Industry
Lost books by ancient philosophers recovered from 'unreadable' scrolls
Lost books by ancient philosophers recovered from'unreadable' scrolls Long-lost works of ancient philosophy have been recovered from papyrus scrolls that were scorched by the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius and thought to be impossible to read. For the first time, researchers have used AI to extract the entire surviving text from super-high-resolution 3D scans of a scroll without unrolling it. The scrolls come from the library of Herculaneum, which was buried along with Pompeii nearly 2000 years ago. Scholars have been trying to read the carbonised scrolls, which resemble lumps of charcoal, since the library was discovered in 1752. Physically unwrapping them risks their destruction and the ink they are written in is mostly indistinguishable from the charred papyri - at least to human eyes.
99 Prime Day Deals on Gear We Stand By, Up To 50% Off (2026)
The 99 Absolute Best Prime Day Deals We'd Spend Our Own Money On We've gone from A to Z to find Amazon's best Prime Day deals on the gear worth owning. Amazon Prime Day is here once again. Amazon's annual Prime Day deals aims to entice us with an endless scroll of "discounts (some real, many fake), hammering away with red slashes, big percentages off, and coupons you can only see after adding to cart. While Prime Day deals aren't what they once were--its success has inspired a massive number of fake deals and attracted obscure brands--there are still some very significant discounts to be found. For the next four days, the WIRED Reviews team will be pooling our hundreds of years of collective expertise to find actual savings on products we have personally tested and approved. Let us absorb the neon signage and "buy now" buttons on your behalf and share the deals worth sharing. We'll keep this list updated frequently for the duration of the sale, which runs from June 23 to June 26. This is our very favorite MagSafe power bank . Wireless and MagSafe charging aren't always the fastest or most efficient, but despite its bulk, this large-capacity bank can top off modern phones once (or maybe a little more than that) without overheating or taking forever. One of the best budget wireless chargers is even more affordable thanks to Prime Day. You can buy fancier, faster wireless chargers, but if you just want a simple option that'll top off your phone, this is worth checking out. It can deliver up to 10 watts, though you'll need to supply your own wall adapter. Want something that can fast charge your phone, juice up your tablet, and even refill your laptop? This generous 25,000-mAh capacity can do it all, but stops shy of the carry-on air travel limit. The maximum output is 165 watts for two devices, but 100 watts for a single device. It has lovely rounded edges, a retractable, flat, 2.3-foot USB-C cable on the top, and a snazzy, durable, braided 1-foot USB-C cable that doubles as a carry loop. Unlike so many Windows laptops around $500, the OmniBook 3 has excellent performance and battery life. And while the touchpad isn't the best, the specs alone make it the very best cheap laptop you can buy. You have to be careful when buying Chromebooks these days.
Amazon Zoox's latest robotaxi looks (marginally) less like a toy car
Amazon Zoox's latest robotaxi looks (marginally) less like a toy car Amazon Zoox's latest robotaxi looks (marginally) less like a toy car The company said it will soon begin large-scale production of its autonomous vehicle. Zoox, the self-driving startup that Amazon purchased in 2020, has showed off the new version of its autonomous vehicle that it says was designed for large-scale production. While it still looks like the old version the company introduced in 2020, the new vehicle comes with changes that improve its comfort for riders and make it easier to interact with. The company relocated the vehicle's bidirectional reflectors for better visibility and made them rotate colors to better distinguish its front from its rear, seeing as the robotaxi has a boxy form factor. It also gave the speaker and microphone on the door two-way audio capabilities to enable communication between riders and road users, as well as between first responders and Zoox support.
U.S. defense firm Anduril in talks for Nissan plant to build drones in Japan, sources say
U.S. defense firm Anduril in talks for Nissan plant to build drones in Japan, sources say U.S. defense firm Anduril Industries is in talks to acquire the plant to build military drones in Japan, sources say. U.S. defense firm Anduril Industries is in talks to acquire Nissan Motor's Oppama assembly plant near Tokyo as the maker of autonomous weapons looks to build military drones in Japan, according to three sources familiar with the matter. While they say no decision has been made, any deal could transform one of Japan's first large-scale postwar car factories, long a symbol of its industrial revival, into an arms-making hub. The talks over Oppama, which are being reported for the first time, come as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government seeks to expand defense manufacturing amid growing concern that a Taiwan Strait crisis could draw in Japan and run down weapons stocks. 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.
