Aarian Marshall

The Shutdown Is Pushing Air Safety Workers to the Limit Federal employees say that flying is still safe despite the strain on air traffic controllers. But expect even more airport delays ahead.

Wrote about the unsettling year that federal air safety employees are having. They say the skies are safe, but the shutdown, and how the gov might react, is creating more stress

“It feels as if they want us to be afraid, but I’m just angry,” one FAA worker told me

www.wired.com/story/shutdo...

The Shutdown Is Pushing Air Safety Workers to the Limit Federal employees say that flying is still safe despite the strain on air traffic controllers. But expect even more airport delays ahead.

NEW: Everything's... fine... @aarianmarshall.bsky.social reports: www.wired.com/story/shutdo...

A Journey Into the Heart of Labubu I made an epic trek across four countries to answer one question: Why is the world going mad for a plushie monster?

"Labubu has become the de facto face of [China's] growing soft power, even if Pop Mart would rather distance itself from geopolitics"

via @zeyiyang.bsky.social

www.wired.com/story/labubu...

Tesla Is Urging Drowsy Drivers to Use ‘Full Self-Driving.’ That Could Go Very Wrong The company’s FSD tech doesn’t actually self-drive. Experts say that advising customers to switch it on when they're drifting between lanes is exactly the wrong move.

Experts told me Tesla has gotten better at monitoring the behavior of drivers using FSD (S), which can't actually drive by itself

But amidst Tesla's Big Pivot to autonomy and robotics, it seems to be pushing drivers to use the feature exactly when they shouldn't

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

The Story of DOGE, as Told by Federal Workers WIRED spoke with more than 200 federal workers in dozens of agencies to learn what happened as the Department of Government Efficiency tore through their offices.

How federal workers experienced the DOGE-ification of the government—n their own words

We spoke to over 200

www.wired.com/story/oral-h...

today the @wired.com mural in bushwick they’re working on zuck dog leg and sam altman dog manicure so tag us if u see us

WIRED's The Politics Issue

Big Tech's embrace of President Trump has left many of us wondering: What the hell happened to Silicon Valley?

In our new politics issue, we're getting into it.

Also, we're taking this cover across the US in billboards, posters and a mural. Clues to find us in the 🧵: www.wired.com/politics-iss...

But in the aftermath of this shooting and others like it, Alex Newhouse, a researcher at the University of Colorado at Boulder who studies extremism, says any critiques of gaming culture in this instance must be contextualized. “It's not a specific game, but it's rather the use of gaming references. It's not the specific meme, but rather the use of online memes,” he says. “It's not the specific ways that things are written on the gun, but that they’re writing something on the gun at all.”

“It's pretty indicative of general speech associated with the deep parts of internet culture, in particular the types that are very much into irony posting and edgelord humor," says extremism researcher @alexbnewhouse.bsky.social

With @makenakelly.bsky.social

www.wired.com/story/charli...

Charlie Kirk Was Shot and Killed in a Post-Content Moderation World Videos of the shooting spread across TikTok, Instagram, and X. Researchers say that in some cases the platforms are falling short on enforcing their own content moderation rules.

Videos of Charlie Kirk being shot spread like wildfire across social platforms yesterday -- and many are still up.

This is the post-content moderation world we now live in:

www.wired.com/story/charli...

I Hate My Friend The chatbot-enabled Friend necklace eavesdrops on your life and provides a running commentary that’s snarky and unhelpful. Worse, it can also make the people around you uneasy.

In which two @wired.com writers discover that sporting an AI wearable "friend" gets you bullied by people AND machines

via @kylierobison.com + @boone.bsky.social

www.wired.com/story/i-hate...

The Baby Died. Whose Fault Is It? When her son died in utero, a venture capitalist went to extremes to punish her surrogate.

A real bummer of a read about what happens when an under-regulated surrogacy industry collides with the scary realities of childbirth and a vengeful venture capitalist with plenty of expendable cash

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

Inside the Summit Where China Pitched Its AI Agenda to the World Behind closed doors, Chinese researchers are laying the groundwork for a new global AI agenda—without input from the US.

In this week's Made in China newsletter: at China's flagship AI summit WAIC, the vibe was totally different from Trump’s America-first, regulation-light vision for AI. Beijing is pitching itself as the world leader of AI safety regulation.

WIRED's @willknight.bsky.social reports from Shanghai:

Scientists Say New Government Climate Report Twists Their Work A new Department of Energy report “fundamentally misrepresents” climate research and leaves out key context, multiple scientists cited in the report tell WIRED.

