# What’s Happening to Reading?  ## Metadata - Author: [[Joshua Rothman]] - Full Title: What’s Happening to Reading? - Category: #articles - Summary: insert summary - My notes: - Summary: Reading is changing because of digital technology and artificial intelligence. Many people no longer read long books deeply but use summaries and different formats instead. In the future, A.I. may help us read more efficiently, but the culture of traditional reading will become rare. - URL: http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnewyorker.com%2Fculture%2Fopen-questions%2Fwhats-happening-to-reading%3Fsource%3DPaid_Soc_FBIG_CM_0_ASC_0_NYR_INT_Prospecting_C%26utm_source%3Dfacebook%26utm_medium%3DPaid_Soc_FBIG_CM%26utm_brand%3Dtny%26utm_campaign%3Dpaid-ASC%26utm_paidredirect%3DPaid_Soc_FBIG_CMASC_C%26utm_id%3D120205147163490198%26utm_content%3D120231442963190198%26utm_term%3D120205344817630198%26fbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0BMABhZGlkAasv7qGQSwZzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe5DA5NlnM9ik3ckLaNO2fPD_LQwrQpcHSVnU1EkFvWq-HWa1uqW49gjEtm70_aem_F_BYDnCrq6FLrgh5872mzg&h=AT1U1lpaLmE51SKjNeoG6ccySdqiuSFUw9paZaB9y1GRdhDu9DlDad4MFxuH5ymoHDrI-T23VRrNKAMBN9A_WFkzfdtwSP8Pm-AGCRmxU4O0roKUDpn-mMq5B7Omms7brtkgNsT7hWuuyM0 ## LLM Chats ## NotebookLM ## LLM Audio ## Highlights > I’ve known a few people who seem to have read everything, and learning from them has been life-changing. A.I. can’t substitute for those individuals because it’s essentially generic and consensus-driven; you won’t look to ChatGPT as a role model for the life of the mind, or thrill to Gemini’s grand theories or idiosyncratic insights. But A.I. has readerly strengths that lie precisely in its impersonality. On David Perell’s “How I Write” podcast, Cowen explains that, as he reads, he peppers a chatbot with questions about whatever he doesn’t understand; the A.I. never tires of such questions and, in answering them, draws on a range of knowledge that no human being could access so quickly. This turns any text into a kind of springboard or syllabus. But A.I. can also simplify: if you’re struggling with the opening of “Bleak House,” you can ask for it to be rewritten using easier, more modern English. “Gas looming through the fog in divers places in the streets, much as the sun may, from the spongey fields, be seen to loom by husbandman and ploughboy,” Dickens wrote. Claude takes a more direct path: “Gas lamps glow dimly through the fog at various spots throughout the streets, much like how the sun might appear to farmers working in misty fields.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01khkvw49mn6rsj3zxpv6gke9f)) > We have already entered a world in which the people you encounter online are sometimes [not actually people](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/your-ai-lover-will-change-you); instead, they are [conjured](https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/the-lifelike-illusions-of-ai) using A.I. that’s been trained on unimaginably vast quantities of text. It’s as though the books have come to life, and are getting revenge by creating something new—a marriage of text, thought, and conversation that will revise the utility and value of the written word. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01khkvscgj0enr310gskskgqea)) > announced ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01khkvw0pjfb2assdjst4rdm4b))