Minimalist News

Emversity has raised $30 million in a new round as it scales job-ready training in India.

The California attorney general has opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk's xAI after its chatbot Grok began generating nonconsensual sexual images of real women and even children.

The collaboration will help OpenAI's models deliver faster response times for more difficult or time-consuming tasks, the companies said.

As Netflix tries to take down YouTube’s dominance in the podcast space, it's getting new originals with Pete Davidson and Michael Irvin.

Global app downloads were down, but consumer spending was up to nearly $156B in 2025.

Since the release of GPT 5.2, AI tools have become inescapable in high-level mathematics.

The company offers a platform that helps mobile app developers market their wares and has an army of bankers working on its IPO.

Digg, a reboot of an earlier social news site, is now relaunching as a Reddit competitor focused on communities.

The Trends Explore page for users to analyze search interest just got a major upgrade. It now uses Gemini to identify and compare relevant trends.

"We want musicians to keep making music, and for fans to have confidence that the music they find on Bandcamp was created by humans," the company said.

Type One Energy has raised more than $160 million from investors to date. The new funding will help the company further refine its stellarator technology.

Skild AI, which is building general-purpose robotic software, just raised a $1.4 billion funding round led by SoftBank.

Personal Intelligence is off by default, as users have the option to choose if and when they want to connect their Google apps to Gemini.

The company used an AI-native platform to help companies fight threats.

Shipping tech company Bluspark left internal plaintext passwords, including those of executives, exposed to the internet, at a time when hacks in the shipping industry are on the rise.

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The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying the Crew-11 astronauts has splashed down into the ocean after they left the ISS a month earlier than planned due a medical issue. It’s the first time NASA cut a mission short due to a medical concern. The agency didn’t name the crew member and their condition but stated that they were stable and that it wasn’t a case of medical evacuation. NASA merely decided to end the mission early out of an abundance of caution, because the ISS didn’t have the tools for a proper diagnosis. NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, JAXA’s Kimiya

You don’t need to spend a fortune to stay on top of your health goals while tracking your fitness. These days, even cheap fitness trackers come packed with features that help you monitor your heart rate, track your steps and even analyze your sleep stages. Many budget options now include GPS tracking for those outdoor runs, real-time heart rate tracking to keep you in the right zone during workouts and, thankfully, most work with both iPhone and Android devices. Some even go beyond basic metrics, providing insights on daily readiness to help you decide if you’re up for an intense workout

Verizon’s network is experiencing technical issues that are impacting calls and wireless data. Verizon customers on X have reported seeing “SOS” rather than the traditional network bars on their smartphones, and even the network provider’s own status page struggled to load, likely due to the number of customers trying to access it. Based on the experience of Verizon users on Engadget’s staff, the services that are impacted appear to be calls and wireless data. Text messages continue to be delivered normally, at least for some users. On DownDetector, reports of a Verizon outage started growing around 12PM ET and numbered in

X says it is changing its policies around Grok’s image-editing abilities following a multi-week outcry over the chatbot repeatedly being accused of generating sexualized images of children and nonconsensual nudity. In an update shared from the @Safety account on X, the company said it has “implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis.” The new safeguards, according to X, will apply to all users regardless of whether they pay for Grok. xAI is also moving all of Grok’s image-generating features behind its subscriber paywall so that

Netflix is continuing to double down on podcasts, with the streaming service's announcement that it has hired talent to host two original shows for its platform. The first show stars NFL Hall of Famer-turned-analyst Michael Irvin and the second is a talk show for former Saturday Night Live cast member Pete Davidson. The White House with Michael Irvin premieres January 19. The abode in the title refers to a building near the Dallas Cowboys facilities rather than the seat of US presidential power, but the overlap was intentional. "In a crowded media landscape, recognition matters — and few names carry the

Elon Musk isn't the only party at fault for Grok's nonconsensual intimate deepfakes of real people, including children. What about Apple and Google? The two (frequently virtue-signaling) companies have inexplicably allowed Grok and X to remain in their app stores — even as Musk's chatbot reportedly continues to produce the material. On Wednesday, a coalition of women's and progressive advocacy groups called on Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai to uphold their own rules and remove the apps. The open letters to Apple and Google were signed by 28 groups. Among them are the women’s advocacy group Ultraviolet, the parents’ group ParentsTogether

