3 Issues Caiwei Chen is into proper now

A brand new play about OpenAI

I not too long ago noticed Doomers, a brand new play by Matthew Gasda concerning the aborted 2023 coup at OpenAI, right here represented by a fictional firm known as MindMesh. The motion is ready virtually completely in a gathering room; the primary act follows executives instantly after the firing of firm CEO Seth (a stand-in for Sam Altman), and the second re-creates the board negotiations that decided his destiny. It’s a strong try and seize the zeitgeist of Silicon Valley’s AI frenzy and the world’s ethical panic over synthetic intelligence, however the rapid-fire, high-stakes exchanges imply it generally appears to get misplaced in its personal verbosity.

Themed dinner events and culinary experiments

The vastness of Chinese language delicacies defies simple categorization, and even in a metropolis with no scarcity of choices, I usually discover myself cooking—not simply to recapture one thing nearer to dwelling, however to create a house in contrast to one which ever existed. Just lately, I’ve been experimenting with a Chinese language tackle the charcuterie board—pairing toasted steamed buns, known as mantou, with furu, a fermented tofu unfold that’s sharp, pungent, and stuffed with umami.

Stitching and copying my very own garments

I began stitching three years in the past, however solely up to now 12 months have I begun making garments from scratch. As a lover of classic trend—particularly ’80s silhouettes—I began out with previous patterns I discovered on Etsy. However not too long ago, I attempted one thing new: copying a beloved costume I purchased in a thrift retailer in Beijing years in the past. Doing that is fairly actually a means of reverse-engineering—­pinning the garment down, tracing its seams, deconstructing its logic, and rebuilding it. At instances my mind seems like an previous Mac hitting its CPU restrict. However when it really works, it seems like a small act of magic. It’s an train in certainty, the very factor that drew me to trend within the first place—an opportunity to inhabit one thing that seems like an extension of myself.