Six greats reads: a train ride to the future; searching for the'sky boys' and wallaby hunting in the English countryside Need something brilliant to read this weekend? In Silicon Valley, rival companies are spending trillions of dollars to reach a goal that could change humanity - or potentially destroy it. Robert Booth caught a morning train through the San Francisco outskirts to speak to those working at the cutting edge of this multi-trillion-dollar revolution, where some people worry that the push for AI is "all gas, no breaks". The Irish politician was targeted in 2022, in the final weeks of her run for office. She has never found out who made the malicious deepfake, but knew immediately she had to try to stop this happening to other women.

Japan's bear-related casualties hit record on escalating attacks Bear bells are displayed for sale at a souvenir shop at Shirakawa-go, a popular tourist spot and one of Japan's UNESCO World Heritage sites, in the village of Shirakawa, Gifu Prefecture, on Nov. 15. A record 230 were killed or injured by bears in Japan since April, putting more pressure on the government to intervene as the animals push deeper into areas where people live. Thirteen have died and 217 were injured as a result of bear attacks in the eight months through end-November, according to data released Friday by the environment ministry. The total already exceeds the previous record of 219 for the fiscal year through March 2024. Roughly two-thirds of casualties occurred in the sparsely-populated northern Tohoku region.

'U.S. sanctions equate us with drug traffickers,' ICC deputy prosecutor says The Hague - The deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Friday lashed out at U.S. sanctions, arguing they effectively put top court officials on a par with terrorists and drug traffickers. In a wide-ranging interview, Mame Mandiaye Niang also said it would be conceivable to hold an in-absentia hearing against high-level ICC targets such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sixty-five-year-old Niang, along with top ICC judges, is subject to sanctions from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, in retaliation at the court's arrest warrants for Netanyahu over Israel's campaign in Gaza. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories.

AI chatbots can sway voters' political views, studies say Paris - A brief conversation with a partisan AI chatbot can influence voters' political views, studies published Thursday found, with evidence-backed arguments -- true or not -- proving particularly persuasive. Experiments with generative artificial intelligence models, such as OpenAI's GPT-4o and Chinese alternative DeepSeek, found they were able to shift supporters of Republican Donald Trump toward his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris by almost four points on a 100-point scale ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Opposition supporters in 2025 polls in Canada and Poland meanwhile had their views shifted by up to 10 points after chatting with a bot programmed to persuade. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

From'Icarus bug' to flawed panels: Airbus counts cost of relying on single model PARIS - This week, Airbus got a brutal reminder that even the world's most-delivered jet -- the A320 -- isn't immune to shocks as disparate as solar flares and flawed metal. Days after recalling 6,000 A320-series planes over a software glitch linked to cosmic radiation, the European giant was forced to slash delivery targets when defects surfaced in some of their fuselage panels. The twin setbacks -- one rooted in astrophysics, the other in basic metallurgy -- underscore how fragile success can be for a planemaker that dominates the busiest corner of aviation and is on track to outpace Boeing for a seventh straight year. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

What is in the 28-point US plan for Ukraine? 'Ukraine is running out of men, money and time' Can the US get all sides to end the war? Why is Europe opposing Trump's peace plan? Here's where things stand on Saturday, December 6: A Russian drone attack killed two men, aged 52 and 67, in the Ukrainian city of Izyum as they were unloading firewood from a truck, according to local officials. Russian forces also killed a 12-year-old boy in an attack on the Vasylkivska community in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, and wounded more than a dozen Ukrainians in attacks on the Kherson, Donetsk and Sumy regions, local officials said.

A Canadian politician was arrested this week after she claimed a threatening voicemail she allegedly sent to a fellow politician was AI-generated.

Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group, speaks during the Future Investment Initiative Institute Priority Asia conference in Tokyo on Monday. SoftBank Group is in talks to acquire DigitalBridge Group, a private equity firm that invests in assets such as data centers, as it seeks to take advantage of an AI-driven boom in digital infrastructure, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Japanese conglomerate is negotiating a potential deal to buy New York-listed DigitalBridge and take it private, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential. Shares of DigitalBridge have fallen 13% this year, giving the company a market value of about $1.8 billion. They rose as high as 35% on the news and were last trading at $12.63 at 10:40 a.m. in New York. SoftBank's billionaire founder Masayoshi Son is trying to capitalize on soaring demand for the computing capacity that underpins artificial intelligence applications.

WIRED Roundup: DOGE Isn't Dead, Facebook Dating Is Real, and Amazon's AI Ambitions In this episode of, we bring you the news of the week, then dive into how some DOGE operatives are still at work in the federal government--despite reports claiming otherwise. Uncanny Valley host Zoë Schiffer is joined by senior editor Leah Feiger to discuss five stories you need to know about this week, from how Amazon is trying to catch up in the AI race to why Facebook Dating is more popular than ever. Then, they dive into how--despite recent reports claiming that it's over--DOGE operatives are still very much working across federal agencies. Who the Hell Is Actually Using Facebook Dating? Sex Workers Built an'Anti-OnlyFans' to Take Control of Their Profits Here's What Its Operatives Are Doing Now Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . Today on the show, we're bringing you five stories that you need to know about this week, including how despite some reports claiming that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is pretty much over, DOGE people are actually still at work across federal agencies. I'm joined today by our senior politics editor, Leah Feiger. How are you doing today? I am great because I've spent the day with you, but our gentle listeners don't know that. So the first story this week is one that I saw and I thought, you know what? Leah's going to want to talk about Amazon's artificial intelligence prowess.

Then its sales blew up. But fails to meet the lofty goals of its own ideas. Shortly before the December 2 release of horror game, developer Santa Ragione shared some news: the game would not be available on Valve's mega platform, Steam . Valve had already banned an early, incomplete version of the game two years ago and offered, according to Santa Ragione, little clarification about why at the time. Then, hours before the game's release, the Epic Games Store banned as well.