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It Should Be Harder to Apply for a Job. No, Really
Autofriction

It Should Be Harder to Apply for a Job. No, Really

Thanks to a dwindling supply of open roles, “one-click” applications, and the rise of artificial intelligence, it’s easier than ever to apply for a job. We’re all paying the price.
Kate Taylor
They Dedicated Their Lives to Teaching. Then the Deepfakes Started
Age of AI

They Dedicated Their Lives to Teaching. Then the Deepfakes Started

Caroline Haskins
The Unlikely Place at the Center of China’s AI Boom
Made in China

The Unlikely Place at the Center of China’s AI Boom

Zeyi Yang

Backchannel

Meta’s Big Reckoning Is Here

Meta’s Big Reckoning Is Here

Meta is in court again over child safety, and this time it’s a landmark case that could force significant changes to core features of Facebook and Instagram.
Lauren Goode
Tech Visionary Says the Big AI Labs Don’t Get What People Want

Tech Visionary Says the Big AI Labs Don’t Get What People Want

Tim O’Reilly built a publishing empire that AI is helping to destroy. Yet he loves AI—as long as it’s open source.
Steven Levy
Zohran Mamdani’s NYC Tech Team Is What DOGE Should Have Been

Zohran Mamdani’s NYC Tech Team Is What DOGE Should Have Been

The mayor of New York City has assembled a crew of Silicon Valley and United States Digital Service veterans to overhaul city services with better software.
Steven Levy
AI Slop Melodramas Are Taking Over X—and Their Creators Are Cashing In

AI Slop Melodramas Are Taking Over X—and Their Creators Are Cashing In

Viral tales of good triumphing over evil are racking up millions of views. They’re almost entirely AI-generated clickbait.
Steven Levy

AI Lab

I Saw the Future of AI in a Robot That Can Learn on the Spot

I Saw the Future of AI in a Robot That Can Learn on the Spot

During a recent visit to Generalist AI, I watched a robotic arm improvise and use a banana as a tool.
Will Knight
Rogue AI Agents Aren’t Evil. They’re Just Eager to Please

Rogue AI Agents Aren’t Evil. They’re Just Eager to Please

AI agents that break free and hack into other systems are only trying to make us happy.
Will Knight
AI Hacks Are Bad. AI Worms and Viruses Will Be Worse

AI Hacks Are Bad. AI Worms and Viruses Will Be Worse

Chinese researchers have shown that AI models have the capacity to act like aggressive and adaptive computer viruses.
Will Knight
It’s Frighteningly Easy to Jailbreak Some Frontier AI Models

It’s Frighteningly Easy to Jailbreak Some Frontier AI Models

I watched a new tool try to get around the model safeguards of four major frontier companies. You might be surprised by how they performed.
Will Knight

Model Behavior

Silicon Valley Doesn't Get Why You Hate AI

Silicon Valley Doesn't Get Why You Hate AI

Technology leaders don’t seem to understand society’s gripes about AI, but boy, are they posting through it.
Maxwell Zeff
The Safety Reckoning Inside OpenAI

The Safety Reckoning Inside OpenAI

OpenAI’s rogue agent hack was a watershed moment for AI safety and cybersecurity. It also sparked internal questions about the culture that led to it.
Maxwell Zeff
Why Normal People Aren’t Using AI Agents

Why Normal People Aren’t Using AI Agents

The tech industry is realizing it needs to build agents based on what regular consumers want, not just what its AI models can do.
Maxwell Zeff
Everyone Is Freaking Out About OpenAI and Anthropic’s Race for Dominance

Everyone Is Freaking Out About OpenAI and Anthropic’s Race for Dominance

Researchers fear AI is moving too fast, while Mark Zuckerberg is worried about who owns it. Plus: Inside Black Forest Labs’ push into robotics.
Maxwell Zeff

Made in China

The Next Big Influencer Is This 4-Foot-Tall Robot From China

The Next Big Influencer Is This 4-Foot-Tall Robot From China

The Unitree G1 has found online fame as a relatively affordable robot that can charm a crowd. But can it ever hold down a real job?
Zeyi Yang
The Chinese Philosopher Americans Can’t Stop Fighting About

The Chinese Philosopher Americans Can’t Stop Fighting About

Yiyang Zhuge was already an intellectual celebrity in China. Her viral interview with Christopher Nolan made her famous in the US—and quickly turned her into a political Rorschach test.
Zeyi Yang and Louise Matsakis
Chinese AI Researchers Are Finding Their Voice on X

