A software update was supposed to free up the PS Portal from its reliance on the PS5 and add a world of streamable games to its appeal. In practice, it does nothing of the sort.

With big cash prizes at stake—and AI supercharging research—interspecies translation is closer than ever. But what, if anything, would animals want to tell us?

Bloomberg: Preqin data: Southeast Asia’s AI startups raised just $1.7B across 122 deals so far in 2024, out of ~$20B across 1,845 deals for the whole Asia-Pacific region  —  – While global tech expands in the region, its startups languish  — Its homegrown tech industry risks falling behind in AI

Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times: How Britannica survived the Wikipedia era by changing itself into a maker of education software and AI agents, as it reportedly weighs an IPO at a $1B valuation  —  The encyclopedia maker could have become a casualty of the Wikipedia era.  But it has remade itself […]

Esha Dey / Bloomberg: Tesla’s shares are up 73% since Election Day, as several analysts see the Trump administration easing rules for self-driving tech, benefiting Tesla’s ambitions  —  – Stock was down 2% before election, gains 73% since Trump’s win  — ‘Hard to imagine an upside’ from here: Wisdomtree’s Gannatti

Digital tools are not always superior. Here are some WIRED-tested agendas and notebooks to keep you on track.

Plagued by delays, tied to a rival’s electric platform, yet somehow still being clever and innovative, Ford’s European EV experiment embodies the automaker’s failure to commit to electric cars.

Google dominated the last era of search. Now the company and the US Justice Department are battling over how to set a fair playing field for generative AI.

Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge: The US NHTSA suggests easing rules allowing for fully driverless cars and urges companies operating driverless cars to share more data for greater transparency  —  But there’s a twist: the agency wants self-driving car companies to cough up more data.

Financial Times: Report: hedge funds employing crypto strategies posted 46% gains in November, bringing their YTD returns to 76%, outpacing the industry average of 10% YTD gains  —  Crypto strategies made more than 30 per cent in November following Donald Trump’s election victory

Lucinda Shen / Axios: Tether says it is on track for a record $10B net profit in 2024 and expects to invest $2.5B to $3B in 2025 across AI, finance, biotech, education, and mining  —  Exit Content Preview … – Ardoino says the company is tracking toward a record $10 billion in net profits this […]

Plus: Google’s U-turn on creepy “fingerprint” tracking, the LockBit ransomware gang’s teased comeback, and a potential US ban on the most popular routers in America.

On Christmas Eve, NASA’s fastest-moving probe will come closer than ever to the surface of the sun.

Microbes found in green spaces can transfer into your body, increasing bacterial diversity and potentially boosting the strength of the immune system.

Jason Del Rey / Fortune: A profile of AWS CEO Matt Garman, including his first few months on the job, what his stewardship means for the business, and his opportunities and challenges  —  Matt Garman joined Amazon Web Services as an intern nearly two decades ago.  But his appearance earlier this month …

Olivia Carville / Bloomberg: A look at a lawsuit from 64 families against Snap that alleges Snapchat’s design is responsible for connecting teens to dealers selling counterfeit drugs  —  “I’m a survivor, and that’s bad for you, CEO of Snapchat, because, uh, uh, uh …” Michael Brewer can’t finish his sentence.

Manish Singh / India Dispatch: Sensor Tower: Indian quick commerce startup Zepto had 31M MAUs in Nov. 2024, up from 6M in May 2022; Blinkit had 30M MAUs in Nov. 2024, up from 28M in May 2022  —  Quick-commerce rivals Zomato-owned Blinkit and Zepto are neck-and-neck in India’s instant delivery market …

Oropouche virus has posed little threat outside South America in the past, but land-use change, the climate crisis, and international travel all appear to be spreading this insect-borne disease to new places.

A day after Google announced its first model capable of reasoning over problems, OpenAI has upped the stakes with an improved version of its own.

Chatbots aren’t very good at picking gifts, but that didn’t stop me from burning the planet in a quest for the perfect baking equipment.

Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge: A study by Waymo and insurer Swiss Re finds Waymo’s vehicles were safer than those driven by humans, with a 92% reduction in bodily injury claims and more  —  Waymo’s autonomous vehicles cause less property damage and fewer bodily injuries when they crash than human-driven vehicles …

Stephen Alpher / CoinDesk: Rumble announces a $775M investment from Tether and plans to use $525M to fund a tender offer for ~70M shares of its common stock; RUM jumps 35%+ after hours  —  YouTube competitor Rumble (RUM) is in a deal for a $775 million strategic investment from stablecoin giant Tether.

