The Age of Chat

Plus: Trump’s dangerous war on the Justice Department; Daniel Ellsberg’s life beyond the Pentagon Papers; and new fiction by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh. View in browser | Update your preferences Saturday, June 17, 2023 In today’s newsletter, The Weekend Essay, and then: • Donald Trump’s dangerous war on the Justice Department • Daniel Ellsberg’s life beyond the Pentagon Papers • New fiction by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh The Age of Chat The new A.I. systems pretend to converse with us. But who’s writing the script? By Anna Wiener Illustration by Nicholas Konrad / The New Yorker Earlier this spring, I took the bus to the Moscone Center, in downtown San Francisco, where almost thirty thousand people had gathered for the annual Game Developers Conference (G.D.C.), which I was attending as a journalist. I had spent the previous few months out on maternity leave, and I was glad to return to work, to have meetings, to temporarily exit the domestic sphere. Participating in public life felt incredible, almost psychedelic. I loved making small talk with the bus driver, and eavesdropping on strangers. “Conferences are back,” I heard one man say, sombrely, to another. As my bus pulled away, I saw that it was stamped, marvellously, with an advertisement for Taiwanese grouper. “Mild yet distinctive flavor,” the ad read. “Try lean and nutritious grouper tonight.” On the G.D.C. expo floor, skateboarders wearing black bodysuits studded with sensors performed low-level tricks on a quarter-pipe. People roped with conference lanyards stumbled about in V.R. goggles. Every wall or partition seemed to be covered in high-performance, high-resolution screens and monitors; it was grounding to look at my phone. That week, members of the media and prolific tech-industry Twitter users couldn’t stop talking to, and about, chatbots. OpenAI had just released a new version of ChatGPT, and the technology was freaking everyone out. There was speculation about whether artificial intelligence would erode the social fabric, and whether entire professions, even industries, were about to be replaced. Keep reading From the News Desk Q. & A. How Trump Compares with Presidents Who Burned Their Papers The New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore sees historic parallels—as well as willful and unprecedented behavior by the freshly indicted ex-President. By Tyler Foggatt The Political Scene Podcast Donald Trump’s Dangerous War on the Justice Department Prominent Republicans are defending the ex-President’s response to his latest indictment, with damaging implications for the rule of law. With Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos Daily Comment What Can Joe Biden Do About Benjamin Netanyahu? The President is clearly displeased by the Prime Minister’s anti-democratic turn but seems wary of testing his influence. By Bernard Avishai The New Yorker Radio Hour Dexter Filkins on the Dilemma at the Border The staff writer reports on the chaotic situation created by the political impasse over immigration. With David Remnick Editor’s Pick Postscript Daniel Ellsberg’s Life Beyond the Pentagon Papers After revealing the government’s lies about Vietnam, Ellsberg spent six decades as an anti-nuclear activist, getting arrested as many as ninety times in civil-disobedience protests. By Ben Bradlee, Jr. Books We Recommend This Week Reviews of notable new fiction and nonfiction. Be Mine, by Richard Ford (Ecco). The fifth, and reputedly the last, of Ford’s books about the character Frank Bascombe, this novel finds Frank now in his seventies and confronting his son Paul’s devastating illness. After Paul, who has A.L.S., participates in an experimental protocol at the Mayo Clinic, Frank picks him up in a rented R.V. and they set out for Mt. Rushmore. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. August Blue, by Deborah Levy (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). This meditative novel starts at a flea market in Athens, where a pianist named Elsa catches sight of a woman who seems to be her double. She keeps seeing her as she travels around Europe, teaching young students and reuniting with musicians from her past. As the novel quickens to a climactic encounter between Elsa and her doppelgänger, it becomes a rumination on identity, desire, and the passage from self-effacement to self-discovery. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. V Is for Victory, by Craig Nelson (Scribner). On becoming President, in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt faced two daunting tasks: to pull the country out of the Depression and, in the face of Nazism’s rise, to overcome U.S. isolationism. Such was his success, this paean to F.D.R. contends, “that, if any one human being is responsible for winning World War II, it is FDR.” Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Easily Slip Into Another World, by Henry Threadgill and Brent Hayes Edwards (Knopf). “I go back in my memory and I don’t see: I hear,” Threadgill, a Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz musician and composer, writes in this autobiography. Threadgill is an engaging narrator, touching on racism in the Chicago of his youth, his military service in Vietnam—one band performance is interrupted by a Vietcong raid—and his compositional process. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. What are you reading this week? Reply to let us know. Culture Dept. Our Columnists The Post-Racial Vision of “Across the Spider-Verse” The movie treats its fantastical multiethnic team of superheroes and their forays into cultural determinism with Obama-like breeziness and tact. By Jay Caspian Kang Fiction “Civil Disturbance” “Never mind what the pie charts say, canvassing in the cold, at night, is not optimal. This is dinnertime, this is couch time, this is prime time.” By Saïd Sayrafiezadeh This Week in Fiction Saïd Sayrafiezadeh on Canvassing The author discusses his story from the latest issue of the magazine. By Cressida Leyshon Sale in The New Yorker Store! Enjoy 15% off using the code DAD15 at checkout through June 18th. Fun & Games Dept. Name Drop Play the Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Will Nediger Shouts & Murmurs A Parents’ Guide to Campus Tours Moms and dads, please note that utterances beginning with “Back in my day . . .” are strictly prohibited. By Alyssa Brandt Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for The Daily from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2023. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.