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Defector

Albert Burneko

In a black-and-white old photo from an exhibition in Paris in 1960, a robotic typist sits at a desk in front of a typewriter, with two women looking on.

The Machines

Why Would You Ask AI To Tell The Story Of Your Own Life?

David Roth

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the BlackRock Infrastructure Summit on March 11, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Podcasts

A Feast Of Sludge, With Ed Zitron

Hamilton Nolan is a journalist based in New York City. Subscribe to his work at <a href="https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1687350200913000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0naFbUVOe-5ZgtPDtIM3gz">HamiltonNolan.com</a>.

Hamilton Nolan

Go Ahead And Use AI. It Will Only Help Me Dominate You.

Patrick Redford

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 11: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the BlackRock Infrastructure Summit on March 11, 2026 in Washington, DC. The global investment management company held the summit consisting of leaders from government, business, and labor to address expanding U.S. infrastructure. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Capital

Now That OpenAI Has Terminated Sora, How Will I Have This Blog Read To Me By An Uncanny Buxom Mike Wazowski?

Eleanor Russell

Arts And Culture

The New Evangelists

Barry Petchesky

Video Games

Nvidia Wants To Yassify Video Games

charismatic megafauna (they/them)

Sabrina Imbler

Logo for the AI text editing company Grammarly at the Grammarly AI Hub in Austin, Texas, March 11, 2023. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Vindicated At Last In My Years-Long Loathing Of Grammarly

The author can be reached at postpostdoc@protonmail.com.

Post-Postdoc

Mech Mind automatic vending robot gives a thumbs-up after fetching beverages from a shelf at the exhibition area of the 2025 World AI Conference (WAIC) and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance on July 27, 2025 in Shanghai, China.

Something Of Moderate Size And Importance Is Happening

Lauren Theisen

This Is So Stupid

Devin The Dugong Wins The Internet With The Super Bowl AI Ad Everyone Can’t Stop Talking About

'Grok' logo is seen displayed on a mobile phone screen in front of a picture of Elon Musk in Ankara, Turkiye on July 17, 2025.

Who’s Responsible For Elon Musk’s Idiot Chatbot Producing On-Demand Child Sexual Abuse Material?

Tech leaders, including Sam Altman (C), CEO of OpenAI, and Tim Cook (2nd L), CEO of Apple, attend a dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump with tech leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 4, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

An Evening With Sam Altman And Steve Kerr

Justin Raden

Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI

Soon ChatGPT Will Be Able To Botch Math Problems And Encourage Self-Harm… In A Sexy Way

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks as he presents the new Meta Ray-Ban Display at the 2025 Meta Connect conference in Menlo Park, California, on September 17, 2025. (Photo by Benjamin LEGENDRE / AFP)

Mark Zuckerberg Demonstrates That His AI Smart Glasses Suck And Don’t Work

Kelsey McKinney

Engraving shows interior of Leiden University library, Netherlands 1610 by Jan Cornelisz Woudanus, approximately 1570-1615.

If The Thieving AI Company Can Survive The Legal Settlement, Then It Is Not Big Enough

A man faces the realistic artist" robot "Ai-Da" using artificial intelligence at a stand during the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva on May 30, 2024.

Butlerian Jihad Now

Kwakho Madikwain, associate of former gang member Nicholas Mnguni, fills out a spreadsheet of purchase orders in Khayelitsha on March 13, 2025. Former gang member Nicholas Mnguni, known as Zwe in his township, left the 20 Men gang in 2017 to start his own business, producing and selling perfumes, cleaning products, and insect repellent. His business, ML Scents, has enabled him to employ 4 seasonal workers, with the hope of keeping them off the streets, and away from gang recruitment. As a former gangster, Nicholas is exempt from paying the protection fee demanded by local gangs. “Luckily, they know me, so they leave me alone, plus, I don’t want to be aggressive anymore,” he says. (Photo by EMMANUEL CROSET / AFP)

It Took Many Years And Billions Of Dollars, But Microsoft Finally Invented A Calculator That Is Wrong Sometimes

Elon Musk account on X displayed on a phone screen with a Grok header

Elon Musk’s Idiot Chatbot Turns Into An Explicit Nazi

Former Defector intern, now freelancer.
For professional inquiries or tips please write lucybl00m@protonmail.com or yuck.20 on Signal.
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Lucy Bloom

A family group shot of three children, two women and a cigarette smoking man gathered around and standing on top of a car roof parked on an wide street, several houses in the background, America, circa 1925.

History

A People’s History Of Climbing On Cars

AI-Powered Robot interacts with People during the Italian Tech Week 2024 at OGR Officine Grandi Riparazioni on September 26, 2024 in Turin, Italy.

Toward A Theory Of Kevin Roose

This photo taken on January 4, 2022 shows a vehicle with Luminar LiDAR based Proactive Safety pre-collision braking crash avoidance technology (R) stopping to avoid a child-sized test dummy as it is demonstrated on a test track, while a Tesla Model Y collides with the test dummy (L) at the Las Vegas Convention Center ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. - As it pursues the goal of fully autonomous driving, Tesla has bet entirely on cameras and artificial intelligence, shunning other commonly used tools such as laser detection.

When An AI Agent Tries To Kill You, Who Goes To Jail?

Oklahoma City Thunder General Manager Sam Presti, at center in glasses and a vest, was in attendance for the retirement of Kendrick Williams during a college basketball game between Texas Longhorns and the TCU Horned Frogs on February 3, 2024.

What Is Sam Presti’s Name? The Answer(s) May Surprise You.

The AI Floodwaters Are Rising Fast

Investigations Editor. You can contact her at diana@defector.com or dfmoskovitz@protonmail.com. She&#8217;s also on Signal @dmoskovitz.99

Diana Moskovitz

Chicago Sun Times newspapers are sold from of a dispenser near their editorial offices on May 15, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. The box is yellow and people are walking around and in front of it.

Journalismism

Journalism’s Slop Crisis Started Long Before That AI-Generated Summer Insert

Humanoid robot practices typing at the Data Collection Center of AgiBot on March 20, 2025 in Shanghai, China.