November 2026 issue
Philip Ball argues that AI’s threat to mankind is a story imposed by the AI industry itself and in an exclusive investigation Katherine Denkinson shows how people seeking child sex abuse material found each other on TikTok
Past issues
Do panic: former Anthropic and OpenAI employee Jacob Coxon appears on PBS. Image via YouTube
Technology
We’re all going to die, but not from AI
We must challenge Silicon Valley’s self-serving warnings of apocalypse
Philip Ball
Editor’s Picks
The forearm and torch of the statue of liberty, held aloft. Image: © Alamy/Prospect
How Trump has changed the United States
Aslı Aydıntaşbaş
Illustration by Ben Jones
They trade child sex abuse material. They find each other on TikTok
Katherine Denkinson
Photography by Graeme Green
Elif Shafak: Fiction is not a luxury. It’s existential
Graeme Green
Illustration by David McAllister / Prospect. Sources: Olga Yastremska, Blinkwinkel / Alamy
Look out for the latest front in the culture wars
Stuart Jeffries
Marlon James in Jamaica. Image: Hiroko Masuike / New York Times / Redux / eyevine
Marlon James: ‘I knew how to disappear’
Fiammetta Rocco
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Mindful life: My annus horribilis
Sarah Collins
Regulars
Illustration by David McAllister / Prospect. Source: Alamy
Editorial: A theory of growth
Letters: November 2026
Stephen Collins’s cartoon strip: Foraging with Farage
Illustration by Michael Rea
Humza Yousaf: Vulnerability is a strength—we can’t see it in today’s leaders
Argument
Protesters in London. Image: Alamy
My week as a tax radical
Ben Ansell
Facing the future: a still from the 2014 film Ex Machina, in which Alicia Vikander plays a humanoid robot
The sirens of the AI apocalypse
Sasha Mudd
Image by Alamy
How AI learned to love the Chinese Communist Party
Ethan Zuckerman
Image: Shutterstock / WikiCommons / Prospect illustration
Embedded with Burnham: The special relationship shrinks
Henry Morris
Naomi Alderman’s diary: there are no wrong turns
Naomi Alderman
Features
Do panic: former Anthropic and OpenAI employee Jacob Coxon appears on PBS. Image via YouTube
We’re all going to die, but not from AI
Philip Ball
The forearm and torch of the statue of liberty, held aloft. Image: © Alamy/Prospect
How Trump has changed the United States
Aslı Aydıntaşbaş
Image: © Alamy/Prospect
After America
Rana Dasgupta
Illustration by Ben Jones
They trade child sex abuse material. They find each other on TikTok
Katherine Denkinson
An illustration showing red blobs, separate from one another. lllustration: Prospect
We are living in an age of disconnection
Damian Valdez
At the UN General Assembly this week, Trump said the International Criminal Court was an ‘evil group of people’. Image: Alamy
Donald Trump versus the ICC
Steve Crawshaw
People
Photography by Graeme Green
Elif Shafak: Fiction is not a luxury. It’s existential
Graeme Green
Image: Alamy / The Canadian Press
Facebook whistleblower: Mark Zuckerberg isn’t evil
Liz Connor
Image: Antonio Olmos / Guardian / eyevine
Xand van Tulleken: The wellness industry is a distraction
Alicia Clegg
Image: Alamy / Craig Brown
Ian Rankin’s AI battle
Graeme Green
The Culture
Illustration by Tim McDonagh
It’s David Hume’s world
Jane O'Grady
Photography by Tim Ecott
An honest portrait of farming
Philippa Nuttall
Illustration by David McAllister / Prospect. Sources: Olga Yastremska, Blinkwinkel / Alamy
Look out for the latest front in the culture wars
Stuart Jeffries
Marlon James in Jamaica. Image: Hiroko Masuike / New York Times / Redux / eyevine
Marlon James: ‘I knew how to disappear’
Fiammetta Rocco
Books in brief: what to read this October
“Is it my role as an artist to say something, to express, to be expressive?” Anish Kapoor in his south London studio with “Ha Makom”
The cosmic paradox of Anish Kapoor
David McAllister
“The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen” (1938) by Robert Panitzsch
Classical notes: Between books
Ian Bostridge
Lives
Illustration by Clara Nicholl
Second life: We have packaged ourselves into madness
Vitali Vitaliev
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Mindful life: My annus horribilis
Sarah Collins
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Young life: Why I’m moving in with a married couple
Alice Garnett
Illustration of Tilly Lawless by Clara Nicoll
Will I lose my identity when I retire from sex work?
Tilly Lawless
Rural life: Autumn reminds me of a friendship I never got to have
Kiran Sidhu
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Clerical life: Be not afraid
Alice Goodman
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Long life: At 93, I miss the Queen more than ever
Steinem addresses the United Nations in 1978. Image: Alamy / Science History Images
Obituary: Gloria Steinem
Alona Ferber
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