment, in West Berkeley, is in an old machinist’s factory, with pitched roofs and windows at odd angles. It has terra-cotta floors and no central heating, which can create the impression that you’ve stepped out of the California sunshine and into a duskier place, somewhere long ago or far away. Yet there are also some quietly futuristic touches. High-capacity air purifiers thrumming in the corners. Nonperishables stacked in the pantry. A sleek white machine that does lab-quality RNA tests. The sorts of objects that could portend a future of tech-enabled ease, or one of constant vigilance.

Have the Liberal Arts Gone Conservative?

The classical-education movement seeks to fundamentally reorient schooling in America. Its emphasis on morality and civics has also primed it for partisan takeover.