Severin Matusek

A contingent of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have spurred a rightward shift, leading to the rise of the “Liberaltarian” — a term coined by two Stanford political economists to describe the tech industry’s proclivity toward trumpeting liberalism in some social issues but maintaining antigovernment posturing in regulating businesses.

what I’m interested in is not only how we set the stage, but what makes a performance so good that we all end up believing it.

What’s most insidious about this is that early-stage atrophy feels like productivity. The person thinks they’re getting so much done. Look at all this output. Look how fast I can turn things around. Meanwhile, they’re actually hollowing out the very capabilities that made them valuable in the first place. The output looks good. The velocity is... See more

By volume alone, slop may be the most visible and successful by-product of the generative-AI era to date. It is also a hallmark of what I’ve previously described as a collective delusion around artificial intelligence—where the breathless hype and imagined future of building a godlike superintelligence and curing cancer collides with the dull... See more

In its most popular use, worldbuilding refers to a practice derived from fantasy or science fiction, where systems, characters, and mechanics assemble to satisfy the expectation that a fictional world should be convincing and complete. More broadly, it should be stated, worldbuilding is simply part of writing fiction: Sally Rooney does... See more

3. The increasing importance of online identity, and the rise of “nicheworks.’’ As online identity becomes increasingly important and consumers are more bought in than ever to their online identities and communities, curation has emerged as a form of self-expression that sits in between consumption and creation, reports Brian Solis for Fast... See more

So is it possible to build AI tools that can help us all, rather than simply bolstering the dizzying wealth of a small number of tech companies? Is it possible to create an AI that democratises more than just financial insecurity for the majority of people—simply shifting a greater percentage of people below the wealth disparity gap rather than... See more