The Economist Magazine Cover For 01/27/2024

The Economist Read in browser JANUARY 27TH 2024 Cover Story newsletter from The Economist SUBSCRIBER ONLY Cover Story How we chose this week’s image Insert a clear and simple description of the image Zanny Minton Beddoes Editor-in-chief We had two covers this week. One was about America’s failure to impose order on its southern border and the chance that this could cost Joe Biden the White House in November. The other looked at how artificial intelligence (AI) could transform lives in the emerging world. We started with some images of the physical barriers would-be migrants must overcome. Here is a close-up of some razor wire, with a hand delicately touching its sharp edges. The image has menace, but not enough drama. There was more action in this photo of an athletic young man scaling the fence and preparing to jump down on the American side. The image on the left was emotive, but slightly dehumanising. We cannot see anyone’s face, and the outstretched hands suggest people asking for handouts, which is misleading—immigrants to the United States tend to find jobs quickly. The picture on the right was better, but still not quite on the mark. The mother looks passive and despondent; we wanted something that suggested more agency. This one, showing a crowd of migrants wading across a river, had a real sense of purpose and movement: these people are willing to endure discomfort and danger in search of a better life. The next gave an unusual perspective on the crowds of people waiting to be processed: we thought this was a stunning image and ended up using it in our United States section. This picture was perhaps too dramatic, and too close to the propaganda images that suggest that migrants are arriving in overwhelming numbers, like an invasion. That is not what we are arguing. We think it is both possible and desirable for America to regulate the flow of newcomers better and to decide who enters and who does not. So we opted for this moody desert photo. The towering cacti give a vivid sense of place. The migrants look ordinary, purposeful yet stuck in limbo. The mountains frame the image beautifully. We just needed to make the headline clearer to complete a memorable cover. Our other cover story was harder to illustrate. It concerned something invisible: artificial intelligence, and the possibility that it might help improve human capital and productivity in the emerging world. We have used robots before to symbolise AI and our team mocked up some striking images in this vein. Here is a robot hand holding a globe, with the map of Africa emphasised. And here is a hand made of a circuit board, also grasping the poorest continent. We played around with some of the examples that emerged from our reporting. Chatbots could provide individual instruction to kids in cash-starved education systems, so here is a robot scribbling on a whiteboard. Machine learning is already being used to crunch satellite data and give farmers in developing countries more timely, accurate information about such things as the weather. So here are some healthy crops with buffering symbols instead of flowers. This one was neat: a robot using a smartphone as a catapult to launch an emerging-world everyman to greater heights. Some of us found this funny and lively; others thought the robot had a creepy, Terminator vibe. So we made the robot friendlier. That was nice, but it suggested a little boost rather than a potential transformation of lives. Since most people in developing countries who will use AI will do so via their phones, we decided to use a smartphone screen to show a tantalising glimpse of the future. In this early effort, a parched landscape becomes a field of sunflowers. However, AI will be felt in cities first, so we preferred an image of a slum becoming a shining city of parks and skyscrapers. For a final touch, we added more people, climbing through the screen to grasp the opportunities this extraordinary technology may offer. Cover image • View large image (“How the border could cost Biden the election”) • View large image (“Will AI transform the emerging world?”) Backing stories How the border could cost Biden the election (Leader) America’s immigration policies are failing (United States) America’s border crisis in ten charts (United States) The prospect of a Trump presidency looms over Mexico’s elections (The Americas)