Lora Kelley

ChatGPT Is a Fictional Character What makes OpenAI’s chatbot so dangerous? It’s a character without an author.

when chatgpt was new, ted chiang famously compared it to a blurry jpeg of everything on the internet. I wrote for @theatlantic.com about how that, these days, it’s more like a fictional character that people treat as real. ☠️ (gift link)

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Have You Hugged Your Job Today?

have you hugged your job today???

i wrote about the workers clinging to their jobs in a murky market for my latest shop talk column @nytimes.com

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/b...

Fall Books: On Helen Garner’s The Season by Lora Kelley September 12, 2025 – “The book tracks the team over the course of seven months, as the boys brawl, lose, win, and physically grow.”

So glad to contribute to the Paris Review's wonderful fall books series with a piece on Helen Garner's footy memoir:

www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/09...

‘A Moment of Pleasant Indecision’ | Lora Kelley In the summer of 1957 a young woman named Shirley Kubik got a job attending to passengers on Trans World Airlines. After the company determined that she

"Porters were paid by the mile, getting their wages once they hit 11,000 each month. They regularly put in more than seventy hours a week, relying on tips to supplement their low pay."

@lorakelley.bsky.social @nybooks.com

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

Where Human Labor Meets ‘Digital Labor’

I am delighted to be back writing the Shop Talk column for the
@nytimes.com Business section!

For this week’s, I spoke with Marc Benioff and others about their (still largely speculative) vision for a bot colleague future, where AI is promoted to “digital labor.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/b...

please stay safe! (this looks great)

makes me so happy to see!! buddies!!

<333333

The Matter of Martin by Lora Kelley May 22, 2025 – “Salman Rushdie, who closed out the evening, recounted the cheeky word games they used to play; in one, they replaced the word Love in titles with the words Hysterical Sex, to get to ‘H...

I wrote about Martin Amis for @parisreview.bsky.social www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/05...

wow!

An Awkward Truth About American Work Direct-selling schemes are considered fringe businesses, but their values have bled into the national economy.

For @theatlantic.com, I wrote about a new book on multi-level marketing, and what this nominally fringey industry tells us about the rest of the economy: www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

delighted to be back in the Times Sunday Business section this weekend with a quick look at what the GDP does/doesn’t reveal about the wider economy

How Tariffs Could Make Americans’ Hobbies More Expensive As tariffs threaten the cost of synth knobs, wine corks, specialty butters and trading card sleeves, the stuff that makes American life fun may become out of reach.

As tariffs threaten the cost of synth knobs, wine corks, specialty butters and trading card sleeves, the stuff that makes American life fun may become out of reach.

For the NYT Sunday Business section, I wrote about how tariffs will reshape the world of hobbies:

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/26/b...

omg

thank you so much, john!!

@ atlantic friends: thank you!!!!!! @ editors: let’s work together! I am keen to write features and essays about books, business, tech, consumerism, work, LIFE! Hit my line: kelleylora@gmail.com

I have some news: Today is my last day @theatlantic.com ! After two epic years and 200 newsletters, I am going to freelance!! Very excited for projects ahead but will miss my wonderful colleagues so much. So grateful for all I learned here!!!!!

totally

Donald Trump, Tesla Salesman In promoting Elon Musk’s car company, Donald Trump showed just how far he’ll go for his allies.

I wrote about the posting that electric-car supporters should “ROT IN HELL” to showcasing Teslas on the White House lawn pipeline for @theatlantic.com:

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

i need to catch up!!

hell of a town

Tax Season Just Got More Confusing The IRS was starting to modernize—then the Trump administration intervened.

good luck out there, tax filers

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Tax Season Just Got More Confusing The IRS was starting to modernize—then the Trump administration intervened.

The Trump administration’s attempts to shake up the IRS could work against its goal of efficiency, @lorakelley.bsky.social writes in The Atlantic Daily.

The Breaking Point for Eggs The logic of egg prices is getting scrambled.

A sign that the egg-cost crisis has gotten dire came in the form of a sticker on a laminated breakfast menu: Last week, Waffle House announced that it would be adding a temporary 50-cent surcharge to each egg ordered.

I wrote about eggs for @theatlantic.com !

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Silicon Valley is Embracing Christianity (With the Help of Peter Thiel) (Gift Article) When tech luminaries talk about their Christian faith, people listen.

I wrote about a growing community of Christians in Silicon Valley — including Peter Thiel and his favorite commandments, Elon Musk's turn from atheism, and the Bay Area's favorite theologian, Rene Girard. Here's a gift link
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/b...

The Breaking Point for Eggs The logic of egg prices is getting scrambled.

Restaurants and grocers are usually willing to absorb a fair amount of price fluctuation in order to avoid alienating customers, @lorakelley.bsky.social writes in The Atlantic Daily. But the egg-cost crisis is testing this norm.

Elon Musk Wants What He Can’t Have: Wikipedia Musk and other right-wing tech figures have been on a campaign to delegitimize the digital encyclopedia. What happens if they succeed?

Wikipedia is full of flaws. But unlike much of the internet, it remains a place where facts still matter. That's a problem for those, like Musk, who wish to control how information is disseminated. More from me here:

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

so great congrats erik!! excited to read

How Solitude Is Rewiring American Identity A conversation with Derek Thompson on how social isolation is affecting both happiness and civic life

“Americans understand Americans less because we see Americans less,” @dkthomp.bsky.social told @lorakelley.bsky.social in The Atlantic Daily. “I don’t think there should be any confusion about why an anti-social century has coincided with a polarized century.”