Forbidden Planet hit cinemas in 1956. Its warnings about AI should terrify us

By Cameron Shackell, Adjunct Fellow, Centre for Policy Futures, The University of QueenslandJuly 31, 2026

Technology may give us extraordinary new power. But it may also give our deepest, least understood desires a power of their own.

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Weekly Review

At the 2026 AIDS conference, in Rio de Janeiro, U.S. State Department officials mislabeled every country on a map of Africa in a presentation likely generated with artificial intelligence; a Pennsylvania private school where two male students used AI to generate sexually explicit deepfakes of more than 50 female classmates asked a court to dismiss the resulting lawsuit; an OnlyFans model who has been accused of using dating apps to steal from wealthy men was arrested for her connection to the theft of luxury goods at a music festival. The post Weekly Review appeared first on Harper's Magazine.

Harper’s MagazineAug 4, 2026

The Conversation

SpaceX aims to use rockets to quickly transport cargo across the Earth and into orbit – moves that would expand the global cargo system

Point-to-point rocket delivery could cut down on transportation times. But engineers will need to figure out how to integrate rockets into current transportation systems.

Koki Ho, Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of TechnologyAug 5, 2026

The Conversation

How Hitchcock’s Vertigo gave us the dolly zoom – one of cinema’s trippiest visual effects

From Jaws to Pixar, you’ve likely seen this hypnotic camera technique before. Here’s how it works.

Susan Kerrigan, Professor Film and Television, Swinburne University of TechnologyAug 4, 2026

Hyperallergic

Remembering Milan Knížák, Simone Forti, and Francisco Correa Cordero

This week, we honor a Czech Fluxus artist, a pioneering choreographer, and a promising gallery director.

Lisa Yin ZhangAug 5, 2026

Hyperallergic

The Fruitless Search for Vermeer’s Personal God

A recent biography spends too much time speculating about the Dutch artist’s religious beliefs and not enough exploring other mysteries, including his possible use of a camera obscura.

Natasha SeamanAug 5, 2026

Artforum

Monumental Ambition: On Chicago’s Obama Presidential Center Museum

"The building has drawn much criticism, particularly in a city known for its innovative architectural history."

Alexander JovanovichAug 5, 2026