Will Writers Survive?

A sprawling article in The New Republic back in 2024 was one of many that questioned whether artificial intelligence (AI) spelled the end for human writers. Two years later, that question is as vital as ever.

“If a computer can write like a person, what does that say about the nature of our own creativity?” asked the author, Samanth Subramanian.

The answer was, after a long winding trail of considerations, that nobody can yet say for sure, at least according to this author. But he leaned into the notion that human writers would prevail in the end.

The key word in this equation is “human.” In our society, human writers do much more than simply write. They invent and provoke and stimulate and define. They give voice to voiceless as well as to the unspeakable. They create the public narratives that help define both our social and private lives.

In fiction and nonfiction alike, they articulate the inner longings of the human spirit, which machines may emulate but cannot replicate. They connect people with each other through stories. They even can evoke the ineffable — that which cannot be captured by words.

Like artists of all kinds, writers’ work can be copied — we call it plagiarism — but as creators they themselves cannot be replaced. AI may take away many of the jobs writers have; if so that will be a tragedy. But the writers will remain.

Writing is so much more than turning a phrase, word-smithing or even telling a story. Fundamentally, it’s about forging authentic human connections one at a time, word by word.

That will always be superior, IMHO, to the artificial connections enacted by machines.

And only a human being can tell the difference.

(This is an update of an essay I wrote last April.)

HEADLINES:

• U.S. Rescues Downed Air Force Officer Deep Inside Iran (NYT)

• Two Planes Destroyed by U.S. During Rescue Operation (WSJ)

• How Israel Is Taking Control of Southern Lebanon (NYT)

• Chinese firms market Iran war intelligence ‘exposing’ U.S. forces (WP)

• Trump’s Pentagon-first presidency (Axios)

• Pete Hegseth Is Scapegoating Career Soldiers for His Own Failures (Nation)

• ‘Paradigm shift:’ How Trump’s budget request will keep everyone guessing (Politico)

• White House budget proposal silent on civilian federal pay raise (FNN)

• Reclaiming our own birthright: We might need to amend the Constitution (The Hill)

• Birthright Citizenship and the Constitution (WSJ)

• The FAA’s “Temporary” Flight Restriction for Drones is a Blatant Attempt to Criminalize Filming ICE (EFF)

• Judge rejects DOJ’s bid to reinstate Powell subpoenas (Axios)

• Palestinians fear death without due process (Reuters)

• China’s gravity-detecting SQUID gets closer to spotting US nuclear submarines (SCMP)

• Who’s the Leader of the Free World. Hint: Not Donald Trump (Journal of the Plague Years)

• Al Gore: The Trump Administration Is the Most Corrupt in History (Reveal)

• Europe warns of aviation risks during wartime (Reuters)

• Michigan routs Arizona to set up NCAA final against U-Conn (NYT)

• Three-legged dog and cat inseparable at hospital are adopted together (WP)

• No One at Waffle House Remembers FEMA Official Who Says He Teleported In (NYT)

• Two Philosophers on How AI Will Change Everyday Life (YouTube)

• Marvel Calls Emergency Meeting To Determine If They Already Made One Called ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ (Onion)

Rumors

Who’s next? 

The Times of India is reporting that Trump is considering firing FBI Director Kash Patel.

Nobody else seems to be reporting that rumor yet, but if true, it couldn’t happen to a more worthy fellow (of getting fired, that is).

Meanwhile, another reliable source, Military.com, is reporting that the jets shot down over Iran are the first ones to suffer that fate in 20 years.

But the photo above reminds us just how stupid all of these fights and controversies truly are. It was shot by the astronauts flying around the moon.

And it should be yet another reminder that while we’re all in this together, too many among us act as if they feel the opposite is true.

HEADLINES:

• Search For Missing American Pilot Continues—U.S. And Iranian Forces Race To Find Crew Member (Forbes)

• US Military Aircraft Hit in Iran War are First Shot Down by Enemy Fire in Over 20 Years (Military.com)

• Two U.S. warplanes shot down; search ongoing in Iran for 1 missing crew member (WP)

• NATO has survived its share of existential challenges, but the Iran war has nearly broken the 76-year-old bloc. (Reuters)

• Trump budget seeks $1.5 trillion in defense spending alongside domestic program cuts (NPR)

• Democrats fume at White House budget request: ‘Bleak and unacceptable’ (The Hill)

• Hegseth’s War on America’s Military (Atlantic)

• Hegseth Says U.S. Troops Are Fighting for Jesus. The Pope Disagrees. (NYT)

