Tech

Senate Republicans shared a deepfake video of Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, designed to make it seem like Democrats are celebrating the ongoing government shutdown, which has lasted 16 days.   In the deepfake, an AI-generated Schumer repeats the phrase “every day gets better for us,” an actual quote taken out of context from a Punchbowl News article. In …

“Like a coffee capsule machine, but for plants,” reads Click & Grow’s marketing copy. Sure enough, the Click & Grow Smart Garden’s seed pods come in a Nespresso-evoking plastic three-pack with a tear-off cover. (Pods run about $3 to $5 each.) Put a nutrient-packed “smart soil” seed pod in one of the Click & Grow’s cups with the wicking bottom, …

Bose is well known for its noise-canceling headphones and earbuds, and the high-end QuietComfort Ultra (9/10, WIRED Recommends) are currently marked down to just $329 on Amazon, with the same discount at Best Buy. You’ll have to move fast, though, as both sites feature countdown timers with less than 24 hours remaining as I write this. Photograph: Ryan Waniata The …

The AI era is giving fracking a second act, a surprising twist for an industry that, even during its early 2010s boom years, was blamed by climate advocates for poisoned water tables, man-made earthquakes, and the stubborn persistence of fossil fuels. AI companies are building massive data centers near major gas-production sites, often generating their own power by tapping directly …

The Department of Energy said Thursday that it had finalized a $1.6 billion loan guarantee to upgrade around 5,000 miles of transmission lines. The grid upgrades would ease the flow of electricity in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. The project, which will address lines owned by American Electric Power, won’t add any new routes, but it will help …

Silicon Valley’s rule? It’s not cool to be cautious. As OpenAI removes guardrails and VCs criticize companies like Anthropic for supporting AI safety regulations, it’s becoming clearer who the industry thinks should shape AI development.  On this episode of Equity, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Max Zeff discuss how the line between innovation and responsibility is getting blurrier, plus what …

A Facebook feature that gives Meta AI the ability to suggest edits to photos stored on your phone’s camera roll, but haven’t yet been shared, is now rolling out to all users in the U.S. and Canada. The company announced on Friday that users can choose to opt in to receive these sharing suggestions, which will then prompt them to …

ChatGPT’s mobile app growth may have hit its peak, according to a new analysis of download trends and daily active users provided by the third-party app intelligence Apptopia. Its estimates indicate that new user growth, measured by percentage changes in new global downloads, slowed after April. In addition, global daily active user growth has stopped and plateaued in more recent …

The tech layoff wave is still kicking in 2025. Last year saw more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been the victim of reductions across the tech industry, with a staggering 16,084 cuts taking place in February alone. We’re tracking layoffs in the tech …

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership with Apple for its generative …