Neighbors complained about noise, security guards, and hordes of traffic. An unlicensed school named after the Zuckerbergs' pet chicken tipped them over the edge. The Crescent Park neighborhood of Palo Alto, California, has some of the best real estate in the country, with a charming hodgepodge of homes ranging in style from Tudor revival to modern farmhouse and contemporary Mediterranean. It also has a gigantic compound that is home to Mark Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla Chan, and their daughters Maxima, August, and Aurelia. Their land has expanded to include 11 previously separate properties, five of which are connected by at least one property line. The Zuckerberg compound's expansion first became a concern for Crescent Park neighbours as early as 2016, due to fears that his purchases were driving up the market. Then, about five years later, neighbors noticed that a school appeared to be operating out of the Zuckerberg compound. This would be illegal under the area's residential zoning code without a permit.

The Republican Plan to Reform the Census Could Put Everyone's Privacy at Risk A little-known algorithmic process called "differential privacy" helps keep census data anonymous. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have spent the better part of the president's second term radically reshaping the federal government. But in recent weeks, the GOP has set its sights on taking another run at an old target: the US census. Since the first Trump administration, the right has sought to add a question to the census that captures a respondent's immigration status and to exclude noncitizens from the tallies that determine how seats in Congress are distributed. In 2019, the Supreme Court struck down an attempt by the first Trump administration to add a citizenship question to the census. But now, a little-known algorithmic process called "differential privacy," created to keep census data from being used to identify individual respondents, has become the right's latest focus.

If you want to secure your home, Google's Nest range is one of the smartest and easiest ways. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. There's no need for an expensive, professionally installed home security system for a little peace of mind. You can keep tabs on your home when you're away, check in on your kids or pets, and discourage intruders with a few well-placed security cameras and connected devices.

The All-Clad pizza oven was one of my biggest surprises of the summer. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Cookware brand All-Clad surprised me this year. This summer, it breezed into the backyard pizza world with a debut pizza oven that I like as well as any oven I've tested this year.

These high-end earbuds sound great, and have a much-needed discount. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Amazon currently has the Black Graphite Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) marked down to just $180, a full $170 off their list price, with lesser discounts on the regular black and white varieties. If you've ever used a pair of Sennheiser headphones before, you know they have a consistently excellent sound quality, and the True Wireless 4 are no exception.

OpenAI released initial estimates about the share of users who may be experiencing symptoms like delusional thinking, mania, or suicidal ideation, and says it has tweaked GPT-5 to respond more effectively. For the first time ever, OpenAI has released a rough estimate of how many ChatGPT users globally may show signs of having a severe mental health crisis in a typical week. The company said Monday that it worked with experts around the world to make updates to the chatbot so it can more reliably recognize indicators of mental distress and guide users toward real-world support. In recent months, a growing number of people have ended up hospitalized, divorced, or dead after having long, intense conversations with ChatGPT. Some of their loved ones allege the chatbot fueled their delusions and paranoia.

In Brownsville, Texas, some families found a buzzy new school's methods--surveillance of kids, software in lieu of teachers--to be an education in and of itself. At Alpha School's campus in Brownsville, Texas, a student works on exercises in a learning app. One day last fall, Kristine Barrios' 9-year-old daughter got stuck on a lesson in IXL, the personalized learning software that served as her math teacher. She had to multiply three three-digit numbers without using a calculator. Then she had to do it again, her mom says, more than 20 times, without making mistakes. At Alpha School, the private microschool the girl and her younger brother attended in Brownsville, Texas, she had been working a grade level ahead of her age in math, Barrios says. She could do three-digit multiplication correctly most of the time. But whenever she made an error in IXL, the software would determine she needed more practice and assign her more questions. She told her mom that she had asked her "guide," the adult who supervised her classroom in lieu of a teacher, to make an exception and let her move on. She said the guide's reply was that she needed to get it done, that it was expected of her. The adult guides in Alpha's classrooms "don't do any teaching," says the current head of the Brownsville school.

Experts have raised questions about whether an app-based curriculum can serve all learners equally. Experts have raised questions about whether an app-based curriculum can serve all learners equally. Inside San Francisco's new AI school: is this the future of US education? In the world's tech innovation epicenter, an "AI-powered" private school has made headlines for unabashedly embracing the technology. Alpha School San Francisco, which opened its doors to K-8 students this fall, is the newest outpost of a network of 14 nationwide private schools.

"When not wasting money on bureaucracy," he wrote, "The Department of Education has been funding anti-Americanism, gender nonsense and anti-meritocratic racism." By the end of the month, the department had been stripped to the bone, dismantled by Donald Trump and Musk's DOGE. And on Thursday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who has said her agency's "final mission" would be to send education programs "back to the states," was on hand as the president signed an executive order to begin eliminating what remained of the department. The companies' founders share an admiration for Musk and desire to help their students replicate his success. At the same time that federal support for public education is imperiled, two private online education programs whose seeds were planted with Musk and SpaceX are getting a second wind.

Fox News congressional correspondent Aishah Hasnie has more on who will be in attendance and policies President-elect Donald Trump will enact during his first day in office on'Special Report.' President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration guest list will include some of America's most influential billionaires, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos--signaling a sharp political shift among the tech industry's biggest players. Silicon Valley, traditionally a stronghold for left-leaning ideals, has largely embraced Trump following the November election. The incoming president amassed a record-breaking inaugural fund with substantial donations from tech executives. The heads of companies such as Google, OpenAI, Apple, Uber, and Microsoft have also forked over millions to fund inaugural events, including parades and swanky parties.