Illustration:  Boris Séméniako/Ikon Images

Approaching infinity

Is the artistic process in danger? Novelist Rémy Ngamije considers the role of human creativity in a world embracing generative AI.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
A military drone strike, 26 September 2024.Photo: Mairusz Burcz/Alamy

The kill chain

AI is making warfare even more deadly. Decca Muldowney speaks to Chris Cole of Drone Wars about the risks of weapons that make their own decisions.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
Illustration: Hanna Barakat & Cambridge Diversity Fund/betterimagesofai.org/creativecommons-by-4.0

The janitors of the internet

Adio-Adet Dinika explores the hidden stories of the workers who prop up artificial ‘intelligence’, and their efforts at organized resistance.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
Smoke stacks dot the Pennsylvania landscape. The AI boom is increasing reliance on fossil fuels.Photo: Livia Garofalo

‘Pennsylvania is perfect’

Tech companies are building enormous data centres and reconfiguring energy infrastructure across the US, all to power the burgeoning AI industry. On a road trip, Maia Woluchem and Livia Garofalo trace the impacts of – and resistance to – this development push.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
Illustration: Clarote & Al4Media/betterimagesofai.org/creativecommons-by-4.0

The myth of inevitability

Is AI really an unstoppable force? Paula Lacey unpicks the complex web of companies, investments, and ideologies behind the ‘bubble’.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
Artificial intelligence - The Facts

Artificial intelligence - The Facts

The bubble; Thirst for data; Ghost workers in the machine.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026
A plane surveys a distorted landscape.Photo: Lone Thomasky & Bits&Baume/betterimagesofai.org/creativecommons-by-4.0

AI and its discontents

Imagery generated by artificial intelligence has become the beloved aesthetic of today’s dictators, argues Decca Muldowney. A robust media is needed to combat misinformation and its miseries.

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NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026

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AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
AI: the people behind the machine March, 2026
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