Saahil Desai
@saahildesai.bsky.social
Senior Editor at The Atlantic. Please listen closely as our menu options have changed.
The fact that this got shipped in the first place is legitimately stunning. @matteowong.bsky.social’s latest: www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Google Just Ruined One of Its Most Important Tools
Google Earth was a boon for researchers—and then came the deepfakes.
theatlantic.com
I wrote about the new "Apple Upgrade" program, which plans to entice people into *leasing* new devices—perhaps devices they can't truly afford—leading them to stay on a perpetual cycle of monthly payments and upgrades, filtering their most personal data through property that isn't truly theirs. 🎁:
The New iPhone Underclass
Apple’s rental program is a trap.
theatlantic.com
AI-assisted fiction is already here, tons of people are reading it, very few of them realize it, and no one wants to talk about it. Gift link to my latest: www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Is This What Comes After AI Slop?
Daggermouth could be the first best-selling novel partly written by a chatbot.
theatlantic.com
"If a book as beloved as Daggermouth were written with a chatbot, it would raise an awkward question: Could AI fiction be getting … good?" Fascinating one by @willoremus.com www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Is This What Comes After AI Slop?
Daggermouth could be the first best-selling novel partly written by a chatbot.
theatlantic.com
Anthropic is now promoting itself with images of disaster, death, and human suffering. But for all the criticism the company's new ad has received, the commercial does well to capture Anthropic's ambivalence about its own existence. More from me here: www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Anthropic Accidentally Made the Perfect Commercial
How a 90-second ad encapsulates the AI industry
theatlantic.com
I set out to understand why AIs love negative parallelism. The answer wasn't just surprising—it was illuminating. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
The Most Famous AI Writing Tic Is Also the Most Mysterious
Why chatbots love “it’s not X, it’s Y”
theatlantic.com
"Imagine if the vaccine companies involved with Operation Warp Speed were also engineering more sophisticated viruses." A banger by @lilashroff.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
A New Phase of the AI-Jobs Panic
Silicon Valley is making a show of helping prepare the country for AI layoffs.
theatlantic.com
A good-enough and far cheaper Chinese AI model couldn't come at a worst time for OpenAI and Anthropic. This could be the DeepSeek moment for agents (ie on GLM-5.2) www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
China’s Answer to AI Sticker Shock
Corporate America is starting to balk at the cost of AI agents. A cheap alternative from China looks more tempting than ever.
theatlantic.com
New in The Atlantic this morning: an extraordinary cover story by @rosehorowitch.bsky.social. If you’re generally only reading tweets, emails, texts, and machine-generated sentences, you should really, really read this story (and after that, a novel!): www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
The Age of Reading Is Over
Can civilization survive the postliterate era?
theatlantic.com
Jamir Nazir was accused of using AI to write "The Serpent in the Grove," a short story that was named a regional winner of the Commonwealth Prize. This week, he won the overall prize after an investigation concluded he didn't use AI. I talked with him about it: www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Thoughts on AI, From a Prizewinning Writer Accused of Using AI
Jamir Nazir, the controversial winner of a prestigious literary award, tells his side of the story.
theatlantic.com
If San Francisco is the center of the AI boom, then the city's hacker house ecosystem is the heart. These homes and their residents are ambitious, goofy, confoundingly earnest—and key to understanding the ethos of the AI boom. I lived in a hacker house for a week and recount it in The Atlantic:
The New (And Slightly Smelly) Center of the AI Boom
San Francisco’s brightest minds are stuffing themselves into hacker houses.
theatlantic.com
"That first day, as I put some yogurt away in a communal fridge, a faint sour smell wafted out." Amazing feature by @matteowong.bsky.social on the week he spent living in a hacker house www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
The New (And Slightly Smelly) Center of the AI Boom
San Francisco’s brightest minds are stuffing themselves into hacker houses.
theatlantic.com
Saahil wearing the Palantir chore coat to his shift at the Park Slope food co-op … it’s the most beautiful expression of who this great man is. @saahildesai.bsky.social
My New Life With the Palantir Chore Coat
I bought the most confusing jacket in America.
theatlantic.com
In the name of journalism, I bought the Palantir chore coat. It is *so* much weirder than you think www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
My New Life With the Palantir Chore Coat
I bought the most confusing jacket in America.
theatlantic.com
I wrote about Freddy from Germany, the wide-eyed "Swedish soccer fan" who adores fire trucks and ranch dressing, and the World Cup of Clout Chasing
The World Cup Tourists Are Genuinely Fascinated by America, Right?
Some of the people celebrating American excess are not what they seem.
theatlantic.com
The videos of viral World Cup fans "have been covered in the media as a refreshing antidote to our polarized political moment ... It’s a nice thought. But not all of the videos, or the people behind them, are quite what they seem." - @willoremus.com www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
The World Cup Tourists Are Genuinely Fascinated by America, Right?
Some of the people celebrating American excess are not what they seem.
theatlantic.com
"Late last month, I began to consider withdrawing some money from my savings account to buy gold ... For all of the firewalls and two-factor-authentication codes, the safety of the internet is starting to falter." - @matteowong.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Nothing on the Internet Is Secure Anymore
AI is enabling a deluge of cyberattacks the likes of which we’ve never seen before.
theatlantic.com
"The Trump administration wants to stay ahead of Chinese AI but has clamped down on one of the few U.S. companies that stands a real chance of doing so." www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
This Is How America Loses the AI Race
The White House is escalating its war against Anthropic.
theatlantic.com
Shopify has published at least 60 rankings of the best e-commerce sites—all of which have Shopify as the top pick. Why? It's seemingly an attempt to game AI search tools. Great one by @willoremus.com on the dark arts of search engine sloptimization www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Your Search Results Are Getting Sloptimized
How companies are gaming the chatbot internet
theatlantic.com
There's an absurd reason why America's headlights are too bright, which I explain today in @theatlantic.com. Finally, help is on the way. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Driving in America Is Headlight Hell
Car bulbs don’t have to be this blinding.
theatlantic.com
"By weaving itself into the finances of most businesses and households in America, the AI industry is quickly making itself too big to fail." Really good one by @matteowong.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
You Might Soon Own a Piece of SpaceX
Whether you want to or not
theatlantic.com
On the executive order and more, with @lilashroff.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Does Donald Trump Love or Hate AI?
Yes.
theatlantic.com
"We’re on the precipice of a new era when learning to develop software will be easier than ever, opening the door to students who might not otherwise have chosen to study computing." www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
There’s Never Been a Better Time to Study Computer Science
Even as AI progresses, coders aren’t doomed.
theatlantic.com
I talked to the author of the "Future of Truth" book that turned out to have AI hallucinations. He told me he feels "seduced and betrayed" by ChatGPT, at one point suggesting it might have undermined him on purpose. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
The Second Reckoning Over AI Writing
What counts as an acceptable use of AI has never been fuzzier.
theatlantic.com