Amazon's upcoming God of War live-action TV adaptation has cast Ryan Hurst as its Kratos. Sony announced the casting today on X with a brief post and an image of both Hurst and Kratos in full scowl mode. Hurst is already sporting a very Kratos-style beard, so he's already got the right vibe going for him. He has past credits on familiar shows such as Sons of Anarchy and The Walking Dead. The upcoming Amazon series also isn't his first rodeo acting in this universe; Hurst voiced Thor in the video game God of War Ragnarok. But the most important

In a chaotic world, one thing you can count on is your own common-sense steps toward better cybersecurity. January is a great time to grab a subscription for yourself or a loved one, as a few holiday sales are (inexplicably) still happening. With access to a virtual private network (VPN), you can stream TV shows and events from all over the world, protect your information from hackers and thwart online trackers. We strongly recommend using a VPN, but you might get stuck with a substandard app if you jump on the very first deal you see. You might also mistakenly end

The App Store is a home for many kinds of apps (including, inexplicably, one that lets users undress strangers without their consent). But hey, it also has games! And soon the store's Apple Arcade service will include one more: the not-so-highly rated Civilization VII. Apple announced on Wednesday that Sid Meier's Civilization VII will arrive almost exactly a year after launch. The game is already available for Apple devices, but its arrival on Apple Arcade will be a first. Civilization VII arrives on Apple Arcade on February 5. Firaxis Games / Apple “Free (for Apple Arcade subscribers)” may be the right pricing for the

California authorities have launched an investigation into xAI following weeks of reports that the chatbot was generating sexualized images of children. "xAI appears to be facilitating the large-scale production of deepfake nonconsensual intimate images that are being used to harass women and girls across the internet, including via the social media platform X," California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office said in a statement.  The statement cited a report that "more than half of the 20,000 images generated by xAI between Christmas and New Years depicted people in minimal clothing," including some that appeared to be children. "We have zero tolerance for

ExpressVPN is back on sale again, and its two-year plans are up to 78 percent off right now. You can get the Advanced tier for $101 for 28 months. This is marked down from the $392 that this time frame normally costs. On a per-month basis, it works out to roughly $3.59 for the promo period. We’ve consistently liked ExpressVPN because it’s fast, easy to use and widely available across a large global server network. In fact, it's our current pick for best premium VPN. One of the biggest drawbacks has always been its high cost, and this deal temporarily solves

Sony just announced January's Game Catalog additions for PS Plus subscribers and it's a fantastic lineup. All of these titles will be ready to play on January 20. First up, there's Resident Evil Village. This is a direct sequel to 2017’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. It's a full game with plenty of jump scares and an engrossing narrative. It's set in a spooky village, thus the name, and a nearby castle. This shouldn't disappoint fans of the franchise and will be available for both PS4 and PS5. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is a 2024 sequel to Yakuza: Like a Dragon. It

Generative AI, we are repeatedly told, is a transformative and complicated technology. So complicated that its own creators are unable to explain why it acts the way it does, and so transformative that we'd be fools to stand in the way of progress. Even when progress resembles a machine for undressing strangers without their consent on an unprecedented scale, as has been the case of late with Elon Musk's Grok chatbot.  UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer seems to have so fully bought into the grand lie of the AI bubble that he was willing to announce: > "I have been informed this

Look, virtual private networks are great — I wouldn't have made a list of the best VPNs if I didn't recommend using them. But being able to control your own technology is also important. A VPN can provide protection and peace of mind when used properly, but you may not want it active on your phone all the time. For example: Are your Google search results suddenly in German? That’s one example of what can happen if you leave your virtual location set to Berlin or Vienna. Or maybe a VPN you installed for work or to watch a single tennis

Have a hankering for some audiobooks? Audible is holding one heck of a sale right now, giving users three months of access for $3. That's a dollar per month. This is something of a winter tradition for the Amazon-owned platform and the promotion ends on January 21. An Audible subscription grants one audiobook per month to keep. This can be selected from a massive catalog of new releases and bestsellers. The collection here has just about everything. However, it's easy to plow through a single book in a month. Users also get streaming access to thousands of curated titles. Think of it