• An Army Shake-Up in the Middle of a War (Atlantic)

• Hegseth’s wartime firing of top generals stuns officials: “It’s insane” (Axios)

• Pam Bondi Wanted a Graceful Exit. But Trump Wanted Her Gone. (NYT)

• Trump weighs more Cabinet changes after Bondi ouster (Politico)

• Trump’s Purge May Be Just Beginning (Atlantic)

• Justices’ Questions Reveal the Stupidity of the Case Against Birthright Citizenship (Bulwark)

• State Dept. announces ‘reforms’ to foreign service test and inclusion of ‘America First’ curriculum for orientation (CNN)

• Europe must prepare for ‘long-lasting’ energy shock, EU warns (FT)

• Strong Showing for Job Market in Latest Report (NYT)

• What Trump wants from Cuba (Atlantic)

• Cuba to release more than 2,000 prisoners as US pressure mounts (BBC)

• Despite signaling change, ICE still arrests many immigrants with no record (WP)

• Evangelicals widely backed Trump. Now pastors denounce his ICE crackdown after it hit their churches. (NBC)

• Roman Catholic Churches See a Surge of New Converts (NYT)

• Trump’s Spiritual Advisor Paula White-Cain Compares Trump to Jesus (Daily Kos)

• Scientists may be overestimating the amount of microplastics in the environment – and the culprit is lab gloves (The Conversation)

• The Trump presidential library would be a giant tower of grift (WP)

• Hitler’s Edifice Complex (Atlantic)

• Artemis II crew take ‘spectacular’ image of Earth (BBC)

• Arcee’s new, open source Trinity-Large-Thinking is the rare, powerful U.S.-made AI model that enterprises can download and customize (VentureBeat)

• Economists Once Dismissed the A.I. Job Threat, but Not Anymore (NYT)

• OpenAI isn’t just buying a podcast — it’s buying influence (CNN)

• How worried should you be about an AI apocalypse? (NewScientist)

• Data Centers Create Heat Islands Stretching 6 Miles, Study Finds (Gizmodo)

• The Great AI Deskilling has begun (BI)

• A.I. Could Change the World. But First It Is Changing Silicon Valley. (NYT)

• Pete Hegseth Replaces Top General With Horse That Drinks Beer (Onion)

 

Chaos at the Top

The firings are underway. Trump dumped Pam Bondi soon after he fired Kristi Noem. Not a good time to be a woman in Trump’s Cabinet.

Hegseth fired the Army’s top general in the middle of a war. What kind of message does that send the troops massing in the Middle East?

Trump wants $1.5 trillion for his defense budget while saying (out loud) his administration cannot pay for daycare. 

Meanwhile, the fired Army chief understood and was arguing for greater development of relatively inexpensive drone and anti-drone technologies in favor of the massive weapons packages favored by Hegseth’s war contractors.

Trumps frenetic posting behavior on his social media platform sets policy while Congress sits on the sidelines doing nothing.

Chaos at the top leads to stagnation everywhere else.

HEADLINES:

• U.S. fighter jet shot down in Iran, search underway for crew (Axios)

• Bondi Fired as Attorney General (NYT)

• Hegseth forces out Army’s top general, two other senior officers (WP)

• White House Seeks $1.5 Trillion for Defense in New Budget Request (NYT)

• Trump’s grip on the Supreme Court seems to be slipping (Politico)

• If Trump Was Trying to Intimidate the Supreme Court on Birthright Citizenship, It Backfired Miserably (Slate)

• Europe didn’t want an Iran war, yet Trump is saddling it with the consequences (CNN)

• Trump is conceding he can’t control the Strait of Hormuz as he calls on allies to seize it (CNBC)

• Every Trump Threat to Abandon NATO Hollows It Out (NYT)

• Iran vows ‘crushing, more destructive’ attacks on US and Israel after Trump threats (EuroNews)

• Maybe Trump Should Not Have Given This Speech (Atlantic)

• If Trump ends the war with Iran without a deal, he risks leaving Tehran with a stranglehold over Middle East energy supplies and Gulf oil and gas producers grappling with the fallout of a conflict they did not start or shape. (Reuters)

• Behind the Curtain: Jamie Dimon’s warning (Axios)

• US Homeland Security shutdown to stretch on, despite Senate passing funding (Al Jazeera)

• Immigrants seeking asylum are ordered to countries they’ve never been to, but end up stuck in limbo (AP)

• ‘Impossible for Chinese’: Yale scientist Zhang Kai leaves US to break racial ceiling (SCMP)

