Brian Barrett

Government Workers Say Their Out-of-Office Replies Were Forcibly Changed to Blame Democrats for Shutdown Some employees at the Department of Education changed their responses back to the more neutral language, only to have it changed yet again to the partisan response, multiple sources tell WIRED.

NEW! Dept of Education workers say their OOO replies were forcibly changed to blame Democrats for shutdown. When employees changed their responses back to the more neutral language, it changed yet again to the partisan response.

@wired.com @leahfeiger.bsky.social

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

OpenAI’s New Sora App Lets You Deepfake Yourself for Entertainment OpenAI’s latest app encourages users to generate a personal digital avatar and scroll AI-generated videos of themselves and their friends.

What if deepfakes were entertainment? Not of celebrities and public figures. Deepfakes of you.

That’s the chilling, central question at the heart of OpenAI’s new Sora app.

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

Federal Workers Are Being Told to Blame Democrats for the Shutdown Workers at one agency were given unhinged, partisan language to use when setting out-of-office replies.

Federal workers are being told to blame Democrats for the shutdown in their OOO auto-responders, complete with suggested language. from @telliotter.bsky.social

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?

This summer @zeyiyang.bsky.social trekked across four countries in search of what makes labubu labubu:

New renderings show more details of White House ballroom under construction The Trump administration announced in July that a 90,000-square-foot ballroom with a seated capacity for 650 people will be constructed in the White House's East Wing.

Since YouTube is apparently putting $22 million toward Trump’s White House ballroom, here’s a reminder of big and dumb it’s going to be.

OpenAI Is Preparing to Launch a Social App for AI-Generated Videos The platform appears to closely resemble TikTok and is powered by Sora 2, OpenAI's latest video generation model.

OpenAI is getting ready to release an app for people that love TikTok but wish none of it was real. scoop from @zoeschiffer.bsky.social

So glad to see @sidewalkfilm.bsky.social on this list. Great theater, any Birmingham people go support! (For the Epstein doc and in general!)

Heritage Foundation Uses Bogus Stat to Push a Trans Terrorism Classification By inflating numbers and narrowing definitions, Heritage promotes a false link between transgender identity and violence in its push for the FBI to create a new terrorism category.

NEW: The Heritage Foundation is pushing a terrorism designation based on "transgender ideology" on the claim that "50% of major (non-gang) school shootings since 2015" involve a transgender shooter or trans-related motive. @dell.bsky.social and me on why that's false:

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

The Onion Made an Absolutely Unhinged Jeffrey Epstein Mockumentary "Jeffrey Epstein: Bad Pedophile" is a very silly deep dive on a very serious issue. In the current media landscape, it’s a wonder it even got made.

I have seen The Onion's Jeffrey Epstein documentary and really, really need everyone else to see it so we can talk about it. Especially that one part.

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.

"I will not give them what they want. I will not just leave. I’m going to make it as difficult as possible for these fuckheads.” This is WIRED's oral history of DOGE:

The Onion Made an Absolutely Unhinged Jeffrey Epstein Mockumentary "Jeffrey Epstein: Bad Pedophile" is a very silly deep dive on a very serious issue. In the current media landscape, it’s a wonder it even got made.

You can (and should!) start your day with the trailer for the Onion’s upcoming Jeffrey Epstein mockumentary:

For One Glorious Morning, a Website Saved San Francisco From Parking Tickets The serial website builder Riley Walz launched a project that tracked San Francisco parking enforcement in real time—until the public data feed was cut off.

The serial website builder Riley Walz launched a project that tracked San Francisco parking enforcement in real time—until the public data feed was cut off. www.wired.com/story/san-fr...

‘SIM Farms’ Are a Spam Plague. A Giant One in New York Threatened US Infrastructure, Feds Say The agency says it found a network of some 300 servers and 100,000 SIM cards—enough to knock out cell service in the NYC area. Experts say it mirrors facilities typically used for cybercrime.

A giant SIM farm in the NY area with 100,000 SIMs was most likely used for spam/scams and even swatting US officials—which led the feds to find and dismantle it.

(Speculation it was going to be used to attack the the UN General Assembly seems like...a bit of a leap.)

www.wired.com/story/sim-fa...

She Fought the Far Right Online for Years. Now She Wants to Do It in Congress Kat Abughazaleh, 26, made her name swatting down right-wing talking points on social media. Now she’s hoping internet fame can propel her to Congress.

popping back in from mat leave to say i profiled @katmabu.bsky.social for @wired.com and you should read it! she's running a fascinating campaign: www.wired.com/story/kat-ab...

I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong Tech got what it wanted by electing Trump. A year later, it looks more like a suicide pact.