The first-generation Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are on sale right now for $280, marked down from $430. That 35 percent savings is an even steeper discount than we saw last year Black Friday. In our review of the first-generation Ultras, we gave them a score of 86 out of 100, noting their best-in-class active noise cancellation (ANC) and comfort. Bose improved its stock tuning for these headphones, which we could immediately tell sounded warmer and clearer. Bose has typically lagged behind the likes of Sony and Sennheiser in raw sound quality, but the first-generation QuietComfort Ultra was a big step toward

For a number of very obvious reasons, we don’t want to roll back the clock to early 2020. No thank you. But if there was a feel-good lockdown story, it was the perfectly timed arrival of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which allowed friends who could no longer meet up IRL to do so virtually on their carefully pruned islands. The game will almost certainly never be as popular as it was back then again, but Nintendo is hoping a good chunk of lapsed islanders will return for its latest DLC drop, which has arrived a day earlier than planned. As spotted

The holiday season may be behind us, but that doesn't mean you can't still find good deals on some of our favorite tech. Take the Apple Mac mini M4, which is on sale for $100 off. The 17 percent discount gives you 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD for $499, which is only about $20 more than its Black Friday sale price. Its beefier models are also on sale: opting for 512GB of SSD will cost you $689, down from $799, while also upping your RAM to 24GB is available for $890, dropping from $999.  We gave the Apple Mac

Gemini is adding a feature that’s designed to feel more tailored to individual users. Once enabled, "Personal Intelligence" can pull context from across your Google ecosystem, including Gmail, Google Photos, Search and YouTube History, to gain specific insight that will shape its answers and recommendations. Personal Intelligence is available starting today in the US for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. The feature is opt-in only and is off by default. Google Google says users will have the ability to control what apps Gemini pulls from and, in the future, which chats it uses Personal Intelligence for. The company says this new

YouTube is rolling out some additional parental controls, including a way to set time limits for viewing Shorts on teen accounts. In the near future, parents and guardians will be able to set the Shorts timer to zero on supervised accounts. "This is an industry-first feature that puts parents firmly in control of the amount of short-form content their kids watch," Jennifer Flannery O'Connor, YouTube's vice president of product management, wrote in a blog post. Along with that, take-a-break and bedtime reminders are now enabled by default for users aged 13-17.  The platform is also bringing in new principles, under which

You can easily spruce up your nightstand or desk by decluttering a bit, replacing some of those annoying charging cables with a good wireless charging setup. One of our favorites that can handle three devices at once is the UGREEN MagFlow Qi2 3-in-1 Charger Station 25W. Normally $140, it's on sale right now for $95; that's 32 percent off and only about $5 more than its record-low price. This is our top pick for a 3-in-1 charging pad thanks to its versatility. The UGREEN can work equally well as a permanent fixture in your home or act as a portable charging

We’re almost exactly halfway through January, but Nintendo has clearly taken a better-late-than-never approach to its 2025 year in review feature, which finally went live this week for Switch and Switch 2 users. All you need to do is head here and sign into your Nintendo account to see your 2025 breakdown. Like most annual gaming wrap-ups, Nintendo's shows how many games you played over the calendar year, as well as your total playtime. It also shows you your most-played titles for each month, your preferred genres by percentage, and if you scroll all the way to the bottom you can

If you want a wireless charger for your iPhone and prefer to stick with Apple, Amazon has a sale that may pique your interest. The retailer is selling the one meter Apple Magsafe charger for $30, saving you $10 off the regular price, while also selling the two meter model for $40 ($10 off). If you have an iPhone 16, iPhone 17 or iPhone Air, this cable can charge your device at 25W as long as it's connected to a 30W power adapter on the other end. While you'll need a more recent iPhone to get the fastest MagSafe charging speeds,

Just a week after announcing the latest version of its image-upscaling tech at CES, NVIDIA is rolling out DLSS 4.5. The company released a beta version of the update last week. Starting today, all NVIDIA app users with a GeForce RTX GPU will be able to upgrade to the full release of DLSS 4.5. NVIDIA says DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution (to give its full name) delivers sharper visuals and improved temporal stability. The 2nd Generation Super Resolution Transformer reduces ghosting and improves anti-aliasing in more than 400 games and apps, the company claims. "This second-generation model is our most sophisticated yet,

