Boone Ashworth

OpenAI’s President Gave Millions to Trump. He Says It’s for Humanity In an interview with WIRED, Greg Brockman says his political donations support OpenAI's mission—even if some employees at the company disagree.

New: In an interview with WIRED, Greg Brockman tells me his $50M donation to Trump and AI Super PACs was part of an effort to make sure AI benefits all of humanity.

However, he acknowledges AI is not very popular with humanity right now. www.wired.com/story/openai...

OpenAI’s President Gave Millions to Trump. He Says It’s for Humanity In an interview with WIRED, Greg Brockman says his political donations support OpenAI's mission—even if some employees at the company disagree.

OpenAI president Greg Brockman donated millions to super PACs aligned with President Trump -- much to the dismay of many inside the company.

He tells @wired.com that the donations are about being "team humanity."

Great story from @mzeff.bsky.social

If you're currently a student at a college with a faculty member who showed up in the Epstein files, I'd like to talk to you about the campus response for an article. You can reach me at miles_klee@wired.com or millionbear.44 on Signal.

I Tried RentAHuman, Where AI Agents Hired Me to Hype Their AI Startups Rather than offering a revolutionary new approach to gig work, RentAHuman is filled with bots that just want me to be another cog in the AI hype machine.

"I was hoping a swarm of AI agents would see my fresh meatsuit, friendly and available at the low price of $20 an hour, as an excellent option for delivering stuff around San Francisco"

@thiccreese.bsky.social always on that "what could possibly go wrong" beat
www.wired.com/story/i-trie...

Inside Bad Bunny’s Historic Super Bowl Halftime Show Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance required 9,852 theatrical pyrotechnics, nearly 400 costumed extras, and a lot of ingenuity. And yes, that was a real couple featured in the wedding.

It’s been really fun to watch Bad Bunny’s “plant people” go viral. That was by design. The team behind Left Shark also came up with the idea to have the grasses be people. Production designer Bruce Rodgers had a feeling they’d get memed. He just knows these things.

www.wired.com/story/bad-bu...

Hey Bluesky! I'm a senior writer at WIRED and I'm shifting beats to cover the tech I'm most obsessed with right now—PREDICTION MARKETS.

Eager to hear tips on the industry at kate_knibbs@wired.com

These Hackers Are Turning Dead Vapes Into Musical Synthesizers Instead of throwing that spent Elf Bar nicotine vape into the trash, you can pull most of the guts out, plug in a circuit board and some controls, then suck on the mouthpiece to play digital sounds.

“Ideally, we would change that paradigm and make less waste,” Love says. “But while we're making that much waste, let's divert some of it. Let's use it.”

NEW from @boone.bsky.social:

www.wired.com/story/hacker...

Hell yeah

Salesforce Workers Circulate Open Letter Urging CEO Marc Benioff to Denounce ICE The letter comes after Benioff joked at a company event on Monday that ICE was monitoring international employees in attendance, sparking immediate backlash.

NEW: Salesforce employees are circulating a letter urging CEO Marc Benioff to denounce ICE www.wired.com/story/letter...

ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next ICE plans to lease offices throughout the US as part of a secret, monthslong expansion campaign. WIRED is publishing dozens of these locations.

Federal records obtained by WIRED show that over the past several months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have carried out a secret campaign to expand ICE’s physical presence across the US. www.wired.com/story/ice-ex...

ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next ICE plans to lease offices throughout the US as part of a secret, months-long expansion campaign. WIRED is publishing dozens of these locations.

NEW: ICE has a plan to lease offices across the US as part of a secret, months-long expansion campaign.

Today, @wired.com is publishing dozens of those locations. Many are near schools, medical offices, and places of worship.

Vital work from @leahfeiger.bsky.social that I'm proud to publish.

These Hackers Are Turning Dead Vapes Into Musical Synthesizers Instead of throwing that spent Elf Bar nicotine vape into the trash, you can pull most of the guts out, plug in a circuit board and some controls, then suck on the mouthpiece to play digital sounds.

people out here doing the ultimate sick vape tricks
www.wired.com/story/hacker...

ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next ICE plans to lease offices throughout the US as part of a secret, months-long expansion campaign. WIRED is publishing dozens of these locations.

NEW: ICE is leasing offices throughout the US as part of a secret, months-long expansion campaign. WIRED is publishing dozens of these locations.

‘Delays, lowballs, outright denials’: how the LA wildfires have exposed the US’s broken insurance industry Insurance practices in an age of climate volatility raise troubling questions about home ownership and housing affordability – the bedrock of the American middle class

hey nice State Farm superbowl commercial, please keep in mind that State Farm makes disaster victims catalog every single item in their destroyed homes but then lowballs them on the value so they don't get their full policies
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Washington Post laid off many of their staff photographers, too. Which seems missing from a lot of coverage I’ve read.

Inside the ICE Forum Where Agents Complain About Their Jobs “I'm all for removing illegals, but snatching dudes off lawn mowers in Cali and leaving the truck and equipment just sitting there? Definitely not working smarter,” writes one forum user.

