Business
To the Moon
Donald Trump Backs ‘Strategic Bitcoin Stockpile’ in Speech to Crypto Faithful
Appearing onstage at the Bitcoin 2024 conference, Trump also promised to “fire” SEC chair Gary Gensler, set up a crypto advisory council, and make the United States the “crypto capital of the world.”
Jessica Klein
SearchGPT Is OpenAI’s Direct Assault on Google
The company behind ChatGPT is expanding into search, and leaning heavily on its relationships with publishers.
Reece Rogers and Will Knight
New Jersey’s $500 Million Bid to Become an AI Epicenter
The Garden State has enacted a hefty new tax credit specifically for AI businesses. But tax incentives—particularly for data centers—don’t always create a lot of jobs.
Amanda Hoover
Google DeepMind’s Game-Playing AI Tackles a Chatbot Blind Spot
Google’s new advance combines a large language model with a self-learning AI. The technique could address some shortcomings with AI—although there’s a catch.
Will Knight
The ACLU Fights for Your Constitutional Right to Make Deepfakes
States across the US are seeking to criminalize certain uses of AI-generated content. Civil rights groups are pushing back, arguing that some of these new laws conflict with the First Amendment.
Arthur Holland Michel
Startups and Tech Culture
Donald Trump and Silicon Valley's Billionaire Elegy
Venture capitalists Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen claim the tech industry, California, and the country are doomed if we don’t embrace the former president.
Steven Levy
Elon Musk Says He’s Moving X and SpaceX Headquarters to Texas
The tech mogul cited California’s new transgender rights law as “the final straw” for moving out of the state.
Paresh Dave
The Metaverse Was Supposed to Be Your New Office. You’re Still on Zoom
Tech founders painted a vision of employees clocking into virtual workplaces. But the adoption of VR at work has been slow.
Amanda Hoover
At 25, Metafilter Feels Like a Time Capsule From Another Internet
After a quarter century the community-driven site hasn’t changed much. And don’t ask it to license its archive to AI.
Steven Levy
Craig Wright Faces Perjury Investigation Over Claims He Created Bitcoin
By order of a UK judge, Craig Wright can no longer claim he is the creator of bitcoin and now faces the prospect of criminal charges.
Joel Khalili
Pressure Grows in Congress to Treat Crypto Investigator Tigran Gambaryan, Jailed in Nigeria, as a Hostage
A new resolution echoes what 16 members of Congress have already said to the White House: It must do more to free one of the most storied crypto-focused federal agents in history.
Andy Greenberg
Inside a Violent Gang's Ruthless Crypto-Stealing Home Invasion Spree
More than a dozen men threatened, assaulted, tortured, or kidnapped 11 victims in likely the worst-ever crypto-focused serial extortion case of its kind in the US.
Andy Greenberg and Matt Giles
How Researchers Cracked an 11-Year-Old Password to a $3 Million Crypto Wallet
Thanks to a flaw in a decade-old version of the RoboForm password manager and a bit of luck, researchers were able to unearth the password to a crypto wallet containing a fortune.
Kim Zetter
Class Action Lawsuit Alleges T-Mobile Broke Its Lifetime Price Guarantee
Customers of the uncarrier want T-Mobile to pay up after switching their legacy phone plans for something more expensive.
Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica
The US Supreme Court Has Handed Big Tech a Big Gift
By shifting regulatory power away from government agencies and to the courts, recent SCOTUS rulings may be a boon for a tech industry under fire.
Jordan Pearson
Before Smartphones, an Army of Real People Helped You Find Stuff on Google
Not too long ago, services like GOOG-411, 118 118 and AQA used actual humans to answer questions with witty responses and encyclopedic knowledge. Today’s search engines could learn something.
Amelia Tait
The EU Is Taking on Big Tech. It May Be Outmatched
From the Digital Services Act to the AI Act, in five years Europe has created a lot of rules for the digital world. Implementing them, however, isn’t always easy.
Luca Zorloni
How IT Departments Scrambled to Address the CrowdStrike Chaos
System administrators and their teams sprang into action last Friday and worked tirelessly to get their companies back online amid one of the worst digital blackouts ever.
Amanda Hoover and Lily Hay Newman
The Global CrowdStrike Outage Triggered a Surprise Return to Cash
The event caused chaos at airports, grocery stores, and Starbucks outlets.
Caroline Haskins
The Hidden Ties Between Google and Amazon’s Project Nimbus and Israel's Military
A WIRED investigation found public statements from officials detail a much closer link between Project Nimbus and Israel Defense Forces than previously reported.
Caroline Haskins
The Eternal Truth of Markdown
An exegesis of the most ubiquitous piece of code on the web.
Scott Gilbertson
California Supreme Court Rules That Uber and Lyft Drivers Will Remain Independent Contractors
In a major victory for app-based companies, their drivers will not be considered employees.
Aarian Marshall and Amanda Hoover
Cars Are Now Rolling Computers Now. So What Happens When They Stop Getting Updates?
Phones are supported well beyond their average ownership lifetime. In stark contrast, automakers are struggling to work out how long their “smartphones on wheels” can be kept on the road.
Aarian Marshall
Toyota Pulls Off a Fast and Furious Demo With Dual Drifting AI-Powered Race Cars
Algorithms designed to handle a car after it loses traction could potentially intervene on behalf of human drivers.
Will Knight
Waymo Is Suing People Who Allegedly Smashed and Slashed Its Robotaxis
The Alphabet-owned driverless car service is getting aggressive against alleged vandals after a series of violent incidents in San Francisco.
Paresh Dave
Latest
A Tale of Two Cities
We Asked AI to Take Us On a Tour of Our Cities. It Was Chaos
Natasha Bernal and Amanda Hoover
Strike Out
Huge Microsoft Outage Caused by CrowdStrike Takes Down Computers Around the World
Matt Burgess
Playing it safe
OpenAI Touts New AI Safety Research. Critics Say It’s a Good Step, but Not Enough
Will Knight
Flip the Script
Apple, Nvidia, Anthropic Used Thousands of Swiped YouTube Videos to Train AI
Annie Gilbertson and Alex Reisner
Bitcoin Bonanza
Tiny Texas Village Seeks Billion-Dollar Bitcoin Miner to Pave Potholes, Scare Dogs Away
Joel Khalili
internal affairs
How Watermelon Cupcakes Kicked Off an Internal Storm at Meta
Paresh Dave and Vittoria Elliott
Social Media
Spotify, Stop Trying to Become a Social Media App
The EU Is Coming for X’s Paid Blue Checks
YouTube’s Rulings on Gaza War Videos Spark Internal Backlash
Orkut’s Founder Is Still Dreaming of a Social Media Utopia