• A deadly bacterial disease is returning, doctors warn, as vaccination rates fall (NBC)

• A spokesperson could not be reached for comment (possibly because she doesn’t exist) (FT)

• How a Sapling and a Viral Candy Made California the World’s Pistachio King (NYT)

• Humans Have Been Playing With Dice for Longer Than We Thought (WSJ)

• AI for American-Produced Cement and Concrete (Meta)

• Maine Is About to Become the First State to Ban New Data Centers (WSJ)

• How engineers feasted on Anthropic leak (BI)

• Young People Are Falling Behind, but Not Because of AI (Atlantic)

• A.I. Companies Shatter Fund-Raising Records, as Boom Accelerates (NYT)

• Analysts Say Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Offers Best Shot At ‘Sex And The City’ Reboot Starring Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Onion)

 

To What End?

So now we know that Trump’s plan is to double down on the bombing campaign that so far has not caused the Iranian regime to concede nor the Iranian people to rise up against their leaders.

All this strategy has done is backfire.

So Trump has learned nothing from his month of war, and odds are it will continue to backfire.

Nobody likes this. The stock markets are tumbling, oil prices are soaring, tensions are building with our allies while our would-be king rants and raves.

Thousands of U.S. troops now stand in harm’s way, by order of their Commander-in-Chief. To what end?

HEADLINES:

• Trump: U.S. will bomb Iran “back to stone ages” over next 2-3 weeks (Axios)

• Trump Claims Military Success but Offers No Clear Timeline to End Fighting (NYT)

• Trump, Iran Trade Barbs Over Control of Strait of Hormuz (WSJ)

• Iran denies Trump’s claim it requested ceasefire, calling it ‘false and baseless’ (BBC)

• Two-thirds of Americans believe that the US should work to end its involvement in the Iran war quickly, even if that means not achieving the goals set out by the ‌Trump administration. (Reuters)

• U.S. and Iran discussing ceasefire for reopening strait, officials say (Axios)

• Iran Maintains Nuclear Capacities Despite Trump’s Claim of U.S. Success (NYT)

• U.S. plan to seize Iran’s uranium envisions risky excavation mission (WP)

• No Good Way Out (Atlantic)

• Israel strikes Lebanon as Trump is set to deliver a speech on the Iran war (NPR)

• Iran war costs grow as key U.S. systems are knocked out (Axios)

• Iran has damaged a surprising amount of American kit (Economist)

• Trans-Atlantic rift widens as Trump lashes out at NATO allies over Mideast war (AP)

• France and Italy have pushed back against some US-Israeli military operations, sources said, as Trump criticised NATO allies in Europe as unhelpful in the month-long war in Iran, highlighting ‌divisions. (Reuters)

• Why emergency measures can’t solve the global oil crisis (LAT)

• U.S. Plans Military Expansion in Greenland (NYT)

• Trump signs order directing creation of a national voter list, a move already facing lawsuit threats (AP)

• Supreme court justices appear skeptical of Trump administration’s argument to restrict birthright citizenship (Guardian)

• Trump calls U.S. ‘STUPID’ for birthright citizenship after attending Supreme Court arguments (CNBC)

• Supreme Court’s Birthright Decision Could Deal a Heavy Blow to Asians (NYT)

• Trump attends Supreme Court arguments over his executive order, a presidential first (NPR)

• The Supreme Court on Who Gets to Be an American (New Yorker)

• SpaceX Files to Go Public, Setting Stage for Huge I.P.O. (NYT)

• The Real Religious ‘Renewal’ Happening in Gen Z (Atlantic)

• Artemis II Successfully Kicks Off 10-Day Lunar Mission (NYT)

• Wikipedia bans AI-generated content in its online encyclopedia (Guardian)

• Wikipedia Just Drew the Line on A.I.-Written Content (Slate)

• ChatGPT fed his students easy answers, so he built an app to argue with them (WP)

• Study: 97% Of All Sounds Infuriating (Onion)

 

Wag the Strait

In 1997, the Hollywood film Wag the Dog portrayed a White House that fabricates a war in Albania to distract the public from the president’s scandal at home. It was all a matter of spin.

While we may never have witnessed in reality that exact scenario, the Trump administration’s war on Iran comes closer than previous wars. And though I may be way off base here, but I think Trump’s team is about to try and spin their way out of the disaster in Iran by declaring victory and going home.

Led by his war monger Pete Hegseth, aptly portrayed as an empty suit by SNL’s Colin Jost, Trump has tried to bomb Iran back to another century, although most of Iran was already in that century to begin with.

