Infinite Scroll
Kyle Chayka on the people and platforms that are shaping digital culture.
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ICE’s New-Age Propaganda

With its string of “wartime recruitment” ads, often featuring pop songs and familiar meme formats, the agency has weaponized social media against itself.
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The Year in Slop
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This was the year that A.I.-generated content passed a kind of audiovisual Turing test, sometimes fooling us against our better judgment.

Why Video Podcasts Multiplied Beyond the Man Cave

Whether you’re a pundit, a politician, or an A-list comedian, the best media strategy these days is a D.I.Y. stage set and a microphone.

A Holiday Gift Guide: The Newest, Strangest Gadgets and Apps

Our columnist on digital culture suggests technology—or anti-technology technology—to give this holiday season.

That New Hit Song on Spotify? It Was Made by A.I.

Aspiring musicians are churning out tracks using generative artificial intelligence. Some are topping the charts.
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It’s Cool to Have No Followers Now
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As social media has become older, more manipulable, and more automated by artificial intelligence, flouting online popularity has gained a new cachet.

ICE and the Smartphone Panopticon

A new wave of digital tools has emerged to help citizens monitor Trump’s crackdown. But internet surveillance can also be used against you.

TextEdit and the Relief of Simple Software

The bare-bones Mac writing app represents a literalist sensibility that is coming back into vogue as A.I. destabilizes our technological interactions.

Will A.I. Trap You in the “Permanent Underclass”?

An online joke reflects a sincere fear about how A.I. automation will upend the labor market and create a new norm of inequality.