All you need is an internet connection, a library card, and a good ebook reader to dive into your next page-turner.
I Tried These AI-Based Productivity Tools. Here’s What Happened
Hoping to make life easier, I tested six AI-powered tools meant to help me write better and work smarter.
The Mysterious ‘Dark’ Energy That Permeates the Universe Is Slowly Eroding
Physicists call the dark energy that drives the universe “the cosmological constant.” Now the largest map of the cosmos to date hints that this mysterious energy has been changing over billions of years.
Some founders say TikTok ban won’t impact creator economy startups much, as they have diversified across multiple platforms after Trump tried banning it in 2020 (Amanda Silberling/TechCrunch)
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: Some founders say TikTok ban won’t impact creator economy startups much, as they have diversified across multiple platforms after Trump tried banning it in 2020 — ‘Two years ago, this would have been devastating’ — President Joe Biden signed a bill on Wednesday that could ban TikTok — for real this […]
India’s top five IT services companies, including Infosys and Wipro, collectively saw a decline of 69,167 employees in FY 2024; HCLTech added 1,537 employees (Debangana Ghosh/Moneycontrol)
Debangana Ghosh / Moneycontrol: India’s top five IT services companies, including Infosys and Wipro, collectively saw a decline of 69,167 employees in FY 2024; HCLTech added 1,537 employees — Four out of the five top IT companies including TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Tech Mahindra lost employees both sequentially in Q4 and full year FY24.
Meta, Alphabet, and Snap beat analysts’ estimates in their Q1 results, showing acceleration in advertising growth after struggling to rebound from a dismal 2022 (Ashley Capoot/CNBC)
Ashley Capoot / CNBC: Meta, Alphabet, and Snap beat analysts’ estimates in their Q1 results, showing acceleration in advertising growth after struggling to rebound from a dismal 2022 — A view of Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California, United States on March 23, 2024. — Advertising is so back.
Exploring the history of data-driven arguments in public life
Political debates today may not always be exceptionally rational, but they are often infused with numbers. If people are discussing the economy or health care or climate change, sooner or later they will invoke statistics. It was not always thus. Our habit of using numbers to make political arguments has a history, and William Deringer […]
7 Best Sleeping Pads (2024): For Camping, Backpacking, and Travel
Whether you’re snoozing in a campground or schlepping up to an alpine valley, these are the best pads we’ve found for resting your weary bones.
10 Best Robot Vacuums (2024): Mops, Budget Vacs, Great Mapping
Whether you’re up against pet hair or you want to splurge on a high-end laser-guided robot vacuum, we have the perfect pick for you.
Ceretone Core One OTC Hearing Aids Review: Tiny and Barely Useful
These hearing aids are tiny and nearly invisible, but they aren’t terribly effective.
TikTok users with stigmatized interests or marginalized identities express anxiety over its potential ban, as rebuilding their communities elsewhere may be hard (Washington Post)
Washington Post: TikTok users with stigmatized interests or marginalized identities express anxiety over its potential ban, as rebuilding their communities elsewhere may be hard — President Biden signed legislation Wednesday that could ban TikTok, leaving users in the United States who have spent years building …
The US IRS says it spent $10.5M to develop and $2.4M to run its free tax filing website, used by 140K+ taxpayers in 12 states, and claims high user satisfaction (Julie Zauzmer Weil/Washington Post)
Julie Zauzmer Weil / Washington Post: The US IRS says it spent $10.5M to develop and $2.4M to run its free tax filing website, used by 140K+ taxpayers in 12 states, and claims high user satisfaction — In its first year, more than 140,000 households in 12 states did their taxes with Direct File
EyeEm, the bankrupt photo sharing network acquired by Freepik last year, will license users’ photos to train AI if the images are not deleted within 30 days (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: EyeEm, the bankrupt photo sharing network acquired by Freepik last year, will license users’ photos to train AI if the images are not deleted within 30 days — EyeEm, the Berlin-based photo-sharing community that exited last year to Spanish company Freepik after going bankrupt, is now licensing its users’ photos to […]
The Best New Albums of Spring 2024
New music from Maggie Rogers, Tyla, Brittany Howard, and SchoolBoy Q showcase distinct artistic evolutions.
Meta’s Ray-Ban Smart Shades Get a Fresh Blast of AI
Plus: Leaked details tell us more about the new Google Pixel 8A, Freitag’s environmentally conscious bag is entirely recyclable, and it’s time to unpack a whole bunch of tech acronyms.
1 in 3 Americans Live in Areas With Dangerous Air Pollution
Climate change is increasing the number of days people are exposed to hazardous pollution, affecting already disadvantaged communities the most.
