Happy Thursday!

I watched the play Data last night and thought it was excellent, albeit awkwardly paced at times. In any case, I thought the story was surprisingly sharp and timely. If you are in New York and have a bit of technopessimism, you might enjoy this thriller. Some thoughts on Data below, but beware of spoilers.

Also in this newsletter, the creator-driven “new late night” class, developments on an Emily Henry adaptation, and more. Subscribe to the Yapper tier to read the full newsletter. 

Data by Matthew Libby is a play about technocrats, the AI arms race, surveillance, and the tech industry’s complicity in human rights violations. I initially found out about it through its numerous TikTok ads. This is great targeted marketing, as the disgruntled American TikTok user is the exact kind of person who should watch a show like this. 

The premise of Data is as follows: Maneesh, a young programmer, learns the algorithm he developed is the key to a massive AI surveillance project, forcing him to choose between remaining in this industry that he once aspired to or revealing its dangerous plans. It is a propulsive, tight 105-minute play that interrogates the golden cage of the tech industry and the consequences of this “move fast, break things” mentality.

Data captured every qualm, fear, and criticism I’ve ever had about Silicon Valley and tech culture. There are intangible things in life that cannot be optimized, predicted, or calculated by an algorithm. Yet, companies and founders try anyways, no matter how irreparably they break things in the name of so-called “innovation.” 

Of course, Data isn’t really about tech, at least not completely. Director Tyne Rafaeli told TDF that the play asks, “What does a citizen, a human, do in the face of an increasingly oppressive and corrupt system?”