At its Connect event, Meta announced Muse Charm, a small fingerprint-activated pendant with a screen showing the Muse AI avatar and real-time voice interaction. Mark Zuckerberg called Muse the 'centerpiece' of Meta's AI strategy and said the device would be the fastest way to talk to Muse without wearing smart glasses. Meta also added live conversation capabilities to the Muse app, which has become the most downloaded app in the US since its launch two weeks ago.
Andreessen Horowitz is funding a San Francisco academy, led by Udemy cofounder Gagan Biyani, that offers high school graduates a tuition-free, one-year program focused on building startups rather than academic coursework. The founding cohort of about 50 students will skip tests and homework, instead working on real projects with mentors from firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta, and receiving roughly $50,000 in computing credit plus a $5,000 travel and research budget. OpenAI's Sam Altman is named as a guest lecturer or instructor, and other tech figures, including Fidji Simo, are contributing funding.
A New York Times investigation found multiple harassment and rape allegations connected to Silicon Valley hacker houses, including AGI House in Hillsborough, where police logged 37 incidents since 2022, at least 17 tied to parties. In one December case, a woman called police at 2 a.m. from a Lyft saying a male resident had tried to force her into sex before she escaped by climbing a gate. AGI House founder Jeremy Nixon, who also founded an earlier house called Genesis, previously described his vision of housing 20 AI hackers together for three months.
Andreessen Horowitz is opening The Horowitz Andreessen Academy, a one-year, tuition-free program in San Francisco for about 50 high school graduates who haven't attended college. The program mixes technical coursework with mentorship from tech industry figures, and is backed by $42 million in funding as a for-profit venture led by CEO Gagan Biyani.
Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz is opening the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, a one-year, ungraded program meant to funnel young people into Silicon Valley startups. Ten partner companies, including Google, Meta, OpenAI, Palantir, and Anthropic, will host students in 'co-op' placements, backed by $42 million in a16z-led funding, compute credits, and a travel stipend. The program grants no degree and requires participants to relocate to San Francisco and cover their own housing.
WIRED's Women issue features actor and comedian Patti Harrison portraying Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos in a satirical cover shoot commenting on Silicon Valley's male-dominated leadership. In an accompanying interview, Harrison discusses the concept, her comedic approach, and her own strained relationship with tech platforms after leaving Twitter.
Ron Johnson, who built Apple's retail store network starting in 2000, says he doesn't believe AI shopping agents will fundamentally change how people buy products. He argues that for significant purchases like laptops, consumers still want to physically handle items rather than let an AI complete the transaction, even as companies like Google and OpenAI push tools that let agents research, compare, and buy on a shopper's behalf.
A longtime WIRED writer and editor published a personal essay recounting a 17-year career marked by repeated instances of sexism, including being paid less than a male predecessor, having her parenting fitness questioned by bosses, and working at a publication where men appeared on 70 covers versus four for women. She traces her discomfort with some men in the industry back to her early days interning at WIRED in 2009, when the newsroom lacked female editors and reinforced narratives crediting men as the primary innovators in tech.
A profile piece follows Thinking Machines Lab founder Mira Murati at a black-tie AI-industry gala in San Francisco, where she struggled to be heard over a chattering crowd despite her prominent status as a former OpenAI CTO who now runs a $12 billion startup. The writer uses the scene to explore why, unlike male tech leaders such as Elon Musk, Jensen Huang or Sam Altman, no single woman comes quickly to mind when people are asked who holds the most power in Silicon Valley.
Thousands of unionized security guards contracted through firms like Securitas and Allied Universal have walked off the job at Big Tech campuses in California. The strike follows a member vote earlier this month authorizing action after months of stalled contract negotiations with SEIU-United Service Workers West.
WIRED is hosting a subscriber-only livestream on September 24 examining the state of women in Silicon Valley amid a broader backlash against DEI initiatives. The panel, featuring Sandra Upson, Lauren Goode, and Ej Dickson, will address reader-submitted questions about gender dynamics in tech workplaces. WIRED is soliciting questions via its comment section ahead of the event.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has proposed that the US and China cooperate to slow AI development given its safety risks, while also urging Washington to widen its technological lead through export controls and anti-distillation measures. Chinese officials and AI researchers have pushed back, arguing the proposal amounts to asking China to accept restrictions first while the US locks in an advantage, rather than a genuine offer of cooperation between equals.
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