Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence

A wireframe digital hand representing AI consciousness reaches out from a computer screen to pet a black and white cat.
Our beliefs about AI consciousness may depend less on evidence and more on self-interest.
invisibility cloak
Two types of nanotechnology, metalenses and metamaterials, could soon make Star Trek's long-imagined "cloaking device" a reality.
A schematic drawing of a human head filled with geometric spheres, symbolizing AI philosophies, with small figures working on a scaffolding structure around it.
AI will likely impact everything from the economy to the battlefield, but exactly how remains to be seen.
Two heart-shaped pendants on chains representing AI relationships: one pixelated with binary code “100101” and one smooth with the word “Friends” in cursive script.
AI is challenging the idea that relationships require two conscious minds.
A surreal, multi-tiered scene of a permanent underclass composed of diverse figures and a robot, scattered across rocky levels above a dark red pool and a pile of gold coins.
Journalist Namir Khaliq heads west for an inside look at how AI is upending young tech workers’ visions of the future.
Two stylized figures sit on opposite sides of a floating, stacked cube structure amidst swirling, colorful circular patterns representing an AI reality.
AI psychosis may be the most visible example of something much bigger and stranger.
A digital collage featuring a Renaissance-style portrait of a woman partially obscured by large, pixelated blocks of black-and-white computer code.
From robot dog fights to Victorian graveyards, historian Thomas Moynihan journeys into the city’s new avant-garde.
Portrait of a smiling man in a rust-colored button-down shirt that looks like a pangram of warm autumnal tones.
Max Spero discusses how AI detection has changed, the future of online trust, and why we’re in “a time of norm-building.”
A tall, precarious stack of books reminiscent of the Library of Babel, set against a grainy, multi-colored background with digital glitch artifacts.
Jorge Luis Borges' Library of Babel was full of content but short on meaning. He wasn’t the first author to grapple with the challenges of our AI age.
A headshot of a woman with curly, dark hair featuring a gray streak, looking directly at the camera against a dark background.
“How could AI fit into a world in which everyone has the ability to have a joyful life? That is the fundamental question that I am interested in answering.”
A human fetus inside the amniotic sac, attached to the placenta, against a black background.
AI may exhibit consciousness, empathy, or curiosity, but only humans must find their place in the world.
Portrait of three people against a background of green, brown, and blue pixelated squares.
As AI does more of our thinking for us, what should we work hardest to keep?
A human profile silhouette composed of a collage of technological, historical, and scientific objects against a starry night sky.
The debate gets clearer when you split it into three questions.
A surreal collage of AI micro-dramas showing a person lying on a floor near a table, surrounded by floating cutouts of people, animals, food, and digital interface icons against a white background.
I thought China’s AI video boom was driven by creativity, innovation, and tech diffusion. I was wrong.
A man speaks into a microphone on stage in front of a large screen displaying the title “Exploring a World: Intelligence Everywhere, Full of Minds.”
An elephant, a bumblebee queen, a flock of pigeons, and a chatbot walk into a theater.
A smiling woman with shoulder-length gray hair wearing a blazer.
6mins
Everyone wants to know if AI will replace their job. Jennifer Doudna, co-inventor of CRISPR, has a clear-eyed take from inside the lab.
3D geometric shape with colored edges and yellow triangular faces, appearing as a complex polyhedron on a black background—reminiscent of structures often explored in AI breakthrough research and theoretical physics.
Making more complicated, more precise predictive calculations tells us what real experiments should deliver. AI just surpassed humans at it.
A hand reaches toward figs on a tree; one fig and part of another are pixelated, as if obscured by an unseen agency, while the rest of the image remains clear.
The ability to see your options clearly and act on them has never been more valuable.
Illustration of a person composed of various household items standing beside a desk with writing materials on it.
Tech journalist Joanna Stern spent a year using as many AI products as she could. It changed more than her workflow.
Glowing green neural or fungal networks with scattered bright spots are visible against a black background.
Machine learning tools are allowing scientists to better understand forms of intelligence that operate on spaces and timescales utterly unlike our own.
A middle-aged man with a receding hairline, glasses, and a blue button-up shirt looks at the camera against a plain light background.
10mins
Why does life keep getting more complex? Why doesn't evolution get stuck? Physicist Stephen Wolfram has been working on this for decades. Turns out the answer is more simple (and more strange) than we expected.
A person writes equations on a chalkboard. Their face is obscured by a digital overlay of blue 1s and 0s.
If AI can someday make scientific breakthroughs, what would be left for the brightest human minds to discover?
Einstein
Many think that intelligence can be outsourced to AI. Einstein wouldn't have used it. If he had, he never would have become Einstein.
Three students sit at desks in a classroom, writing on paper. The focus is on the student in front resting her head as she writes, with two others visible working behind her.
Philosopher Gert Biesta on the real reason we should be wary of AI in education.
A child’s silhouette walks through layered arches against a collage of historical U.S. documents and illustrations in blue, red, and brown tones.
The printing press gave us objective truth. Social media made truth tribal again. AI could make it something else entirely.
A man with short hair and a beard speaks while gesturing with both hands; he wears a black quilted jacket against a plain light background.
Members
"King" Willonius Hatcher, a comedian and AI storyteller, asserts that the AI revolution empowers creators to rapidly transform ideas into comprehensive projects—like pitch decks and marketing campaigns—allowing them to enhance their creative output while focusing on their core talents.
A person typing on a laptop keyboard with blue and brown wavy shadows cast over their hands and the device.
Jamir Nazir says “The Serpent in the Grove” came from a childhood memory. The internet said it came from a machine.
A digital illustration of a human brain outlined in white, composed of circuit-like lines, set against a black background with scattered white dots resembling stars.
Neuroscientist Anil Seth on the deep differences between human minds and artificial ones.
A sketch of a human figure bending over and looking at three overlapping pink magic-circles on a plain white background.
From early arcades to AI-generated worlds, video games have continually expanded the “magic circle” of play.