Google is shaking up the team behind Project Mariner, its AI agent that can navigate the Chrome browser and complete tasks on a user’s behalf, WIRED has learned. In recent months, some Google Labs staffers who worked on the research prototype have moved on to higher-priority projects, according to two people familiar with the matter.A Google spokesperson confirmed the changes, but said the computer use capabilities developed under Project Mariner will be incorporated into the company’s agent strategy moving forward. Google has already folded some of these capabilities into other agent products, including the recently launched Gemini Agent, the spokesperson…
Anthropic filed a federal lawsuit against the US Department of Defense and other federal agencies on Monday, challenging its designation of the AI company as a “supply-chain risk.”The Pentagon formally sanctioned Anthropic last week, capping a weeks-long, publicly aired disagreement over limits on use of its generative AI technology for…
With organized, industrial-scale scamming causing a multibillion-dollar crisis around the world, Meta announced new account protections on Wednesday aimed at flagging potentially suspicious activity to users as early in a scam interaction as possible. The company also shared details about a recent Thai law enforcement collaboration that resulted in 21…
Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI), a new Paris-based startup cofounded by Meta’s former chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, announced Monday it has raised more than $1 billion to develop AI world models.LeCun argues that most human reasoning is grounded in the physical world, not language, and that AI world models are…
Major US technology companies have been named as potential targets as the war between Iran, Israel, and the United States begins to spill into the digital infrastructure that powers modern economies.Iranian state-linked media this week published a list of offices and infrastructure run by US companies with Israeli links whose…
Brian Barrett: The irony is my favorite part because I feel like venture capitalists have largely positioned themselves as immune to the effects of AI because they’re very special and surely a machine can—Zoë Schiffer: It’s art, not science.Brian Barrett: Yeah. It’s art, not science. Machines can take every job,…
Second is advertiser tools. If you’re a small business, you’re not thinking about all the queries people are going to type in. AI is great at figuring out which keywords to use, what’s the optimal creative, and generating all of that.The third piece is the most nascent: ads in new…
Nvidia will spend $26 billion over the next five years to build open source artificial intelligence models, according to a 2025 financial filing. Executives confirmed the news, which has not been previously reported, in interviews with WIRED.The sizable investment could see Nvidia evolve from a chipmaker with an impressive software…
I’ve spent the past few days asking AI companies to convince me that the prospects for AI safety have not dimmed. Just a few years ago, it seemed that there was universal agreement among companies, legislators, and the general public that serious regulation and oversight of AI was not just…
Mick Mulvaney wants to be clear: He really likes gambling. “You’re talking to the only former member of Congress who’s won a poker tournament in Las Vegas,” he tells WIRED. When he was representing South Carolina in the US House of Representatives, he pushed for the state to allow sports…
“Pursuant to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, apps developed by ByteDance Ltd. and its subsidiaries—including TikTok, CapCut, Lemon8, and others—will no longer be available for download or updates on the App Store for users in the United States starting January 19, 2025,” the archived webpage reads.As…
Uber’s delivery service, which is not operational in the region but reflects common payment schemes, pays for every pickup and drop-off as well as a per-mile rate, along with any tips given by customers. In some cities, drivers also get a per-minute rate. This means that refusing to take an…
On the bank of the river that runs through the Swedish town of Borlänge, construction is underway on a sprawling new data center. The site previously housed a paper mill. When the developer, EcoDataCenter, broke ground in September, its CEO Peter Michelson declared, “The facility once produced paper, the raw…
Move over Sora 2, there’s a hot new AI video model in town.In early February, ByteDance unveiled Seedance 2.0, a major upgrade to its flagship video model, which had previously remained fairly obscure. Its powerful capabilities immediately shocked the AI ecosystem in China, even among audiences who had once been…
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is still in the hot seat this week after his company signed a deal with the US military. OpenAI employees have criticized the move, which came after Anthropic’s roughly $200 million contract with the Pentagon imploded, and asked Altman to release more information about the agreement.…
Spotlight
Code Metal, a Boston-based startup that uses AI to write code and…
A group of 23 Democratic US senators sent a letter Friday to…
This will not be a banner year for the real estate app…
Last month, Jason Grad issued a late-night warning to the 20 employees…
