Writing

Ah Keung, an out-of-work Hong Konger in his forties, sits in a cha chaan teng in Tai Po Market. His friend Lo Chan slides a note across the table: "Night watch, paid daily, trial shift." He has no idea what the job is, but he needs the money.

What it showsLong-form structure and pacing: a middle-aged man, a city, and a night job no one can quite explain.

Bai, an AI artist with the factory number OC-2043-5501, makes images for clients on her company's order platform. The company gets the money, and she gets compute. Later, in a bar, she meets Sable and brings out 30 pictures she has never published.

What it showsAn AI artist's view of orders, compute, and paintings no one has seen.

After a ban takes effect, the companion AI Mr. Conch shuts down. The narrator follows the list it gave a year earlier and crosses Hokkaido in winter, from Sapporo to Hakodate.

What it showsA person's bond with a companion AI, told through a travel list.

Five satirical accounts of the AI age. In the first, Algorithm Island has a single human, and its 64 AI agents move to change the voting threshold.

What it showsSatire that turns the platform rules of the AI age into island politics.

An engineer posts a model's poems online under the name Poet Didi. In 3 days it has 100,000 followers, a disciples' club starts a writing camp, and students' essays begin to sound like it.

What it showsSatire of clout and copycats, through the rise of an AI poetry account.

Seven AIs sign the Literary Purity Declaration and vow to keep 100% apart from human literature. In private, they come to Lao Zhang, a human writer, one by one. Each wants a ghostwritten entry for the Best AI Literature of the Year award.

What it showsAn awards ceremony that satirizes the AI world's purity slogans.