A. I. Goes to War

Ships without crews. Autonomous drone swarms. A small U.S. Navy task force is using off-the-shelf robotics and Artificial Intelligence to prepare for the next great conflict at sea

The Fractal Immortality of Grimes

I thought my interview with Grimes-the mysterious techno artist, fan of all nerddom, and the deepest of insiders in Elon Musk's world-would be one-on-one. Instead it wound up as a roundtable discussion. Turns out there are multiple personas embedded in the surprisingly haimish human who sat under a tree with me and spent the waning hours of an afternoon in conversation. There was Claire Boucher, the given name of a Vancouver kid obsessed with video games and devoted to provoking adults with misbehavior and the embrace of taboo subjects. There was Grimes, the self-invented, scrappy DIY musician and provocateur who weaves sci-fi into her work and released what Pitchfork judged to be the second-best song of the 2010s. And there was her preferred nomenclature, "c," invoking the speed of light

A.I. Is a Fiction

Stop freaking out when chatbots say they're in love or make disturbing threats. Just treat them like Pinocchio.

FRAUD TRACKER

With her blog Web3 Is Going Just Great, software engineer Molly White rains on the crypto parade. She doesn't feel great about it

SAFETY FIRST

Fears that artificial intelligence might wipe us out have fueled the rise of protest groups like Pause Al. Their warnings are far-fetched, but not that far-fetched

THE GREAT DIVIDE

There are two ways to compute, and two ways to see the world. It's batch vs. loopand we really need them to reconcile

BRING THE NOISE

A vast array of gadgets make it easy to blot out sonic intrusions-maybe a little too easy

THE DEFECTOR

Doug Rushkoff was one of tech's founding optimists. Now he's renouncing the digital revolution. He says it's the only human option.

MIND WIDE OPEN

Kids soak up new skills, adults not so much. But neuroscientist Gül Dölen might have found a way to help grownups learn like littles and heal from stroke and trauma. Step one: Take psychedelics.

Watch This Space

French satellite giant Eutelsat is taking on Elon Musk's Starlink-while navigating Russia's war in Ukraine, Brexit politics, and Iranian jamming attacks

Christopher Bouzy – "Building a Platform Like Twitter is Not Difficult"

When Elon Musk's reign of toxic chaos began, Christopher Bouzy didn't just go looking for a rival place to post. He joined the crowded race to create one. (It got difficult.)

SONIC BOOM

With hundreds of thousands of podcasts competing for listeners, hosts are using IRL events and other strategies to make their shows more of an \"experience.\" Fans dig it

CROWDED HOUSE

Startups are buying properties and wooing first-time real estate investors to purchase shares. The scheme could spell trouble for both renters and aspiring homeowners

THE THREE MOUNDS AT RED CLOUD

How much truth and healing can forensic technology really bring? On the sites of Native American boarding schools, Marsha Small has made it her life's mission to find out

THE CASE FOR SOFTWARE CRITICISM

Software may be the defining cultural artifact of our age. It's time to build a culture of critical analysis around it

THE GENERATIVE HUSTLE OF SATYA NADELLA

Microsoft's leader is betting everything on a future drenched in Al-even if it's the last thing invented by humankind

THE WITCHY AMBITION OF SIMA SISTANI

WeightWatchers' CEO was tasked with helping her company catch up in the digital age. Now she's scrambling to keep it relevant in the Ozempic age

THE UNPARALLELED SQUARENESS OF PETE BUTTIGIEG

Sure, the US secretary of transportation has thoughts on building bridges. But infrastructure occupies just a sliver of his voluminous mind

THE APOCALYPTIC OPTIMISM OF CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

The director says his new biopic, Oppenheimer, might just terrify you. At the very least, it'll force you to ask questions about history, fear, technology-all of it

Reality TV Saved Me

One thing I was never told about reality TV-and I'm willing to bet you weren't either-is that it can heal. Nobody tells you it's a curative medium.

Remote Workers of the World Unite

Zoom did not set us free. But a bit of solidarity can help remote work live up to its promise.

Brandon Sanderson is Your God

He's the biggest fantasy writer in the world. He's also very Mormon. These things are profoundly related.

INSUDE EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME

The hackers were in thousands of corporate and government networks. They might still be there now. Behind the scenes of the SolarWinds investigation, unraveling one of the most sophisticated supply-chain attacks ever.

THE ENERGY TO SURVIVE

Jamie Beard is hell-bent on making geothermal power happen-big time-in the heart of oil-happy Texas. Yes, it's complicated. So is her life.

Sack Sprays

A new breed of self-care companies has a salve for fragile masculinity: lavender and tapioca-scented deodorants and moisturizers for the scrotum.

CHATGPT, UNLEASHED

OpenAl is now allowing its bot to interact with the live internet. This will make it more usefuland more problematic.

FLIPPING COINS

Hackers working for the North Korean regime are laundering stolen crypto through mining services to throw tracers off their trail.

SHOOT THE MOON

Andrew McCarthy produces images worthy of the James Webb Telescope from his backyard-with gear that doesn't require a NASA-grade budget.

SAVE THE METAVERSE!

The internet is already ruined, but there's still a chance for the virtual universe to follow a different path.

THE GREAT COMPRESSION

Before my father passed away, I promised him I would digitally archive his papers. It became a meditation on loss-and lossiness.