Employees at Google DeepMind have asked the company’s leadership for plans and policies to keep them “physically safe” from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while…
Category: Primers
This Humanoid Is Ready to Bring You a Toothbrush
The newest humanoid robot on the scene, Sprout, is not designed to carry boxes or stack shelves. Instead, this charming and relatively cheap model, roughly…
Where Tech Leaders and Students Really Think AI Is Going
The future never feels fully certain. But in this time of rapid, intense transformation—political, technological, cultural, scientific—it’s as difficult as it ever has been to…
Deepfake ‘Nudify’ Technology Is Getting Darker—and More Dangerous
Open the website of one explicit deepfake generator and you’ll be presented with a menu of horrors. With just a couple of clicks, it offers…
People Are Protesting Data Centers—but Embracing the Factories That Supply Them
Last month, Pamela Griffin and two other residents of Taylor, Texas, took to the lectern at a city council meeting to object to a data…
Thousands of Companies Are Driving China’s AI Boom. A Government Registry Tracks Them All
When DeepSeek burst onto the global stage in January 2025, it seemed to appear out of nowhere. But the large language model was just one…
Gear News of the Week: Apple’s AI Wearable and a Phone That Can Boot Android, Linux, and Windows
The NexPhone is a rugged device powered by a Qualcomm QCM64490 chip with a reportedly long support road map (through 2036), plus 12 GB of…
Your First Humanoid Robot Coworker Will Probably Be Chinese
The 4-foot-tall humanoid robot that’s in front of me seems, quite honestly, a bit drunk. It leaps from one leg to the other, waving its…
China’s AI Boyfriend Business Is Taking On a Life of Its Own
Jade Gu met her boyfriend online. Gu, who’s 26 and studies art theory in Beijing, was playing on her phone when she saw Charlie. She…
‘Uncanny Valley’: Donald Trump’s Davos Drama, AI Midterms, and ChatGPT’s Last Resort
Welcome back to Uncanny Valley! This week, WIRED’s Brian Barrett and Leah Feiger are joining the show as the new cohosts, alongside Zoë Schiffer. And…