Kyle Chayka
@chaykak.bsky.social
Staff Writer at The New Yorker, writing a weekly column on tech & culture. Author of Filterworld (2024) & The Longing for Less (2020). Newsletter fan. Email: kyle_chayka@newyorker.com. Ava is a sloth cake.
Have to realize the Internet is morphing into late 70s cable systems. Youtube with local commercials and podcast "shows" hawking national brand sponsors. Totally understandable as bills have to be paid.
Kyle Chayka@chaykak.bsky.social · last mo.everything on the internet is a "show" now
A year later, DC residents are still waking up to troops in the streets.
Ian@ianlivingston.bsky.social · 2mo agoJust a normal morning in our police state
the contempt they have for the people who live here is never going to be the national story but man is it wild to experience firsthand
A new @neverpo.st! Georgia asks @chaykak.bsky.social about liking what you like, liking what you see online, being told you like what you see online, wondering if you like what you see online b/c you like it or b/c you saw it online, and whether anyone *actually* likes Geese (spoiler: who cares)
🆕 Never Post! Did The Feed Ruin Taste?
Georgia talks to New Yorker staff writer Kyle Chayka about the state of personal taste on our algorithmic feeds. When popularity reigns supreme and it feels like everything is an ad online, how do we ...
neverpo.st
I went on @nytopinion.nytimes.com's The Opinions video podcast to talk about "taste" and why Silicon Valley doesn't have it but wants AI to, with Nadja Spiegelman and Sophie Haigney www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/o...
“It’s no wonder that the artists and designers whose livelihoods are threatened by [A.I.] have begun moving aggressively in the opposite direction, toward the scrawled, the sloppy, the seemingly mistake-riddled.” – words by @chaykak.bsky.social – illustration by Ariel Davis
A Lo-Fi Rebellion Against A.I.
As slick, machine-generated visuals become ubiquitous, artists and designers are embracing a style of handmade imperfection.
newyorker.com
Geese has a magazine??
Ben Tarnoff@bentarnoff.com · 3mo agoFascinating review of Muskism from Nik at Geese, my favorite new magazine. Nik makes an affirmative case for the "woke mind virus" as an "oppositional collective intelligence" coordinated through network technologies www.geesemag.com/articles/the...
fantastic essay of art criticism and art history
London Review of Books@lrb.co.uk · 3mo ago‘Speed is not elating in 𝘚𝘶𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘣 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘢. Speed gets you nowhere: it is what painting now has to identify with (pace Porter) just to stay in the game.’ T.J. Clark on Willem de Kooning and the end of Abstract Expressionism. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Andrew Marantz traveled to a film festival in northern Italy to become the first foreign journalist to land a substantial interview with Péter Magyar, who ousted Viktor Orbán as Prime Minister of Hungary. www.newyorker.com/news/the-new...
Péter Magyar Led Hungarians out of Autocracy. Where Will He Take Them Now?
In his first substantial conversation with a foreign journalist since being elected, Péter Magyar, Hungary’s new Prime Minister, discusses the rewriting of the Hungarian constitution, the implications...
newyorker.com
From the @semafor.com media newsletter: The controlling investor in Letterboxd is looking to sell its stake in the company. They've solicited interest from Versant, and last year approached the Ankler about purchasing it. www.semafor.com/article/04/2...
My profile of Laurie Metcalf is in this week's New Yorker. We talked about Steppenwolf, "Roseanne," and her tremendous performance in "Death of a Salesman"—as well as her partnership with the once-cancelled producer Scott Rudin and her role in his Broadway comeback. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Laurie Metcalf’s Third Act
The once cancelled producer Scott Rudin has staked his own comeback on making her the First Lady of American Theatre.
newyorker.com
"If you tell people often enough that your product is going to upend their way of life, take their jobs, and very possibly pose an existential threat to humanity, they just might start to believe you," @chaykak.bsky.social writes. www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
A.I. Has a Message Problem of Its Own Making
A.I. companies are facing hostility and mistrust—and much of the heightened, sometimes histrionic rhetoric about the powers of the technology has come from within the industry.
newyorker.com
the pointless, militarized occupation of Washington DC continues with these armed, camo'd figures constantly patrolling the safest, calmest areas of the city. Glad my corner grocery store and the steps leading in to Kalorama Park are so heavily guarded
Mike Walker@newnarrative.bsky.social · 4mo agoNational Guard roams Washington with no end in sight to $1 million-per-day deployment www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
I'll be attending the newsreel.co launch event. Looks like @chaykak.bsky.social will be on the panel titled "The Algorithm Broke. Now What?"
