Is a culture of prisoners intimidating inmates into inflicting pain on others too normalised to change? ...
Month: April 2026
King’s ‘high stakes’ visit with Trump will be toughest test yet of his reignKing’s ‘high stakes’ visit with Trump will be toughest test yet of his reign
The state visit to the US looks fraught with difficulty – but could be key to rescuing the special relationship. ...
Musk pitches ‘universal high income’Musk pitches ‘universal high income’
Elon Musk wants to give everyone “universal high income.” The new spin on universal basic income is the least he can do, considering how much money AI will make him when his Optimus robots start replacing all human jobs. The concept: Robots and AI will mean a massive increase in ...
Expect more tech layoffsExpect more tech layoffs
In the past, when tech companies laid off employees, the markets reacted approvingly. Cutting costs means more profit. But in the upside-down world we live in, Microsoft and Meta both suffered on Wall Street Thursday after news of their layoffs broke. Microsoft closed down nearly 4%, while Meta lost more ...
AIs hunt for signs of intelligent lifeAIs hunt for signs of intelligent life
During a conversation at Los Alamos labs in 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked why, if the universe is so large, we have never seen any signs of extraterrestrial life. Well, maybe we just needed some GPUs. There is now so much data streaming in from powerful telescopes like the ...
Google CEO says 75% of company’s new code is AI-generatedGoogle CEO says 75% of company’s new code is AI-generated
Google chief Sundar Pichai said 75% of the company’s new code is AI-generated. The trajectory is fast: In 2024 that figure was 25%, rising to 50% last fall. Meta targets similar levels by midyear. Perhaps more startlingly, Pichai said the workflow was now “truly agentic” — rather than engineers giving ...
Department of Justice drops criminal probe into Fed chair PowellDepartment of Justice drops criminal probe into Fed chair Powell
The Department of Justice has ended its criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a move likely to thaw the frozen nomination process of President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Powell, Kevin Warsh. US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro said today the Fed’s inspector general has been asked to ...
Behind the Blog: Waiting in the Apple StoreBehind the Blog: Waiting in the Apple Store
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss Tim Cook, Meta layoffs, and a very bad ad. EMANUEL: This week we experimented with the podcast format a little bit. We ...
The AI Compute Crunch Is Here (and It’s Affecting the Entire Economy)The AI Compute Crunch Is Here (and It’s Affecting the Entire Economy)
Earlier this week, I wrote an article about startups that are spending money on AI compute (tokens on tools like Claude and OpenAI’s products) rather than hiring human employees. There are all sorts of ways this business strategy could fail, and we are beginning to see signs that one of ...
Middle East crisis live: hopes rise for renewed US-Iran talks as Tehran’s foreign minister reported to be heading to PakistanMiddle East crisis live: hopes rise for renewed US-Iran talks as Tehran’s foreign minister reported to be heading to Pakistan
Iranian state media says Abbas Araqchi due to begin a trip today that includes visiting Islamabad, Muscat and Moscow The EU’s foreign chief has said that talks with Iran should include nuclear experts otherwise “we will end up with a more dangerous Iran.” Speaking on Friday ahead of an informal ...