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Thinking Machines Lab wants to make AI models more consistent

There’s been great interest in what Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab is building with its $2 billion in seed funding and the all-star team of former OpenAI researchers who have joined the lab. In a blog post published on Wednesday, Murati’s research lab gave the world its first look into one of its projects: creating AI models with reproducible responses. The research blog post, titled “Defeating Nondeterminism in LLM Inference,” tries to unpack the root cause of what introduces randomness i

Best Washing Machines for Your Home in 2025

It's not always about the features that you most regularly use, but about having features available that you might sometimes need to use. If available features are driving your comparative shopping experience for washing machines, GE offers a top-tier, front-loading model with consistent customer satisfaction and just about every available add-on. While it is more expensive than the models listed above, it's less expensive than other models that offer as many features as it does. This washing m

Busy beaver hunters reach numbers that overwhelm ordinary math

But just how much harder? In 1962, the mathematician Tibor Radó invented a new way to explore this question through what he called the busy beaver game. To play, start by choosing a specific number of rules — call that number n. Your goal is to find the n-rule Turing machine that runs the longest before eventually halting. This machine is called the busy beaver, and the corresponding busy beaver number, BB(n), is the number of steps that it takes. In principle, if you want to find the busy beav

The 3 Best Espresso Machines You Can Buy in 2025

My evaluation process for a home espresso machine is similar to how I test standard drip coffee makers. First, I hand-wash and dry all removable parts and accessories. For most espresso machines, that includes the filter basket, metal portafilter inserts, water tank and so on. Next, I run one brewing cycle with just hot water to flush away any residual material from manufacturing. Most automatic espresso machines, save for fancy super-automatic models, lack an integrated coffee grinder, and I p

Mindless Machines, Mindless Myths

Mindless Machines, Mindless Myths Erik J. Larson thinks about “Mindless: The Human Condition in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” which traces Robert Skidelsky’s philosophical reckoning with AI, automation, and the illusion of progress. By Erik J. Larson August 2, 2025 Science & Technology Philosophy & Religion Mindless: The Human Condition in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Robert Skidelsky . Other Press , 2024. 384 pages. BEGINNING IN THE 1960s, a generation of visionary engineers

Deterministic Simulation Testing in Rust: A Theater of State Machines

It's been just a year since we wrote about how we implemented deterministic simulation testing (DST) of our Go database (FrostDB). Since then, we have been hard at work writing our new database backed by object storage in Rust (read more here about why). In this blog post, I want to lay out the approach we took to build our new Rust database with DST principles front-and-center and how it compares to the approach we took with FrostDB. As a quick recap, DST tests are randomized full system integ

AI engineers reject Meta's $1.5 billion offers to build on their own terms

Editor's take: As Big Tech and industry leaders dig ever deeper into their war chests to recruit AI talent, a profound question is emerging: Can money alone win the battle for the minds building tomorrow's most powerful technologies? Recent events suggest that, for a growing number of engineers and researchers, the answer is increasingly, and resoundingly, no. While not in the majority, many engineers are choosing to pass up unprecedented offers in favor of staying loyal to their mission, value

AI engineers reject Meta's $1.5 billion offers to stay loyal to their mission

Editor's take: As industry leaders dig ever deeper into their war chests to recruit AI talent, a profound question is emerging: Can money alone win the battle for the minds building tomorrow's most powerful technologies? Recent events suggest that, for a growing number of engineers and researchers, the answer is increasingly, and resoundingly, no. While not in the majority, many engineers are choosing to pass up unprecedented offers in favor of staying loyal to their mission, values, and the ch

Echelon kills smart home gym equipment offline capabilities with update

A firmware update has killed key functionality for Echelon smart home gym equipment that isn't connected to the Internet. As explained in a Tuesday blog post by Roberto Viola, who develops the "QZ (qdomyos-zwift)" app that connects Echelon machines to third-party fitness platforms, like Peloton, Strava, and Apple HealthKit, the firmware update forces Echelon machines to connect to Echelon’s servers in order to work properly. A user online reported that as a result of updating his machine, it is

