The series Fair Observer’s Devil’s Dictionary has been running since October 2017. In this final contribution, we return to the very roots of the project: how language, which conveys meaning, can be ...

In the modern, highly networked global landscape, social media networks, including X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Telegram and WhatsApp, are essential for communication, interaction and business.

[This is the eighth part of a ten-part series. To read more, see Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 here.] Caffè Italiano: The two meet again over coffee and begin ...

The Syrian crisis began in 2011, when Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s government cracked down violently on protests linked to the Arab Spring uprisings. That repression ignited over a decade of ...

In “Outside the Box,” I interrogate AI chatbots to better understand the productive and deceptive ways in which they “reason.” This is Part 2 of a conversation in which ChatGPT has deconstructed what ...

The war in Yemen has dragged on for nearly a decade. Despite thousands of airstrikes, military operations, shifting alliances and failed international peace initiatives, the conflict remains ...

In “Outside the Box,” I interrogate AI chatbots to better understand the productive and deceptive ways in which they “reason.” This is Part 3 of a series of articles sparked by the visionary fantasies ...

In “Outside the Box,” I interrogate AI chatbots to better understand the productive and deceptive ways in which they “reason.” Together with ChatGPT, we have been analyzing the quality of OpenAI CEO ...

In a morbidly ironic turn of events, English filmmaker Ken Loach’s latest public stand came almost at the same time as the death of Ray Brooks, the actor who played in Cathy Come Home (1966), Loach’s ...

Jain then explains how fragile DC’s self-government really is. While the city elects a mayor and council, the federal government controls the judiciary and prosecution of adult crimes. Judges are ...

For centuries, the Middle East has stood at the crossroads of civilization and conflict. Despite the formal establishment of modern nation-states, the region has failed to achieve internal political ...

Silicon Valley’s style of reasoning is a topic on its own. Last year, I looked in some depth at the way former Google CEO Eric Schmidt uses “common sense” reasoning to distort reality for amoral and ...