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Paradise Lost

Amazon’s HQ2 Aimed to Show Tech Can Boost Cities. Now It’s Paused

Arlington, Virginia, won a US-wide contest to host Amazon’s second headquarters. More than half of the giant project is now indefinitely delayed.
Plaintext

A Native Son of Palo Alto Thinks His Hometown Will Kill Us All

Spin Cycle

A New Crypto Mixer Promises to Be Tornado Cash Without the Crime

Artificial Intelligence

Welcome to the Museum of the Future AI Apocalypse

The new Misalignment Museum in San Francisco is a memorial to an imagined future in which artificial general intelligence kills most of humanity.

US Technological Dominance Is Not What It Used to Be

The US still leads the world in artificial intelligence, but there are signs it is losing its edge to China in other areas of advanced computing.

How AI Could Transform Email

Artificial intelligence may streamline a form of business communication that’s already super fake.

Face Recognition Software Led to His Arrest. It Was Dead Wrong

Alonzo Sawyer’s misidentification by algorithm made him a suspect for a crime police now say was committed by someone else—feeding debate over regulation.

Social Media

India’s YouTube Vigilante Is Wanted for Murder

Monu Manesar built a huge audience with violent content, but he’s far from the only sectarian streamer in Modi’s India.

The Push to Ban TikTok in the US Isn’t About Privacy

Lawmakers are increasingly hellbent on punishing the popular social network while efforts to pass a broader privacy law have dwindled.

Facebook Is Still Letting Russia Interfere in Politics

Russian-backed groups are using political ads to subvert the democratic process in Moldova.

The Battle for the Soul of Buy Nothing

How an idealistic community for exchanging free stuff tried to break away from Facebook, and ended up breaking apart.

Startups and Tech Culture

Video Games Are a New Propaganda Machine for Iran

The state sponsors titles that cast it in a favorable light and punishes indies for depicting a more complex vision of Iranian identity.

An Apple Store Worker Is the New Face of US Labor Law Reform

The company's anti-union tactics at retail outlets have drawn government scrutiny and are fueling a drive to get a new labor bill through Congress.

Ukraine’s Startups Kept Innovating Through 1 Year of War

Founders and coders have shipped updates through blackouts and from bomb shelters. “There’s no way out except to fight for the future,” one worker says.

Who Should You Believe When Chatbots Go Wild?

Microsoft and others ask us to ignore their glitchy bots’ pleas for personhood. But we need better explanations—and guardrails.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin Miners Are Playing a High-Stakes Game of Chicken

In the bitter crypto winter, companies are making deep cuts to survive a new challenge.

Crypto Buyers Beware: 1 in 4 New Tokens of Any Value Is a Scam

And according to tracing firm Chainalysis, one very prolific scammer ran at least 264 of those scams in 2022 alone.

Bitcoin Investors Are Plotting a Major Coup

A group of activist shareholders at the world's largest bitcoin investment trust claim they lost billions as the market tanked. Now they want to take control.

Confusion Spirals in Crypto as the US Cracks Down

The Securities and Exchange Commission launched enforcement actions against some of the industry’s major players, raising questions over crypto’s future.

Policy and Telecoms

Big Tech’s Layoffs Highlight How the US Fails Immigrant Workers

Decades-old visa rules mean that job cuts disadvantage workers, companies, and perhaps the whole country.

Right-to-Repair Advocates Question John Deere’s New Promises

The tractor maker is accused of blocking farmers from fixing their own equipment. A new agreement offers concessions—but campaigners say it’s not enough.

Clearview Stole My Face and the EU Can't Do Anything About It

One man’s battle to reclaim his face shows regulators across the bloc are failing to reprimand the US face search engine.

The Gig Law Causing Chaos in California Strip Clubs

Dancers say a law to protect people working at ride-hailing and food delivery apps has been used to undercut their livelihoods. 

Computers and Software

The End of the Zoom Boom

Zoom was a pandemic star. It’s the latest tech company to find that status isn’t sustainable. 

Microsoft Taps ChatGPT to Boost Bing—and Beat Google

The second-ranked search engine is getting a new chatbot interface that attempts to synthesize information from sites across the web.

Your Google Searches Are Quietly Evolving. Here’s What’s Next

We went behind the scenes to make sense of Shopping, Ads, and the changes that will shape your internet searches.

Apple’s App Review Fix Fails to Placate Developers

After bad press about its App Store rules, Apple added a way to challenge app rejections. Creators say projects still get blocked for no good reason.

Transportation

The Mystery Vehicle at the Heart of Tesla’s New Master Plan

Elon Musk says a new Tesla will rewire the company and help save the world, but he won’t tell investors what it is.

The Mountain Village in the Path of India’s Electric Dreams

The country has discovered enough lithium to electrify every vehicle on its roads, but the massive deposit has tensions running high.

The Amazonification of Buying a New Car

Tesla pioneered selling vehicles online. Electric cars, the pandemic, and changing consumer behavior are now causing other automakers to embrace the shift.

How Ukraine’s Trains Kept Running Despite Bombs and Blackouts

Since Russia’s full-scale assault began, Ukraine’s railways evacuated 4 million people and brought 300 foreign delegations to Kyiv.

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