Category: Business

US Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jan Schakowsky on Thursday sent letters to the two potential buyers of troubled genetic testing firm 23andMe demanding details about consumer data privacy should either of them acquire the company. Signed by 20 other Democratic members of Congress, the letters—which can be read here and here—were sent to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals […]

“What counties [sic] do younger women like older white men,” a public message from a user on Meta’s AI platform says. “I need details, I’m 66 and single. I’m from Iowa and open to moving to a new country if I can find a younger woman.” The chatbot responded enthusiastically: “You’re looking for a fresh […]

Will Knight: Maybe we also need a renewed open source movement so we’re not just using agents that belong and funnel data to these giant companies. Use open source code and models, and that sort of thing. Michael Calore: That’s a very good idea. We should get Signal on that. They should start doing that. […]

Waymo declined to answer questions from WIRED about how many cameras are inside its vehicles, exactly how long footage is retained, and whether the company has ever turned over footage to US federal law enforcement or a branch of the military. Karp did note, however, that the company’s engineering team sometimes uses information from sensors, […]

Tan, who declined to say whether he personally supports the TikTok ban, believes the central issue is enforcement. “There is a federal law that says the TikTok app should not be on your store, and I can see TikTok is on the app store,” he says of Google. “Congress passed the law, and the Supreme […]

Katie Drummond: I have to shop at a specialty hat store. Because my head actually doesn’t … I can’t wear— Lauren Goode: What is this store called? Katie Drummond: I can’t wear normal hats. Lauren Goode: Is it called Bobblehats? Katie Drummond: No, I’m going to look it up. It’s from Oddjob Hats. The last […]

My first meeting with Bill Atkinson was unforgettable. It was November 1983, and reporting for Rolling Stone, I had gained access to the team building the Macintosh computer, scheduled to launch early the next year. Everyone kept telling me, “Wait till you meet Bill and Andy,” referring to Atkinson and Andy Hertzfeld, two key writers […]

This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Every few years, a Silicon Valley gig-economy company announces a “disruptive” innovation that looks a whole lot like a bus. Uber rolled out Smart Routes a decade ago, followed a short time later by the Lyft Shuttle of its biggest competitor. […]

The data show the US is also on the hook for about $14 billion for SpaceX’s Starlink internet service at numerous offices, such as a Department of Interior facility in Nevada. The data could be outdated or include errors, but many of the listed figures line up with press releases from agencies such as the […]

Palantir, facing mounting public scrutiny for its work with the Trump administration, took an increasingly defensive stance toward journalists and perceived critics this week, both at a defense conference in Washington, DC, and on social media. On Tuesday, a Palantir employee threatened to call the police on a WIRED journalist who was watching software demonstrations […]