The Great Unracking: Saying goodbye to the servers at our physical datacenter

Since October 2010, all Stack Exchange sites have run on physical hardware in a datacenter in New York City (well, New Jersey). These have had a warm spot in our history and our hearts. When I first joined the company and worked out of the NYC office, I saw the original server mounted on a wall with a laudatory plaque like a beloved pet. Over the years, we’ve shared glamor shots of our server racks and info about updating them. For almost our entire 16-year existence, the SRE team has managed a

Thinking Machines Lab Raises a Record $2 Billion, Announces Cofounders

Thinking Machines Lab, an artificial intelligence company founded by top researchers who fled OpenAI, has raised a record $2 billion seed round that values the fledgling firm at $12 billion. The funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and included Nvidia, Accel, Cisco, and AMD—among others. The mammoth investment reflects the ultracompetitive race to build advanced AI systems, as well as the premium placed on top AI talent. It is the largest seed funding round in history. Thinking Machine

Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab is worth $12B in seed round

Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by OpenAI’s former chief technology officer Mira Murati, officially closed a $2 billion seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz on Monday, a company spokesperson told TechCrunch. The deal, which includes participation from NVIDIA, Accel, ServiceNow, CISCO, AMD, and Jane Street, values the startup at $12 billion, the spokesperson said. Several outlets reported in June that Thinking Machines Lab was close to closing this $2B funding round at a $10 bill

19 Best Prime Day Coffee Maker Deals on Machines, Grinders, and More

What’s more WIRED than coffee? Before you plug into the matrix, you need your coffee fix. We know because we've been testing all the various ways of making coffee for years now. These are the best Prime Day coffee maker deals on WIRED-tested and -approved brewers, espresso machines, grinders, concentrates, pods, and more. If it's good at getting caffeine to your brain and on sale for Prime Day, it's here. Want more Prime Day goodness? Read our Best Prime Day Deals and Prime Day Liveblog for mor

16 Best Prime Day Deals on Coffee Machines, Grinders & More

What's more WIRED than coffee? Before you plug into the matrix, you need your coffee fix. We know because we've been testing all the various ways of making coffee for years now. These are the best Prime Day deals on WIRED-tested and -approved coffee brewers, espresso makers, grinders, concentrates, pods, and more. If it's good at getting caffeine to your brain and on sale for Prime Day, it's here. Want more Prime Day goodness? Read our Best Prime Day Deals and Prime Day Liveblog for more discou

The 8 Best Home Arcade Machines (2025), Tested and Reviewed

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you go shopping for home arcade machines. Size and placement: Home arcade machines tend to be big and heavy. Check the measurements and ensure you have a suitable space in mind. It will need a power outlet. It should also be within Wi-Fi range if it can connect to the internet, and many of these machines don’t have great Wi-Fi connectivity. Some space around the cabinet is also great for onlookers to cheer you on. Assembly and build quality: Some home

The 2 Best Slushie Machines of 2025 for a Chill Summer

We live in the golden age of the home slushie. It's a new age brought upon us after last year’s viral Ninja Slushi machine ($349) brought the slushie machine into the American kitchen—and with it a new world of frozen margaritas and Bapple slushies, and cockamamie slushie recipes shared on Reddit and TikTok. After three weeks of testing to find the best slushie machines, I am happy to report the state of the slushie is strong. Boozy slushies are maybe the one thing I miss from that first Covid

The 2 Best Slushie Machines of 2025 for a Chill Margarita Summer

We live in the golden age of the home slushie. It's a new age brought upon us after last year’s viral Ninja Slushi machine ($349) brought the slushie machine into the American kitchen—and with it a new world of frozen margaritas and Bapple slushies, and cockamamie slushie recipes shared on Reddit and TikTok. After three weeks of testing to find the best slushie machines, I am happy to report the state of the slushie is strong. Boozy slushies are maybe the one thing I miss from that first Covid

The Humble Programmer (1972)

The Humble Programmer by Edsger W. Dijkstra As a result of a long sequence of coincidences I entered the programming profession officially on the first spring morning of 1952 and as far as I have been able to trace, I was the first Dutchman to do so in my country. In retrospect the most amazing thing was the slowness with which, at least in my part of the world, the programming profession emerged, a slowness which is now hard to believe. But I am grateful for two vivid recollections from that