No one knows Silicon Valley better than @stevenlevy.bsky.social. And no one is more clear-eyed about how far removed it has become from its supposed ideals.

I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong Tech got what it wanted by electing Trump. A year later, it looks more like a suicide pact.

Incredible work here, subscribe to Wired www.wired.com/story/silico...

ALL HAIL THE TECHNOCRACY Tech went all in on Trump this year. It's just the beginning.

Blessing your timeline with DOGE Playing Poker and our politics issue, with more stories rolling out all week.

RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Panel Votes Down Its Own Proposal to Require Prescriptions for Covid-19 Shots In a chaotic meeting, ACIP voted not to recommend a prescription requirement for Covid-19 vaccines. Some panelists seemed unaware of the point of the meeting, while others went on strange tangents.

Who could have predicted that the first big meeting of RFK Jr.’s ragtag crew of antivax crusaders would be a shambolic mess?! from @emilymullin.bsky.social

Something I think about a lot is that in the 2002 horror movie FeardotCom, the evil website's URL is actually feardotcom . com

Meta Accused of Torrenting Porn to Advance Its Goal of AI ‘Superintelligence’ Strike 3 Holdings is suing Meta in federal court, alleging the tech giant pirated copyrighted adult videos to train its AI models.

Meta allegedly torrented pornographic videos with names like "ExploitedTeens" and "EuroTeenErotica" in service of training one of its AI models. Is this uhhhh superintelligence? www.wired.com/story/meta-l...

Brendan Carr Isn't Going to Stop Until Someone Makes Him In the wake of Jimmy Kimmel's suspension, experts say the FCC commissioner's conduct is flatly unconstitutional. They also expect him to keep going.

The FCC commissioner isn't going to stop at Kimmel. www.wired.com/story/brenda...

The DOGE Subcommittee Hearing on Weather Modification Was a Nest of Conspiracy Theorizing A House Oversight Committee hearing produced a flood of bizarre claims about cloud seeding, chemtrails, and solar geoengineering. Proven, human-driven changes to the weather were dismissed.

Your government was hard at work today investigating chemtrails and other made-up weather-modification nonsense. from @mollytaft.com

Inside Trumpworld’s Reality Distortion Field In the immediate aftermath of Charlie Kirk's killing, Donald Trump's advisors were sure who was to blame. That law enforcement says they were wrong didn't, and doesn't, much seem to matter.

Trumpworld officials actually seem to believe the conspiracy theories they've been throwing around about the Charlie Kirk shooting. from @jakelahut.writes.news

Charlie Kirk Shooting Suspect Identified as 22-Year-Old Utah Man Authorities have named Tyler Robinson as a suspect in the murder of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, citing Discord messages as evidence of his alleged role.

The shooter allegedly wrote "if you read this you are gay lmao" on one bullet casing, and the FBI director closed his remarks by telling Charlie Kirk "I'll see you in Valhalla." www.wired.com/story/charli...

Among those at a vigil for Kirk, per Wired, were Proud Boys and a guy who had “unvaxxed“ tattooed on the back of his head. www.wired.com/story/a-vigi...

A Vigil for Charlie Kirk Outside of the Utah hospital where Charlie Kirk was taken Wednesday, a crowd of families, college students, and Proud Boys gathered to mourn.

Wednesday night, a large crowd of mourners gathered outside of Charlie Kirk’s hospital. They included young children, Proud Boys, and a man dressed as Abraham Lincoln. www.wired.com/story/a-vigi...

Right-Wing Activist Charlie Kirk Dead at 31 Turning Point USA cofounder Charlie Kirk passed away after he was shot at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

Charlie Kirk, whose Turning Point USA played an instrumental role in the right’s efforts to dominate the digital political sphere, has died.

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

“.. The president has run this play previously with his cabinet .. But there was an eeriness to seeing that same dynamic among Big Tech’s braintrust, like passing a camera around to take turns wishing a distant, unloved uncle a very happy Thanksgiving.”

@wired.com
www.wired.com/story/tech-c...

Tesla Proposes a Trillion-Dollar Bet That It's More Than Just Cars Tesla’s board wants to give Elon Musk an unprecedented $1 trillion pay package. To get all the money, he has to make robots and robotaxis work.

Tesla's board saying it'll pay Elon Musk $1 trillion IF he launches successful robot and robotaxi businesses is a first ballot hall of fame IF. from @aarianmarshall.bsky.social

Defense Department Scrambles to Pretend It's Called the War Department President Donald Trump said the so-called Department of War branding is to counter the “woke” Department of Defense name.

What are words, even? from @dell.bsky.social