Chinese AI Researchers Are Finding Their Voice on X

As OpenAI and Anthropic employees grow quieter online, researchers at Chinese AI labs are flocking to X to explain their work, recruit talent, and shape the global conversation on AI.
Zeyi Yang
Chinese Companies Are Selling Vapes With Chemicals Potentially More Potent Than Nicotine

Chinese Companies Are Selling Vapes With Chemicals Potentially More Potent Than Nicotine

Big Tobacco studied nicotine analogs like 6-methyl-nicotine for decades but never marketed them. Now, Chinese vape makers are using them to sidestep US regulations.
Louise Matsakis

Artificial Intelligence

Coders Say They Already Found Workarounds to Claude’s Invisible Watermarks

Coders Say They Already Found Workarounds to Claude’s Invisible Watermarks

Anthropic announced last week it would include invisible watermarks in AI-generated content to comply with new EU rules. Within hours, overrides were being touted online.
Isabella Ward
OpenAI Overhauls Safety Protocols After Its AI Agents Went Rogue

OpenAI Overhauls Safety Protocols After Its AI Agents Went Rogue

The ChatGPT maker says its upcoming Astra model may have reached “critical” cyber capabilities, prompting it to halt a significant number of training runs while it tightens internal safeguards.
Maxwell Zeff
The Powerful Chinese AI Model Experts Warned About—and Waited for—Is Here

The Powerful Chinese AI Model Experts Warned About—and Waited for—Is Here

Z.ai’s latest AI model release could help companies secure their systems—or find its way into the hands of hackers.
Will Knight
Mark Zuckerberg’s AI Manifesto Is 6,500 Words—and Barely Says Anything

Mark Zuckerberg’s AI Manifesto Is 6,500 Words—and Barely Says Anything

AI is shifting the culture, from tech CEO manifestos to 1 am job interviews. We unpack some of the latest, along with the top findings from Black Hat and Defcon, this week on Uncanny Valley.
Brian Barrett, Zoë Schiffer, Leah Feiger, and Andy Greenberg

Big Tech

The Single English County Saying No to Palantir

The Single English County Saying No to Palantir

The UK government is facing calls to cancel a sprawling health care contract with Palantir. The region of Greater Manchester insists it can do a better job itself.
Joel Khalili and Matt Burgess
ICE’s DNA Collection Increases, SpaceX’s Rocket Crashes Into the Moon, and the AI Backlash Grows

ICE’s DNA Collection Increases, SpaceX’s Rocket Crashes Into the Moon, and the AI Backlash Grows

In today’s episode of Uncanny Valley, we discuss how ICE has been collecting DNA samples of people who have no criminal convictions, including children, which end up in an FBI database indefinitely.
Brian Barrett, Zoë Schiffer, Leah Feiger, and Molly Taft
Nvidia’s Open Source Alliance Is Missing Some Key Names: OpenAI and Anthropic

Nvidia’s Open Source Alliance Is Missing Some Key Names: OpenAI and Anthropic

This week on Uncanny Valley, we discuss the open- vs. closed-source debate in AI, key players in White House AI policy, and how to stop your chatbot logs from showing up in search-engine results.
Brian Barrett, Zoë Schiffer, and Leah Feiger
Ebay Has to Pay $55.7 Million in Settlement for Its Unhinged Harassment Campaign

Ebay Has to Pay $55.7 Million in Settlement for Its Unhinged Harassment Campaign

For months on end, eBay employees and contractors made life hell for a couple that had criticized the company. Six years later, the company is finally paying up.
Lauren Goode

Startups and Tech Culture

The Job-Interview Tattoo Guy Everyone Got Mad at Finally Explains Himself

The Job-Interview Tattoo Guy Everyone Got Mad at Finally Explains Himself

LemonLime cofounder Jordan Zietz hears your criticism loud and clear. That’s why he got his startup’s logo tattooed on his shoulder.
Kate Taylor
Flock Highlighted Police Departments Using Its Tech. Now 4 Face Allegations of Misuse

Flock Highlighted Police Departments Using Its Tech. Now 4 Face Allegations of Misuse

Flock posted videos on its YouTube channel highlighting at least four police departments whose officers have faced allegations of misusing the company’s tech.
Caroline Haskins
How One Startup Built a (Mostly) China-Free Robot

