Vis a Vis – Vis a Vis

In Search of the ‘Lost Generation’: American Writers in Paris

In Woody Allen’s 2011 movie Midnight in Paris, Gil, a young Hollywood screenwriter and aspiring novelist, played by Owen Wilson, is transported back to the 1920s Paris. Every night, he meets his heroes, Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein. He encounters a cast of artists like Picasso, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dáli, Man Ray. Soon,…

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Technopolitics: Will AI Reshape Global Power Relations?

In most areas of our lives, artificial intelligence is promising to bring revolutionary change – from medicine to transport, from education to food production. Even creative industries – filmmaking, music, and the visual arts – will not be spared. We are all aware that we are part of a huge experiment: indeed, we contribute, willy-nilly,…

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Will AI Revolutionize Transport?

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way we work, the way we stay informed, the way we interact with others. It is also set to transform the way we move around in cities. In the air, electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles – eVTOLs – (or air taxis) are already being tested, promising to take passengers…

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Can AI Help Save the Planet?

Over the last few years, the rise of artificial intelligence has been reshaping many areas of our lives. From healthcare to law, from self-driving cars to self-written novels, AI promises to transform our relationship with the world and remodel our interactions with our fellow human beings. In the area of climate research, AI is proving to be a powerful tool. In particular, the use of AI to develop powerful predictive models – even for such elusive and seemingly random phenomena as precipitations – can provide scientists and policy makers with tools that can help mitigate the effects of climate change and generate strategies to adapt to its consequences.

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Is Polarization Threatening American Democracy?

Since the storming of the Capitol on January 6th 2021, there have been growing fears about the risk of political violence in the United States. Efforts to cast doubt on the results of the election, combined with the spread of inflammatory rhetoric and increased polarization on social media, represent serious threats, not only to civility, but…

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Combatting Screen Addiction: A Conversation with Célia Zolynski

Today, the average American teen spends 7 hours and 22 minutes looking at screens each day (an increase of 30% in the last 10 years). At the same time, 7 out of 10 teens say they often or sometimes feel more peaceful when they don’t have their smartphone. The surgeon-general recently called for a warning label on social…

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Reflections on Racism: A Conversation with Maboula Soumahoro

To mark Black History Month, Vis A Vis spoke to Maboula Soumahoro, one of the leading transatlantic thinkers on race, racism and the African Diaspora. While French and American societies struggle against racism, intolerance and discrimination take different forms on each side of the Atlantic. The French republican tradition emphasizes “laïcité” (or secularism) and color-blindness,…

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Can Memory Change the Present?

Public debate today often focuses on uncertainties about the future: what to do about climate change, how to prevent the next pandemic, how to cope with technological revolutions? But many issues that divide societies also have to do with the past. How do we ensure continuity with the values that have shaped us? How should…

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