Sylvia Varnham O’Regan / The Information: Google hired 100+ staffers of Magic Leap as contractors to assist with Google’s work on its new Android XR OS, raising questions about the future of Magic Leap  —  Google has hired more than 100 staffers at augmented reality firm Magic Leap as contractors to assist with Google’s work […]

The latest AI model from OpenAI achieved an “impressive leap in performance” but it still hasn’t demonstrated what experts classify as human-level intelligence

A US ban on the video-sharing app TikTok is set to take effect in early 2025 – but the country’s Supreme Court and President-elect Donald Trump could still change that

An experiment showing that quantum and classical communication can be carried out through the same fibre at the same time may open the door to building a quantum internet with existing infrastructure

Try taking a picture of each of North America’s roughly 11,000 tree species, and you’ll have a mere fraction of the millions of photos within nature image datasets. These massive collections of snapshots — ranging from butterflies to humpback whales — are a great research tool for ecologists because they provide evidence of organisms’ unique behaviors, rare conditions, […]

Monitoring electrical signals in biological systems helps scientists understand how cells communicate, which can aid in the diagnosis and treatment of conditions like arrhythmia and Alzheimer’s. But devices that record electrical signals in cell cultures and other liquid environments often use wires to connect each electrode on the device to its respective amplifier. Because only […]

Over the past 14 months, as the impact of the ongoing Israel-Gaza war has rippled across the globe, a faculty-led initiative has emerged to support MIT students and staff by creating a community that transcends ethnicity, religion, and political views. Named for a flower that blooms along the Israel-Gaza border, MIT-Kalaniyot began hosting weekly community lunches […]

Sponsor content from GEP.

Notable companies retreated from their climate and social responsibility commitments — plus other defining themes.

Five ways leaders can correct for the bias that drives people to seek out those most similar to them.

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

The past year has been filled with announcements about new smart glasses from companies big and small. Don’t expect the deluge to let up anytime soon.

It’s still possible to just take normal-looking photos. Use these apps for Android and iOS to give your phone’s camera a more natural eye.

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: Bluesky updates its app that includes a separate mentions tab in notifications, protections against username squatting, and new controls for replies sorting  —  Social network Bluesky has released a new update to its app that includes a separate mentions tab in notifications …

Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg: The EU commission approves Nvidia’s acquisition of Israeli AI workload management startup Run:ai, saying the takeover raises no competition concerns in the EU  —  – EU says the deal won’t hamper competition in key market  — Run:ai has been a close collaborator with Nvidia since 2020

Bloomberg: Malaysia says it has identified WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Telegram, WeChat, and TikTok as platforms that need to obtain a license by next year  —  The platforms include Meta Platforms Inc.’s WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram; Elon Musk’s X; Google’s YouTube; Pavel Durov’s Telegram …

Whether you’re a fulfillment center, a manufacturer, or a distributor, speed is king. But getting products out the door quickly requires workers to know where those products are located in their warehouses at all times. That may sound obvious, but lost or misplaced inventory is a major problem in warehouses around the world. Corvus Robotics […]

Deadpool & Wolverine, Alien: Romulus, and Elton John: Never Too Late are just a few of the movies you should be watching on Disney+ this month.

From consciously choosing wrapping paper to gifting more mindfully, WIRED has all the tips to help you reduce your waste this holiday season.

There is no requirement that the Speaker of the House be an elected member of Congress. After Elon Musk all but killed a bill to fund the government, lawmakers now propose to cut out the middleman.

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Charlotte, NC-based Aiwyn, which provides automation software for accounting firms, raised $113M led by KKR and Bessemer, bringing its total funding to $127M  —  Accounting firms are struggling to adopt high-tech solutions.  That’s according to a survey earlier this year from Rightsworks …

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: YouTube plans to start a crackdown on “egregious clickbait”, or videos where the titles or thumbnails make claims the videos don’t back up, beginning in India  —  A lot of YouTube videos have flashy, misleading titles and thumbnails, such as “BREAKING NEWS” or “The president steps down …

Bloomberg: A look at Frank McCourt’s efforts to acquire TikTok and the obstacles he faces, as he lobbies Congress and Trump’s team and recruits former TikTok executives  —  – TikTok hopes Supreme Court will halt ban at final hour  — McCourt is pitching his bid to Congress, Trump’s team

Using descriptions of flavours or chemical data, artificial intelligence can tell apart whiskies from different countries and identify their constituent aromas

Advances in artificial intelligence mean that machines can now perform certain diagnostic tasks with far better accuracy than human doctors – but the picture is more complicated than you might think

The IEEE recently announced the winners of their 2025 prestigious medals, technical awards, and fellowships. Four MIT faculty members, one staff member, and five alumni were recognized. Regina Barzilay, the School of Engineering Distinguished Professor for AI and Health within the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at MIT, received the IEEE Frances […]

Senior Holden Mui appreciates the details in mathematics and music. A well-written orchestral piece and a well-designed competitive math problem both require a certain flair and a well-tuned sense of how to keep an audience’s interest. “People want fresh, new, non-recycled approaches to math and music,” he says. Mui sees his role as a guide […]

Frida Polli, a neuroscientist, entrepreneur, investor, and inventor known for her leading-edge contributions at the crossroads of behavioral science and artificial intelligence, is MIT’s new visiting innovation scholar for the 2024-25 academic year. She is the first visiting innovation scholar to be housed within the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Polli began her career in […]