The Week Magazine April 14, 2023

With speculation about the impact of AI reaching fever pitch in recent weeks, my son and I have been getting some firsthand experience by experimenting with ChatGPT—and the experience has been breathtaking. I know what the skeptics envision: Lost jobs. Dull and dreary AI-written white papers. And, as schools start to bring AI into their classrooms (see Technology, p.20), sad desks of kids staring into a screen, trying to learn history from a chatbot. That makes sense if your daily experience of AI is dealing with your car insurer’s miserable online help feature. AI has gotten plenty of positive press, of course, but much of it has been about the abilities of the new AI tools to retrieve and summarize information. Indeed, it can do that, and the results are…

What happened A somber Donald Trump was arraigned this week in a Manhattan courtroom, where he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts stemming from hush money he paid to a porn star during the 2016 campaign. As pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators squared off outside the courthouse and police and news crews flooded the streets, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg unveiled an indictment that alleged that in the run-up to the 2016 election, Trump directed his fixer Michael Cohen to make multiple payments to Stormy Daniels to keep mum about a tryst she says she had with Trump 10 years earlier. Bragg said Trump then falsified business records to indicate the repayments he made to Cohen were for legal fees, a falsehood that Bragg said violated federal and state election…

What happened Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week demanded the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, detained in Russia on charges of espionage, in a call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Federal Security Service agents arrested Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg, a defense industry hub, last week. If convicted—a near certainty in Russia’s courts—he could be sentenced to 20 years in a penal colony. Russia has not presented any evidence against Gershkovich, who has been denied U.S. consular assistance. The U.S. strongly denied that Gershkovich had worked for the U.S. government, and Blinken said there is “no doubt” he has been wrongfully detained. Gershkovich was one of the few Western correspondents remaining in Russia, which has systematically threatened reporters whose work departs from the Kremlin’s Ukraine narrative,…

What happened In a decisive victory that could have national ramifications for abortion and the 2024 presidential election, liberal Janet Protasiewicz this week defeated conservative Daniel Kelly for a swing seat on Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court. Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee County judge, won 55.5 percent of votes, trouncing Kelly, a former state Supreme Court justice, by more than 10 points. The result gives liberals a 4-3 majority on the court. Protasiewicz heavily emphasized her opposition to partisan gerrymandering and her support for abortion rights in what was the most expensive judicial campaign in U.S. history, with Democrats and Republicans pouring $40 million into the race. Abortion has been illegal in almost all cases in Wisconsin since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year and an 1849 ban went…

For a normal politician, criminal charges would be a disaster. But for Donald Trump, said Elizabeth Nolan Brown in Reason, this week’s indictment and arraignment in Manhattan could be “just the jolt his so-far-lackluster 2024 presidential campaign needs.” With new evidence that he and his followers are persecuted victims of the liberal elite, he raised $8 million in new contributions within days. Post-indictment national polls show a widening of his double-digit lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, so far his only plausible challenger for the Republican nomination. Knowing the MAGA base would rally around Trump, spineless GOP leaders in Congress fell “all over themselves to air their indignation” at the indictment, said Molly Ball in Time. More consequentially, so did Trump’s likely rivals in the primary: Nikki Haley, Mike…

Good week for: Cities, with new Census Bureau data indicating that the pandemic-era exodus from major U.S. cities to the suburbs may have slowed and even reversed. Dallas County, Texas and Manhattan both gained residents after several years of net losses. NBA players, who may now use marijuana without fear of punishment from the league. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the move reflects society’s changing laws and attitude about cannabis, as well as “the pressures and stress” that players are under. Planting the seed, after vocational colleges in China, concerned about the nation’s declining marriage and birth rates, are giving students an extra week off with explicit instructions to “feel the beauty of spring” and “go fall in love.” Bad week for: Hospitality, with Amsterdam tourist officials launching a new…