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.

A government spokesperson said: "We recognise that data centres face sustainability challenges such as energy demands and water use - that's why AI Growth Zones are designed to attract investment in areas where existing energy and water infrastructure is already in place." In addition, recent changes made by the water regulator Ofwat would "unlock 104bn of spending by water companies" in the next five years. The data centre industry argues that modern sites are already more efficient. Alternative cooling methods which do not require much water, such as free air cooling and dry cooling, are evolving. Closed-loop cooling, which involves reusing water, will be deployed in Microsoft's new data centres in Phoenix and Wisconsin.

Teaching robots to navigate new environments is tough. You can train them on physical, real-world data taken from recordings made by humans, but that's scarce, and expensive to collect. Digital simulations are a rapid, scalable way to teach them to do new things, but the robots often fail when they're pulled out of virtual worlds and asked to do the same tasks in the real one. Now, there's potentially a better option: a new system that uses generative AI models in conjunction with a physics simulator to develop virtual training grounds that more accurately mirror the physical world. Robots trained using this method worked with a higher success rate than those trained using more traditional techniques during real-world tests.

Since the beginning of the generative AI boom, there has been a fight over how large AI models are trained. And in the other camp are artists who argue that AI companies have taken their intellectual property without consent or compensation. It released its image-generating model Firefly, which is integrated into its popular photo editing tool Photoshop, one year ago. In an exclusive interview with MIT Technology Review, Adobe's AI leaders are adamant this is the only way forward. At stake is not just the livelihood of creators, they say, but our whole information ecosystem.

The Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, said he would be uncomfortable growing the automaker to be a leader in artificial intelligence and robotics without having at least 25% voting control of the company, nearly double his current stake. Musk said on Monday in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that unless he got stock in the world's most valuable automaker that was "enough to be influential, but not so much that I can't be overturned", at Tesla, he would prefer to build products outside of the electric-vehicle manufacturer. He has long touted Tesla's partially automated "full self-driving" software and its prototype humanoid robots but the electric-vehicle maker generates most of its revenue from its automotive business. Some analysts have also pegged the technologies, including Tesla's Dojo supercomputer to train AI models, as drivers of the EV maker's valuation, with the Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas saying in September that Dojo could boost its market value by almost 600bn. Tesla's shares fell about 2% in pre-market trading on Tuesday, following Musk's comments.

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Anyone who's experimented with ChatGPT can get a sense of the potential of generative AI--even in the technology's earliest stages. The hype around AI was rising throughout 2022, and has reached a fever pitch today. We've seen hype cycles swell around specific technologies before. Blockchain, Metaverse, NFTs, the list goes on. It remains to be seen what tangible value is created after the heat dies down, but in the meantime, some of the world's biggest companies are taking it very seriously.

At a time when the US and China are divided on everything from economics to human rights, artificial intelligence is still a point of particular friction. With the potential to revolutionize everything from food production and health care to financial markets and surveillance, it's a technology that sparks both optimism and paranoia. One of the field's most influential figures is Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, whose education and professional life have straddled the world's two biggest economies. China-born and Harvard-trained, Yao is his country's only recipient of the Turing Award, computer science's equivalent of a Nobel Prize. After almost 40 years in the US, he returned to China in 2004.

At a time when the US and China are divided on everything from economics to human rights, artificial intelligence is still a point of particular friction. With the potential to revolutionise everything from food production and health care to financial markets and surveillance, it's a technology that sparks both optimism and paranoia. One of the field's most influential figures is Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, whose education and professional life have straddled the world's two biggest economies. China-born and Harvard-trained, Yao is his country's only recipient of the Turing Award, computer science's equivalent of a Nobel Prize. After almost 40 years in the US, he returned to China in 2004.

When it comes to constructing software infrastructure, companies should avoid playing with independent Lego bricks. Instead, why not invest in a complete Lego castle? As organizations' data sets expand exponentially, their need to harness and channel such vast insights in the right direction is becoming more pronounced. The role of artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) in this process is now vital as companies look to leverage historical data for future efficiencies and revenues. However, the complexity of creating and building an AI system for this purpose is more complicated than many would like to believe.