covid

Social robot roommate Jibo initially caused a stir, but sadly didn't live long. Photograph: JiboNot that there haven’t been an array of other attempts. Jibo, a social robot roommate that used AI and endearing gestures to bond with its…

Squander enough time on TikTok these days and the signs of creative deceleration are everywhere.“Try-hard” slang is spreading. Competitive aging is a thing. Classic episodes of The Sopranos are fed to you in polished 25-second bites. Last…

The prominent far-right social network Gab has launched almost 100 chatbots—ranging from AI versions of Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump to the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski—several of which question the reality of the Holocaust.Gab launched a new…

Ryan and Randy met at a sex party in 2019 and started dating shortly after. By month four, they made the relationship official, eventually moved into a two-story house in Los Angeles together, and did all the things happy couples do: date…

The tech layoffs keep coming. Workers are anxious and frustrated, as more than 400,000 people are estimated to have lost jobs over the past two years. Younger workers, particularly Gen Z, are posting through it.People have been sharing…

In the game known as the streaming wars, Disney+ came out swinging, bringing with it a massive library of movies and TV shows—with new ones being added all the time. Watched everything on Netflix? Disney+ has a seemingly endless selection…

As games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake II, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Spider-Man 2, and so many more marked 2023 as a year of instant hits and commercial success, developers were suffering. Layoffs rolled across the…

So far, 2024 is off to a start that looks a lot like 2023—with a week full of job cuts from tech companies.Duolingo cut 10 percent of its contractors earlier this week, citing artificial intelligence as part of the reason. Twitch announced…

Numbers tell the story, even if they’re not precise. “About 130”—that’s how many fewer shows Netflix reportedly released last year versus 2022. “Several hundred”—the estimate of how many people Amazon is said to be laying off in the…

Slowly but surely, Apple TV+ is finding its feet. The streaming service, which at launch we called “odd, angsty, and horny as hell,” has evolved into a diverse library of dramas, documentaries, and comedies. It’s also fairly cheap compared…