Medium Hot: Images in the Age of Heat

Essays by the artist and filmmaker Hito Steyerl on what images, art and technology become once machine learning runs through everyday life and the climate is breaking down.

Steyerl argues that artistic and technological practices cannot be divorced from economic and political conditions. She traces how machine learning has spread into every part of life, and sets out the damage done in the competition between technology companies, with AI-driven surveillance among her subjects. Verso published the hardback in June 2025 and a paperback in June 2026, both at 192 pages.

Steyerl is an artist and filmmaker whose work deals with the digital world, art and capitalism. Earlier books include I Will Survive (Spector Books) and This Is the Future (Prestel). Medium Hot extends that work to artificial intelligence.