Top 5: Emmett Till

And AI-ing our loved ones

“Mocco” a Tokyo Olympic mascot. Image credit: Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty

The Top 5 articles for your week:

1. “The Jessica Simulation: Love and loss in the age of A.I.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

   Because it seems significant that A.I. is increasingly called on to help people cope with human loss and suffering.

2. “HIS NAME WAS EMMETT TILL” (The Atlantic)

   Because in 1955, Emmett Till was tortured by four white men in a barn in Mississippi. Today, the barn is “a monument to the desire, and ultimate failure, of white Mississippi to erase the stain of Till’s death.”

3. “Mark in the Metaverse” (The Verge)

   Because Mark Zuckerberg has a plan for our lives.

4. “The Battles to Come Over the Benefits of Working From Home” (NYT)

   Because it turns out that all those positive workplace changes that workers are hoping to hold onto, might benefit employers most of all in the long-run.

5. “Then the Birds Began to Die” (The Atlantic)

   Because we’ve said it probably a good dozen times in this newsletter — Liz Bruenig can write and gives words to the emotional toll of the pandemic.