DeWitt Humor: I trust rabid squirrels more than I trust artificial intelligence

Sept. 22, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET

Last week the human world was shocked by the announcement from a top tech company official that self-evolving artificial intelligence “bots” could likely go rogue and destroy all mankind within the next 10 years. Just great, that was the year I planned to finally get my life together.

Bombarded by headlines and social media feeds about the dangers of police officers abusing high-tech Flock cameras to spy on their spouses or stalk their exes, the imminent danger of AI becoming “self-aware” and destroying all humanity, and data centers sneaking into my backyard to suck up all my water, I decided to look to the animal kingdom for some more “natural” and positive news.

Friends, things are just as wild and crazy over there. Take a look at what’s trending.

Newly discovered herbivorous insects named in tribute to Taylor Swift

Sarah Schroeder, a University of California, Riverside doctoral student in entomology, has recently named a genus of newly discovered, plant-feeding insects from Australia after the Grammy-award-winning superstar, Taylor Swift.

According to a news release from UCR:

“A paper describing 12 new species of insects was published today in the journal Insect Systematics and Evolution. Of these, one genus has been named Swiftiephylus, and it contains four species whose names are inspired by the artist herself as well as several of her albums: Swiftiephylus taylorae, Swiftiephylus amator, Swiftiephylus intrepidus, and Swiftiephylus poetorum. The names are Latin versions of Taylor, lover, fearless, and poets, respectively. The genus name combines “Swiftie,” the term for Swift’s fans, with Phylus, a name commonly used for this group of insects.”