*I don't have to believe all of this in order to find it interesting.
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
How Many Billions Would It Take to Hold Meta Accountable?
Meta got hit this week with its biggest fine yet, the latest in a mounting pile of court-ordered payments.
Lauren Goode
Mark Zuckerberg Agrees to Stay in California Despite Billionaires’ Tax Ballot Measure
Meta’s board feared that its CEO’s departure could disrupt the company’s AI ambitions. A new stock agreement gives him financial incentives to stay put.
Paresh Dave
WIRED Ghost Stories
Five hauntings from the other side of technology.
Meta’s Ad Sales Are Suffering Now That Europeans Can Pick Less Personalization
An earnings briefing on Wednesday revealed ad revenue has slowed since the European Union introduced the Less-Personalized Ads model at the beginning of this year.
Isabella Ward
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
How Elizabeth Holmes Tricked WIRED—and Everyone Else
WIRED was the first magazine to cover Theranos and its enticing billionaire founder. There were warning signs even then.
Adam Rogers
Katie Zacharia Was Linked to an AI Rare-Earths Startup. It’s Even Weirder Than It Sounds
The short-lived White House press secretary was listed as an adviser to a Kristi Noem–linked company that aims to use AI for mining. Both the company and she say she never worked there.
Tess Owen
White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia Was an Affiliate Marketer for a Fitness MLM
Trump’s newly installed press secretary tells WIRED that in the early 2010s, she promoted a product for a company then called Beachbody, which she described as “sort of a pyramid scheme.”
Tess Owen
Bluesky Is Blocking Links to a Major Leak of DHS Employee Records
Bluesky tells WIRED it blocked links to a leaked archive of information on 41,000 ICE, CBP, and other DHS workers because it contains people’s contact information, shared without their authorization.
Dhruv Mehrotra
A Prediction Market About the Past? Sure, Why Not!
As prediction markets surge in popularity, a new platform called Verifact Markets is pushing the concept even further, letting users trade on “disputed facts.”
Kate Knibbs
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