NEW: i spoke to nine (!) scientists across several disciplines whose work was cited in the new Department of Energy report that downplays the severity of climate change. all of them say their work was misrepresented, cherry picked, and/or lacked context —

I Watched AI Agents Try to Hack My Vibe-Coded Website RunSybil, a startup founded by OpenAI’s first security researcher, deploys agents that probe websites for vulnerabilities—part of a new AI era for cybersecurity.

Spy vs. Spy but it's AI vs. AI

www.wired.com/story/i-watc...

(sign up for @willknight.bsky.social's AI Lab newsletter! www.wired.com/newsletter)

And an even bigger story about a culture of fear around gov-funded research, period

This is of course part of a bigger story about a new culture of fear around gov-funded transportation research

Trump Priorities Spark Sudden Reorganization of Key Transportation Research Body — Streetsblog USA "It's [an] unprecedented overreach into science."

FWIW, the Transportation Research Board’s standing committees were a really useful resource for me - a great way to find practitioners engaged in relatively niche research areas. TRB abruptly dissolved the committees in June to avoid Trump admin scrutiny

usa.streetsblog.org/2025/07/02/t...

Excited for this subscriber-exclusive conversation!

Tune in next week on @wired.com for a livestream discussion with Katie about her viral interview and the future of wellness.

What burning questions do you have? Drop them in the comments section of this article, and we may answer them live 👇🏻✨

Tesla tells staff it plans to roll out its Robotaxi service in San Francisco this weekend The company said its timeline for Robotaxi launch had been moved up and the service could launch as soon as Friday.

This follows on a report from Business Insider this morning that Tesla told employees it would launch robotaxi service in the Bay Area as soon as today

www.businessinsider.com/tesla-robota...

Schrödinger's (robo)car

Tesla Readies a Taxi Service in San Francisco—but Not With Robotaxis The electric carmaker informed California that it will operate a limited public taxi service. But it’s not legally allowed to do this with self-driving cars.

NEW: California confirms to WIRED that Tesla said it will expand its employee-only car service to include friends + family of employees and select members of the public

Tesla has said that a Bay Area robotaxi launch is coming. But it isn't legally allowed to use AVs

www.wired.com/story/tesla-...

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Cloning Came to Polo. Then Things Got Truly Uncivilized A polo legend and a businessman joined forces to copy the player’s greatest horse. But with a single clone worth $800,000, some technologies are a breeding ground for betrayal.

Finally, an outrageous yarn about cloned polo horses, and the lawsuit between a Texas oilman and Argentinian polo legend over who owns a prized bloodline

www.wired.com/story/clonin...

My Couples Retreat With 3 AI Chatbots and the Humans Who Love Them I found people in serious relationships with AI partners and planned a weekend getaway for them at a remote Airbnb. We barely survived.

A bittersweet look into human relationships with AI:

www.wired.com/story/couple...

The Definitive Story of Tesla Takedown In February, a Bluesky post caught the eye of Alex Winter. The result is a coalition of environmentalists, anti-Trump advocates, and federal workers that’s been hyping Tesla’s stock slide ever since.

THE story of the Tesla Takedown:

www.wired.com/story/tesla-...

Tesla’s Robotaxis Are Rolling Out Soon—With One Big Unanswered Question Neither the US federal government nor the City of Austin will say how teleoperations, self-driving’s critical safety feature, will be used in the service launching in Austin in just a matter of days.

A deep dive into little discussed but vital robotaxi safety tech—and how little we know about what Tesla is up to:

www.wired.com/story/as-rob...

DOGE’s Dodgy Numbers Employ a Tesla Technique Safety researchers claim Elon Musk’s auto company has a long history of potentially misleading stats. Now it looks like DOGE is following suit.

It’s been a wild 2025, and is only going to get wilder. You’ve heard about @wired.com’s unparalleled coverage of Elon Musk + DOGE. Here’s some other good stuff:

My look into how DOGE’s misleading number crunching echoes longstanding Tesla stats strategies:

www.wired.com/story/doges-...

This week, @wired.com launched its new premium subscription. Newsletters on AI, China, politics, tech culture! Chats w/reporters! Unparalleled insight into tech + science + the future! Get it here:

www.wired.com/v2/offers/wi...

Leaked Memo: Anthropic CEO Says the Company Will Pursue Gulf State Investments After All “Unfortunately, I think ‘No bad person should ever benefit from our success’ is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on,” wrote Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in a note to staff obtained...

“Unfortunately, I think ‘No bad person should ever benefit from our success’ is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on,” wrote Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in a note to staff obtained by WIRED. www.wired.com/story/anthro...

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