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Fast Forward

We’re Still Waiting for the Next Big Leap in AI

Anthropic’s latest Claude AI model pulls ahead of rivals from OpenAI and Google. But advances in machine intelligence have lately been more incremental than revolutionary.
Power Play

Europe Scrambles for Relevance in the Age of AI

Don't Copy That

Adobe Says It Won’t Train AI Using Artists’ Work. Creatives Aren’t Convinced

Artificial Intelligence

Light-Based Chips Could Help Slake AI’s Ever-Growing Thirst for Energy

Optical neural networks, which use photons instead of electrons, have advantages over traditional systems. They also face major obstacles.

As Google Targets AI Search Ads, It Could Learn a Lot From Bing

Microsoft and Google are bringing ads to their AI search experiences. But users don’t always find it helpful.

Apple Proved That AI Is a Feature, Not a Product

Other tech companies want to sell you chatbots. Apple’s demos show the value of seeing the AI as an integrated, holistic experience rather than a stand-alone app or device.

LinkedIn’s AI Career Coaches Will See You Now

LinkedIn’s new generative AI features include chatbots based on popular career coaches and tools to rewrite résumés and cover letters.

Social Media

Orkut’s Founder Is Still Dreaming of a Social Media Utopia

In the mid-2000s, Google engineer Orkut Büyükkökten’s self-titled social network briefly took the world by storm before disappearing. Now he’s back, with a plan for a happier social media.

Marc Andreessen Once Called Online Safety Teams an Enemy. He Still Wants Walled Gardens for Kids

Investor Marc Andreessen called tech ethics and safety teams “the enemy” in his “Techno-Optimist Manifesto” last year. Today he clarified he’s in favor of online guardrails for his 9-year-old son.

Why the EU’s Vice President Isn’t Worried About Moon-Landing Conspiracies on YouTube

During a tour of Silicon Valley, EU vice president Věra Jourová said she expects tech giants to prioritize stamping out content that could distort democracy.

Most US TikTok Creators Don’t Think a Ban Will Happen

The Chinese-owned app is in serious trouble in Washington, but a survey of US creators suggests TikTok’s influencer economy is carrying on with business as usual.

Startups and Tech Culture

Airbnb’s Olympics Push Could Help It Win Over Paris

Paris officials have placed tough new restrictions on Airbnb rentals in recent years. The company is using the Olympics to try and win over locals and broaden its footprint in the iconic city.

OpenAI-Backed Nonprofits Have Gone Back on Their Transparency Pledges

Two organizations that handed out unconditional cash grants told WIRED that they will no longer disclose their financial statements and internal policies. Their stance follows a similar denial by OpenAI.

No Matter How You Package It, Apple Intelligence Is AI

Apple is eager to show us that its approach to artificial intelligence is safer, better, and more useful than the competition. Maybe that's just a hallucination, but it's working.

Sellers Call Amazon’s Buy Box ‘Abusive.’ Now They’re Suing

UK retailers have accused Amazon of using its Buy Box section to choke their businesses, reigniting a years-long debate over whether there was foul play.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

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.

The $2.3 Billion Tornado Cash Case Is a Pivotal Moment for Crypto Privacy

Tuesday’s verdict in the trial of Alexey Pertsev, a creator of crypto-privacy service Tornado Cash, is the first in a string of cases that could make it much harder to skirt financial surveillance.

A Vast New Data Set Could Supercharge the AI Hunt for Crypto Money Laundering

Blockchain analysis firm Elliptic, MIT, and IBM have released a new AI model—and the 200-million-transaction dataset it's trained on—that aims to spot the “shape” of bitcoin money laundering.

Crypto FOMO Is Back. So Are the Scams

After cryptocurrency prices spiked, scammers have flooded the market with fake tokens that promise investors great riches, but leave them penniless. It’s working.

Policy and Telecoms

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.

Judge Hints at Plans to Rein In Google’s Illegal Play Store Monopoly

“Google as an illegal monopolist will have to pay some penalties,” US federal judge James Donato said Thursday, in a hearing discussing next steps after a jury found the company breached antitrust laws.

Would You Still Use Google if It Didn't Pay Apple $20 Billion to Get on Your iPhone?

A US judge who will decide Google’s fate in a historic antitrust trial suggested it was “odd” for the company to say it has the best search engine but also pay Apple billions to lock out rivals.

The Affordable Connectivity Program Kept Them Online. What Now?

Millions of people relied on the federal Affordable Connectivity Program to stay online and access work, health care, and school. Now that the program has expired, some fear being cut off.

Computers and Software

Generative AI Is Totally Shameless. I Want to Be It

The best thing about brain-melting software like ChatGPT? It doesn’t feel remorse.

Inside the Cult of the Haskell Programmer

It’s spooky. It’s esoteric. It’s also the key to understanding the rise and relevance of functional programming.

Stack Overflow Users Are Revolting Against an OpenAI Deal

Members of the software developer community have reported deleting or altering their posts to prevent them from being used by OpenAI.

Why Apple’s iPhone Browser-Choice Option Sucks

European iPhone owners are being shown a new pop-up screen listing alternatives to the Safari browser. The developers of the browsers shown on that screen are torn about the user experience.

Transportation

Tesla Shareholders Approve Elon Musk’s Big Payday

Elon Musk will pocket $50 billion after Tesla shareholders made a show of support for his leadership.

Teslas Can Still Be Stolen With a Cheap Radio Hack—Despite New Keyless Tech

Ultra-wideband radio has been heralded as the solution for “relay attacks” that are used to steal cars in seconds. But researchers found Teslas equipped with it are as vulnerable as ever.

Biden Is Trying to Buy EVs Time With New Tariffs on China. It Might Not Work

America now has 100 percent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, but with US automakers struggling to compete and its reliance on China’s materials, will this help? Mercedes, BMW and VW think not.

An Innovative EV Motor Used by Lamborghini, McLaren, and Ferrari Is Being Mass-Produced by Mercedes

Compared to the usual EV power plants, axial-flux motors are smaller and lighter, and have more torque. But they're hard to make at scale. Now Mercedes is bringing them to the masses.

Latest

Data Wars

Publishers Target Common Crawl In Fight Over AI Training Data

Payback Time

The $50 Billion Musk Referendum

Deal or No Deal

Danish Media Threatens to Sue OpenAI

intelligence quotient

Apple’s Biggest AI Challenge? Making It Behave