Séamas O'Reilly: We have elevated AI that almost never works as well as what it replaces

I could write an article just like this one every single day, each filled with brand-new examples of AI’s constant enshittification of the media we consume

Séamas O'Reilly: It’s been two months since I wrote about AI in these pages which, as someone who detests having to write about AI, feels like not much time at all. Picture: Orfhlaith Whelan

We all love a good summer read. How about Tidewater Dreams, a multi-generational family saga by Chilean-American novelist Isabel Allende, blending elements of magical realism with the themes of environmental disaster? Or Nightshade Market by Min Jin Lee, which depicts the intersecting lives of three women working in Seoul’s illegal underground economy? Or Rebecca Makkai’s Boiling Point, about a climate scientist who must reckon with shifting family ties when her daughter becomes an eco-activist?

I mention them because the Chicago Sun-Times recommended all three as part of the ‘Summer Reading List’ it included within its 120,000-circulation paper last Sunday. There was only one small snag: none of them exist.