Tech

Drivers for ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft will soon have the right to unionize in California as independent contractors, thanks to a bill signed Friday by Governor Gavin Newsom. This is part of a larger deal between lawmakers, unions, and ride-hailing companies, resulting in the passage of separate bills supporting lower insurance requirements for Uber and Lyft, along with …

New PitchBook data illustrates how dramatically AI is dominating startup investment, with 2025 on-track to become the first year when AI accounts for more than half of all VC money invested. PitchBook reports that VCs have poured $192.7 billion into the industry so far this year, out of a total $366.8 billion, according to Bloomberg. In the most recent quarter, …

The tie between startups and the U.S. government have strengthened in recent years, a shift buoyed by an interest in using AI, automation, space, robotics, and climate tech for defense. And while that has provided another welcome path to capital, the relationship is getting complicated. A growing share of startups have the U.S. government as customers, or are aiming for …

Earlier this year, Anker, the Chinese company that makes Eufy security cameras, offered its users money in exchange for videos of package and car thefts.  The popular internet-connected security camera maker said it would pay its customers $2 per video to train its AI systems to help better detect thieves who steal cars and packages.   “To ensure we have enough …

It’s that time of year again, and Prime Day deals are back. The Amazon Prime Big Deal Days event—also known as Amazon Prime Day 2—is officially arriving on October 7 and 8, but early deals have already started flowing. The WIRED Reviews team has hundreds of years of collective experience covering shopping holidays such as this. What sets us apart …

Agriculture is a thirsty industry, consuming 70% of all fresh water used worldwide. In some countries, like India or Chile, it can be more than 90%. For Mario Bustamante, who lives in Chile, the problem hits close to home. “Lack of water is a big issue here,” he told TechCrunch. Bustamante is betting that AI can help slash water use …

OpenAI may be reversing course on how it approaches copyright and intellectual property in its new video app Sora. Prior to Sora’s launch this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI had been telling Hollywood studios and agencies that they needed to explicitly opt out if they didn’t want their IP to be included in Sora-generated videos. Despite being …

Social event planning app Partiful, which calls itself “Facebook events for hot people,” has firmly replaced Facebook as the go-to platform for sending party invitations. But what Partiful also has in common with Facebook is that it’s collecting a tsunami of user data, and Partiful could have done better at keeping that data secure. On Partiful, hosts can create online …

Tesla has been hit with an enforcement action by California’s Department of Insurance (CDI) for routinely denying or delaying customer claims despite years of warnings from the state regulator, according to a new pair of filings. Tesla’s insurance arm, along with its partner State National Insurance Company, engaged in “willful unfair claims settlement practices” including “egregious delays in responding to …

MagSafe grips are hardly the only type of phone grips available. In fact, there are four main other types of grips you can buy. Cases with attached grips. These are cases with a grip attached to the back. You get a strong and durable grip that will never fall off, but the trade-off is a thicker phone, and these cases …