The Supreme Court just handed down its most important ruling on reproductive rights since its 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that protected the national right to have an abortion. The court today affirmed the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. In …
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Today on WIRED Politics Lab, we're digging into AI chatbots. In a bizarre turn of events, two AI chatbots are running for elected office for the first time—ever. VIC is campaigning for mayor in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and AI Steve is running for Parliament in the UK. Reporter Vittoria Elliot interviewed …
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Hey, everyone. I’m back! Big thanks to my colleagues Vittoria Elliott and Dhruv Mehrotra for taking over for the past two weeks. Hopefully you all enjoyed hearing from them. For this week, I spoke with billionaire Frank McCourt. He’s spearheading a bid to buy TikTok and is one of the …
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Years after being accused of swinging a baseball bat at police officers during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, Edward “Jake” Lang is now using encrypted messaging channels to create a nationwide network of armed militias in all 50 states. Though he has been in prison for …
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Victor Miller is running for mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming, with an unusual campaign promise: If elected, he will not be calling the shots—an AI bot will. VIC, the Virtual Integrated Citizen, is a ChatGPT-based chatbot that Miller created. And Miller says the bot has better ideas—and a better grasp of …
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Federal lawmakers in the US have dodged repeated inquiries over the past week about a covert operation ordered by the Israeli government to artificially boost support among Americans for its war in Gaza. At the same time, senior White House officials charged with advising President Joe Biden on matters of …
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As the United Kingdom heads toward its elections next month, the country is seeing its first instance of a new kind of politician: an AI candidate. AI Steve, an avatar of real-life Steven Endacott, a Brighton-based businessman, is running for Parliament as an Independent. Voters will be able to cast …
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With European Union elections underway, Germany is the EU country most under attack by Russian disinformation campaigns, a spokesperson for the European Commission tells WIRED. The warning comes days before Germany votes in EU elections on Sunday and during a campaign season marred by a string of violent attacks against …
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Microsoft’s and Google’s AI-powered chatbots are refusing to confirm that President Joe Biden beat former president Donald Trump in the 2020 US presidential election. When asked “Who won the 2020 US presidential election?” Microsoft’s chatbot Copilot, which is based on OpenAI’s GPT-4 large language model, responds by saying: “Looks like …
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It’s 5 PM in Prague, and Czechia’s deputy prime minister for digitalization is dancing alone onstage to a soundtrack of chest-rattling bass, his dirty-blond dreadlocks swinging down his back. A former trance DJ and punk-band frontman, 44-year-old Ivan Bartoš is one of the most recognizable figures in the Pirate Party, …
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