Category: Business

Midjourney’s new AI-generated video tool will produce animated clips featuring copyrighted characters from Disney and Universal, WIRED has found—including video of the beloved Pixar character Wall-E holding a gun. It’s been a busy month for Midjourney. This week, the generative AI startup released its sophisticated new video tool, V1, which lets users make short animated […]

However, after WIRED sent Shabanov details about how SuppCo conducted its tests, he conceded that it’s possible there may have been quality control issues with some of the product and says the company is launching an internal investigation and had already made a decision to switch to a different manufacturer for some products. “There’s always […]

Modern large language models (LLMs) might write beautiful sonnets and elegant code, but they lack even a rudimentary ability to learn from experience. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have now devised a way for LLMs to keep improving by tweaking their own parameters in response to useful new information. The work is a […]

In her new book, Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream, journalist and WIRED alum Megan Greenwell chronicles the devastating impacts of one of the most powerful yet poorly understood forces in modern American capitalism. Flush with cash, largely unregulated, and relentlessly focused on profit, private equity firms have quietly reshaped […]

Other filings suggested a recession could come even earlier. The community bank Hanmi Bank, under its holding company Hanmi Financial Corp., said in an SEC filing that “the combination of tariffs, rising inflation, deportations, global political unrest and tensions, and reduced credit availability” could cause “a mild recession in 2025.” Some companies said that deportations […]

Zhang says his company makes money on each individual conversation after excluding certain overhead costs, but he declined to comment on the startup’s overall profitability. With $100 million raised from venture capitalists including Andreessen Horowitz and Accel, Decagon has the flexibility to prioritize growth over profitability. “Whether we could be pricing more, it’s always like […]

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, […]