Charlie Warzel
The Atlantic staff writer on internet culture, platforms, and media’s societal impact.
AI Agents Spark Online Crisis of Human Agency
Got a theory that we are all living through a crisis of agency, at least online. Bots, algorithms, clip armies, & the flood of AI stuff have scrambled notions of popularity, turned everything into a ‘psyop’. AI tools/ agents are reversing the fundamental human, collaborative promise of the internet https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/05/ai-agents-agency-crisis-humanity/687379/?gift=nwn-guseqS6cY1kVeEKZAb6JQgXDuMgGTfGIbBl-m6Y
AI Anxiety Fuels Job Stagnation and Uncertainty
Jobs are weird now. Lots of stagnation, lots of fear, lots of ai-pilled CEOs trying to force llms into work, lots of people automating their work, no clear productivity gains lots of concern about job loss/career tracks. I wanted to...
AI Boom Faces War, Resource Crisis, Potential Bubble Burst
The AI economy looks...really precarious. So @matteowong1 & I did a bunch of reporting to try to figure out what happens when a potential bubble collides with a war in Iran and a potential resource shortage. The answer is...arguably the...
Polymarket Gamblers Threaten Journalist over Iranian Strike Report
Interviewed the journalist who was getting death threats from polymarket gamblers to change his reporting on an Iranian missile strike. Scary stuff in here about how the intense harassment made him (for just a split second) doubt what he saw...