The Trump administration has shut down more than 100 climate studies

June 2, 2025
The Trump administration has terminated National Science Foundation grants for more than 100 research projects related to climate change amid a widening campaign to slash federal funding for scientists and institutions studying the rising risks of a warming world. The move will cut off what’s likely to amount to tens of millions of dollars for…

For the love of God, stop calling your AI a co-worker

June 2, 2025
Generative AI comes in many forms. Increasingly, though, it’s marketed the same way: with human names and personas that make it feel less like code and more like a co-worker. A growing number of startups are anthropomorphizing AI to build trust fast — and soften its threat to human jobs. It’s dehumanizing, and it’s accelerating. […]

Elon Musk tries to stick to spaceships

June 1, 2025
Elon Musk’s interview with CBS Sunday Morning seemed to get off to an awkward start, as reporter David Pogue asked the SpaceX CEO about his thoughts on his ally Donald Trump’s policies, including growing restrictions on international students. “I think we want to stick to the subject of the day, which is, like, spaceships, as […]

Thousands of Netflix fans gather for Tudum

June 1, 2025
Netflix released a flurry of announcements and trailers around high-profile projects including “Squid Game,” “Wednesday,” and “Stranger Things 5” last night at its annual Tudum marketing event. While this year’s Tudum (made for the sound that plays when you open the app) was livestreamed for the first time on Netflix itself (as opposed to YouTube), […]

Early AI investor Elad Gil finds his next big bet: AI-powered rollups

June 1, 2025
Elad Gil started betting on AI before most of the world took notice. By the time investors began grasping the implications of ChatGPT, Gil had already written seed checks to startups like Perplexity, Character.AI, and Harvey. Now, as the early winners of the AI wave become clearer, the renowned “solo” VC is increasingly focused on […]

Sam Altman biographer Keach Hagey explains why the OpenAI CEO was ‘born for this moment’

June 1, 2025
In “The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future,” Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey examines our AI-obsessed moment through one of its key figures — Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI. Hagey begins with Altman’s Midwest childhood, then takes readers through his career at startup Loopt, accelerator Y Combinator, […]

Video game union announces first contract with Microsoft

June 1, 2025
Unionized quality assurance testers at video game holding company ZeniMax announced Friday that they have reached a tentative contract agreement with Microsoft, which acquired ZeniMax in 2021. This represents Microsoft’s first union contract in the United States. It’s been a little over two years since approximately 300 QA testers announced that they were unionizing through […]