Eric Levitz

This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here. Throughout his second term, President Donald T...

Silicon Valley has long warned that its favorite technology might get us all killed. But chatter about AI’s apocalyptic potential has grown louder in recent weeks. In September, Anthropic researche...

On most fronts, President Donald Trump has shown little concern for reducing Americans’ cost of living ahead of November’s midterms.  Trump has refused to accept Iran’s ceasefire proposals, even as...

To no small extent, Americans have grown accustomed to being watched. For more than a decade, CCTV cameras have recorded a hefty portion of many people’s public movements, while ubiquitous smartpho...

AI will be the death of me. And you. And everyone we know. At least, this is what a growing number of technologists and policymakers fear.  Last week, a lead researcher at Anthropic declared that t...

If the midterms were a referendum on whether trans athletes should be barred from women’s sports, or the White House ballroom should be gorgeously renovated, or God should be identified as “nonbina...

Abdul El-Sayed is trying to win over undecided Jewish voters in Michigan — without compromising his substantive positions on Israel or disavowing his most radical allies.   During both his primary ...

In the United States, building a data center now polls roughly as well as abolishing the police. If current trends continue, server warehouses may soon be less popular with Americans than pizza top...

Americans want to soak the rich. But few have strong opinions about precisely how.  Indeed, even among our nation’s most impassioned class warriors, contemplating the fine details of tax policy is ...

The general election for Wisconsin governor is now a week old. But the past seven days of debate between the race’s Republican and Democratic candidates can be paraphrased in just two lines: “My op...

In recent months, two ideas that were once on the fringes of Democratic policy thinking — cutting off financial support and stopping arms transfers to Israel — have gone mainstream. Nearly half of ...

New Yorkers will soon enjoy a 30 percent discount on their meat, seafood, milk, and bread — so long as they shop at a city-owned store. Mayor Zohran Mamdani touted such bargains this week at a pres...

The AI industry’s investors and critics don’t agree on much. But many in each camp share at least one basic conviction: America’s top labs are about to make a killing.  Capital markets have signale...

Abdul El-Sayed is among America’s most prominent proponents of Medicare-for-all.  The frontrunner in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary literally wrote the book on that policy (or at least, a boo...

The Democratic Socialists of America say they are fighting for “a government by, for, and of the working class.”  Yet the organization’s membership and candidates consist largely of educated profes...