DOGE’s Misplaced War on Software Licenses
Because agencies sometimes get bulk or government-specific discounts, it can also be more affordable to buy software licenses on behalf of their private contractors. “It’s a...
Google’s Taara Hopes to Usher in a New Era of Internet Powered by Light
Alphabet’s “moonshot factory,” known as X, has long cultivated craziness in its edgy projects. Perhaps the most outlandish was Loon, which aimed to deliver internet via...
The SEC Is Abandoning Its Biggest Crypto Lawsuits
In July, on the campaign trail, Trump promised a crowd of bitcoiners that he would fire previous SEC chair Gary Gensler if reelected. “I didn’t know...
Amazon Restricted Vaginal Health Products for Being ‘Potentially Embarrassing’
Startup founder Tara Langdale-Schmidt says her company’s devices, known as VuVa, are designed to soothe the pelvic and vaginal pain and discomfort that she and millions...
Stories We Can’t Stop Thinking About: Deepfakes, the Tesla Backlash, and All Things Chips
It’s the Oura Ring. It’s not new, but new to me. Have you guys heard of the Oura Ring? Zoe Schiffer: Oh my God. You know...
OpenAI Launches GPT-4.5 for ChatGPT—It’s Huge and Compute-Intensive
GPT-4.5 is here, and OpenAI’s newest generative AI model is bigger and more compute-intensive than ever—it’s supposedly also better at understanding what ChatGPT users mean with...
Boston Dynamics Led a Robot Revolution. Now Its Machines Are Teaching Themselves New Tricks
Reinforcement learning is a decades-old way of having a computer learn to do something through experimentation combined with positive or negative feedback. It came to the...
This Refinery Wants to Make Sustainable Aviation Fuel Mainstream. Trump’s Cuts Could Kill It
Follow the 10-inch pipeline that stretches south from Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, and after 13 miles you’ll find yourself at a potentially major future hub for...
Ads Popped Up on Drivers’ Screens. There May Be More on the Way
Last week, a Jeep driver turned to Reddit to do what people do best on the site—complain. Every time they hit the brakes on their Jeep,...
After a Violent Kidnapping, Crypto Elites Hire Bodyguards
In the early morning of January 21, David Balland and his wife were forced at gunpoint into separate vehicles outside their home in Méreau, a commune...