It is a fact the Trump backs down from his threats when confronted by outcomes he doesn’t like (thus the nickname TACO, i.e., Trump Always Chickens Out.) And now, with the constriction of the vital Strait of Hormuz, Trump is confronted with an unpleasant consequence he should have anticipated but apparently did not.

To be precise, Trump doesn’t care about Hormuz, Iran, or the oil that is not getting through the strait.

He cares about what the stock market and the public opinion polls are telling him, and they are flashing red on sending in ground troops to secure Hormuz.

Trump is now said to want to address the nation. We’re listening and ready for some serious spin.

HEADLINES:

• Is Trump Walking Out On His Own War? (New York)

• And He Ran, He Ran So Far Away. From Iran, He Ran All… (Bulwark)

• Trump says Iran’s president asked for ceasefire, but U.S. wants Hormuz Strait open first (CNBC)

• Markets cheer as Trump threatens to abandon Iran war, but Jamie Dimon sides with allies: ‘Win this thing and clean up the straits’ (Fortune)

• A Premature Claim (Atlantic)

• Iran war: EU calls Tehran to discuss Strait of Hormuz (DW)

• Europe faces its next big problem: The Iran war is driving up inflation (Politico)

• Trump slams allies after Italy blocks U.S. use of air base for Iran war (WP)

• Gulf allies privately make the case to Trump to keep fighting until Iran is decisively defeated (AP)

• America Needs to Get Serious About Drones (Atlantic)

• Pentagon Weighs Using Anti-Drone Lasers in Washington Airspace (NYT)

• Pete Hegseth Is Vice Signaling (Atlantic)

• Hegseth’s Culture Wars Are Inviting a Military Disaster (Bloomberg)

• Behind the scenes and in front of cameras, Hegseth serving as top cheerleader for military power in Iran war (CNN)

• Justices Reject Colorado Law Banning ‘Conversion Therapy’ for L.G.B.T.Q. Minors (NYT)

• The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments in Trump v. Barbara, a class-action challenge to President Donald Trump’s highly-contentious executive order, which declared an end to birthright citizenship for anyone born to undocumented or temporary resident parents after Feb. 20, 2025. The stakes are enormously high. [HuffPost]

• The man behind Donald Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship (Politico)

• Trump signs a new executive order on voting. Experts say he lacks the authority (NPR)

• On What Was Once Chavez Day, Some Try to Highlight a Movement, Not a Man (NYT)

• The Israeli parliament has passed a law making the death penalty by hanging the default sentence for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank who are convicted of fatal terrorist attacks. Reuters)

• As Putin takes Russia off the grid, there are growing signs of discontent (NBC)

• Plans for gaudy Trump presidential library in Miami spark ridicule (Guardian)

• Read the email Oracle is sending to laid-off employees (BI)

• A School District Tried to Help Train Waymos to Stop for School Buses. It Didn’t Work (Wired)

• Judge Halts White House Ballroom Construction (NYT)

• NASA readies Artemis mission sending astronauts into orbit around the moon (WP)

• Trump’s Executive Order on NPR and PBS Is Unconstitutional, Judge Rules (NYT)

• Trump helped build the Middle East’s AI ambitions. Could his war break them? (CNN)

• A Game Plan for the AI Boom (Atlantic)

• What to Know About California’s Executive Order on A.I. (NYT)

• Thing Left By Previous Tenant Still In Corner (Onion)

War of Words

Trump may have reached his rhetorical limits with the war on Iran.

Frustrated that he apparently cannot bomb the Iranians into submission or Venezuela-style compliance, he is turning his wrath, once again, on our allies.

Europe, the UK and Japan depend on oil from the Middle East far more than the U.S., which is a net oil exporter. So Trump is telling them, ‘this is your problem, not mine.’

Meanwhile, domestic politics are getting to Trump in the form of rising gas prices, which have hit $4/gallon nationally. Trump’s approval numbers have hit the 30s, another sign of danger at home.

Today the Journal reports that Trump may be willing to end the war without forcing Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Of course, this only reminds us that the only reason Hormuz is closed is the bombing campaign Trump and Israel started a month ago. And that our allies were never in favor of this adventure in the first place.

So far this morning the markets are up. That, at least, will make an angry Trump a little bit happier.

