thedial.world

There is no doubt that many creators recognize the competition from GenAI as an existential threat. In the U.K., a survey released in January 2026 by the Society of Authors, the Association of Illustrators and other creator organizations found that around a third of illustrators and literary translators, and more than half of photographers, had lost commissions to GenAI. Among the authors, more than 85 percent reported decreased earnings and feared that GenAI could imitate their style. Also in January, the French division of Harlequin, which is part of publisher HarperCollins, announced a trial with an AI translation company. According to the Association of Literary Translators of France, the trial saw translators’ contracts being terminated and replaced with lower-paid work editing AI-generated translations.

The ability to describe this place, the Atacama Desert, depends on our sensitivity to nature. Even the name associates it with the void, with nothingness. Deserted. Uninhabited, desolate.

Miami’s Cubans re-create the country they love through bodily sensation, reinventing life just as it was. In Cuba, the pizzas have thick, burned crusts and cheese only at the center because no one can get enough ingredients or anything but a deep aluminum dish to cook them in — and so, in Miami, with all the resources of capitalism at hand, Cubans make the same pizza. In Cuba, rural teenagers snack on huge, wavy crackers at school and chips called “chicoticos” at home, and so in Miami, Cubans crank out the same crackers and chips.

Right now, there is a general belief that people of all ages are losing the ability to speak easily to one another. Increasing political polarization, the ubiquity of screens, the COVID-19 pandemic — all have contributed to a malaise and neuroticism around the practice of conversation. In the U.K., the phenomenon of young people failing to return to school since the pandemic has become so widespread that they are collectively labeled “ghost children.” A teacher friend told me that some of these children have confessed to her that their biggest fear is anticipating negative conversations they could have with their peers. After so long engaging almost exclusively with other children over social media — platforms that can intensify and melodramatize even the most quotidian encounters — they have forgotten what face-to-face interactions are like. The truth is, my teacher friend told me, the majority of conversations kids have with one another throughout the school day are neutral or often quite nice.