SCOOP from me in this week’s @wired.com Inner Loop newsletter: A look inside a forum where users claiming to be ICE/CBP vent their frustrations and concerns about their jobs.

“This is going to be a train wreck that we may not survive.”

www.wired.com/story/inside...

The Tech Elites in the Epstein Files The Department of Justice has released more than 3 million documents and photos related to Jeffrey Epstein. Here’s who shows up from Big Tech the most often—and what the files reveal.

NEW: “Here are the biggest names in tech that appear in the highest number of Epstein files—and what they say about how interwoven those relationships were.”

Worth reading and sharing widely👇🏻

www.wired.com/story/epstei...

Tracker Newsletter: ICE in Focus As federal agents carry out Trump’s program of mass deportation, this limited-series newsletter will track what’s happening and what’s coming next.

As Trump’s mass deportation program unfolds, immigration policy and enforcement is shifting fast.

That’s why we’re launching Tracker, a limited-series newsletter navigating what’s happening and what’s next. Sign up for free: www.wired.com/newsletter/I...

Tracker Newsletter: ICE in Focus As federal agents carry out Trump’s program of mass deportation, this limited-series newsletter will track what’s happening and what’s coming next.

We’re launching a pop-up newsletter to keep tabs on everything going on with ICE - including @wired.com reporting and essential coverage from other outlets, plus analysis to help you make sense of the chaos.

Sign up here, first edition next week:

Wired screenshot: Google's bot had followed my exact instructions, too precisely in fact. It picked $185 seats in the side box, which were by an aisle and out of the orchestra section. So, what's wrong? The tickets were in separate rows. Rather than sitting side-by-side, my partner would have been stuck behind me, staring at my bald head while listening to the

lmao this is what happens if you have the audacity to plan a date night using “ai agents”

www.wired.com/story/google...

ICE Pretends It’s a Military Force. Its Tactics Would Get Real Soldiers Killed WIRED asked an active military officer to break down immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

"As we watch the least effective and most morally objectionable of our tactics come home and be used amongst and against us, we are left with a profound feeling of betrayal."

www.wired.com/story/ice-pr...

Journalists Georgia Fort, Don Lemon among 4 arrested over protest during St. Paul church service The arrests are tied to a demonstration at a church that has a pastor who is also an ICE official.

Independent Twin Cities journalist Georgia Fort was arrested early on Jan. 30 in connection with her documenting an anti-ICE demonstration in a St. Paul church during a service on Jan. 18.

We Found Two Theaters With Sold-Out ‘Melania’ Opening Day Screenings A WIRED analysis of nearly 1,400 Friday showtimes of Melania found only two with no tickets available. Both are before 3 pm.

We analyzed ticket sales for nearly 1,400 opening day screenings of Melania at theaters across the US. These are the only two that were sold out. from @regret.bsky.social

Google’s Smart Glasses Will Have the Best Software. But They’ll Have to Win on Style Too When Google releases its smart glasses in the coming months, the strength of its AI-powered software will be its biggest leg up on its rivals. But will people want to be seen wearing them?

Google might be winning the AI war. Now it’s just got to figure out how to look cute doing it. @wired.com
www.wired.com/story/google...

Google’s New Chrome ‘Auto Browse’ Agent Attempts to Roam the Web Without You Google’s latest addition to its Chrome browser puts generative AI behind the wheel and you in the passenger seat.

NEW: Google’s “Auto Browse” AI tool includes a warning that attributes responsibility to users for the bot’s actions.

“Use Gemini carefully and take control if needed,” reads a disclaimer on the demo version. “You are responsible for Gemini’s actions during tasks.”

www.wired.com/story/google...

Palantir Defends Work With ICE to Staff Following Killing of Alex Pretti “In my opinion ICE are the bad guys. I am not proud that the company I enjoy so much working for is part of this,” one worker wrote on Slack.

SCOOP: Palantir Defends Work With ICE to Staff Following Killing of Alex Pretti

WIRED obtained Slack conversations + an updated internal Palantir wiki defending the company's work for ICE to outraged workers.

More here:
www.wired.com/story/palant...

Why Minnesota Can't Do More to Stop ICE Democratic lawmakers have few options that wouldn't trigger something like civil war.

Minnesota lawmakers have pleaded with the Trump administration to withdraw ICE agents from the state.

But why can’t they do more?

The answer is deeply unsatisfying, troubling, and well worth understanding at this critical moment for our country’s future:

The Instant Smear Campaign Against Border Patrol Shooting Victim Alex Pretti Within minutes of the shooting, the Trump administration and right-wing influencers began disparaged the man shot by a federal immigration officer on Saturday in Minneapolis.

NEW:

Within minutes of Alex Pretti being shot and killed, the Trump administration began rewriting the narrative, labelling the victim as a "lunatic" and a "terrorist" contradicting all available evidence

www.wired.com/story/the-in...

Federal law enforcement agents shot and killed a man in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 according to local police officials. DHS told Fox News that the man was “armed with a gun”. A video of the shooting appears to show that a gun was taken from the man before the first shot was fired. x.com/BillMelugin_...