Still writing. Editor at Large WIRED. Hackers, Crypto, Facebook: The Inside Story, Insanely Great and other books. Signal: stevenlevy.72
Ever wonder who posts those first-person tales that start with ragebait and end in triumph for the writer and shame for the adversary? And why? www.wired.com/story/ai-slo...
AI Slop Melodramas Are Taking Over X—and Their Creators Are Cashing InViral tales of good triumphing over evil are racking up millions of views. They’re almost entirely AI-generated clickbait.www.wired.comLyft's David Risher insists that his company is better and cheaper than "the other guy." Check out his plans to turn around Lyft's also-ran status. www.wired.com/story/lyfts-...
Lyft’s CEO Says, ‘We’re the Good Uber’David Risher insists that Lyft has lowered its prices and that customers who only check his competitor’s app are “leaving money on the table.”www.wired.comYes, Sarah Wynn-Williams did seem to break her non-disparagement clause when she wrote Careless People. But Meta's bonkers campaign to silence her shows that her criticism of Zuck & Co is well grounded. www.wired.com/story/metas-...
Meta’s Pursuit of the 'Careless People' Author Is Relentless and Self-DefeatingYes, Sarah Wynn-Williams violated her deal to stay silent. But the power disparity bolsters the view that Meta is a heartless bully.www.wired.comParis' big Vivatech conference was all about "sovereignty." Speaker after speaker griped about U.S. dominance, some offering plans to change things. Europe has a long way to go to compete in AI, but it has no choice--especially because of Trump. www.wired.com/story/europe...
Europe Is Fed Up and Wants Its Own AIIt's a stretch to think that the continent can build a top-tier model, but it has an advantage: Donald Trump.www.wired.comOfficially welcoming the great @laurengoode.bsky.social to Backchannel. She'll be doing the newsletter once a month, writing great essays like this one. The other three weeks you're stuck with me. www.wired.com/story/silico...
Silicon Valley’s Elite Financial Advisers Say This Era of Wealth Is DifferentThe rich are getting richer. Here’s what wealth advisers are telling their tech clients right now.www.wired.comStewart Brand is one of my heroes, a visionary rooted in pragmatism who has made his mark on the world. He and his wife Ryan Phelan expressed these values in a home they built for his later years. www.wired.com/story/stewar...
The $1 M auction for the secrets of the CIA Kryptos sculpture was months ago--now we learn that Paradigm, a crypto-centric VC firm won. Here are their plans--and the line they didn't cross. www.wired.com/story/crypto...
Crypto Guys Bought the Answer to the CIA’s Mysterious Kryptos SculptureThey swear they haven’t peeked at the closely guarded secret and that they’ll keep the cryptographic competition going.www.wired.comHere's an exclusive inside look at Flourish, a startup full of neuroscientists and AI researchers working together to make discoveries about the brain and use them to create a more efficient form of AI that learns like people do. www.wired.com/story/jeff-b...
Jeff Bezos Is Funding a Wild Hunt for the Brain’s ‘Core Algorithm’With $500 million in funding and a reported $2.5 billion valuation, Flourish wants to reinvent AI by putting real neurons under the microscope.www.wired.comThe recent AI agent breakthrough is just as big a bang as ChatGPT. Only techies realize this now but eventually no one will be able to ignore it. My report from inside this huge shift. www.wired.com/story/how-ai...
AI Agents Plunged the Tech World Into Chaos. Here’s Exactly How That HappenedThe definitive story of how Claude Code and OpenClaw kicked off computing’s biggest transformation possibly ever.www.wired.comThe good news: Google's upgraded AI search is better than the (less useful than they used to be) 10 Blue Links. Not so good: One more traffic-sucking blow for websites and online publications. www.wired.com/story/even-i...
Even If You Hate AI, You Will Use Google AI SearchThe search giant’s AI-crafted answers are so convenient, you’ll be sucked in—to the detriment of the web and the artists and thinkers behind it.www.wired.comIt always blows my mind that the phrase I coined to describe the hacker mindset has found its way into the lexicon.
Alex KomoroskeI joined tech because of the hacker ethic – technology as a force for human flourishing. It feels like the industry has optimized it away, but the hacker ethic was alive and well at tiat last night!
Philosopher Nick Bostrom once was considered a doomer. Now he's considering whether AI's risk of annihilating humanity might be worth it--because we're all going to die anyway. If all goes right, he's looking forward to humanity's "retirement." www.wired.com/story/nick-b...
Nick Bostrom Has a Plan for Humanity’s ‘Big Retirement’The philosopher thinks humans should pursue advanced AI and the promise of a “solved world.”www.wired.com