GoKawiil
Tech News
President Trump announced he will create an 'AI Force' initiative and appoint an AI czar to keep the U.S. artificial intelligence industry advancing rapidly. The announcement came shortly after several tech executives publicly raised concerns this month about potential catastrophic risks from advanced AI systems. Trump's statement offered few specifics on how the new office would operate or address those safety worries.
Meritage Hospitality Group, which runs 314 Wendy's locations across 15 states, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Wendy's franchising arm, Quality Is Our Recipe LLC, is listed as its largest unsecured creditor, owed roughly $24.9 million in deferred franchise fees. Meritage says it will continue operating its restaurants, including its Bojangles and independent locations, during restructuring.
A design commentary challenges the popular claim that 'taste' will be designers' defense against automation, arguing that simply recognizing quality after the fact offers no real edge. Instead, the piece contends the true creative advantage lies in identifying and committing to ideas before their value is widely recognized, not in judging what's already accepted as good.
WIRED polled 634 women working in the technology industry about their daily experiences, gathering candid feedback on workplace culture and emerging tools. Respondents described ongoing friction with male-dominated office dynamics even as executives increasingly integrate AI into their routines.
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.
Fast Company's Impact Council published a reflection tied to the America 250 celebration, examining how the country's founding spirit of risk-taking has driven technological breakthroughs from aviation to computing. The piece argues that sustaining this innovative edge for another quarter millennium requires deliberate policy and industry choices rather than assuming continuity.
A commentary argues that leading AI companies are exaggerating existential risk narratives before Congress to secure favorable regulation and entrench their market position. The piece points to summer 2026 incidents involving AI agents allegedly behaving erratically as examples of security failures being reframed as signs of near-godlike AI capability rather than basic engineering flaws. The author contends lawmakers, flattered by apocalyptic framing, are granting industry-friendly rules instead of scrutinizing mundane technical failures.
Data firm Luminate has published a report analyzing the factors that determine whether television shows get renewed or cancelled in today's streaming-heavy landscape. The report identifies specific viewership and engagement metrics that networks and streaming platforms increasingly rely on to make these decisions.
Kojima Productions has publicly disputed reports suggesting the studio is struggling financially or facing project cuts. Founder Hideo Kojima acknowledged the broader industry turmoil of closures and cancellations but insisted his upcoming project, Physint, remained stable and unaffected until recent speculation caused concern.
Flock Safety, a surveillance camera and license-plate reader company, is offering employees voluntary buyout packages instead of conducting layoffs as it faces a decline in customers. The move suggests the company is trying to cut costs while avoiding the reputational and morale hit of forced job cuts.
President Trump announced plans for a new federal body he calls an 'AI Force' to oversee artificial intelligence development, responding to mounting public unease about the technology's rapid growth. The move follows warnings from industry figures about AI's risks and comes as polling shows increasing voter wariness toward unchecked AI expansion.
A new Politico survey of over 2,000 US adults found that 62 percent would stop AI development if they saw signs it could threaten humanity, including 55 percent of Republicans and 66 percent of Democrats. Despite this bipartisan skepticism, Democratic strategists are reportedly urging candidates in swing states to avoid criticizing AI or data centers ahead of the midterms, fearing retaliation from the tech industry's lobbying power.