HEADLINES:

• Trump tells the UK and other countries ‘go get your own oil’ from Strait of Hormuz (BBC)

• Trump Tells Aides He’s Willing to End War Without Reopening Hormuz (WSJ)

• Trump lashes out at UK and France, telling allies ‘the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore’ (CNBC)

• Iran threatens to ‘rain fire’ on US troops as possible ground war looms (CNN)

• Iran accuses US of plotting ground attack, as Israel steps up bombardment (Al Jazeera)

• Israel targets Iran’s leaders with lethal expertise using new AI platform (WP)

• There Are Now Over 50,000 American Troops in the Mideast (NYT)

• Pakistan says it will host US-Iran talks (AP)

• In joint campaign, U.S. ceded one mission to Israel — killing top Iranians (WP)

• Trump’s border czar says ICE agents to remain at airports until ‘those airports are secure’ (Guardian)

• Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order at Supreme Court Splits Conservative Scholars (NYT)

• Trump officials cite white supremacists in bid to end birthright citizenship (WP)

• GOP weighs health care cuts to pay for Iran war (Axios)

• They’ve Been Accused of Running a ‘Covert’ Operation in Greenland. It’s No Secret. (NYT)

• Trump approval just hit the 30s. Can his numbers get any lower? (Silver Bulletin)

• America Is Now a Rogue Superpower (Atlantic)

• The Rapid and “Unprecedented” Collapse of American Democracy (Nation)

• ‘The Cult of Cesar’: Inside the Mountain Compound Led by Cesar Chavez (NYT)

• These Scientists Tested How Climate Change Affects Wild Meadows—With Alarming Results (Mother Jones)

• The road signs that teach travellers about France (BBC)

• Bots are often bad writers. But so are most humans (Economist)

• Video: China’s humanoid robot captivates crowd with smooth catwalk and illusion turn (IE)

• New Political Group to Push Trump’s A.I. Agenda in Midterms (NYT)

• Kristi Noem Defends Use Of Force On Own Face (Onion)

Civilian Casualties

Top story: “New U.S. Missile Hit Iranian Sports Hall and School, Analysis Shows” (NYT)

• The Pentagon used missiles untested in combat in a deadly attack that struck civilian sites near a military compound on Feb. 28, according to visual evidence examined by The Times and weapons experts.

• Local officials cited in Iranian media said this strike and others nearby in the city of Lamerd killed at least 21 people.

• The Times verified videos of two strikes in Lamerd, as well as aftermath footage from the attacks. Times reporters and munitions experts found that the weapon features, explosions and damage are consistent with a short-range ballistic missile called the Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM (pronounced like “prism”), which is designed to detonate just above its target and blast small tungsten pellets outward.

• The sports hall, at the time of the strikes, was being used by a female volleyball team, according to Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s representative to the United Nations. Photos and videos posted to a social media account linked to the school show the premises were regularly used by children. The sports hall has also for years been publicly identified as a civilian-use facility on readily available digital mapping platforms, including Google Maps, Apple Mapsand Wikimapia, according to a review by The Times.

HEADLINES:

• Iran war: Tehran warns US against ground assault (DW)

• Pentagon prepares for weeks of ground operations in Iran (WP)

• Iran warns US against ground invasion as regional diplomats seek an end to the war (AP)

• Iran Recruits Volunteers, Expands Check Points Amid Ground Invasion Threat (WSJ)

• Pope Leo XIV rejects claims that God justifies war in Palm Sunday Mass message (NPR)

• As US troops sail to Middle East, how likely is Trump to order boots on the ground? (Guardian)

• A Toothless Iran? Missile and Drone Strikes Show It Can Still Inflict Pain. (NYT)

• The Iran war will cement China’s superpower status (FT)

• Pakistan hosts diplomatic discussions on ending war (NPR)

• How Pakistan Wooed Trump and Styled Itself as a Peace Broker in Iran Conflict (WSJ)

• By invoking his faith in wartime, Hegseth breaks with history (WP)

• U.S. to Allow Russian Oil Tanker to Reach Cuba, Breaking Blockade (NYT)

• Building Tanks While the Ukrainians Master Drones (Atlantic)

• The ‘No Kings’ Protests May Be the Turning Point We Desperately Need (Daily Beast)

• No Kings protests fill streets at over 3,300 rallies in all 50 states, the largest yet (WP)

• Looking to limit birthright citizenship, Trump turns to an 1884 Supreme Court ruling against a Native American man (NBC)

• Here’s why Democrats are in such a mess in the California governor’s race (SFC)

• The Man Who Thought He Could Keep AI Safe (Atlantic)

• Behind the Curtain: AI’s looming cyber nightmare (Axios)

• Epidemiologists Confirm First Airborne Transmission Of Mar-A-Lago Face (Onion)