The Wired World

João Medeiros “The WIRED World always reflects what’s preoccupying thought leaders across a range of specialties,” says editor Medeiros. “Lots of articles in last year’s edition were effusive about the promise of AI; this year, the focus has shifted to its potential consequences, as reflected in essays by Yuval Noah Harari, Meredith Whittaker, Gary Marcus, Rumman Chowdhury and many others.” Layal Liverpool “In 2025, researchers will increasingly harness AI to expose biases before they get incorporated into widely used medical algorithms,” says science author Liverpool in the Health section. ”It will help to ensure that this technology benefits everyone’s health.” Venki Ramakrishnan The Nobel laureate and structural biologist provides three tips for living a long and healthier life in the How To section: “While we wait for the biomedical establishment…

Thomas Heatherwick The British architect examines modern urban architecture in the Culture section, and finds it not just dull, but increasingly proven by in-situ science to be unhealthy: “Once restricted to the lab, neuroscientific and ‘neuroarchitectural’ research methods have taken to the streets.” Carmen Casado “It is always a pleasure to work on stimulating articles—especially if you can mix an idea with humor while still conversing with the text,” says Casado, who illustrates the Technology section. “My take was to play with combining retro aesthetics and current visual elements.” Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Johnson, founder of Urban Ocean Lab, highlights the challenges of the climate diaspora: “It’s not that people want to move, to leave the communities they love and call home; it’s that they must. Many will face a stark…

I’m writing this letter two weeks ahead of the US election, which puts me at a disadvantage to you, dear reader, who already lives in a world in which either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris are soon to take office as the 47th President of the United States. Forecasting is, by its very nature, unreliable. I am part of more than one WhatsApp group whose members are dedicated to following each twist and turn in the race for the White House. The individuals in these groups are smart, informed, connected people who are constantly scouring their networks looking for indicators of what will happen on November 5. And, to be brutally honest, none of them has any real clue about how it’s going to unfold. The only thing we know…

There’s a growing trend of people and organizations rejecting the unsolicited imposition of AI in their lives. In December 2023, the New York Times sued Open AI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. In March 2024, three authors filed a class action lawsuit in California against Nvidia for allegedly training its AI platform NeMo on their copyrighted work. Two months later, the A-list actress Scarlett Johansson threatened to sue OpenAI when she realized its new ChatGPT voice was “eerily similar” to hers. The technology isn’t the problem here. The power dynamic is. People understand that this technology is being built on their data, often without our permission. It’s no wonder that public confidence in AI is declining. A recent study by Pew Research shows that over half of Americans are more…

The doomers have it wrong. AI is not going to end the world—but it is going to end the web as we’ve known it. AI is already upending the economic covenant of the internet that’s existed since the advent of search: a few companies (mostly Google) bring demand, and creators bring supply (and get some ad revenue or recognition from it). AI tools are already generating and summarizing content, obviating the need for users to click through to the sites of content providers, and thereby upsetting the balance. Meanwhile, an ocean of AI-powered deepfakes and bots will make us question what’s real, and degrade people’s trust in the online world. And as big tech companies—who can afford the most data and compute—continue to invest in AI, they will become even…

The glow of the tech bros’ halo is dimming and, in 2025, the computing industry’s sheen of glamor will continue to fade, too. While other STEM fields are making strides in broadening participation in their workforces, year after year computing, a supposedly innovative field, fails to recruit, retain, and respect women and nonbinary workers. For example, precision questioning, abstraction, aggression, sexism and a disdain for altruism—serving the social good—are a few of the core values driving culture in computing worksites. These values and the ways they are policed via bias, discrimination, and harassment in high-tech companies form the “Bro Code.” The Bro Code perpetuates high tolerance of sexual harassment. It also contributes to the field’s failure to rectify its stark segregation. Only 21 percent of computer programming positions are held…