Business

The China Issue

AI Risk

Suspect Arrested for Allegedly Throwing Molotov Cocktail at Sam Altman’s Home

An attacker allegedly threw a molotov cocktail at the OpenAI CEO’s residence before making threats outside of the startup’s headquarters.

Maxwell Zeff

Uncanny Valley

Uncanny Valley: OpenAI and Musk Fight Again; DOJ Mishandles Voter Data; Artemis II Comes Home

Brian Barrett and Leah Feiger

Backchannel

This Startup Wants You to Pay Up to Talk With AI Versions of Human Experts

Steven Levy

Backchannel

John Perry Barlow, JFK Jr., and a Night of Grief I Can’t Forget

Watching Love Story brought back a surreal evening in 1994.

Steven Levy

Apple Still Plans to Sell iPhones When It Turns 100

As the tech giant turns 50, WIRED spoke to executives about how they plan to win in the AI era.

Steven Levy

At Palantir’s Developer Conference, AI Is Built to Win Wars

As business soars, Palantir is doubling down on a vision of AI built for battlefield advantage—and attracting customers who agree.

Steven Levy

The Iran War Is Throwing Global Shipping Into Chaos

Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen says the conflict is stranding cargo and threatening inflation.

Steven Levy

AI Lab

The US Army Is Building Its Own Chatbot for Combat

The AI system, trained on real military data, is meant to give soldiers mission-critical information.

Will Knight

AI Models Lie, Cheat, and Steal to Protect Other Models From Being Deleted

A new study from researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz suggests models will disobey human commands to protect their own kind.

Will Knight

OpenClaw Agents Can Be Guilt-Tripped Into Self-Sabotage

In a controlled experiment, OpenClaw agents proved prone to panic and vulnerable to manipulation. They even disabled their own functionality when gaslit by humans.

Will Knight

Why Walmart and OpenAI Are Shaking Up Their Agentic Shopping Deal

After OpenAI’s Instant Checkout feature fell short, Walmart is instead embedding its Sparky chatbot directly into ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

Paresh Dave

Model Behavior

The 70-Person AI Image Startup Taking on Silicon Valley's Giants

Black Forest Labs has long punched above its weight in the AI image generation space. Its next move? Powering physical AI.

Maxwell Zeff

Cursor Launches a New AI Agent Experience to Take On Claude Code and Codex

As Cursor launches the next generation of its product, the AI coding startup has to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic more directly than ever.

Maxwell Zeff

Meet the Tech Reporters Using AI to Help Write and Edit Their Stories

Independent writers are using AI agents all throughout their reporting process. What’s the value of a human journalist, anyway?

Maxwell Zeff

Google Shakes Up Its Browser Agent Team Amid OpenClaw Craze

As Silicon Valley obsesses over a new wave of AI coding agents, Google and other AI labs are shifting their bets.

Maxwell Zeff

Made in China

China Is Cracking Down on Scams. Just Not the Ones Hitting Americans

As Beijing clamps down on fraud at home, researchers say crime syndicates are shifting their focus to victims elsewhere.

Lily Hay Newman

AI Research Is Getting Harder to Separate From Geopolitics

A policy change announced by NeurIPS, the world’s leading AI research conference, drew widespread backlash from Chinese researchers this week and then was quickly reversed.

Will Knight and Zeyi Yang

A New Game Turns the H-1B Visa System Into a Surreal Simulation

Inspired by real immigrant stories, H1B.Life captures the uncertainty, trade-offs, and pure luck that shape the lives of people trying to build a future in the US.

Zeyi Yang

China’s OpenClaw Boom Is a Gold Rush for AI Companies

Hype around the open source agent is driving people to rent cloud servers and buy AI subscriptions just to try it, creating a windfall for tech companies.

Zeyi Yang

Artificial Intelligence

OpenAI Backs Bill That Would Limit Liability for AI-Enabled Mass Deaths or Financial Disasters

The ChatGPT-maker testified in favor of an Illinois bill that would limit when AI labs can be held liable—even in cases where their products cause “critical harm.”

Maxwell Zeff

Anthropic vs. the Pentagon: This Time, a US Court Has Ruled in the Government's Favor

A US appeals court ruling is at odds with a separate, lower court decision from March, leaving uncertainty about if and how the US military can use the AI company's Claude model.

Paresh Dave

Meta’s New AI Model Gives Mark Zuckerberg a Seat at the Big Kid’s Table

Muse Spark is Meta’s first model since its AI reboot, and the benchmarks suggest formidable performance.

Will Knight

5 Burning Questions About Elon Musk’s Terafab Chip Partnership with Intel

Intel’s role in Elon Musk’s ambitious chip venture is still murky, raising questions about what the partnership actually entails—and whether it can work at all.

Lauren Goode and Paresh Dave

Big Tech

Meta Cafeteria Workers Did What Execs Won’t: Took on ICE and Won

In Seattle, activists inside tech giants are leaning into grassroots fundraising and peer support as petitions and protests draw little response from executives.

Paresh Dave

Anthropic Teams Up With Its Rivals to Keep AI From Hacking Everything

The AI lab's Project Glasswing will bring together Apple, Google, and more than 45 other organizations. They'll use the new Claude Mythos Preview model to test advancing AI cybersecurity capabilities.

Lily Hay Newman