Six great reads: A train ride to the future; Exploring ‘Sky Boys’ and Wallaby Hunting in the English Countryside architecture

1. ‘It’s going too fast’: The inside story of the race to create the ultimate AI

In Silicon Valley, rival companies are spending trillions of dollars to reach a goal that could transform humanity – or potentially destroy it. Robert Booth caught a morning train from the outskirts of San Francisco to talk to people working on the edge of this multi-trillion dollar revolution, where some worry that the push for AI is “all gas, no brake.”

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2. ‘It was extremely vulgar’: Kara Hunter on the deepfake video that almost ended her political career

The Irish politician was targeted in the final weeks of his run for office in 2022. She never found out who created the malicious deepfake, but she immediately knew she had to try to prevent it from happening to other women. Anna Moore spoke to her for the first part of this powerful new series about the rise of deepfakes and their impact on the women affected by them.

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3. ‘It would take 11 seconds to get to the ground’: The roughneck daredevils who built the Empire State Building

They are some of the most famous images of the world’s most famous building. But who were the men among them? Katherine Slessor talks to author Glenn Kurtz, who has made it his mission to identify people like “The Sky Boy,” who built the Empire State Building and was captured in the photographs of Lewis W. Hine.

Unlikely to be as historically beloved as the Empire State, JPMorgan’s new Midtown neighbor is JPMorgan’s new headquarters on Park Avenue, which boasts unusually high floors and an interior wind machine to hoist the Stars and Stripes flag in the lobby. Our architecture critic Oliver Wainwright reports on this “eco-obscenity”.

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4. ‘It was shaking… it was jumping!’ A man in Britain is searching for a wild wallaby

Reports of escaped wallabies are increasing in Britain, particularly in southern England. But how easy are these strange and charismatic marsupials to recognize – and why would a quintessential Australian creature settle here? Sam Wollaston set up his telescope to see if he could see the telescope. What else …

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5. ‘I wish I could say I kept my cool’: my harrowing experience with an NHS wheelchair service

Last year, Paul Sagar wrote a harrowing account of being paralyzed in a climbing accident. For the Long Read this week he described his struggles with England’s wheelchair services: “I didn’t know until recently that local wheelchair services are a lottery in which some of the most vulnerable people in society roll the dice. A lottery in which the taxpayer acts as the perpetual lender of last resort – while private companies make a profit.”

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6. ‘The Mamdani Effect’: Wealthy New Yorkers take renewed interest in Miami’s Billionaires Beach

Home to a mix of famous old Art Deco hotels like the Delano and the Raleigh, an expanse of prime waterfront real estate in Miami, is where realtors and developers are beginning to see the first shots of the “Mamdani effect”: a predicted exodus of wealthy New Yorkers in the wake of the election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor. Richard Luscombe talks to real estate executives who are ready to make a buck.

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