The best longform journalism we consumed this week

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Let’s jump into it…

‘I don’t want fights’: He’s found love with an AI girlfriend. But is she curing the loneliness epidemic or just ‘weird and unhealthy’?

How many men have AI "girlfriends"? While the number is probably in the millions, it's impossible to know for certain due to the social stigma of such relationships. Lee Stranahan, a rightwing pundit who's segued into Russian propaganda in recent years, is one of the few public figures who openly admits to having one. While some may view it as a harmless companionship, many psychologists believe the use of an AI girlfriend could be a sign of mental illness, wherein the person is retreating from human society in search of synthetic comfort. [Daily Dot]

Unburying the Remains of the Third Reich

Across the two world wars, 56 million Europeans died violent deaths, and many of them were hastily buried in unmarked graves. After WWII, developers simply paved over these hidden burial sites as the continent sought to rebuild itself. As a result, there's a veritable treasure trove of history sitting just a few feet beneath the ground, and governments are still grappling with the challenge of how to properly unearth it. These efforts are further complicated by the rise of far-right political parties across the region, many of which have their own motivations for wanting to dig up long-dead Nazis. [NYT]

The fall of Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet used to be the bible of global travel, with its dog-eared pages peeking out of many tourists’ backpacks and suitcases. But the rise of Instagram, TipAdvisor, and an entire constellation of travel blogs slowly ate away at its business, and now the books are a shadow of their former selves, sporting much fewer travel tips and more photography as filler. [Business Insider]

Farmers in Trump Country Banked on Clean Energy Grants. Then Things Changed.

Rural farmers in Trump-voting counties were promised over a billion dollars in green energy grants, yet almost all of those grants have been frozen. In some cases, the farmers had already begun installing the green energy projects, and given their industry's razor-thin profit margins, many won't be able to absorb the costs. [Floodlight]

I Used to Teach Students. Now I Catch ChatGPT Cheats

For most of academia's existence, a teacher's role boiled down to two basic tasks: 1. Teach students, and 2. Assess how much they've learned.

But many educators across the world are now being saddled with a third, more nebulous job: determining whether their students circumvented #2 through the use of AI. Few of those pupils seem worried that nearly all of their critical thinking skills — which are the building blocks of any successful white collar career — are going undeveloped. [The Walrus]

Sweden Has a Big Problem

At one point, Sweden was one of the most welcoming countries in the developed world, with foreign-born residents making up at least 20% of its population. But an anti-immigration backlash caused its government to undertake a complete 180, not only making it harder for immigrants to settle down in the country, but actually paying them to leave. While this trend mirrors what's happening in plenty of other nations across the world, it's been exacerbated by Sweden's growing inequality and its weakening of social welfare policies. [NYT]

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The Coyote Next Door

Coyotes didn't evolve to live on the outskirts of human-built cities, but they've had to rapidly adapt as those cities expanded into their habitats. Researchers found that urban-based coyotes are bolder and more inquisitive than those that live in more remote areas. These studies are giving us a better understanding of how wildlife adapts to our increasing encroachment on their lives. [Biographic]

Gen Z's safe space

Tumblr is the social network that won't die. Usage plummeted due to Yahoo's mismanagement of the platform, but various subcultures still congregate within it. It was acquired a few years ago by Automattic, the parent company of Wordpress, and since then it's been quietly repopulated by Zoomers looking for an escape from the larger, more-crowded platforms that dominate the web. [Business Insider]

Graydon Carter’s Wild Ride Through a Golden Age of Magazines

When Graydon Carter took over Vanity Fair in 1992, his failure was all but assured. The staff was suspicious of him, he'd burned bridges in both New York and Hollywood during his previous role editing Spy, and he didn't even particularly like the magazine that much. But somehow, over the next few years, he managed to mold Vanity Fair so it fit his own style and tastes, and now he's known as one of the last great editors from an era when magazines ruled the media world. [New Yorker]

The Dingo’s Fate

Everyone knows the Great Wall of China is the longest man-made structure in the world and can be viewed from space. Far fewer people know about the second-longest structure: a fence that runs from coast to coast in Australia and splits off a quarter of the continent. It exists solely to contain the expansion of the dingo, a wild canine that preys on livestock. Though its ancestors likely landed on Australian shores 3,500 years ago and were certainly brought by humans, scientists are still struggling over whether to classify it as an invasive species or a native animal that has a rightful place in the continent's ecology. [Noema]

The Big, Empty Promises of the Ballooning Credit-Repair Industry

An entire cottage exists that promises desperate consumers it can help them improve their bad credit scores, which often serve as a financial anchor preventing them access to basic opportunities like buying a phone or renting a decent apartment. But while these "credit repair" services can drive temporary increases in credit scores, their actions are often reversed, leaving their customers thousands of dollars poorer with nothing to show for it. [TNR]

They Were Deactivated From Delivering. Their Finances Were Devastated.

"Gig economy" companies claim they offer flexibility and freedom for their army of workers, almost all of whom are independent contractors. But when those workers suddenly find themselves banned from these apps, often with no real explanation, they have little recourse and no unemployment benefits. The sudden loss of income can be devastating. [NYT]

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