Google and Apple use passkeys to capture users by locking credentials into their platforms and have made the UX of passkeys worse than that of password managers (William Brown/Firstyear’s blog-a-log)
William Brown / Firstyear’s blog-a-log: Google and Apple use passkeys to capture users by locking credentials into their platforms and have made the UX of passkeys worse than that of password managers — At around 11pm last night my partner went to change our lounge room lights with our home light control system.
A review of Dana Mattioli’s The Everything War, which covers Lina Khan’s antitrust battle against Amazon and makes a case that no company should be so powerful (Jonathan Ford/Financial Times)
Jonathan Ford / Financial Times: A review of Dana Mattioli’s The Everything War, which covers Lina Khan’s antitrust battle against Amazon and makes a case that no company should be so powerful — Dana Mattioli’s important book looks the winner-takes-all dynamic that built a competition-squashing behemoth
Investors cheer Microsoft and Alphabet’s huge AI spending plans as shares of both firms rallied but not Meta’s, which saw its worst trading day in 18 months (Tom Dotan/Wall Street Journal)
Tom Dotan / Wall Street Journal: Investors cheer Microsoft and Alphabet’s huge AI spending plans as shares of both firms rallied but not Meta’s, which saw its worst trading day in 18 months — Meta had its worst trading day in 18 months after warning of years of AI investment; shares of Microsoft and Alphabet […]
Roborock’s Robot Vacuums—Including WIRED’s Top Pick—Are on Sale Right Now
More like Robot Rock, am I right? (Sorry.) These are some of the best dust busters around, and they’re cheaper than usual.
Tesla Autopilot Was Uniquely Risky—and May Still Be
In an investigative report into crashes and deaths associated with Tesla Autopilot, federal regulators concluded that the system lacked standard protections.
The 33 Best Shows on Amazon Prime Right Now
From Mr. and Mrs. Smith to Fallout, these are our picks for what you should be watching on the streamer.
IBM plans to expand its semiconductor packaging and testing plant in Bromont, Quebec, with more than CA$1B in investments over the next five years (Mathieu Dion/Bloomberg)
Mathieu Dion / Bloomberg: IBM plans to expand its semiconductor packaging and testing plant in Bromont, Quebec, with more than CA$1B in investments over the next five years — – The chips-packaging facility has about 1,000 employees — ‘What you really need is a full supply chain onshore’: Thomas
Filing: FTC says Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, and other Amazon execs used Signal’s disappearing messages to conceal evidence in FTC’s antitrust case against Amazon (Leah Nylen/Bloomberg)
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg: Filing: FTC says Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, and other Amazon execs used Signal’s disappearing messages to conceal evidence in FTC’s antitrust case against Amazon — – Agency accuses retail giant of failing to preserve documents — Top executives communicated via Signal disappearing chats
Sources: Apple has renewed discussions with OpenAI about using its technology to power some features in iOS 18; talks with Google on using Gemini remain ongoing (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Sources: Apple has renewed discussions with OpenAI about using its technology to power some features in iOS 18; talks with Google on using Gemini remain ongoing — – The iPhone maker has also been holding discussions with Google — Negotiations center on powering AI chatbot in iOS 18 update
Three from MIT awarded 2024 Guggenheim Fellowships
MIT faculty members Roger Levy, Tracy Slatyer, and Martin Wainwright are among 188 scientists, artists, and scholars awarded 2024 fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Working across 52 disciplines, the fellows were selected from almost 3,000 applicants for “prior career achievement and exceptional promise.” Each fellow receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent […]
A musical life: Carlos Prieto ’59 in conversation and concert
World-renowned cellist Carlos Prieto ’59 returned to campus for an event to perform and to discuss his new memoir, “Mi Vida Musical.” At the April 9 event in the Samberg Conference Center, Prieto spoke about his formative years at MIT and his subsequent career as a professional cellist. The talk was followed by performances of J.S. […]
How to Answer an Open-Ended Question from a Job Candidate
Five strategies for interviewers.
More Women Work in Nonprofits. So Why Do Men End Up Leading Them?
Data from 1 million nonprofit workers show that men have an easier pathway to leadership — and suggests how to level the playing field.
JLab JBuds ANC 3 Review: A $60 Alternative to Apple AirPods Pro
For less than you’d spend on dinner out for two, you can snag this pair of excellent noise-canceling earbuds.
1994 Was the Last Good Year—and It’s Still Going
Nine Inch Nails, Pulp Fiction, “Regulate.” The last year before culture began to migrate online was not like any other.
What’s the Safest Seat on an Airplane?
All of them and none of them, really. Let us explain.
