Once upon a time, television told stories about intelligent machines that take over the world and algorithms that prevent people from making their own choices, and it felt like distant, fanciful science fiction. This year, as actors and writers remained on strike for half of it-in part over the threat AI poses to human artistry and the opaque algorithm that dictates which streaming shows get placed in front of which eyeballs-this same kind of storytelling felt more present than future tense. And there was a fair amount of it in 2023: some made by streaming platforms most likely to succumb to the machines, others developed through traditional cable platforms most likely to rage against them. If there's anything we can take away from our season of list-making, it's that a technological anxiety loomed over our picks for the best television of 2023. And that after years of optimism or, at the least, openness to a sparkling new future of streaming TV, the best of the best demonstrate that the past is not totally behind us.
KATHRYN VANARENDONK: TV in 2023 was all about the algorithm, a natural next step for a medium with a long history of making shows about itself. We used to have The Dick Van Dyke Show and Murphy Brown and 30 Rock; now, we have an episode of Netflix's Black Mirror where the premise is that Netflix uses AI to scrape the lives of its viewers, turns that data into barely fictionalized Netflix shows, then algorithmically serves the shows back to those viewers like a form of content-based Soylent Green.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 18, 2023-Ausgabe von New York magazine.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 18, 2023-Ausgabe von New York magazine.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Drowning in Slop - A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage-and it's only going to get worse.
SLOP started seeping into Neil Clarke's life in late 2022. Something strange was happening at Clarkesworld, the magazine. Clarke had founded in 2006 and built into a pillar of the world of speculative fiction. Submissions were increasing rapidly, but “there was something off about them,” he told me recently. He summarized a typical example: “Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph. And then—they’ve solved it! You know, it skips a major plot element, and the final scene is a celebration out of the ending of Star Wars.” Clarke said he had received “dozens of this story in various incarnations.”
The City Politic- The Other Eric Adams Scandal The NYPD shot a fare evader, a cop, and two bystanders. He defends it.
On Sunday, September 15, Derell Mickles hopped a turnstile, got asked to leave by cops, then entered the subway again ten minutes later through an emergency exit. This was at the Sutter Avenue L station, out by his mother's house, five stops from the end of the line. Police said they noticed he was holding a folded knife. They followed him up the stairs to the elevated train, asking him 38 times to drop the weapon.
Can the Media Survive?
BIG TECH, Feckless Owners, CORD-CUTTERS, RESTIVE STAFF, Smaller Audiences ... and the Return of PRINT?
Status Update
Hannah Gadsby's fascinatingly untidy tour through life after fame and death.
A Matter of Perspective
A Matter of Perspective Steve McQueen's worst film is still a solid WWII drama.
Creator, Destroyer
A retrospective reveals an architect's vision, optimism, and supreme arrogance.
In Praise of Bad Readers
In a time of war, there is a danger in surveying the world as if it were a novel.
Trust the Kieran Culkin Process
First, he nearly dropped out of Oscar hopeful A Real Pain. Then he convinced Jesse Eisenberg to change the way he directs.
The Funniest Vampires on TV
What We Do in the Shadows is coming to an end. Its idiosyncratic brand of comedy may be too.
The Water-Tower Penthouse
Gigi Loizzo and Angel Molina's apartment on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx looks out on Yankee Stadium.
