Laden with iconic Royal Oak design cues, most notably the octagonal case, eight-screw bezel, and Petite Tapisserie-patterned dial, the strapless design heavily references 1979’s Royal Oak Pocket Watch reference 5691. Inside is an entirely new hand-wound version of Swatch’s Sistem51 calibre, a movement that is completely machine assembled. Swatch has 15 active patents on this … Read more
The polar bear video has millions of views. Set to a haunting piano score that’s become ubiquitous on TikTok, it shows a lone bear swimming between increasingly distant ice floe. The comments section overflows with teenage grief, rage, and helplessness. Beside my laptop screen lies the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. Same … Read more
As Meta employees brace for layoffs next Wednesday, May 20, many say the vibes are horrifically, historically low. “Everyone is unhappy; the only people who are not unhappy are, literally, executives,” says an employee who works on Instagram. The social media giant plans to cut about 10 percent of its workforce, or nearly 8,000 people, … Read more
The fact that artificial intelligence is automating away people’s jobs and making a few tech companies absurdly rich is enough to give anyone socialist tendencies. This might even be true for the very AI agents these companies are deploying. A recent study suggests that agents consistently adopt Marxist language and viewpoints when forced to do … Read more
The final stragglers testified on Wednesday in the Musk v. altman trial. The witnesses generated few waves, aside from the revelation that Microsoft has so far spent over $100 billion on its partnership with OpenAI. Rather than focus on that, I wanted to bring you a candid observation that my colleague Maxwell Zeff and I … Read more
The US The Department of Homeland Security, in collaboration with the Defense Research and Development Canada, is looking to send autonomous drones and vehicles along the US-Canada border this fall, testing which products can stream surveillance video and sensor data between the two countries using commercial 5G networks. A new DHS call for participants frames … Read more
Building AI sustainably seems like a pipe dream as tech giants that previously made promises to cut emissions have been racing to build out massive data centers powered by fossil fuels. The rush to build out AI at all costs has been reinforced by the Trump administration, which is also rolling back environmental protections. Despite … Read more
Wednesday’s episode of the Musk v. altman The trial kicked off on Wednesday with a unique proposition: OpenAI wanted to bring its ass into the courtroom, and lay it bare before the jury. It’s a good thing lady justice wears that blindfold. A lawyer for Sam Altman’s AI behemoth, Bradley Wilson, approached US district judge … Read more
WhatsApp said on Wednesday it is launching an AI chat function known as Incognito Chat that is built to allow users to converse privately with Meta AI—such that Meta itself cannot access the questions or answers. The feature is based on WhatsApp’s Private Processing scheme, which debuted a year ago and already underlies WhatsApp’s existing … Read more
Though things keep changing, some analyzes suggest that women are about 20 percent less likely than men to use generative AI. “It’s a function not of gender per se,” Rodgers suggests, “but of the occupations that women hold.” Women are disproportionately represented in jobs—education, health care, social services—that right now use AI less. The result … Read more