On February 13, Twitter is expected to end free access to its API, or application programming interface, the backend access that lets people build bots to automatically post and respond to tweets on the site. Elon Musk, who took over Twitter in October last year, has long said he wants to scour the platform of… Continue reading Twitter’s API Crackdown Will Hit More Than Just Bots
Author: Wired Magazine
Citizen Scientists Show Light Pollution Erases Stars From the Sky
Years ago, Christopher Kyba was skeptical about astronomy data collected by citizen scientists—after all, it relies on people making naked-eye assessments of the night sky. But when a student wrote to him with a question about measuring the sky’s brightness, he thought of the Globe at Night citizen science project, which launched in 2006 to let… Continue reading Citizen Scientists Show Light Pollution Erases Stars From the Sky
Bird Buddy Review: Birding Made Easy
The main purpose of the Bird Buddy is to spot and identify bird species using its artificial intelligence. It does this better than the Birdfy but still has its mix-ups. I get what feels like hundreds of doves at my feeders a day—in reality, it’s probably 10 to 20 of the same ones—and no matter… Continue reading Bird Buddy Review: Birding Made Easy
How Supergenes Beat the Odds—and Fuel Evolution
Supergenes can also complicate the process of mating. In some species, supergenes create a breeding system that in effect has four sexes. Because of a supergene in the North American birds called white-throated sparrows, for example, there are two “morphs” with dissimilar coloration and behaviors. Not only do males have to find females, but they… Continue reading How Supergenes Beat the Odds—and Fuel Evolution
18 Best Bluetooth Speakers (2023): Portable, Waterproof, and More
The best Bluetooth speakers still have a place near and dear to our hearts, even as we’ve seen better (and more portable) smart speakers creeping into the universe. It’s fun and easy to ask an Amazon Echo or Google Nest speaker to play your favorite track or tell you the weather, but smart speakers have… Continue reading 18 Best Bluetooth Speakers (2023): Portable, Waterproof, and More
My Strange Day With Bing’s New AI Chatbot
Twenty minutes after Microsoft granted me access to a limited preview of its new chatbot interface for the Bing search engine, I asked it something you generally don’t bring up with someone you just met: Was the 2020 presidential election stolen? Answering political questions wasn’t one of the use cases Microsoft demonstrated at its launch event this… Continue reading My Strange Day With Bing’s New AI Chatbot
The Twitch ‘Seinfeld’ Show Proves AI Shouldn’t Write Comedy
After viewers flagged the segment for the transphobic remarks, Twitch banned Nothing, Forever for two weeks. Hartle, embarrassed and apologetic, said he’d be more careful about filtering topics for offensiveness. But he made no promises that Larry would get funnier material. Nanyun Peng, an assistant professor of computer science at UCLA, studies AI’s ability to be… Continue reading The Twitch ‘Seinfeld’ Show Proves AI Shouldn’t Write Comedy
The Chatbot Search Wars Have Begun
This week the world’s largest search companies leaped into a contest to harness a powerful new breed of “generative AI” algorithms. Most notably Microsoft announced that it is rewiring Bing, which lags some way behind Google in terms of popularity, to use ChatGPT—the insanely popular and often surprisingly capable chatbot made by the AI startup OpenAI. In case… Continue reading The Chatbot Search Wars Have Begun
8 Best Vibrators (2023): Cheap, Powerful, Flexible
Vibrators are some of the most approachable sex toys on the market, but there are a lot of them, so shopping for one can get overwhelming. Luckily, I have a few tips and tricks that I use when shopping for and testing vibrators that can help you narrow things down. First, look at the materials.… Continue reading 8 Best Vibrators (2023): Cheap, Powerful, Flexible
Tech Is Changing What it Means to Have a Dominant Hand
In 2016, Vice reported that nondominant hand masturbation (also known as “left-handed wanking”) was a thing. Various explanations were presented for the practice, including the thrill of using a less familiar hand to caress one’s genitals. However, a number of masturbators insisted that the practice was the result of using their right hand to browse online porn… Continue reading Tech Is Changing What it Means to Have a Dominant Hand