WIRED’s advice columnist considers whether some AI tools are more ethical than others, and if developers can make AI wiser.

The ad-supported service is home to the biggest content library of any streamer. So why is Tubi still considered a social punching bag?

Breeze Liu has been a prominent advocate for victims. But even she struggled to scrub nonconsensual intimate images and videos of herself from the web.

Wes Davis / The Verge: Rabbit R1 maker Rabbit demos its “generalist Android agent”, showing it controlling apps on a tablet, building on its LAM Playground, a “generalist web agent”  —  Watch Rabbit’s AI agent, but not the Rabbit R1, do things in Android apps.

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: CISA and the FBI: attackers deploying Ghost ransomware breached victims from multiple industry sectors across 70+ countries, including critical infrastructure  —  CISA and the FBI said attackers deploying Ghost ransomware have breached victims from multiple industry sectors across over 70 countries …

Sherry Qin / Wall Street Journal: Chinese game giant NetEase reports Q4 net profit up 33% YoY to ~$1.2B, above ~$1.05B est., and revenue down 1.4%, a sign its gaming business is turning around  —  The company’s revenue fell 1.4% but was slightly better than analysts’ expectations  —  Chinese videogame giant NetEase returned …

Humans learn very differently to machines, thanks to our biased, malleable memory – and that’s a good thing, says Charan Ranganath, director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California, Davis

RNA splicing is a cellular process that is critical for gene expression. After genes are copied from DNA into messenger RNA, portions of the RNA that don’t code for proteins, called introns, are cut out and the coding portions are spliced back together. This process is controlled by a large protein-RNA complex called the spliceosome. […]

The use of terahertz waves, which have shorter wavelengths and higher frequencies than radio waves, could enable faster data transmission, more precise medical imaging, and higher-resolution radar. But effectively generating terahertz waves using a semiconductor chip, which is essential for incorporation into electronic devices, is notoriously difficult. Many current techniques can’t generate waves with enough […]

“I do not believe that DOGE can continue to deliver the work of USDS, based on their actions so far,” wrote Anne Marshall in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday.

The iPhone 16e starts at $599, which is nearly $200 more than the iPhone SE it just replaced.

One developer responds to the release of Muse: “We are implicitly empowering a class of people who own these tools and don’t give a fuck about how they reshape our lives.”

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch: Mistral’s Le Chat app tops 1M downloads in just 14 days, quickly reaching the App Store’s top free downloads spot in France; ChatGPT had 500K in just six days  —  A couple of weeks after the initial release of Mistral’s AI assistant, Le Chat, the company told Le Parisien that it […]

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google: Google is removing Gemini support from the main Google app on iOS, pushing users to download the standalone Gemini app  —  Google is informing iOS users that it will be removing Gemini support from the main Google app as it pushes users over to the full Gemini app.

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Uber ditches commissions in favor of fees for auto-rickshaw drivers in India in response to increased competition from local rivals Rapido and Namma Yatri  —  Uber is moving away from its commission-based model for three-wheeled motorized rickshaw drivers in India in response to increased competition …

Using AI to produce footage of video games with a consistent world and rules could prove useful to game designers

Researchers at Microsoft say they have created so-called topological qubits, which would be exceptionally resistant to errors, but their claim has been met with scepticism

Researchers who have been given access to Google’s new AI “co-scientist” tool are enthusiastic about its potential, but it isn’t yet clear whether it can make truly novel discoveries

In the race to reduce climate-warming carbon emissions, the buildings sector is falling behind. While carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the U.S. electric power sector dropped by 34 percent between 2005 and 2021, emissions in the building sector declined by only 18 percent in that same time period. Moreover, in extremely cold locations, burning natural […]

MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) has transformed the landscape of water and food research at MIT, driving faculty engagement and catalyzing new research and innovation in these critical areas. With philanthropic, corporate, and government support, J-WAFS’ strategic approach spans the entire research life cycle, from support for early-stage research to […]

Eight MIT researchers are among the 128 new members and 22 international members recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for 2025. Thirteen additional MIT alumni were also elected as new members. One of the highest professional distinctions for engineers, membership in the NAE is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering […]

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How to acknowledge the good—and still advocate for yourself.

It can be harder than you might think.

This shiny coffee maker and grinder arrives with an innovative autogrind feature pretty much unheard of in drip coffee.

Curls and waves are beautiful. But when you want to smooth them out, these hot tools—irons, brushes, and combs—work wonders.

