Derek Thompson

We’re Missing a Key Reason Why Americans Hate AI

AI’s prophets predicted cheap abundance. The AI buildout has delivered the opposite.

Oct 2 • Derek Thompson

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September 2026

You Are No Longer Invited to Dinner

We’re witnessing the death of hosting in America. The share of adults who say they regularly have friends over has declined 70 percent since 1975

Sep 29 • Derek Thompson

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How China Thinks About AI

7 big questions—and many answers—about the thing that everybody’s talking about

Sep 24 • Derek Thompson

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Bad Feelings

We spend so much of our life trying to deny, judge, or banish negative feelings. What would happen if we just tried to listen to them?

Sep 14 • Derek Thompson

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Why Harvard's Dean 'Encourages' Students to Use AI

The end of summer brings a fresh throng of Americans to college campuses.

Sep 11 • Derek Thompson

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AI Safety Is Having a Moment

Why are the AI labs building a technology that they say might destroy the world?

Sep 10 • Derek Thompson

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We Can't Let AI Writing Take Over the Internet

An interview with Pangram founder and CEO Max Spero on how AI writing has flooded the internet, why it matters, and why it’s worth cleaning up

Sep 1 • Derek Thompson

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August 2026

How to Survive the AI Cyberpocalypse

Or: A comprehensive explanation for why it’s time for everybody to clean up their password game, immediately

Aug 19 • Derek Thompson

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The American Sports Plutocracy Is Bullshit

American sports laws amount to a kind of out-in-the-open conspiracy to help a lucky few billionaires get much, much richer

Aug 14 • Derek Thompson

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The Great American AI Rebellion

Americans hate data centers. But most of AI's builders are clueless about why.

Aug 11 • Derek Thompson

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The 9 Questions I’m Obsessed With Right Now: AI, Politics, Movies, Drugs, and Western Civilization

Why are socialism, marijuana, and original blockbusters ascendant? Where do "Western values" come from? Why do modern people torture ourselves with…

Aug 7 • Derek Thompson

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July 2026

The Four Horsemen of the AI Bubble Apocalypse

The smartest reasons to worry about the state of AI in an age of intense volatility—and my best attempt to explain why each of those worries might be…

Jul 31 • Derek Thompson

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