*This was the pre-digital era. The demographic segments mostly remain, but the platforms are gone.
WIRED Ghost Stories
Five hauntings from the other side of technology.
Please Let the Internet Die
Online spaces are captured by oligarchs and saturated with slop—and they’re exacerbating humanity’s worst impulses. It’s time to start over.
Miles Klee
Wikipedians Believed AI Would Come and Go. They Were Wrong
In a world of AI Overviews, Wikipedia usage declines. But the real loss may be far more existential than website traffic.
Richard Cooke
The Internet Runs on Cats and Porn. It’s About to Get Cattier and Pornier
Soon, hundreds of new top-level domains, including .meow and .fart, could be added to the internet. WIRED goes inside the backroom shenanigans of ICANN, the organization at the helm.
Pete Millspaugh
How Apple Puts Indigenous Languages on the iPhone Keyboard
To save endangered languages, tech companies like Apple are working with Indigenous communities to meet the next generation where they type.
Julian Chokkattu
I’m Still Convinced the iPod Was the Perfect Gadget
Apple’s original music player got many things right. Chief among them: It didn’t connect to the internet.
Steven Levy
Spend Elon Musk’s Money
What’s it like to be the richest man in the world? Find out for yourself.
Neal Agarwal
Pour One Out for the Leap Second
The metric might not mean much to laypeople, but leap seconds have been a source of contention in the timekeeping community for years. Now, they’re dead.
Brian Kahn
Demi Adejuyigbe Thinks You Should Only Post 3 Times a Day
The comedian sees being online as similar to visiting the zoo. “I don’t need to interact with that,” he says. “It’s just a thing that I enjoy, and then I walk away.”
Miles Klee
Trump’s Crazy AI Rebrand Was a Loyalty Test for Tech Execs—and It Worked
For years these billionaires gushed obsessively about AI. But they meekly went along when Trump canceled the term.
Steven Levy
Maybe Chatbots Shouldn’t Get to Say ‘I’ or ‘Me’
MIT professor Sherry Turkle warns that people have become dangerously enmeshed with chatbots.
Steven Levy