AI in scientific publishing: Slower, worse, and more expensive There’s a saying in the management world, popularized by NASA administrator Daniel Goldin in the 1990s , that the goal of technological improvements is to make products faster, better, and cheaper. Although this strategy had some success in the aerospace industry, the zealots of artificial intelligence (AI) have been making the same argument regarding how it will transform work, claiming that so little human effort will be required that humanity will enter an era of radical abundance , free from disease, drudgery, and danger, among other benefits, leaving society with more time for creative pursuits. But history tells a different story. When machines began to increase productivity during the second industrial revolution, American engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor’s The Principles of Scientific Management encouraged corporations to use surveillance to get employees to work harder and longer, an approach that exhausted...
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Trump envoy’s tour on $450mn superyacht stirs anger in Italy Rome declines to reveal cost of security for billionaire businessman Tilman Fertitta’s ‘coastal diplomacy’ The Boardwalk, Tilman Fertitta’s 117-metre superyacht, is cruising to 13 of Italy’s best-known coastal cities. Trump envoy’s tour on $450mn superyacht stirs anger in Italy on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Share Save Amy Kazmin in Rome Donald Trump’s ambassador to Italy, the billionaire businessman Tilman Fertitta, has triggered controversy with a two-month diplomatic outreach tour of Italian seaside towns on his private $450mn superyacht. Fertitta’s 117-metre vessel is cruising to more than a dozen Italian coastal cities, including Palermo, Venice, Genoa and Trieste, in celebration of the 250th independence anniversary of the US and to reaffirm US-Italy ties. Along the way, Fertitta — whose empire includes the Houston Rockets basketball team, the Golden Nugget casino business and Lan...
Iran war has created a new energy superpower — China new Solar panels cover hills in Zhejiang province; China makes 80 per cent of the world’s panels M issiles are flying again in the Gulf and the oil price is rising once more, with troubling consequences for many countries. However, the costs and benefits of the war are accruing in surprising ways. It’s not just that America is proving weaker and Iran stronger than the world had supposed, it’s that an unexpected winner has emerged from the conflict: China. China seemed likely to be damaged by the war, for it relies on imports for the bulk of its oil and had cultivated Iran as an ally and supplier. Yet, because it had stocked up on oil before the US attack, it has proved to be less vulnerable to rising prices and the increasing difficulty of securing supplies than was anticipated. Indeed, while Opec, the cartel of oil producers, has collapsed, China, which consumes 16 per cent of the world’s oil, has acquired a role in setting th...
Skip to main content Open Navigation Menu Give a gift The Sporting Scene The World Cup According to Gianni Infantino FIFA ’s powerful president is remaking global soccer in his own image. Can the sport survive him? By Sam Knight June 1, 2026 “His vision for the game is to expand FIFA’s power and his own power,” a former colleague said. Illustration by Yann Kebbi; Source photographs by Alex Grimm / Getty; Win McNamee / Getty Save this story In English, it’s called the World Cup, but I prefer the stirring names by which it’s known in other European languages—Mundial, Mondiali, Weltmeisterschaft—and which better convey the idea that this is not a sports tournament but something closer to a cosmological event, heavy with meaning. For soccer people, it requires no effort to measure out your life in World Cups. Just a few seconds of footage, or even a photograph, is usually enough—the color of the turf, the haircuts, the uniforms, the exact shade of summer blue—to ascertain not only wh...