Lee Pace Has Big Hopes for's Fourth Season WIRED spoke to Lee Pace on the eve of the season finale of about clone consciousness, robot gods, and what's next for the newly renewed show. In the world of prestige sci-fi, reigns as the biggest sleeper hit. Mention the Apple TV+ adaptation of Isaac Asimov's classic series in a group of friends and you'll suddenly find everyone has been secretly watching it. Something of a flawed masterpiece, the show, which wraps its third season Friday, has been averaging about 1.5 million hours watched per week in the US over the last month, according to Luminate. Reasons for the show's popularity are many, but it's seemed to have gained traction as it's become more, well, relevant. The series, like Asimov's books, focuses on a group of economists using a predictive algorithm to guide the destiny of humanity through the collapse of a galactic empire.

WHEN IT COMES to artificial intelligence (AI), spy agencies have been at it longer than most. In the cold war, America's National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) explored early AI to help transcribe and translate the enormous volumes of Soviet phone-intercepts they began hoovering up in the 1960s. Yet the technology was immature. One former European intelligence officer says his service did not use automatic transcription or translation in Afghanistan in the 2000s, relying on native speakers instead. Now the spooks are hoping to do better. The trends that have made AI attractive for business--more data, better algorithms, and more processing power to make it all hum--are giving spy agencies big ideas, too.

Walmart has opened a store in Levittown, N.Y. that is intended to showcase the power of artificial intelligence. The store, announced last week, is packed with video cameras, digital screens, and over 100 servers, making it appear more like a corporate data center than a discount retailer. All that machinery helps Walmart automatically track inventory so that it knows when toilet paper is running low or that milk needs restocking. The company's goal is to create "a glimpse into the future of retail," when computers rather than humans are expected to do a lot of retail's grunt work. Walmart's push into artificial intelligence highlights how retailers are increasingly adding data crunching to their brick and mortar stores.

Consumers are rooting for AI, but many also see some potential pitfalls. Artificial intelligence is viewed as a way to solve issues ranging from those related to cybersecurity and privacy to global education, based on a study out today. The study is based on a survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,500 U.S. consumers and business decision makers aimed at exploring attitudes towards artificial intelligence conducted by PwC. Participants were screened for basic familiarity with AI. The majority (63%) of consumers say AI will help solve complex problems that plague modern societies and 59% say it will help people live more fulfilling lives.