I went to the Pentagon to watch Pete Hegseth scold war reporters
I went to the Pentagon to watch Pete Hegseth scold war reporters

It is day 13 of America’s surprise war with Iran – by sheer coincidence, it’s Friday the 13th – and I am delirious. I haven’t had a coffee since I woke up at 5AM, because I’m not allowed to bring outside beverages into the Pentagon (the security screening cutoff was at 7AM for the 8AM), […]

Ikea tried to build a smart home for everyone — here’s why it’s not working yet
Ikea tried to build a smart home for everyone — here’s why it’s not working yet

Ikea’s new Matter-over-Thread products were supposed to prove that the smart home could be cheap, accessible, and reliable. The highly anticipated line – which includes sensors, remotes, smart plugs, air-quality monitors, and smart bulbs – has most everything you need to build a smart home, with prices starting at $6. It’s an exciting idea, but […]

Nvidia’s DLSS 5 is like motion smoothing for video games, but worse
Nvidia’s DLSS 5 is like motion smoothing for video games, but worse

Yesterday Nvidia revealed its latest upscaling tech, called DLSS 5, which it described as “the company’s most significant breakthrough in computer graphics since the debut of real-time ray tracing in 2018.” Sounds good, until you actually see it. According to Nvidia, the tech “infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials,” but all anyone seemed to […]

Capcom’s next big game explores the horrors of AI
Capcom’s next big game explores the horrors of AI

Capcom has been on a hot streak. The Monster Hunter series became a global hit with the launch of Monster Hunter World in 2018, which became Capcom’s best-selling game, while Street Fighter reinvented itself with a sixth entry and a string of Resident Evil games brought the survival horror franchise back to prominence. The most […]

The Live Nation trial restarts with a ‘velvet hammer’
The Live Nation trial restarts with a ‘velvet hammer’

After a chaotic week following the Justice Department’s mid-trial settlement with Live Nation-Ticketmaster, the antitrust trial picked back up surprisingly smoothly on Monday – this time, with dozens of states leading the case. This isn’t the outcome the states originally wanted. Out of concerns about being able to effectively take over the case and fear […]

Benjamin Netanyahu is struggling to prove he’s not an AI clone
Benjamin Netanyahu is struggling to prove he’s not an AI clone

Social media platforms are currently awash with conspiracy theories claiming that Benjamin Netanyahu has been killed or injured and replaced by AI-generated deepfakes. Between clips that supposedly show the Israeli prime minister sporting extra fingers and drinking from a bottomless, gravity-defying cup of coffee, only one thing is apparent: Reality used to be much easier […]

This is not a fly uploaded to a computer
This is not a fly uploaded to a computer

Last week, a few posts about a so-called virtual “embodied fly” tore through X, boosted by AI hype accounts and excited commenters who didn’t seem to understand what it was they were excited about. The videos came from San Francisco-based Eon Systems, which says it’s working toward “digital human intelligence” and claims it wants to […]

The $100,000 fee for H-1Bs is causing all sorts of problems
The $100,000 fee for H-1Bs is causing all sorts of problems

Last fall, President Donald Trump’s executive order raising the fee for H-1B visas to $100,000 – like many of his immigration policies – led to near-immediate chaos. Thousands of workers who had flown overseas to renew their visas ended up stranded abroad. Details about who would be affected only emerged after the fact. Six months […]

A Scavengers Reign artist explores contemplative sci-fi in new comics
A Scavengers Reign artist explores contemplative sci-fi in new comics

You may recognize Jonathan Djob Nkondo’s work from animated projects like the surreal sci-fi series Scavengers Reign or the recent Gorillaz short film The Mountain, The Moon Cave and The Sad God. But before that the French artist and animator made self-published comics that depicted strange alien worlds and future societies. Now he’s revisiting that […]

5 great indie games from GDC 2026
5 great indie games from GDC 2026

I just got back from the GDC Festival of Gaming, a big industry-focused event in San Francisco that was formerly known as the Game Developers Conference. While the show is mostly about educational sessions and networking opportunities for working developers, there were also a bunch of games that I got to play. Here are some […]