Critical Digital Media
@digital.therourke.net
Articles, essays, papers, artworks and news stories on digital media, digital culture, and media arts - also mirrored at: criticaldigitalmedia.tumblr.com by @therourke.net (also see @additivism.org)
Andy Burnham and the rise of ‘aura farming’ in politics
Andy Burnham and the rise of ‘aura farming’ in politics
As algorithms as much as manifestos play an increasingly important role in politics, Minnie Stephenson examines how the new UK Prime Minister is creating his personal brand in the influencer age.
open.substack.com
Gen Z is pushing back against AI – a reminder to all of us that the future isn’t written
Gen Z is pushing back against AI – a reminder to all of us that the future isn’t written
Many baby boomers see AI as a revolutionary tool, while young people see it as taking away their agency.
theconversation.com
The Terminally Online Mourners Who Miss the Days When AI Made Mistakes
The Terminally Online Mourners Who Miss the Days When AI Made Mistakes
Yearning for the ten-fingered hands and deformed horse glitches of old AI image models? You're experiencing nostalgia compression.
vice.com
What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing? | The New Yorker
What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?
The demise of the English paper will end a long intellectual tradition, but it’s also an opportunity to reëxamine the purpose of higher education.
newyorker.com
Your Search Results Are Getting Sloptimized - The Atlantic
Your Search Results Are Getting Sloptimized
How companies are gaming the chatbot internet
theatlantic.com
Trevor Paglen and Holly Herndon on Making Art with AI and What the Discourse Is Missing | Totei - The Art Is in the Making
Trevor Paglen and Holly Herndon on Making Art with AI and What the Discourse Is Missing
The artists talk process, slop, and why optimism and pessimism don’t quite cover it.
totei.com
We May Be Entering A Second Axial Age | NOEMA
We May Be Entering A Second Axial Age | NOEMA
The transition from small hunter-gatherer societies into complex civilizations gave rise to the first Axial Age. Today, the planetary polycrisis of climate chaos, mass migration, increasing warfare and...
noemamag.com
AI ‘deadbots’ can fuel pathological grief and affect how we deal with death
AI ‘deadbots’ can fuel pathological grief and affect how we deal with death
AI now makes it possible to communicate with the dead. But these digital avatars raise significant ethical questions about our relationship with mortality.
theconversation.com
This game's 3D graphics are made entirely from text | Creative Bloq
This game's 3D graphics are made entirely from text
Torizon Telecom takes retro game art to a new, literal level.
creativebloq.com
Takeshi Yoro, anatomist: ‘In Japan, we don’t see a robot as a threat: it’s simply another form of presence in the world’ | Science | EL PAÍS English
Takeshi Yoro, anatomist: ‘In Japan, we don’t see a robot as a threat: it’s simply another form of presence in the world’
The 88-year-old Japanese physician swapped autopsies for popular science writing. In his best-seller, he argues that we have vast amounts of information but fail to understand one another because of an...
english.elpais.com
Gen Z Is Pioneering a New Understanding of Truth | WIRED
Gen Z Is Pioneering a New Understanding of Truth
The first generation to truly grow up online, Generation Z and their cohort live in a social media ecosystem that blends facts and feelings. It’s significantly shifting how they understand what’s...
wired.com
The Great Zombification - by Owen Yingling - The New Critic
The Great Zombification
“And so perfect parallel constructions fill the lecture halls, the take-home tests, the school newspapers, and perhaps even the idiom of student chatter.”
thenewcritic.com
Anthropic thinks sci-fi may have trained AI to act like a villain | TechRadar
Anthropic says decades of evil robot stories may be echoing inside AI models
Anthropic blames sci-fi for AI behavior
techradar.com
The Lure of a Fully Randomized Life - The Atlantic
He’s So Random
A software engineer wanted to resist the usual algorithms. So he created his own—and transformed his whole existence.
theatlantic.com
AI psychosis: a mental health crisis for the 21st century
AI psychosis: a mental health crisis for the 21st century
Chatbot dependence is reportedly affecting hundreds of thousands of people every week, leading to depression, breakdown and even death. As tech lawsuits stack up, what needs to be done to make AI safe?
observer.co.uk
The Government Doesn’t Just Want to Ban Ghost Guns. It Wants to Control Your 3D Printer
The Government Doesn’t Just Want to Ban Ghost Guns. It Wants to Control Your 3D Printer
New laws are targeting not just 3D-printed weapons, but the digital files, platforms, and machines that create them, raising questions about innovation and who decides what can be made. As a longtime...
uk.pcmag.com
Why People Are Actually So Anxious About Attention - The Atlantic
Why People Are Actually So Anxious About Attention
The panic isn’t just about spans that seem too short.
theatlantic.com
‘They’re supposed to be handmade’: zine creators fight to resist AI influence | AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian
‘They’re supposed to be handmade’: zine creators fight to resist AI influence
Artists and writers argue scrappy nature of self-published booklets is incompatible with artificial intelligence
theguardian.com