Crypto Catastrophical

Snorfalemonorp! There, now you know this wasn’t written by a robot. Or … do you? DO YOU REALLY KNOW THAT? Reader, you don’t. There’s no rule that says AI can’t make up nonsense words. OR SCREAM IN ALL CAPS. Or use ~funky internet punctuation~ or maek typos or [insert other stylistic idiosyncrasy that ostensibly demonstrates a writer’s humanity]. At this point, large language models can fake just about anything.

So. There’s no hope? No hope for creativity in the literary arts? No new piece of prose about whose originality we can harbor no doubts?

Wrong! Even if LLMs can make up words, or SCREAM, or write phrases as unbearably try-hard as “about whose originality we can harbor no doubts,” they don’t. Most users are content to let AI speak its native (technically tongueless) tongue: a bro-y, yes-and, over-em-dashed therapese. AI has a house style, in other words, and there are dead giveaways to it that, well, give away the deadness.

What does this have to do with this week’s Big Story, an expertly reported crypto exposé by our very own Joel Khalili? Nothing, except for the fact that Joel’s feature contains the word “catastrophical,” which, if not made up, is at least nonstandard, and therefore proof of human involvement. The humans involved, it should be said, might be committing catastrophicals not only linguistical but legalistical (and as real-estate “tokenizers,” it’s both), but I must confess, it’s a thrill journalistical, with great photographicals.

 READ THE BIG STORY ➔ 

Finding the Energy to Save the World

I visited Houston for the first time this week, and as my ride from the airport merged back onto one of the city’s twisty, confusing highways, I was reminded of the opening scene of a feature I fact-checked three years ago. 

To write that feature, former WIRED executive editor Maria Streshinsky flew down to Houston and sped down that same toll road, in the passenger seat of Jamie Beard’s Ford F-150. Beard, a lifelong environmentalist, was in the process of convincing Big Oil to bet big on geothermal energy, and she wanted Maria there to observe. The story Maria wrote afterwards isn’t your typical company profile or explanation of a new technology. It involves learning to love your enemies and making big compromises under the pressure of a ticking doomsday clock. And under all of that, it involves personal tragedy and loss, and another kind of clock. In that regard, Maria and her story’s subject had a lot in common. After you’ve read it, I’d like to hear your reflections on grief and its role in moving the world forward. In what ways does devotion power advancement? Let me know in an email or a comment below the story.

A few weeks ago, I shared a WIRED Classic about a niche theory regarding the San Andreas fault. Writer Geoff Manaugh crafted a story that had dynamic characters, conflict, and an inscrutable mystery with grave implications. In the comments, Classics readers expressed their appreciation of Manaugh’s writing. “I have lived in Southern California all my life and have hiked through these areas many times,” said one. “Geoff Manaugh has provided me a new dimension of understanding and appreciation for this beautiful landscape in a ‘poly-temporal’ way.”

Tell us about your favorite WIRED stories and magazine-related memories. Write to samantha_spengler@wired.com, and include “CLASSICS” in the subject line.