The Monitor is a weekly column devoted to everything happening in the WIRED world of culture, from movies to memes, TV to Twitter. This week, like Dr. Frankenstein before it, Netflix ran around frantically screaming “It’s aliiiiive!” Well, it wasn’t exactly like that. But the streamer did start airing commercials, touting its upcoming Chris Rock… Continue reading Netflix’s New Chris Rock Special Revives an Old Idea: Live TV
Author: Wired Magazine
The Mystery Vehicle at the Heart of Tesla’s New Master Plan
Nearly four hours into Tesla’s marathon Investor Day, someone in the audience tried again to bring Elon Musk, the Tesla (and Twitter and SpaceX) CEO back to the present day. From a stage at the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, Musk had announced an ambitious “Master Plan 3” to save the world. For $10 trillion in… Continue reading The Mystery Vehicle at the Heart of Tesla’s New Master Plan
US Technological Dominance Is Not What It Used to Be
With everyone so mesmerized by silver-tongued AI chatbots, it’s easy to forget that most flashy breakthroughs in science and technology depend on much less glamorous advances in the fundamentals of computing—new algorithms, different computer architectures, and novel silicon chips. The US has largely dominated these areas of innovation since the early days of computing. But academics… Continue reading US Technological Dominance Is Not What It Used to Be
Insta360 Link Review: The Rolls-Royce of USB Webcams
When I’m testing a webcam, I often play with the lighting in the room, both ambient and artificial. I do my best to throw off the autofocus and white balance to see how the webcam adjusts and responds. I move farther back in my chair and wobble around like a bowling pin. I got more… Continue reading Insta360 Link Review: The Rolls-Royce of USB Webcams
The Debate on Deepfake Porn Misses the Point
In the weeks after Ewing’s stream, the online conversation about the deepfakes continued to spiral. Centering “real” versus “fake” diminishes the lasting impact these images have on these streamers and their careers. “We are hurting,” Blaire says. “Every single woman involved in this is hurting.” Commenters went on tirades about how streamers who’ve been deepfaked… Continue reading The Debate on Deepfake Porn Misses the Point
An Apple Store Worker Is the New Face of US Labor Law Reform
The percentage of US workers represented by a union has fallen for decades, down to 10 percent last year. But unions have recently scored wins in tech, drawing in the retail clerks at Apple, warehouse workers at Amazon, video game testers at Microsoft, and coders in corporate offices at places like Google. Pockets of workers disenchanted with tech companies’ handling… Continue reading An Apple Store Worker Is the New Face of US Labor Law Reform
Cute Animals Are Overrated. Let’s Save the Weird Ones
“There are a lot of species out there that are overlooked, and when you get to know them they are just as charismatic and beautiful as the ones we’re aware of,” says Gumbs. According to the EDGE2 metric, our highest-priority mammal should be the mountain pygmy possum, a tiny marsupial that exists in the wild across… Continue reading Cute Animals Are Overrated. Let’s Save the Weird Ones
Uber and Lyft Are More Likely to Fire Drivers of Color
James Jordan had worked as an Uber driver in Los Angeles for five and a half years by the spring of 2022. But in late March, after a flurry of customer complaints, Jordan found that his account had been permanently deactivated, leaving the single father of five, for whom Uber was his only source of… Continue reading Uber and Lyft Are More Likely to Fire Drivers of Color
Nikon Z 30 Review: A Perfect Starter Camera for Vloggers
When it comes to shooting videos, I tend to overprepare. Sure, I could pop open a webcam or a phone and talk directly into the built-in mic, but instead I’ll stress over breaking out the mirrorless camera, shotgun mic, and multiple stand lights, and then still end up with crappy picture half the time. So,… Continue reading Nikon Z 30 Review: A Perfect Starter Camera for Vloggers
Sci-Fi Publishers Are Bracing for an AI Battle
It began with a tweet of a bar graph depicting a sharp rise in the month of February: Neil Clarke, the publisher and editor in chief of the science fiction and fantasy magazine Clarkesworld, had plotted out the publication’s past few years of plagiarized and spammy submissions. Until late 2022, the bars are barely visible, but in… Continue reading Sci-Fi Publishers Are Bracing for an AI Battle