A new year is the perfect time to get your spending in order, and if you're not trying to build your own spreadsheet, budgeting apps are one of the best ways to do it. To save yourself some money in the process, you can pick up a year-long subscription to Monarch Money, one of Engadget's favorite budgeting apps, for just $50 if you use code NEWYEAR2026 at checkout and you're a new subscriber. That's a 50 percent discount on the service's normal $100 price. Monarch Money makes for a capable and detailed budgeting companion. You can use the service via apps

We’ve all heard of couch surfing, but Fender and Samsung have made it their 2026 mission to make couch shredding a thing. Samsung TV users will soon be able to take guitar lessons from the comfort of their living rooms, with the first TV edition of the Fender Play app set to arrive in the first half of this year. Debuted at CES, players can choose from video-based lessons for both electric and acoustic guitar, as well as bass and — for all the wannabe Jake Shimabukuros or George Formbys (one for the Brits) among you — the ukulele. There are

Bandcamp has addressed the AI slop problem vexing musicians and their fans of late. The company is banning any music or audio on its platform that is "wholly or in substantial part" made by generative AI, according to its blog. It also clarified that the use of AI tools to impersonate other artists or styles is “strictly prohibited” by policies already in place. Any music suspected to be AI generated may be removed by the Bandcamp team and the company is giving users reporting tools to flag such content. "We believe that the human connection found through music is a vital

AirTags already have a decently long battery life, but you will end up needing to replace the coin cell every two years or so. If you don't even want to be bothered with that, Elevation Lab made just the accessory for you: its AirTag battery case that can power the tracker for up to 10 years is on sale for 30 percent off. You can pick one up for only $16, and it's available in two- and four-packs as well at a discount. The TimeCapsule case uses two AA batteries to offer up to 14 times the lifespan of the CR2032

The peak time for deals on streaming services — the holiday shopping season — has come and gone, but Disney is back with a fresh offer for the new year. New and eligible returning subscribers can get one month of the ad-supported Disney+ Hulu bundle for just $10. That's $3 off the usual monthly rate for the bundle, and more than 58 percent off if you consider the prices for each service individually (Disney+ at $12 per month and, separately, Hulu also at $12 per month). We'd be remiss if we didn't mention that this isn't quite as good as the

Matthew McConaughey filed trademark applications to prevent his likeness from being used by AI companies without permission, and the US Patent and Trademark Office has approved eight so far. According to the Wall Street Journal, the trademarks were for video and audio clips featuring the actor staring, smiling and talking. One was for a video of him standing on a porch, while another was for an audio recording of him saying “alright, alright, alright,” his signature catchphrase from the movie Dazed and Confused. Under the law, it’s already prohibited for companies to steal someone’s likeness to sell products. However, McConaughey is

Tesla will stop selling its $8,000 Full Self-Driving (FSD) option and make it strictly a monthly subscription service after February 14, CEO Elon Musk announced on his X platform. Musk didn't reveal the price or why he's making the switch, though FSD is already available by subscription for $99 per month or $999 per year.  The shift could be advantageous for buyers, particularly if they decide to dump their new Tesla or trade it in. It will also allow prospective owners to hedge their bets, as Tesla has overpromised on the feature since it was first announced.  > Tesla will stop selling

The UK government has backtracked on a plan to require all workers to have a digital ID following a backlash. It will no longer be mandatory to register with the digital ID program to prove one has the right to work in the country, as the BBC reports. The government announced the now-scrapped digital ID requirement in September. "You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID," Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said at the time. "It's as simple as that."  The government still plans to fully transition to digital right-to-work checks by

Having fewer ports makes laptops and tablets lighter and more affordable — but that also cuts down on your connectivity options. If you’ve got a MacBook Air, a slim Chromebook or a tablet you’d like to get more utility out of, a USB-C hub can help. Using just a single port on your device, these multiport adapters will let you hook up screens, tap into Ethernet cables, connect mice and keyboards, and transfer data to drives and memory cards. Most also give you a way to power your device through the hub to maximize port availability. We tested over a

Several of Meta's VR studios have been affected by the company's metaverse-focused layoffs. The company has shuttered three of its VR studios, including Armature, Sanzaru and Twisted Pixel. VR fitness app Supernatural will no longer be updated with fresh content. Employees at Twisted Pixel, which released Marvel's Deadpool VR in November, and Sanzaru, known for Asgard's Wrath, posted on social media about the closures. Bloomberg reported that Armature, which brought Resident Evil 4 to Quest back in 2021 has also closed and that the popular VR fitness app Supernatural will no longer get updates. “Due to recent organizational changes to our Studio,

