~wired | Bookmarks (1299)

In an atomically thin stack of semiconductors, a mechanism unseen in any natural substance causes electrons’ spins to align.

BeReal, the app defined by its ad-free, filter-free experience, will soon welcome celebrities and brands to its platform. Its COO says these new users won’t threaten the app’s integrity.

We filled these bags to the brim with our tech, wallets, and water bottles. They held up to the test.

Plus: North Korean hackers get into generative AI, a phone surveillance tool that can monitor billions of devices gets exposed, and ambient light sensors pose a new privacy risk.

Plus: Apple gets more serious about AI on its devices, and Shazam lets you use your headphones to learn what song is playing.

Parts of the state are starting the year with low reserves. With light winter rains failing to replenish supply, and a scorching summer predicted, key areas may be pushed to the brink.

App developers say the high price and secretive rollout of Apple’s mixed-reality headset have led them to take a “wait-and-see” approach to building software for it.

The Biden administration is using the Defense Production Act to require companies to inform the Commerce Department when they start training high-powered AI algorithms.

A California teenager who allegedly used the handle Torswats to carry out a nationwide swatting campaign is being extradited to Florida to face felony charges, WIRED has learned.

US spy agencies purchased Americans’ phone location data and internet metadata without a warrant but only admitted it after a US senator blocked the appointment of a new NSA director.

In response to new rules, the iPhone maker announced drastic changes for users in Europe. But criticism is mounting that Apple’s new system only recreates old problems.

Beloved women’s website The Hairpin shut down in 2018. This month it returned from the dead to churn out AI clickbait. Its fate is a warning to all digital publications.

The Take Back Our Border channel on Telegram now has over 1,000 members, some of whom are invoking a new Civil War.

Deepfake porn is prolific. The explicit, AI-generated images of Taylor Swift that circulated on X this week are taking the issue to new heights.

Need a backpack, purse, tote, or even a new shopping bag? These are made from truck tarps, old sails, fishnets, and plastic bottles.

A new study shows piracy was up nearly 7 percent globally last year. At the top of the most pirated lists: The Last of Us and Oppenheimer.

Two fake-audio experts say that the deepfake robocall of President Biden received by some voters last week was likely created with technology from Silicon Valley’s favorite voice cloning startup.