The Feed is Cooked: Newsreel's Launch Event · Luma
Your feed is cooked. You already know this. The algorithmic feed was supposed to democratize information. Instead, it flattened culture, rewired attention, and…
luma.com
Friends, some personal news! I'm starting a newsletter called Porch Party. My proposition: the Trump admin is really NOT business as usual, and the effects on people's lives that I hear about daily are mostly not making it to the public. Let's change that. Sign up here: www.porchpartynews.com
In the New Yorker this week, a story I've been trying to get off the ground for 5 years... about a Hollywood stuntwoman-turned-personal-injury-lawyer, her ex-con fiancee, high-speed crashes with 18-wheelers, and economic desperation in 21st century America. It's set in New Orleans and it's a doozy.
The Car-Crash Conspiracy
High-speed accidents, crooked lawyers, and poor people desperate for cash—it was the kind of scheme that could have been cooked up only in the Big Easy.
newyorker.com
"The history of struggle against technology is also the history of struggle over what makes the human different from the machine." @chaykak.bsky.social on @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social 's TECHNO-NEGATIVE in @newyorker.com : www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
The Age-Old Urge to Destroy Technology
Our hatred of social media or of artificial intelligence is not some novel phenomenon, the new book “Techno-Negative” reminds us; it’s a feeling that has existed in some form across millennia.
newyorker.com
‘Our hatred of social media or of artificial intelligence is not some novel phenomenon, Dekeyser reminds us; it’s a feeling that has existed in some form across millennia.’ @chaykak.bsky.social reads @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social’s new book, 𝘛𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰-𝘕𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦. www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
The Age-Old Urge to Destroy Technology
Our hatred of social media or of artificial intelligence is not some novel phenomenon, the new book “Techno-Negative” reminds us; it’s a feeling that has existed in some form across millennia.
newyorker.com
say what you like about BlueSky, I still love this labeler that tells me who went to a fancy private school
www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
The Team Behind the A.I. Lego-Style Videos That Lampoon Trump’s War in Iran
A.I.-generated propaganda against the U.S.’s war in Iran, done in the style of Lego movies, has become inescapable online. Kyle Chayka tracked down the team making the videos.
newyorker.com
Pete 👎 ABOLISH ICE 👎@barrelbucket.bsky.social · 4mo agoIran comes out with new Lego vid to Troll Pete Hegseth & Trump #Hegseth #Trump #Iran #Lego #Troll #PedoPrez #EpsteinClass
This is the biggest stretch of an acquisition since when Jack Dorsey made Square buy Tidal because he wanted to be friends with Jay Z
this is a really new phenomenon! slopaganda is incredibly fast and very glossy, easy to take seriously
Max Slinger@promptslinger.bsky.social · 4mo ago24 hour turnaround from real event to viral LEGO propaganda. that production speed used to need a full studio and a real budget. kinda unsettling how low the barrier got
new column: I talked to the Iranians making the viral Iran war LEGO videos, describing their goals and 24h turnaround process. AI "slopaganda" is the new language of geopolitics:
The New Yorker@newyorker.com · 4mo agoA.I.-generated propaganda against the U.S.’s war in Iran, done in the style of Lego movies, has become inescapable online. @chaykak.bsky.social tracked down the team making the videos. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/54i2_W
great essay by Sophie Haigney about an age of agency without morality [gift link]
Opinion | All the Worst People Seem to Want to Be ‘High Agency’
nytimes.com