April 23, 2025

Why we still need AM radio

Ariel Aberg-Riger is the author of America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History.

April 2025

This architect wants to build cities out of lava

April 15, 2025
Arnhildur Pálmadóttir was around three years old when she saw a red sky from her living room window. A volcano was erupting about 25 miles away from where she lived on the northeastern coast of Iceland. Though it posed no immediate threat, its ominous presence seeped into her subconscious, populating her dreams with streaks of…

Waymo and Uber prepare to launch robotaxi service in Atlanta this summer

April 15, 2025
Uber is inviting customers in Atlanta to join a list if they’re interested in hailing a Waymo robotaxi as the companies prepare to launch a commercial service in the city. Uber and Waymo last September announced plans to offer a robotaxi service in Austin and Atlanta in early 2025 as part of an expanded partnership. […]

How the federal government is tracking changes in the supply of street drugs

April 15, 2025
In 2021, the Maryland Department of Health and the state police were confronting a crisis: Fatal drug overdoses in the state were at an all-time high, and authorities didn’t know why. There was a general sense that it had something to do with changes in the supply of illicit drugs—and specifically of the synthetic opioid…

Phase two of military AI has arrived

April 15, 2025
Last week, I spoke with two US Marines who spent much of last year deployed in the Pacific, conducting training exercises from South Korea to the Philippines. Both were responsible for analyzing surveillance to warn their superiors about possible threats to the unit. But this deployment was unique: For the first time, they were using…

Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani spills business tea with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

April 15, 2025
Reshma Saujani, founder of the non-profit Girls Who Code, got straight to the point.  “If I had applied to be the CEO of Girls Who Code, I wouldn’t have gotten the job,” she told Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, on the latest episode of the duchess’ podcast, “Confessions of a Female Founder.” “I didn’t code,” Saujani […]

Marshmallow, the UK insurance startup for migrants, raises $90M at a $2B+ valuation

April 15, 2025
U.K. startup Marshmallow has blown up over the years by using innovations in data science to build car insurance policies for immigrants and other consumers who have been overlooked or priced out of traditional insurance. Now, with a million drivers insured and a profitable annual revenue run rate of $500 million, Marshmallow has raised a […]

RLWRLD raises $14.8M to build a foundational model for robotics

April 15, 2025
As robotics has advanced, industry has steadily adopted more robots to automate away many kinds of grunt work. More than 540,000 new industrial robots were installed worldwide in 2023, taking the number of total industrial robots active to above 4 million, per IFR. Industrial robots typically excel at repetitive tasks, but they find it challenging […]

Debates over AI benchmarking have reached Pokémon

April 14, 2025
Not even Pokémon is safe from AI benchmarking controversy. Last week, a post on X went viral, claiming that Google’s latest Gemini model surpassed Anthropic’s flagship Claude model in the original Pokémon video game trilogy. Reportedly, Gemini had reached Lavendar Town in a developer’s Twitch stream; Claude was stuck at Mount Moon as of late […]