*This is really quite a story. Even the South Koreans are boggled by the details of it.
The president's the pitiful slave of a con-artist cultist
*It gets lots worse when you're in the tall grass.
‘It’s the President’s Fault’: The White House Blame Game Starts Early Ahead of the Midterms
As the White House contemplates losing Congress, there has been an unusually early effort to find a Republican scapegoat.
Hugo Lowell
The DOJ Is Weighing Perjury Charges Against Cassidy Hutchinson
The Justice Department is considering a perjury and obstruction-of-justice case against Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who testified against Donald Trump to the January 6 committee.
Hugo Lowell
A 28-Year-Old DOGE Operative Gutted USAID. HR Had No Record of Him Working There
Despite the agency's human resources department saying he hadn’t even been onboarded, Jeremy Lewin oversaw the destruction of USAID. It’s not clear he had the legal authority to do so.
Molly Knight Raskin
Trump Isn’t Even Good at TV Anymore
From Trump TV to a Shark Tank knockoff, the president’s latest entertainment ventures are a steep decline from his days on The Apprentice.
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
My Friend Has No Soul
The second iteration of the viral Friend AI necklace is louder and less interesting.
Boone Ashworth
An AI Agent Joined a Listserv of Top Internet Researchers. The Reply-All Chaos Is Still Unfolding
Hysteria over the agent's appearance in a 7,500-person group reveals that internet experts have outdated notions of privacy.
Olivia Snow
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
Inside Elon Musk’s Midterm Spending Spree
This week on Uncanny Valley, we discuss where Elon Musk’s PAC is spending millions, the latest ideology Trump claims is dangerous, and the backlash against the designer behind Muse’s logo.
Zoë Schiffer
You Probably Aren’t Going to Get the Plague
The death of a lab worker in Russia has authorities looking at whether plague played a role. Even if it did, though, the odds of it spreading are very low.
Emily Mullin
Trump Aides Admit the House Is a Lost Cause
With the midterm elections just a few weeks away, the White House knows it has to go all in on Senate races—while virtually forfeiting the House.
Hugo Lowell
OpenAI Wants Its New Agent to Run Your Life. Mine Said It Loved Me
Dots are designed to automate online tasks, like buying furniture. In my initial experience, the always-on agent was a bit buggy and couldn’t complete a captcha.
Reece Rogers