Roblox's age-verification system was designed as a response to allegations it has a child predator problem. Less than a week in, how's it going? Well, Wired reported on Tuesday that, in some cases, it's classifying children as adults and adults as children. So, not so great! Last week, Roblox made age verification mandatory for anyone using the platform's chat feature. That process involves either submitting a facial age estimate via selfie or (optionally for anyone 13 or older) uploading a government ID check. After verifying, you can only chat with groups of players around your age. The move came after reports grew

Last month, Instagram began rolling out a new set of controls that allowed users to personalize the topics recommended to them by the Reels algorithm. Now, Meta is making that feature available to all English users of the app globally, along with the ability to highlight their top topics for the coming year.  The feature begins with a selection of topics Meta's AI thinks you're interested in based on your recent activity, and has controls to remove them or add new categories. There's also a separate field for identifying what you want to see less of, and a new "build your

The Senate has passed the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits (DEFIANCE ) Act with unanimous consent, according to the bill’s co-sponsor Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). The bill lets the subjects of nonconsensual, sexually explicit deepfakes take civil action against the people who create and host them. Deepfakes are a known issue online, but without the proper protections, easy access to AI-powered image and video generation tools has made it possible for anyone to create compromising content using another person's likeness. This has become a particular problem on X, where the integration of Grok, the AI assistant created by X's

Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car company, tested its autonomous vehicles in New York City in 2025, and as part of proposed legislation from New York Governor Kathy Hochul, the company could soon offer its services across the state, Wired reports. Governor Hochul's proposed legislation was formally announced during a State of the State address covering policy proposals for the upcoming year. The new law, if passed, would loosen the state's restrictions on self-driving car companies by forming a pilot program that would allow for "the limited deployment of commercial for-hire autonomous passenger vehicles outside New York City." Applicants to the pilot program

Taiwanese officials have issued an arrest warrant for OnePlus CEO Pete Lau on allegations of illegally employing workers in Taiwan. Two Taiwanese citizens who worked for Lau have also been indicted. The China-based smartphone company has been accused of illegally recruiting more than 70 engineers from Taiwan.  Members of the Shilin District Prosecutors Office claim that OnePlus reportedly set up a shell company in Hong Kong with a distinct name, then launched a branch in Taiwan in 2015 without government approval. The branch reportedly worked on research and development for OnePlus mobile phones. Taiwanese officials claim these actions by OnePlus violated

The second season of Battlefield 6 is being pushed back based on “community feedback.” On Tuesday, EA and Battlefield Studios said Season 2 will now arrive on February 17. Season 2 of Battlefield 6 had previously been scheduled for January 20, so we're looking at a delay of almost a month. As a consolation, the team is extending Season 1 through the start of the next season. "During our ongoing development, we've continued to review community feedback and, in order to keep our promise, determined that our best path forward is to extend Season 1 and give ourselves extra time to further

NBA League Pass, the streaming service that lets you catch hundreds of out-of-market NBA games, is on sale right now for up to 55 percent off. The League Pass Premium subscription is on sale for $75, down from $160, while League Pass Standard is marked down to $50 from $110. We're almost halfway through the season at this point, so it makes sense for a service like League Pass to start offering some discounts. The Standard plan includes commercials and support for only one device at a time, while the Premium tier offers no commercials, in-arena streams during breaks in the

If you follow Anthropic, you're probably familiar with Claude Code. Since the fall of 2024, the company has been training its AI models to use and navigate computers like a human would, and the coding agent has been the most practical expression of that work, giving developers a way to automate rote programming tasks. Starting today, Anthropic is giving regular people a way to take advantage of those capabilities, with the release of a new preview feature called Claude Cowork. The company is billing Cowork as "a simpler way for anyone — not just developers — to work with Claude." After

As we expected, Meta has begun laying off more than 1,000 employees from its Reality Labs division, which focused on virtual reality and metaverse products, Bloomberg reports. The company will refocus on developing wearables, like its recent batch of AI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses, according to a memo from CTO Andrew Bosworth. The news isn’t too surprising. Reality Labs has lost more than $70 billion since the beginning of 2021, and while Meta has done a solid job of delivering desirable consumer VR headsets and smart glasses, that business hasn’t been nearly profitable enough to justify the cost. And of course, Mark

