For three years ChatGPT was a synonym for artificial intelligence itself. The non-plus-ultra of chatbots. The default answer when anyone asked what AI tool to use. That era is starting to crumble.

There's a whole vocabulary rattling around the internet that most people over thirty or with a job have never encountered.

The "dark academia" aesthetic did what billions in education spending couldn't: it made young people care about classic literature.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho has sold millions of copies, been translated into 80 languages, and holds the Guinness World Record for most translated book by a living author. It has changed lives. People get tattoos of its quotes. It is, by any commercial measure, one of the most successful novels ever written. And literary people cannot stand it.

Few modern world leaders have left behind as large a body of writing as Ali Khamenei, a man who spent decades translating ancient Islamic texts, lecturing on prayer and patience, and building a political theology that shaped an entire nation. Now, following his assassination in February 2026, his books stand as the most complete record of what he believed and why.

Whether artificial intelligence should play a role in creative and intellectual life is a debate that has taken hold across media, academia, and literature, and it has now reached the pulpit.
