K-pop star Sunmi loves Notion and ear cleaning videos
K-pop star Sunmi loves Notion and ear cleaning videos

Sunmi is an undeniable force in K-pop. She first made her debut as a member of the Wonder Girls back in 2007, one of the first K-pop acts to really break through in the West. The English version of their single “Nobody” was the first K-pop song to hit the Billboard Hot 100 in October […]

AI agent makers are promising privacy — will they deliver?
AI agent makers are promising privacy — will they deliver?

At this year’s OpenAI DevDay, CEO Sam Altman unveiled the company’s new AI agent Dots – and told the crowd that the company wants to “set a new standard for privacy in frontier AI.” OpenAI would spend the day taking veiled shots at Meta’s Muse, its primary competitor, for failing to keep users’ data safe. […]

The director of Fjord takes the ‘risky position’ of moderator
The director of Fjord takes the ‘risky position’ of moderator

Cristian Mungiu’s sixth feature, Fjord, concerns a family on trial. The parents seem like good people, God-fearing. They would never be accused of gentle parenting. They’ve just moved from Romania to a small hamlet nestled in the fjords of rural Norway. There is Mamma (Renate Reinsve), Tata (a bald and bespectacled Sebastian Stan), and their […]

Frances Haugen hopes The Social Reckoning will inspire more whistleblowers
Frances Haugen hopes The Social Reckoning will inspire more whistleblowers

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen was mostly unfazed watching Oscar-winning actress Mikey Madison play a character named after her in The Social Reckoning, except for one thing: the wrist warmers. In Aaron Sorkin’s new thriller, the fictional Haugen – who, like her nonfictional counterpart, leaks thousands of documents to Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz – […]

Trump’s attempt to rename AI is looking awfully artificial
Trump’s attempt to rename AI is looking awfully artificial

President Donald Trump has a knack for turning words against his enemies. His first successful presidential run was built on monikers like “Little Marco” and “Crooked Hillary”; he changed “fake news” from a phrase describing scammy media outlets to a derogatory term for the press at large. Over the past few weeks, he’s clearly decided […]

The humble Playdate has become one of gaming’s best deals
The humble Playdate has become one of gaming’s best deals

The Playdate, Panic’s tiny yellow handheld that launched in 2022, has slowly but surely become a great deal – which is a good thing, because everything else in gaming has only gotten more expensive. Despite being a weird device with a black-and-white screen and a crank jutting out the side, the Playdate has managed to […]

ICE detainees in Georgia used the facility’s video calling software to expose the conditions inside
ICE detainees in Georgia used the facility’s video calling software to expose the conditions inside

Four men detained at an ICE detention center in rural Georgia used the facility’s video conferencing software to expose both the conditions inside and President Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the immigration courts. In the five-minute video, the men describe an intentionally dysfunctional legal system designed to keep them trapped in federal custody for months […]

Anthropic bans ‘abusive or cruel behavior’ toward Claude
Anthropic bans ‘abusive or cruel behavior’ toward Claude

Anthropic is making changes to its usage policy for the first time in over a year to reflect new and high-risk cases of misuse – including election interference, weapons development, surveillance, and health and financial uses. But one of the most significant changes prohibits “sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior” toward Claude. Last August, […]

Artificial is a wicked satire that also sticks to the facts
Artificial is a wicked satire that also sticks to the facts

At the New York Film Festival premiere of Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s satirical Sam Altman biopic, the director said onstage that “[when] someone wants to play God, that’s very interesting to me.” The idea of playing God, and power in general – who has it, who desperately wants it, and who will do anything to get […]

What The Social Reckoning gets right — and wrong
What The Social Reckoning gets right — and wrong

Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning has its fair share of cinematic flair, but many details in the story hew closely to real life. The movie tells the story of how Frances Haugen, a Facebook civic integrity product manager, came to leak a large trove of internal documents to Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz, […]