longreads

Get in, Loser—We’re Chasing a Waymo Into the Future
20 Nov

Get in, Loser—We’re Chasing a Waymo Into the Future

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A third-generation San Franciscan, Gabe says he grew up playing with Nancy Pelosi’s kids and went to high school with Gavin Newsom, and now he’s a driver the way they’re politicians—it’s in his blood. He’s been operating taxicabs, Ubers, or Lyfts since 1995, and even helped organize a taxi workers’ strike in the late ’90s. He has also written about driving, ride-hailing, or motorcycling for the past two decades. And if you think we’re being silly about car-chase movie tropes, Gabe was a machine-gunner for the US Marines during the first Gulf War—so he is at least ex-military. He’s driving…
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Trae Stephens Has Built AI Weapons and Worked for Donald Trump. As He Sees It, Jesus Would Approve
25 Sep

Trae Stephens Has Built AI Weapons and Worked for Donald Trump. As He Sees It, Jesus Would Approve

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When I wrote about Anduril in 2018, the company explicitly said it wouldn’t build lethal weapons. Now you are building fighter planes, underwater drones, and other deadly weapons of war. Why did you make that pivot?We responded to what we saw, not only inside our military but also across the world. We want to be aligned with delivering the best capabilities in the most ethical way possible. The alternative is that someone’s going to do that anyway, and we believe that we can do that best.Were there soul-searching discussions before you crossed that line?There’s constant internal discussion about what to…
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After Shark Tank, Mark Cuban Just Wants to Break Shit—Especially the Prescription Drug Industry
12 Sep

After Shark Tank, Mark Cuban Just Wants to Break Shit—Especially the Prescription Drug Industry

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What do you mean by that?Because your insurance company, whoever it may be, uses a PBM, a pharmacy benefit manager. The PBM has negotiated with a pharmacy what the reimbursement rate is. Except they basically said, “Here’s what we’re going to reimburse you.” [His Apple Watch buzzes.]You can go ahead and check that.It’s my son. [Speaking into watch.] We’ll do a late lunch. Don’t worry about it. Go ahead and have fun. [Back to the interview.] He’s playing basketball.Nice.So, with the PBMs, there’s no negotiation. Particularly for the small independent pharmacies, they take it or leave it. And: “Oh, by…
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The World’s Biggest Bitcoin Mine Is Rattling This Texas Oil Town
11 Sep

The World’s Biggest Bitcoin Mine Is Rattling This Texas Oil Town

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The previous October, Sawicky organized a weeklong protest alongside environmental activist group Greenpeace and brandished various anti-bitcoin signs at anyone who entered the Riot facility. Only a few other people turned out in support, leaving Sawicky dejected: “I could not have been more disappointed and disgusted by my fellow humans,” she said, when we first spoke earlier in the year.Sawicky is unapologetically brash; she has given up on artfulness and guile, she claims, in favor of brute force. “I am obnoxious. I am in your face,” she says. Her methods have led even close allies to question her. “I love…
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Inside Google’s 7-Year Mission to Give AI a Robot Body
10 Sep

Inside Google’s 7-Year Mission to Give AI a Robot Body

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Often during evenings and sometimes weekends, when the robots weren’t busy doing their daily chores, Catie and her impromptu team would gather a dozen or so robots in a large atrium in the middle of X. Flocks of robots began moving together, at times haltingly, yet always in interesting patterns, with what often felt like curiosity and sometimes even grace and beauty. Tom Engbersen is a roboticist from the Netherlands who painted replicas of classic masterpieces in his spare time. He began a side project collaborating with Catie on an exploration of how dancing robots might respond to music or…
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The ACLU Fights for Your Constitutional Right to Make Deepfakes
24 Jul

The ACLU Fights for Your Constitutional Right to Make Deepfakes

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On January 29, in testimony before the Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee, Hunt-Blackwell urged lawmakers to scrap the bill’s criminal penalties and to add carve-outs for news media organizations wishing to republish deepfakes as part of their reporting. Georgia’s legislative session ended before the bill could proceed.Federal deepfake legislation is also set to encounter resistance. In January, lawmakers in Congress introduced the No AI FRAUD Act, which would grant property rights for people’s likeness and voice. This would enable those portrayed in any type of deepfake, as well as their heirs, to sue those who took part in the forgery’s creation…
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For the Director of Wicked, There’s No Place Like Silicon Valley
23 Jul

For the Director of Wicked, There’s No Place Like Silicon Valley

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You seem to do that in your movies too—tie things up with a bow, give the audience a satisfying ending. Should we expect the same from Wicked?I’ve thought a lot about what Wizard of Oz means. It’s the American fairytale, to follow the yellow brick road. There’s someone who’s going to give you your heart’s desire at the end of it, but you have to prove yourself. And yet nicely contained stories don’t actually exist. Life just keeps going. In my work now, I’m trying to almost dissect the idea of happy endings. Especially with Wicked, which is all about…
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How to Get Rich From Peeping Inside People’s Fridges
01 Jul

How to Get Rich From Peeping Inside People’s Fridges

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“People make fun of me about the fridges,” said Tassos Stassopoulos. “I am fridge-obsessed.” As the founder and managing partner of Trinetra, a London-based investment firm, Stassopoulos has pioneered an unusual strategy: peeking inside refrigerators in homes around the world in order to predict the future—and monetize those insights.By the time of his refrigeration revelation in 2009, Stassopoulos had already gained a reputation for his maverick process: Where other investors typically relied on market data and forecasts from big consumer-products companies to deduce what people in, say, India might start purchasing in the future, Stassopoulos spent days traveling around the…
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