Category: The Atlantic

  • AI Is Coming for YouTube Creators

    Jon Peters’s woodworking channel grew to 1M+ YouTube subscribers, but now faces a threat: millions of how-to and creative videos, including his, have been scraped to train AI. As generative video tools rise, human creators risk being sidelined by synthetic content.

  • The Real Cost of Tariffs on India

    Trump’s 50% tariffs on India have shaken a decades-long U.S.-India partnership, disrupting trade worth $130 billion and casting doubt on the future of their geopolitical alliance. Modi, asserting India’s autonomy, has pivoted towards other global powers, including China, Russia, and Brazil.

  • Why Arundhati Roy Fled Literary Fame

    Arundhati Roy rose to global fame with The God of Small Things, but abandoned literary stardom to critique power, inequality, and nationalism. From her fraught childhood to political essays and activism, Roy embraced rebellion. Her new memoir shows how fleeing fame shaped her life as India’s most controversial writer.

  • The Epstein Letter Is Real, and It’s Bad

    The long-rumoured Epstein letter Trump denied exists has now been revealed by House Democrats. Once dismissed as a smear, the note—containing Trump’s suggestive lines about “secrets” and “things in common”—undermines his lawsuit and denials. By rejecting a fallback defence, Trump turned a survivable story into a damaging scandal.

  • Your Free Time Isn’t Free Anymore

    TikTok’s “5 to 9” vlogs turn evenings into productivity showcases, where even rest is framed as labor. Critics say this reflects America’s work-centered culture, where leisure often serves work. True leisure, experts argue, comes not from checklists but from unmeasured, present moments with people, nature, or simple living.

  • Modern Dentistry Is a Microplastic Minefield

    Dentistry relies heavily on plastics, from toothbrushes to fillings and aligners, raising concerns about microplastics leaching into the body. Research is still early, with little clinical evidence of harm, but orthodontists are urging caution. Alternatives like metal braces exist, yet plastics remain central to modern dental care.

  • Why AI Doom Prophets Are Louder Than Ever

    AI “doomers” like Nate Soares and Dan Hendrycks now warn it’s too late to stop a runaway future. With bizarre chatbot behaviour, new “reasoning” models, and a detailed “AI 2027” scenario, their message is turning fatalistic: today’s flaws could become tomorrow’s existential threats. The alarm is growing harder to dismiss.

  • Anxiety Can Become Your Adventure

    Arthur C. Brooks draws on Kierkegaard to argue that anxiety, when accepted and reframed, can be life’s greatest adventure. Rather than suppressing it, he urges us to view anxiety as adrenaline with a purpose—alerting us, sharpening performance, deepening empathy, and transforming challenges into opportunities for growth, meaning, and authentic direction.

  • Don’t Believe What AI Told You I Said

    AI-generated fake quotes are spreading online, misattributing words to writers like John Scalzi and others, eroding trust in authentic voices. What was once a small nuisance has become a widespread problem, polluting discourse with fabricated content.

  • Trump’s Crypto Power Grab

    Donald Trump’s latest $6.4 billion Cronos partnership with Crypto.com reflects his growing entanglement with cryptocurrency, blending politics, personal wealth, and self-promotion. Through deregulation, pro-crypto legislation, and ventures like Truth Social’s token, Trump has transformed crypto from a countercultural experiment into a vehicle for power, influence, and the Trump brand.