What Kyle Chayka thinks about taste
Staff writer at The New Yorker, where he writes the Infinite Scroll column, and author of Filterworld and The Longing for Less.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Kyle Chayka did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
4 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Kyle Chayka has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsIf the user doesn't actively push back against the AI model, then they get the generic output, the lowest common acceptable denominator of aesthetics and taste.
↗The generic style of AI web designkylechayka.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
- 3 months earlier
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Their wordsA.I. companies need to associate themselves with taste precisely because their tools are not very palatable, much less cool, to anyone outside of Silicon Valley.
↗Why tech bros are obsessed with "taste"kylechayka.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Our readingTech's embrace of 'taste' is an attempt to dress anti-humanist technology in humanist branding.
Their wordsWe might call what's going on now "taste-washing," an attempt to give anti-humanist technologies a veneer of liberal humanism.
↗Why tech bros are obsessed with "taste"kylechayka.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Our readingThe online ecosystem has become so degraded that it has impaired people's ability to exercise taste.
Their wordsAnother conclusion might be that the online ecosystem has become so polluted-so fragmented, deceptive, overstimulating, ersatz-that it has warped our ability to exercise taste at all.
↗Why tech bros are obsessed with "taste"kylechayka.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece