This week on Uncanny Valley, our hosts ask what impact religion will have on Silicon Valley.

Anora, A Complete Unknown, and Deadpool & Wolverine are just a few of the movies you should be watching on Disney+ this month.

Andrew Goudsward / Reuters: A US federal judge orders agencies whose leaders participated in the Signal chat on the Houthi attacks to preserve all messages sent from March 11 to March 15  —  A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to preserve messages sent on the Signal messaging app …

Joanne Jang / Reservoir Samples: OpenAI’s model behavior lead says OpenAI is “shifting from blanket refusals in sensitive areas to a more precise approach focused on preventing real-world harm”  —  Navigating responsibility and user freedom, and how that influenced setting the Day 1 policy for 4o image generation in ChatGPT

The Information: Sources: the Chinese startup behind Manus is in talks with US VC firms and others to raise funding at a $500M+ valuation, up ~5x from its previous valuation  —  The Chinese startup that operates Manus, the artificial intelligence agent that became a viral hit in the U.S. earlier this month …

A quantum algorithm for solving mathematical problems related to knots could give us the first example of a quantum computer tackling a genuinely useful problem that would otherwise be impossible for a classical computer

Metamaterials are artificially-structured materials with extraordinary properties not easily found in nature. With engineered three-dimensional (3D) geometries at the micro- and nanoscale, these architected materials achieve unique mechanical and physical properties with capabilities beyond those of conventional materials — and have emerged over the past decade as a promising way to engineering challenges where all […]

Six current MIT affiliates and 27 additional MIT alumni have been elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  The 2024 class of AAAS Fellows includes 471 scientists, engineers, and innovators, spanning all 24 of AAAS disciplinary sections, who are being recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements. Noubar […]

Taking out a loan to attend college is an investment in your future. But unlike in the United States, students in Pakistan don’t have easy access to college loans. Instead, most families must stomach higher interest rates for personal loans that can require collateral like land or homes. As a result, college is inaccessible for […]

Lessons from SAP’s efforts to reach small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Fall asleep anywhere with this excellent sleep mask and its built-in headphones.

WIRED’s advice columnist considers whether trying to remove your data and information from generative AI tools could lessen your impact on the technology.

The Japanese singer-songwriter’s new album goes deep on their “fascination with science.” WIRED Japan took Hikaru Utada to visit the Large Hadron Collider to learn more.

Reuters: Client notice: Chinese server maker H3C warns of potential shortages of Nvidia H20 chips, the most advanced AI chips available in China under US export rules  —  One of China’s largest server makers, H3C, has flagged potential shortages of Nvidia’s H20 chip, the most advanced AI processor …

Dominic Preston / The Verge: Xiaomi’s Poco unveils the £649+ F7 Ultra, with a 6.67″ display, Snapdragon 8 Elite, a triple rear camera, 120W wired charging, and IP68, and the £499+ F7 Pro  —  Its first ‘Ultra’ phone has a triple rear camera, fast charging, and IP68 protection.

Newley Purnell / Bloomberg: Meta VP of Asia Pacific Dan Neary is leaving for personal reasons; the Singapore-based executive joined in 2013, and Meta now has ~1.1B users in the region  —  Dan Neary, the company’s vice president for the region, assumed the role in 2013 and oversaw the rapid expansion of the company’s user […]

The rise of large language models like ChatGPT that can churn out computer code has led to a new term – vibe coding – for people who create software by asking AI to do it for them

OpenAI just unveiled a new subscription tier called ChatGPT Pro. Users can pay $200 a month for almost unlimited access to ChatGPT’s tools, and an exclusive new AI model.

Thelma, Gladiator, and Kinds of Kindness are just a few of the movies you need to watch on Hulu right now.

Next year, you won’t need to download yet another app to use an EV charger from an unfamiliar brand. Most of the major EV makers and charging networks are on board.

Victoria Song / The Verge: Oura rolls out Symptom Radar, a feature that tries to detect early signs of sickness using biometrics like heart rate variability, to Oura Ring Gen 3 and 4  —  At the height of the covid-19 pandemic, many wearable companies rushed to see if their devices could detect early signs of […]

Greg Otto / CyberScoop: US intelligence reports: online terrorist network 764 is using techniques normally used for financial crimes, such as SIM swapping, to commit child sextortion  —  The child sextortion group 764 and the global collective of loosely associated groups known as “The Com” are using tools …

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: US SEC filing: xAI raised $6B, bringing its total raised to $12B; it was reportedly aiming for a $50B valuation  —  xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has raised $6 billion, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.  —  Investors gave a minimum of $77,593 …

A US ban on exporting high-end chips used for AI development to China doesn’t seem to have affected Tencent, as researchers have found signs of the tech giant using the chips well after the ban was put in place

People struggling with their mental health are more likely to browse negative content online, and in turn, that negative content makes their symptoms worse, according to a series of studies by researchers at MIT. The group behind the research has developed a web plug-in tool to help those looking to protect their mental health make […]

Until very recently, Mariano Salcedo, a fourth-year MIT electronic engineering and computer science student majoring in artificial intelligence and decision-making, was planning to apply for a master’s program in computer science at MIT. Then he saw the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, which opened this fall for a selection of classes. “Now, instead […]

What to consider before getting started.

These seven principles help PE firms turn talk into action.

A study of digital healthcare startups found that successful firms avoided prototypes early.

Our favorite WIRED-tested giftable gadgets for everything from water and coffee to wine and cocktails.

Inspired by her own experienced of abuse, Nighat Dad fights for women’s social and digital rights in Pakistan and beyond.

They’ve racked up millions of views on Instagram, but these products aren’t coming to a store near you.

Jordyn Holman / New York Times: A look at the logistics network of Amazon, Walmart and Target for same-day or next-day delivery; Walmart says it now offers same-day to 86% of US households  —  Retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target have figured out that if they get you your online order today, you will probably […]

Reuters: Meta plans to invest $10B to build a data center in Louisiana, in what would be its largest data center in the world, and expects work to start in December  —  Facebook-parent Meta (META.O) said on Wednesday it plans to invest $10 billion to set up an AI data center in Louisiana …

Cecilia D’Anastasio / Bloomberg: Sources: AT&T, JPMorgan, and Dunkin’ pull ads from Twitch after a controversial group of livestreamers alleged that Twitch is promoting antisemitic content  —  – Exiled contributors mount campaign that includes edited clips  — Their targets are pro-Palestinian streamer and Twitch staffers

A robotic wheeled rat that was trained with AI learned how to play and fight with real rodents – and could one day offer companionship to lab rats

Car design is an iterative and proprietary process. Carmakers can spend several years on the design phase for a car, tweaking 3D forms in simulations before building out the most promising designs for physical testing. The details and specs of these tests, including the aerodynamics of a given car design, are typically not made public. […]

The ChatGPT maker is the latest AI giant to reveal it’s working with the defense industry, following similar announcements by Meta and Anthropic.

Researchers hacked several robots infused with large language models, getting them to behave dangerously—and pointing to a bigger problem ahead.

The mobile device security firm iVerify has been offering a tool since May that makes spyware scanning accessible to anyone—and it’s already turning up victims.

Jordan Novet / CNBC: Amazon is rolling out a Buy with AWS button that software companies can add to their websites as a way for customers with AWS accounts to pay for services  —  In 2022, Amazon introduced the Buy with Prime button, allowing premium subscribers to make purchases using their Amazon account even when […]

Simon Willison / Simon Willison’s Weblog: First impressions of Amazon Nova LLMs: they are competitive with Google Gemini, among the cheapest available, and may position Amazon as a top model provider  —  Amazon released three new Large Language Models yesterday at their AWS re:Invent conference.  The new model family is called Amazon Nova …

Financial Times: xAI plans to expand its Colossus supercomputer tenfold to incorporate more than 1M GPUs; work has already begun to increase the size of its facility in Memphis  —  Facility in Memphis expected to incorporate more than 1mn GPUs as billionaire’s xAI aims to catch up with rivals

In a unique demonstration of brain implants that incorporate living cells, the devices were able to connect with the brains of live mice

The latest weather forecasting AI model from Google DeepMind can beat the leading providers more than 97 per cent of the time, and it is quicker and cheaper to run

A bird-inspired robot called RAVEN can walk, hop and jump into flight, an ability that could help people develop fixed-wing drones that can take off and land anywhere

For the first time, MIT sent an organized engagement to the global Conference of the Parties for the Convention on Biological Diversity, which this year was held Oct. 21 to Nov. 1 in Cali, Colombia. The 10 delegates to COP16 included faculty, researchers, and students from the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI), the Department of […]

Dry river channels and lake beds on Mars point to the long-ago presence of a liquid on the planet’s surface, and the minerals observed from orbit and from landers seem to many to prove that the liquid was ordinary water.  Not so fast, the authors of a new Perspectives article in Nature Geoscience suggest. Water is […]

The MIT K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics and Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health (MOH) have launched the first fully accredited educational program for prosthetists and orthotists in Sierra Leone.  Tens of thousands of people in Sierra Leone need orthotic braces and artificial limbs, but access to such specialized medical care in this African nation […]

A new playbook for new kinds of risk.