Anthropic accuses Alibaba of 'illicitly' accessing AI models
Anthropic accuses Alibaba of'illicitly' accessing AI models Alibaba's American depositary receipts sank to a session low on the news, falling more than 3% to $99.10 at 3:38 p.m. in New York on Wednesday. Anthropic accused Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group Holding of waging a large-scale effort to "illicitly" access its Claude artificial intelligence model using thousands of fraudulent accounts that undermine the U.S. AI developer's decision to keep its products out of China. Anthropic claimed that a campaign by operators linked to Alibaba's Qwen AI lab targeted Claude's most prized capabilities, including software engineering and agentic reasoning, according to a letter that the AI startup sent to several U.S. senators and White House officials. The company said it was the biggest attempt so far by a Chinese company to piggyback on the work of top U.S. labs. In its letter, Anthropic claimed that the effort involved 28.8 million exchanges with Claude between April and June through almost 25,000 fraudulent accounts, according to people familiar with the document and a copy seen by Bloomberg News. The company said the Alibaba campaign resembled past efforts by other Chinese developers that Anthropic flagged in a blog post earlier this year.
OpenAI's free GPT-5.5 model makes ChatGPT better at understanding context
GPT-5.5 Instant is now more capable at processing complex questions. OpenAI has updated GPT-5.5 Instant, the model you interact with the most when you use ChatGPT, to be better at understanding context and adapting to queries as you alter them to add more conditions or clarifications. The company updated ChatGPT's default model to GPT-5.5 Instant in May. Back then, it said that the model produced 52.5 percent fewer hallucinated statements during testing and 37.3 percent fewer factual errors. Now, the model has been upgraded to be more capable when it comes to identifying the underlying goal of a task or a question and carrying context over across multiple back-and-forths as you talk to it.
Thai stock market thriving as surprise beneficiary of AI boom
People visit the Delta Electronics booth during the annual Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 3, 2026. Thailand's stock market is having the best year among Southeast Asian peers, as investors discover an unlikely source of exposure to the global artificial-intelligence boom. Much of that gain has come from Delta Electronics (Thailand). The maker of power systems for AI data centers has surged more than 80% this year and became Thailand's first $100 billion company, large enough to be worth more than the next four largest Thai stocks combined. While the country lacks the semiconductor champions of Taiwan or South Korea, investors are increasingly recognizing its role in supplying the infrastructure behind AI. "Thailand isn't a pure AI market, but its exposure to data centers, electronics, power systems and digital infrastructure gives investors a new way to view Thai equities beyond the traditional tourism, banks and domestic consumption cycle," Bloomberg Intelligence Strategist Sufianti said in a note. Delta's rise is the clearest evidence of that shift.
Anthropic accuses Chinese rival Alibaba of illicitly extracting AI capabilities
US artificial intelligence (AI) giant Anthropic has accused Chinese e-commerce and technology firm Alibaba of brazenly and illicitly extracting its Claude AI model's capabilities. In a letter sent to two members of the US Congress, the San Francisco-based company said operators linked to Alibaba carried out almost 29 million exchanges with Claude using thousands of fraudulent accounts in what it called the largest extraction campaign of its kind. Anthropic urged Congress to penalise the companies behind attacks like this and to ramp up measures to prevent US tech from being stolen. The BBC has contacted Alibaba for comment and requested more details from Anthropic. Anthropic's letter, dated 10 June and addressed to US Senators Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren, accused New York Stock Exchange-listed Alibaba of carrying out the largest campaign to illicitly extract Claude's capabilities.
Japanese railway firms adopt AI safety systems at crossings
An artificial intelligence-equipped camera system shows a person trapped inside a railway crossing gate during a test by Kintetsu Railway. A growing number of Japanese railway operators are introducing artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems to help prevent accidents involving trains at level crossings. The technology can automatically detect and report abnormalities, such as stalled vehicles or people trapped on the tracks, enabling train drivers and other railway staff to respond more quickly. Industry officials view AI as an effective tool for improving crossing safety, while the government has started offering financial support to encourage wider adoption. Kintetsu Railway, based in the city of Osaka, has tested an AI-equipped camera system at a crossing on the Kyoto Line in the town of Seika, Kyoto Prefecture.
First global rules adopted for self-driving cars, U.N. says
First global rules adopted for self-driving cars, U.N. says Safety concerns and costs have long slowed progress on autonomous vehicles. The first global regulations for fully autonomous vehicles were adopted Wednesday, a U.N. agency said, establishing uniform international safety requirements that could pave the way for larger-scale rollouts of self-driving cars. Safety concerns and the cost of developing next-level systems have long slowed progress on autonomous vehicles. As self-driving cars have begun to hit the road in a growing number of cities, the fragmented national approaches to regulation have spurred manufacturer fears that vehicles developed for one market could be blocked from others. In a bid to address that issue, a meeting of the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations at the United Nations in Geneva decided to introduce a global regulatory framework for vehicles equipped with fully autonomous driving systems (ADS).