The NHTSA closes a 2021 investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot and opens a new one to evaluate whether a December 2023 Autopilot recall fix is effective enough (Sean O’Kane/TechCrunch)
Sean O’Kane / TechCrunch: The NHTSA closes a 2021 investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot and opens a new one to evaluate whether a December 2023 Autopilot recall fix is effective enough — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed a long-standing investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system …
The EU Commission says Shein will have to comply with DSA rules for content handling, starting August 2024, as the retailer has more than 45M users in the EU (Clothilde Goujard/Politico)
Clothilde Goujard / Politico: The EU Commission says Shein will have to comply with DSA rules for content handling, starting August 2024, as the retailer has more than 45M users in the EU — Europe tightens scrutiny of China-based tech companies. — BRUSSELS — Chinese fashion app Shein will face stringent rules …
Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Jensen Huang, and others join a panel to advise US DHS on deploying AI safely within America’s critical infrastructure (Dustin Volz/Wall Street Journal)
Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal: Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Jensen Huang, and others join a panel to advise US DHS on deploying AI safely within America’s critical infrastructure — Panel will advise Department of Homeland Security on deploying artificial intelligence safely within America’s critical infrastructure
Deepfake politicians may have a big influence on India’s elections
Political campaigns are deploying AI-generated deepfake versions of politicians to reach hundreds of millions of eligible voters in India’s 2024 election – the world’s largest ever
There’s a Rare $25 Discount on the Nintendo Switch OLED Right Now
Nintendo’s top-of-the-line handheld gaming console hardly ever goes on sale, making this small discount super appealing.
Net Neutrality Returns to a Very Different Internet
The FCC voted 3-2 to restore net neutrality rules that had disappeared during the Trump administration.
The 30 Best Movies on Hulu This Week
From Poor Things to Dune: Part One, here’s everything you need to watch on Hulu right now.
Former Twilio CEO and co-founder Jeff Lawson buys The Onion from G/O Media, via his new company Global Tetrahedron; Lawson had long wanted to buy the site (Katie Robertson/New York Times)
Katie Robertson / New York Times: Former Twilio CEO and co-founder Jeff Lawson buys The Onion from G/O Media, via his new company Global Tetrahedron; Lawson had long wanted to buy the site — The satirical news website was bought by a new firm in Chicago that took inspiration for its name, Global Tetrahedron, from […]
Consensys sues the US SEC over what it calls the “unlawful seizure of authority” over ethereum, after receiving a Wells notice for its MetaMask wallet product (CoinDesk)
CoinDesk: Consensys sues the US SEC over what it calls the “unlawful seizure of authority” over ethereum, after receiving a Wells notice for its MetaMask wallet product — By offering their MetaMask wallet software, the SEC says Consensys is acting as an unregistered securities broker.
The CHIPS Act has been surprisingly successful so far, giving the US greater scope to meet critical infrastructure needs in the event of a crisis in East Asia (Chris Miller/Financial Times)
Chris Miller / Financial Times: The CHIPS Act has been surprisingly successful so far, giving the US greater scope to meet critical infrastructure needs in the event of a crisis in East Asia — More than halfway through its incentives spending, the US will have far greater scope to manage shocks
Why curbing chatbots’ worst exploits is a game of whack-a-mole
AI companies are trying to impose safety measures on their chatbots, while researchers are finding ways around them all the time. Where will this end, asks Alex Wilkins
Two from MIT awarded 2024 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans
MIT graduate student Riyam Al Msari and alumna Francisca Vasconcelos ’20 are among the 30 recipients of this year’s Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. In addition, two Soros winners will begin PhD studies at MIT in the fall: Zijian (William) Niu in computational and systems biology and Russel Ly in economics. The […]
MIT Emerging Talent opens pathways for underserved global learners
Two ambitions drive Eric Tuyizere: advancing his technological skills and following his passion for entrepreneurship. In July 2023, when he discovered that MIT’s Emerging Talent program was launching the fifth cohort of its Certificate in Computer and Data Science, he applied right away. Seven months in, he says he has found even more than he […]
The MIT Edgerton Center’s third annual showcase dazzles onlookers
On April 9, a trailer with the words “Born by Fire” emblazoned on the back pulled down MIT’s North Corridor (a.k.a. the Outfinite). Students, clad in orange construction vests, maneuvered their futuristic creation out of the trailer, eliciting a surge of curious bystanders. The aerodynamic shell is covered by 5 square meters of solar panels. […]
The Myths and Realities of Being a Product Manager
Aspiring PMs must be cautious about what advice they take as gospel.
Special Series: Tech at Work
If you’re managing technology for your team or organization, this special series is for you.
A Proven Model to Combat U.S. Drug Shortages
By leaning into transparency, eschewing rebate schemes, and cutting out middlemen, this nonprofit is able to significantly lower the market price of insulin.
Test Your Knowledge of Internet Acronyms
This week, we probe each other’s knowledge of common acronyms from the early internet, the mobile era, and the AI boom. So fire up your LLM, send an RCS, and tell your BBS pals the game is afoot.