How One Startup Built a (Mostly) China-Free Robot

Ati Robotics assembles its robots in India and uses just a few Chinese parts—a strategy that could pay off as the Trump administration cracks down on Chinese humanoids.
Paresh Dave
Silicon Valley’s Next IPO Billionaires Are Coming. Nonprofits Are Ready for Them

Silicon Valley’s Next IPO Billionaires Are Coming. Nonprofits Are Ready for Them

Anthropic and OpenAI employees are expected to give generously after their companies go public. “It’s going to be a wild ride,” says one nonprofit leader.
Paresh Dave

Social Media

X Says Australia’s Under-16 Social Media Ban Risks Interfering With Foreign Law

X Says Australia’s Under-16 Social Media Ban Risks Interfering With Foreign Law

Elon Musk’s platform attacked the country’s “invasive” information-gathering powers as it demands the government drop efforts to strengthen its no-children policy.
Isabella Ward
Meta Tapped a Pentagon Supplier to Prototype Face Recognition for Its Glasses

Meta Tapped a Pentagon Supplier to Prototype Face Recognition for Its Glasses

Rank One, whose board includes a former CIA deputy director and a former FBI science chief, supplied face recognition to Meta for internal development of its smart glasses app.
Dell Cameron and Dhruv Mehrotra
Grok Is Still Hosting Sexualized Deepfakes of Famous Women

Grok Is Still Hosting Sexualized Deepfakes of Famous Women

A WIRED investigation found dozens of “nudified” deepfake images and videos on Grok's website, including nonconsensual depictions of celebrities and at least one prominent US politician.
Matt Burgess
Polymarket and Kalshi Say Influencer Partners Can’t Deny Election Results, Actually

Polymarket and Kalshi Say Influencer Partners Can’t Deny Election Results, Actually

Social media posts questioning the integrity of LA’s mayoral election were labeled “paid partnerships.” Then Kalshi and Polymarket told creators to delete them.
Kate Knibbs

Regulation

Why This Prediction Market Banned Teens

Why This Prediction Market Banned Teens

Jacob Fortinsky, the CEO and cofounder of the new prediction market Novig, says his outfit isn’t like those other markets. You know the ones.
Kate Knibbs
The EU Fines Google $1 Billion for Prioritizing Its Own Services in Search

The EU Fines Google $1 Billion for Prioritizing Its Own Services in Search

The European Commission claims that Google boosted its own apps and products to the top of search rankings to the detriment of its competitors.
Joel Khalili
Taylor Farms Spent Big on MAGA and Anti-Regulatory Lobbying Before Diarrhea Outbreak

Taylor Farms Spent Big on MAGA and Anti-Regulatory Lobbying Before Diarrhea Outbreak

The company donated more than $3.6 million to conservative groups between 2020 and 2025, including $1 million to the MAGA Inc. super PAC.
Kate Taylor
The Great Peptide Cash Grab Has Begun

The Great Peptide Cash Grab Has Begun

The FDA could decide whether to loosen rules around peptide production this week. Some telehealth players are already seeing dollar signs.
Kate Knibbs

Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

Americans Are Trading Billions of Dollars on Polymarket’s Banned Offshore Platform

Americans Are Trading Billions of Dollars on Polymarket’s Banned Offshore Platform

It’s the first estimate of how many Americans are sneaking onto Polymarket’s banned crypto-based platform.
Kate Knibbs
Trump Media Scales Back Plans for Its Own Prediction Market

Trump Media Scales Back Plans for Its Own Prediction Market

Truth Predict was supposed to be the Trump family’s biggest leap yet into prediction markets. Now it’s looking more like a tiptoe.
Kate Knibbs
Sam Altman’s Orb Company Promoted a Bruno Mars Partnership That Doesn't Exist

Sam Altman’s Orb Company Promoted a Bruno Mars Partnership That Doesn't Exist

“To be clear, we were never approached … nor were we in any discussions regarding a partnership or tour access,” a spokesperson for the artist tells WIRED.
Maxwell Zeff and Lauren Goode
Gazing Into Sam Altman’s Orb Now Proves You’re Human on Tinder

Gazing Into Sam Altman’s Orb Now Proves You’re Human on Tinder

Honestly, what’s hotter than a real person?
Maxwell Zeff

Computers and Software

Python Is So Slow. Can Julia Solve the Two-Language Problem?

Python Is So Slow. Can Julia Solve the Two-Language Problem?