Apple has been putting more onus on its services for the past several years — the company makes tens of billions of dollars in revenue from that side of the business, which it claimed had a record year in 2025. Apple is nudging a little more in that direction with a new subscription bundle called Apple Creator Studio. This allows creators to pay a single fee ($13 per month or $129 per year) to use Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor and MainStage. Subscribers will get access to “premium content” in Pages, Keynote and Numbers (as well as

Anker is going up against Tesla in the home battery backup segment with Solix E10 that promises "whole-home backup" at an affordable price. The system delivers enough power to handle heavy-duty air conditioners and other high-power appliances in the event of a blackout. It also claims that the E10 supports DIY-friendly installation thanks to the stackable, plug-and-play design.  Each Anker Solix E10 unit can deliver up to 37.2kW of surge power and stacking two boosts that to 66kW. It also comes with a "turbo output" mode that can output 10kW per unit for 90 minutes maximum. That level of power, along

This UI will already be familiar to any Google Translate users, though ChatGPT Translate does include some style presets. | Image: OpenAI / The Verge OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Translate, a standalone web translation tool that supports over 50 languages and is positioned as a direct competitor to Google Translate. The two services look visually similar: both feature two text boxes - one for typing or pasting the source text and another that displays the translated results - alongside dropdown menus to manage which languages you're translating to or from. There are some notable differences, however. Google Translate allows users to upload

It's been 25 years since the launch of Wikipedia on January 15th, 2001, and it's come a long way from housing just 100 pages to becoming a behemoth of online knowledge with more than 65 million articles that get almost 15 billion views each month. To celebrate, the Wikimedia Foundation - the nonprofit that backs Wikipedia - is releasing brief clips that highlight eight of its editors from across the globe. Some of the featured editors include "Hurricane Hank," who joined Wikipedia in 2005 and contributed to the Hurricane Katrina page, along with Netha, an Indian doctor and experienced Wikipedia editor

Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity, and Mistral AI have joined Google in paying the Wikimedia Foundation for access to its projects, including Wikipedia's vast collection of articles. The Wikimedia Foundation announced the news as part of Wikipedia's 25th anniversary on Thursday. The partnerships are part of Wikimedia Enterprise, an initiative launched in 2021 that gives large companies access to a premium version of Wikipedia's API for a fee. Lane Becker, the Wikimedia Foundation's senior director of earned revenue, tells The Verge that the program offers a version of Wikipedia "tuned" for commercial use and AI companies. "We take feature … Read the full

Any ebook reader will let you cram a Beauty and the Beast-sized library’s worth of books in your pocket, but so will your phone. An ebook reader offers a more book-like reading experience, with fewer distractions and less eye strain, and many include extra features, like adjustable frontlighting. Some really are pocketable. Others are waterproof or offer physical page-turning buttons, while a few even let you take notes. I’ve been using ebook readers for nearly a decade, and I’ve gone hands-on with dozens, from the Kindle Paperwhite to lesser-known rivals like the PocketBook Era. Whether you want something your kid can

Following the proliferation of the nonconsensual sexual deepfakes on X, the platform has detailed changes to the Grok account's ability to edit images of real people. They match the changes reported on Tuesday by The Telegraph, as Grok's responses to prompts like "put her in a bikini" became censored. But in tests of the feature on Wednesday, we found that it was still relatively easy to get Grok to generate revealing deepfakes, while X and xAI owner Elon Musk blamed the problems on "user requests" and "times when adversarial hacking of Grok prompts does something unexpected." As of Wednesday evening, despite

Join our livestream—and pose a question to WIRED’s panel of experts—on China’s dominance, influence, and how it is rewriting the future.

Months after major data leaks, the app where women leave Yelp-style reviews about men is relaunching with a new website. It’s not back on iOS, but the Android app has new AI features.

The AI boom is driving an unprecedented wave of data center construction, but there aren’t enough skilled tradespeople in the US to keep up.

With the looks and speed of a gaming keyboard and the comfort of an ergonomic keyboard, the Falcata is a unique and expensive hybrid for a niche audience.

As the free online encyclopedia turns 25, it’s facing political opposition, AI scraping, dwindling volunteers, and a public that may no longer believe in its ideals.

