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Protester holding a handwritten sign reading "Water for Humans NOT AI!" at an outdoor demonstration in an urban setting.

The people fighting back against an AI future

  • The Huck Long Read
  • The Huck Long Read
  • Ginnia Cheng
  • 10 min read
© Ludovic Helme

The sharp rise of video game photography

Point, shoot — As the entertainment medium’s fidelity levels increase and developers build more powerful tools, a growing community of gamers are pushing the boundaries of image making in virtual worlds. Vicky Jessop meets people at the forefront of the emerging artform.

  • Culture
  • Vicky Jessop

Inside Lower Duck Pond, the nicest town on the internet

/r/HaveWeMet — With a population of 2,500 and no fixed location, the subreddit is a space for roleplaying citizens to solve mysteries, host fictional events and ultimately connect. In an internet that’s often divided and toxic, Vicky Jessop hangs out in one of its most wholesome corners.

  • Culture
  • Vicky Jessop

The Pope has declared holy war on AI

The New Butlerian Jihad — In his first encyclical letter, Pope Leo XIV addressed the increasing pervasiveness of artificial intelligence as a threat to the already fragile structures of society. Newsletter columnist Emma Garland makes sense of it all.

  • Activism
  • Emma Garland

Why is the Met Police using EsDeeKid for ‘copaganda’?

Slop Enforcement — Among the AI slop and ragebait of late-stage social media, newsletter columnist Emma Garland has noticed a jarring trend – London’s police force appropriating criminalised subcultures for engagement purposes.

  • Culture
  • Emma Garland

The rise of anywhere and everywhere radio

Cooking up broadcasts — From a London rickshaw to a shipping container in Ukraine, independent stations are redefining what a studio looks and feels like. Bella Koopman speaks to DIY station founders to find out more.

  • Music
  • Bella Koopman

Artifaxing: “We’ve become so addicted to these supercomputers in our hands”

Framing the future — Predominantly publishing on Instagram and X, the account is one of social media’s most prominent archiving pages. We caught up with the mysterious figure behind it to chat about the internet’s past, present and future, finding inspiration and art in the age of AI.

  • Culture
  • Isaac Muk

Clavicular isn’t interesting, really

Dreaming Small — The ‘looksmaxxer’ of the moment has garnered widespread furore over recent controversies. But newsletter columnist Emma Garland asks whether the 20-year-old influencer is actually doing anything that new, and what his rise says about modern turbo-nostalgia’s internet dominance.

  • Culture
  • Emma Garland
Illustration with grey brick wall, white "NO ENTRY" tape, yellow text reading "BEHIND THE WALL OF SLEEP", black and white figures below with VPN and age rating symbols.

Will internet age verification actually work?

VPN Summer — With the Online Safety Act coming into force over the weekend, the UK woke up to find pornography, but also any content deemed “harmful” hidden behind an ID wall. But young people are far too tech savvy to be deterred, explains newsletter columnist Emma Garland, who also warns of the dangers of mass data harvesting.

  • Culture
  • Emma Garland

Have capitalists killed the internet?

At the start of the century, the internet was an escape from reality. Now, reality is an escape from the internet writes Huck Newsletter columnist Emma Garland.

  • Culture
  • Emma Garland

Get rich or lie trying: how deceit drives the influencer economy

From dropshipping, to digital sex work, to MLMs and BBLs, Symeon Brown speaks about his new book investigating the murky world of influencing.

  • Books
  • Diyora Shadijanova

Inside the moral maze of friend-rental services

‘It’s exploitative‘ — Amid a loneliness epidemic, platforms offering to connect people for paid friendship have been on the rise during lockdown – but some worry the service is being used for the wrong reasons.

  • Culture
  • Poppy Koronka

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