Meta’s Waterworth Project will provide internet connectivity on five continents, with landing points in India, the United States, Brazil, and South Africa.

Jonathan Weil / Wall Street Journal: In Q4, Coinbase changed how it reports users’ crypto assets, taking them off its balance sheet, highlighting the lingering issue of who owns the digital assets  —  Coinbase’s accounting change dramatically affects its numbers and highlights an old worry  —  An odd thing happened …

Reuters: Google agrees to pay €326M to settle an Italian tax case from 2015 to 2019, covering sanctions, penalties, and interest; Milan prosecutors plan to drop the case  —  Milan prosecutors plan to drop a case brought against the European division of Google (GOOGL.O) after the company agreed …

Andy Greenberg / Wired: Signal updates its apps to add phishing protections after Google warned Russia-linked hackers are using fake QR codes to target Ukrainian soldiers  —  Google warns that hackers tied to Russia are tricking Ukrainian soldiers with fake QR codes for Signal group invites that let spies steal their messages.

Wholemeal bread can be shaped into carbon electrodes that could replace traditional metal conductors in electrical devices

While early language models could only process text, contemporary large language models now perform highly diverse tasks on different types of data. For instance, LLMs can understand many languages, generate computer code, solve math problems, or answer questions about images and audio.    MIT researchers probed the inner workings of LLMs to better understand how they […]

Biology is never simple. As researchers make strides in reading and editing genes to treat disease, for instance, a growing body of evidence suggests that the proteins and metabolites surrounding those genes can’t be ignored. The MIT spinout ReviveMed has created a platform for measuring metabolites — products of metabolism like lipids, cholesterol, sugar, and […]

At least eight ongoing lawsuits related to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s alleged access to sensitive data hinge on the Watergate-inspired Privacy Act of 1974. But it’s not airtight.

Despite all appearances, the White House insists that Elon Musk is not in charge of DOGE. US Doge Service employees can’t get a straight answer about who is.

The White Lotus, The Pitt, and Dune: Prophecy are just a few of the shows you need to be watching on Max this month.

Aaron Souppouris / Engadget: Humane says Ai Pin’s online features will stop working on February 28, when all customer data will be deleted, and it will refund some customers  —  Humane is discontinuing the AI Pin and selling out to HP.  —  AI hardware startup Humane has given its users just ten (10!) days notice […]

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Google Play Books for iOS will now let users complete their e-book or audiobook purchase on the Google Play website, under Apple’s “reader apps” exception  —  Google has gained permission to sell its e-books and audiobooks directly to customers through its iOS app, Google Play Books.

José Adorno / BGR: Protector, an iOS app that offers on-demand personal security, including armed agents, debuts in NYC and LA; adviser Nikita Bier calls it “Uber with guns”  —  There’s a new app on the App Store called Protector, which, as its advisor describes it, is “Uber with guns.”

The often stereotyped and offensive responses from AI chatbots role-playing as humans can be explained by flaws in how large language models attempt to portray demographic identities

As the Russia-Ukraine war reaches its third anniversary, militaries around the world are watching the evolution of drone warfare and planning for future conflicts

Creating and sustaining fusion reactions — essentially recreating star-like conditions on Earth — is extremely difficult, and Nathan Howard PhD ’12, a principal research scientist at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), thinks it’s one of the most fascinating scientific challenges of our time. “Both the science and the overall promise of fusion […]

Analyzing the strategic choice between doubling down or pulling the plug.

These tools can’t replace human empathy, but they can help you overcome your own weaknesses and tailor responses to the needs of your team.

This 2×2 will help your company navigate Beijing’s priorities and political sensitivities.

The Ratio Four is a truly simple single-serve drip coffee machine that makes barista-caliber coffee.

Need a little more cushion on your mattress? These mattress toppers are just what you need, whether you love a super-plush topper, a layer of memory foam, or wish for coiled support.

Did bureaucrats in the US plot to cut the crypto industry out of the banking system? An investigation begins.

Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg: Cambridge, UK-based Luminance, which uses AI to draft and review legal documents, raised a $75M Series C led by Point72, after a $40M Series B in April 2024  —  Billionaire Steve Cohen’s Point72 Private Investments led a $75 million financing round in Luminance Technologies Ltd. …

Financial Times: A look at Apple’s quiet pivot to India, where Foxconn now makes the iPhone 16 Pro; sources say China views Apple’s growing business in India with suspicion  —  As Donald Trump was preparing to take office for the first time in 2017, Priyank Kharge was busy making calls to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino […]