Contents
It is difficult to spend a day without using artificial intelligence.
Whether we look up a fact on Google or use our car’s navigation system, AI is helping to guide us. AI is not human, but is increasingly taking on human characteristics. Want to write a five-year strategy for work? AI can give you the structure. A text to the lover you’re breaking up with, ChatGPT is on hand with the perfect choice of words. Even as I compose this editor’s letter in a Word document, the sinisterly named Copilot – Microsoft’s AI assistant – is hovering in the margin with the tantalising offer that it could do a better job.
So what does it all mean for free expression? We asked a range of writers to explore themes around censorship and AI for this latest issue, and the result is fascinating. Kate Devlin delves into griefbots which are essentially deepfakes of dead people – often with all their unpleasant characteristics removed.
Innocent enough but in the wrong hands they are pernicious. A country’s political hero can be resurrected to encourage causes they would have disavowed were they alive. Ruth Green looks at whether AI has free speech.
In a recent US lawsuit, the owner of a chatbot which had been talking to a teenager, in a sexualised way, before he killed himself, argued that the bot’s communications were covered by the First Amendment. Luckily the judge threw the case out.
Meanwhile Timandra Harkness examines how AI can trawl social media to discover every word you’ve ever written.
Up Front
Truth, trust & tricksters in the age of AI: Sally Gimson
Artificial intelligence is here to stay, but is free expression at risk?
The Index: Mark Stimpson
The latest in the world of free expression, including travel bans for artists and the ongoing trial of Jimmy Lai
Features
Strength in numbers: Antonia Langford
Burmese artist Sai thought he was safe in Thailand, until the censors came knocking
Jailed for criticising the royal family: Tyrell Haberkorn Sophon “Get” Suratitthamrong
A Thai student protester sends letters from prison
Midnight trek to Georgia: Will Neal
A journalist tries to return to Georgia, after being smeared by its government
The trauma of being Lukashenka’s prisoner: Jana Paliashchuk
A sit-down with released Belarusian political prisoners, including Siarhei Tsikhanouski
Caught in the middle: Akbar Notezai
The murder of a journalist has further restricted the media in Balochistan
Reports of Urdu’s death are greatly exaggerated: Nilosree Biswas
Urdu is thriving among young people
The Squid Game effect: Katie Dancey-Downs
K-drama might be the greatest weapon against the North Korean regime
We’re blaming everybody: Laura Silvia Battaglia
Yemeni women take over a poignant location, and refuse to be silenced
A journalist’s life in Yemen: Khalid Mohamed
The reporters holding the line while under fire
Without more women in power, the regime can force its patriarchal agenda: Emily Couch
A picture of feminism in Kazakhstan
Erasing secularism: Rishabh Jain
Bangladesh is at a crossroads, and religious freedom is under threat
Special Report: Truth, trust & tricksters: Free expression in the age of AI
Is AI friend or foe?: Kenneth Cukier
The future of free thought is in the hands of big tech
The ghost in the machine: Kate Devlin
Awakening the dead might have implications for free speech
I, robot?: Ruth Green
Should AI bots enjoy free speech protections?
The dark side of AI adoption in Turkey: Kaya Genç
Dissidents could be at increased risk, if President Erdoğan has a hand in shaping technology
Deepfake it to make it: Danson Kahyana
Uganda has a new way to sow seeds of doubt about its critics
History is being written by the AI victors: Salil Tripathi
An age-old problem, with new technological capabilities
Digging in the (social media) dirt: Timandra Harkness
Could your old tweets be your downfall?
A new frontier of American propaganda: Mackenzie Argent
Trump is on a mission to meme America great again
Comment
Blown to pieces: how the UK government’s Muslim policy unravelled: Martin Bright
We need to talk about extremism
Freedom of speech needs freedom of thought: Maria Sorensen
The first defence against dictatorships? Free thinking
What’s the story?: Nadim Sadek, Toby Litt, Anna Ganley
Three writers discuss whether artificial intelligence will help or hinder literature
The rise of the useful idiot: Jemimah Steinfeld
Apologists and the wilfully ignorant. Just how dangerous are they?
The women silenced by the law: Jessica Ní Mhainín
Lawsuits are being wielded by the powerful to keep victims quiet
Culture
Killing the messenger: Peter Laufer, Mackenzie Argent
A new book hands the megaphone to journalists in danger
The Missing Palestinians: Martha Otwinowski
Germany’s painful past is haunting its cultural institutions
The pity of war: Stephen Komarnyckyj
Preserving the memory of Ukraine’s poets, killed in Russia’s war
Cry God for Larry!: Simon Callow, Laurence Olivier
The actor shares his memories of Laurence Olivier
Frozen feud: Baia Pataraia
What it means to pose a threat to the Georgian government