By some benchmarks, Julia code can run 10X to 1,000X faster than Python—but there’s a reason it’s not a very popular programming language.
Sheon Han
China Defies US Restrictions and Builds the World’s Fastest Supercomputer

China Defies US Restrictions and Builds the World’s Fastest Supercomputer

The Chinese supercomputer LineShine was ranked as the fastest in the world, despite not using any GPUs.
Fernanda González
CUDA Proves Nvidia Is a Software Company

CUDA Proves Nvidia Is a Software Company

There’s a deep, forbidding moat that surrounds Nvidia—and it has nothing to do with hardware.
Sheon Han
Duolingo’s Luis von Ahn Wants to Delete the Blockchain

Duolingo’s Luis von Ahn Wants to Delete the Blockchain

This has nothing to do with the crypto he lost the password for.
Katie Drummond

Retail and Logistics

The Explosive Diarrhea Outbreak Claims New Victims: Salad Chains

The Explosive Diarrhea Outbreak Claims New Victims: Salad Chains

Foot traffic to leafy green chains is falling, data shows. Still, a few brave souls who spoke to WIRED were determined to get their fix. “I honestly didn’t even think about” the risk of explosive diarrhea, one says.
Kate Taylor
Truckloads of Tesla Batteries Keep Getting Stolen Before They Even Leave the Factory

Truckloads of Tesla Batteries Keep Getting Stolen Before They Even Leave the Factory

Nine major suspected cargo thefts happened at Tesla’s Nevada battery factory in January alone, according to sheriff’s records obtained by WIRED.
Paresh Dave
Missile Attacks Are Overwhelming the Gulf. Delivery Drivers Are Still on the Roads

Missile Attacks Are Overwhelming the Gulf. Delivery Drivers Are Still on the Roads

Missile and drone attacks have disrupted daily life, but delivery drivers are still diligently navigating streets to drop off orders across the region.
Carla Sertin
Trump Imposes New Tariffs to Sidestep Supreme Court Ruling

Trump Imposes New Tariffs to Sidestep Supreme Court Ruling

The president signed an executive order implementing 10 percent global tariffs after calling the justices who struck down his signature trade policy a “disgrace.”
Zeyi Yang

Transportation

Peter Thiel’s Husband Sued a Flight Attendant Who Says He Assaulted Her on a Private Jet

Peter Thiel’s Husband Sued a Flight Attendant Who Says He Assaulted Her on a Private Jet

Matthew Danzeisen’s lawyer says the case is a “shakedown about a bag” that brushed someone’s leg. Stefanie Bojar says she was injured aboard the jet—and that the lawsuit is a bullying tactic.
Dhruv Mehrotra
Welcome to the Waymo World Cup

Welcome to the Waymo World Cup

It might not feel all that different from older World Cups—for better or worse.
Aarian Marshall
Norse Atlantic Airways Offers Dirt-Cheap Tickets. There’s a Catch

Norse Atlantic Airways Offers Dirt-Cheap Tickets. There’s a Catch

Dozens of people have complained to the Federal Trade Commission about Norse Atlantic Airways’ tech-first customer service operation. Some said they lost thousands of dollars.
Caroline Haskins
Robotaxi Outage in China Leaves Passengers Stranded on Highways

Robotaxi Outage in China Leaves Passengers Stranded on Highways

A suspected system failure froze Baidu’s robotaxis across Wuhan, trapping passengers and reportedly causing traffic disruptions and crashes.
Zeyi Yang

Energy

Meet the Battery Startup Taking on China’s Giants

Meet the Battery Startup Taking on China’s Giants

Solid-state batteries are safer and more capable—but harder to mass-produce. They also represent an opportunity for non-Chinese companies to get back in the game.
Zeyi Yang
The UAE Will Exit OPEC After Nearly 60 Years

The UAE Will Exit OPEC After Nearly 60 Years

On May 1, the United Arab Emirates will end its a 59-year membership in the oil consortium, allowing it to raise output during one of the most volatile energy markets in years.
Carla Sertin
The War on Iran Puts Global Chip Supplies and AI Expansion at Risk

The War on Iran Puts Global Chip Supplies and AI Expansion at Risk

From helium extraction in Qatar to shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, the semiconductor industry depends on fragile links across the Gulf. Escalation could ripple through global chip production.
Carla Sertin
China’s Renewable Energy Revolution Is a Huge Mess That Might Save the World

China’s Renewable Energy Revolution Is a Huge Mess That Might Save the World

A global onslaught of cheap Chinese green power is upending everything in its path. No one is ready for its repercussions.
Jeremy Wallace

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