An independent magazine about what AI is doing to our work, money, health, and culture, reported through Black lives.
(The part they left out.)
If software has decided something about you, this is for you.
The people living with a system’s decisions deserve to know how it made them and who answers for them.
We use these tools and take them seriously. We report what happens when one of them decides something about a person and nobody explains it, and we show what works at least as often as what went wrong.
“Reported through Black lives” says where our reporting starts, not who can read it.
Why the parentheses
When software decides something about you, you usually get the outcome and nothing else. “Your application was not selected.” “Account suspended.” The reason, the fine print, and the person who made the call stay out of it.
We put that part back, in parentheses. They frame the object in every story’s art, and every story has one line in parentheses that carries a fact someone left out.
In law, an interested party is a person with a stake in a decision, owed notice and a chance to be heard. You’re the interested party. The y in our logo sits between the parentheses because it stands for why.
What we cover
Hiring
AI interviews, résumé filters, and rejections with no reason.
Platforms
Suspended accounts, reach that drops, and creators’ income.
Accused of using AI
People losing work or accounts because someone thought they used AI.
The people who train AI
Data work, gig work, and automated bosses.
Housing and money
Rent scores, tenant screening, credit, and insurance.
Access
Who can’t use these tools at all and gets left behind.
How we tell it
Who decided?
One person, one decision, the people behind it, and what you can do.
Read the statement
A company’s announcement, with (the part they left out) written in.
Is this AI?
One viral image, video, or claim, checked both ways: fakes passing as real, and real work called fake.
The conversation
One question and answer with the person who wrote the rule or built the system.
How I use it
How AI fits into one person’s work or life, photographed in their own place.
Ethan Ward
PHOTO: ETHAN WARD
Who’s behind it
I use AI every day, and I report on it. Most of my reporting has been about housing and the systems that decide who gets help. I also have a master’s in human-computer interaction, which is a long way of saying I study how people and technology get along.
Now software makes more of the calls about people’s jobs, accounts, and apartments, usually with no reason given. I started Interested Party to find out who decided, ask them to explain, and tell you what you can do about it. I report, write, and edit every story, and I put my name on each one.
If you have a story like that, tell me. I read every tip myself, and replies to our emails come to me.
Ethan Ward, product strategist and journalist
2026 Online Journalism Award for Excellence in AI Innovation, for his AI-assisted newsletter The Thread
18 journalism and storytelling awards
Reporting in USA Today, NPR, Slate, Fast Company, Marketplace, and PBS SoCal
AI Policy Certificate, Center for AI and Digital Policy
MSc in Human-Computer Interaction, University College Dublin
BA in Journalism and Master of Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California
How it’s paid for
Free to read. Ads and sponsors pay for it. They buy space, never a topic, and they don’t see stories before they run. The rules are in our standards.
Send a tip
Rejected, suspended, or flagged for no reason? Tell me what happened. Write to [email protected] or use the tip box.
Partners and sponsors
Sponsoring an edition, republishing a story, or bringing Ethan in to speak or consult: [email protected], or see Work with us.
The month’s stories in one free email, around the 1st.
Unsubscribe any time. We don’t sell your email or give it to advertisers. Read our privacy rules.