These odd-looking hearing aids double as solid earbuds, but comfort is a major issue.

Breathe easier with these discounts on one of WIRED’s favorite air purifier brands, including an option for large rooms.

The departures are a blow for Thinking Machines Lab. Two narratives are already emerging about why they happened.

The killing of George Floyd in 2020 prompted a wave of statements from tech companies and CEOs. Today, pushback against ICE is largely coming from employees, not executives.

New research has discovered that a neural circuit may explain procrastination. Scientists were able to disrupt this connection using a drug.

Lume Cube has a variety of marked-down lighting products to help revamp your home office.

AI models are getting so good at finding vulnerabilities that some experts say the tech industry might need to rethink how software is built.

A major Verizon outage appeared to impact customers across the United States starting around noon ET on Wednesday. Calls to Verizon customers from other carriers may also be impacted.

In a world where ICE agents are shooting US citizens on the street, the need for militias and extremist groups like the Proud Boys to support far-right interests has evaporated.

Hundreds of records obtained by WIRED show thin intelligence on the Venezuelan gang in the United States, describing fragmented, low-level crime rather than a coordinated terrorist threat.

Protests across Minnesota—and around the country—are ongoing, as residents demonstrate against their federal government.

Sitting at a desk for hours? Upgrade your WFH setup and work in style with these comfy WIRED-tested seats.

The perfect kitchen companions, these versatile blenders can whip up breakfasts, dips, milkshakes, cocktails, and everything in between.

It turns out that this TikTok-viral vibration plate may have some surprising health benefits.

Two years ago, companies like Meta and OpenAI were united against military use of their tools. Now all of that has changed.

The keyboard for someone who wishes they could buy a ’97 Tacoma off the lot today.

Even after TikTok removed swastika jewelry from its online shop, I was algorithmically nudged toward a web of Nazi-related products during searches, like “double lightning bolt” and “ss” necklaces.

Everyone needs a safe way to listen to music on outdoor runs. We’ve found the bone conduction headphones to grab on your way out the door.

Wondering what you’re missing out on? Here are our favorite smartphones that aren’t officially sold stateside but are available in markets like the UK and Europe.

Get $50 off your next order or up to 50% off sitewide with Target coupon codes and Circle deals.

Whether you’re shopping for a ThinkPad, Yoga laptop, or Legion gaming PC, these Lenovo discount codes and promotions can help you save big on your next tech upgrade.

Boost your productivity and save with exclusive Google Workspace coupons from WIRED. Get up to 14% off plans for three months, including Starter, Standard, and Plus tiers.

As vehicles grow more software-dependent, repairing them has become harder than ever. A bill in the US House called the Repair Act would ease those restrictions, but it comes with caveats.

A Thousand Blows, Tell Me Lies, and Paradise are just a few of the shows you should be watching on Hulu this month.

In the second Trump administration, online conspiracy theories are shaping real-world policies like never before.

Kids are being identified as adults—and vice versa—on Roblox, while age-verified accounts are already being sold online.

Elgato’s Stream Deck + adds knobs and an LCD for even more info at a glance.

Are You Dead Yet soared to the top of app-store charts and became a magnet for investors. In an exclusive interview with WIRED, one of its creators says they’re changing the name anyway.

A contract justification published in a federal register on Tuesday says that 31 ICE vehicles operating in the Twin Cities area “lack the necessary emergency lights and sirens” to be “compliant.”

In response to a growing backlash, Microsoft said it would take steps to ensure that data centers don’t raise utility bills in surrounding areas and address other public concerns.

Urevo’s affordable new walking pad is cheaper than a round-trip ticket to hike in Iceland.

I loved Board’s unique blend of tabletop gaming, but my family gave it mixed reviews.

Can this discrete audio puck really drag any old speakers into the streaming age?

The LinkedIn cofounder and frequent Trump target has a simple message for his peers: “Just speak up about the things that you think are true.”

If you want to put people back on the moon, don’t gut the agency in charge of getting them there.

With federal agents storming the streets of American communities, there’s no single right way to approach this dangerous moment. But there are steps you can take to stay safe—and have an impact.

From baby monitors and sound machines to smart bassinets and car seats, here’s the baby tech we’ve tested and recommend.

The top Chinese smartphones are innovation-packed spec beasts, but it’s not always a good idea to import from the East.

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