Society

The government of Singapore released a blueprint today for global collaboration on artificial intelligence safety following a meeting of AI researchers from the US, China, and Europe. The document lays out a shared vision for working on AI safety through international cooperation rather than competition. “Singapore is one of the few countries on the planet…

Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has started rolling out digital infrastructure for a new golden visa immigration program, according to sources familiar with the matter, public records, and tests conducted by WIRED. The White House has yet to formally announce the initiative, but some US permanent residents and foreign visitors are already…

The United States Customs and Border Protection agency confirmed on Wednesday that it uses at least one communication app made by the service TeleMessage, which creates clones of popular apps like Signal and WhatsApp with the addition of an archiving mechanism for compliance with records-retention rules. “Following the detection of a cyber incident, CBP immediately…

Stratolaunch has finally found a use for the world’s largest airplane. Twice in the past five months, the company launched a hypersonic vehicle over the Pacific Ocean, accelerated it to more than five times the speed of sound, and autonomously landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Stratolaunch used the same vehicle for both…

The Food and Drug Administration has been meeting with OpenAI to discuss the agency’s use of AI, according to sources with knowledge of the meetings. The meetings appear to be part of a broader effort at the FDA to use this technology to speed up the drug approval process. “Why does it take over 10…

When former national security adviser Mike Waltz had a picture taken of him last week, he didn’t expect for the whole world to see that he was using TeleMessage, a messaging app similar to Signal. Now the app has been hacked, with portions of data linked to government entities like Customs and Border Protection (CBP)…

Folks looking for an affordable Wi-Fi speaker to fit between their Jättebo sectional and Dyvlinge swivel chair will be upset to learn that Sonos and Ikea are parting ways. After eight years of partnering on everything from an odd wall-mountable speaker in a frame to a surprisingly decent pair of bookshelf speakers, the Ikea models…

More than 70 million deaf or hard-of-hearing people globally use sign language, but there’s an acute shortage of interpreters. Silence Speaks is a British startup that wants to bridge that gap with an AI-powered sign language avatar capable of translating text to sign language. Communication problems can be devastating and isolating for the deaf, especially…

The messaging app used by at least one top Trump administration official has suspended its services following reports of hackers stealing data from the app. Smarsh, TeleMessage’s parent company, says it is now investigating the incident. “TeleMessage is investigating a potential security incident. Upon detection, we acted quickly to contain it and engaged an external…

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is making significant changes to how it will respond to disasters on the ground this season, including ending federal door-to-door canvassing of survivors in disaster areas, WIRED has learned. A memo reviewed by WIRED, dated May 2 and addressed to regional FEMA leaders from Cameron Hamilton, a senior official performing…