Opinion Today: The strange language of A.I.
Here’s what we’re focusing on.
Opinion Today
August 6, 2026
A view through a floor opening of power and data cables.
Heinrich Holtgreve/Ostkreuz, via Redux

Notable

Four bits of annoying A.I. jargon, explained. “Deciphering four concepts will go a long way toward answering that crucial question about your personal finances.”

— Rebecca Patterson, an economist

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Democrats and Republicans are playing with fire. “I know the Democratic instinct is to just do the opposite of whatever MAGA believes, but a successful party also needs to learn why its opponents were able to defeat them.”

— Bret Stephens, an Opinion columnist, in conversation with Frank Bruni, a contributing Opinion writer

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Fauci has a lot to answer for. But we’re asking the wrong questions. “Maybe if we can stop trying to blame someone for Covid, we can actually learn something from it.”

— David Wallace-Wells, an Opinion writer

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Spotlight

A man with long straight hair and a pencil mustache is seen in profile through a car door.
Thibault Camus/Associated Press

Why Is the Met Honoring John Galliano?

“The Met is attempting to tackle questions regarding cultural memory, accountability, rehabilitation and reputation. In the process, it is asserting the ability of powerful cultural institutions to decide when achievements of talent outweigh failures of morality.”

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ICYMI

The populist left has a theory. We’re about to test it. “Either El-Sayed wins and shows anxious liberals like me new horizons of political possibility, or he loses in a year when Democrats are expected to dominate and offers a hard lesson on the necessity of pragmatism.”

— Michelle Goldberg, an Opinion columnist

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Listen (or Watch)

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The New York Times

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

Scott Galloway on What It Takes to Raise Good Men

The author and academic attributes some of his success to a system that supported “unremarkable” young men.

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43 MIN LISTEN

More in Opinion

Guest Essay

Critics of the U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Deal Have It Exactly Wrong

Delay risks driving the kingdom, and others, to sign less stringent nuclear deals with our adversaries.

By Daniel Poneman

The Opinions

Have We Turned Personality Into Diagnosis?

Why we keep searching for new ways to explain ourselves.

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38 MIN LISTEN

In Your Words

Re: The Tradwife Illusion Meets the Anti-Trump Reality

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