The emergence of decentralized social media platforms presents new opportunities and challenges for real-time analysis of public discourse. This study introduces CognitiveSky, an open-source and scalable framework designed for sentiment, emotion, and narrative analysis on Bluesky, a federated Twitter or X.com alternative. By ingesting data through Bluesky's Application Programming Interface (API), CognitiveSky applies transformer-based models to annotate large-scale user-generated content and produces structured and analyzable outputs. These summaries drive a dynamic dashboard that visualizes evolving patterns in emotion, activity, and conversation topics. Built entirely on free-tier infrastructure, CognitiveSky achieves both low operational cost and high accessibility. While demonstrated here for monitoring mental health discourse, its modular design enables applications across domains such as disinformation detection, crisis response, and civic sentiment analysis. By bridging large language models with decentralized networks, CognitiveSky offers a transparent, extensible tool for computational social science in an era of shifting digital ecosystems.

The growing presence of AI-generated videos on social networks poses new challenges for deepfake detection, as detectors trained under controlled conditions often fail to generalize to real-world scenarios. A key factor behind this gap is the aggressive, proprietary compression applied by platforms like YouTube and Facebook, which launder low-level forensic cues. However, replicating these transformations at scale is difficult due to API limitations and data-sharing constraints. For these reasons, we propose a first framework that emulates the video sharing pipelines of social networks by estimating compression and resizing parameters from a small set of uploaded videos. These parameters enable a local emulator capable of reproducing platform-specific artifacts on large datasets without direct API access. Experiments on FaceForensics++ videos shared via social networks demonstrate that our emulated data closely matches the degradation patterns of real uploads. Furthermore, detectors fine-tuned on emulated videos achieve comparable performance to those trained on actual shared media. Our approach offers a scalable and practical solution for bridging the gap between lab-based training and real-world deployment of deepfake detectors, particularly in the underexplored domain of compressed video content.

Cancel Culture Comes for Artists Who Posted About Charlie Kirk's Death A episode was taken off air, a DC comic series was canceled, and several artists were fired in the aftermath of the shooting. Almost immediately after she posted about the shooting of Charlie Kirk, author and transwoman Gretchen Felker-Martin started having second thoughts. Felker-Martin, who wrote the latest iteration of DC Comics' series, said "thoughts and prayers you Nazi bitch" on Bluesky in response to the killing of Kirk, a right-wing influencer and Trump ally who was staunchly anti-trans rights. "Hope the bullet's okay after touching Kirk," she added. Kirk died after being shot at a stop on his American Comeback Tour organized by the conservative youth organization he founded, Turning Point USA.

Online gambling is on the rise, and AI is entering the field. This week, hosts Lauren and Mike speak with senior writer Kate Knibbs to discuss how, from startups to traditional gambling sites, industry players are promoting AI agents with the promise of helping users make better bets. Join us live in San Francisco on September 9. Get your tickets here. Mentioned in this episode: "Meet the Guys Betting Big on AI Gambling Agents," by Kate Knibbs "Volodymyr Zelensky's Clothing Has Sparked a Polymarket Rebellion," by Joel Khalili and Kate Knibbs 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.

In today's episode, our host Zoë Schiffer is joined by WIRED's senior politics editor Leah Feiger to run through five of this week's best stories--from how AI is eliminating entry level jobs to why a secretive Democrat group is funding high-profile influencers. Then, Zoë and Leah dive into the scoop that AI researchers recently recruited to Meta Superintelligence Labs are already leaving--with some heading back to OpenAI. Join us live in San Francisco on September 9. Get your tickets here. Mentioned in this episode: Researchers Are Already Leaving Meta's New Superintelligence Lab by Zoë Schiffer and Will Knight AI Is Eliminating Jobs for Younger Workers by Will Knight Elon Musk's xAI Sues Apple and OpenAI Over App Store Rankings by Zoë Schiffer A Dark Money Group Is Secretly Funding High-Profile Democratic Influencers by Taylor Lorenz What It's Like Watching Dozens of Bodies Decompose (for Science) by Jess Thomson 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.

In today's episode, our host Zöe Schiffer is joined by WIRED's senior politics writer Jake Lahut to run through five of the best stories we published this week--from how the Trump administration is creating and sharing memes to make fun of deportations, to NASA's ambitious goal to put nuclear reactors on the moon. Then, Zöe and Jake dive into why users kind of hated OpenAI's GPT-5 release. Mentioned in this episode: OpenAI Scrambles to Update GPT-5 After Users Revolt by Will Knight The Trump Administration Is Using Memes to Turn Mass Deportation Into One Big Joke by Tess Owen Trump Family–Backed World Liberty Financial Sets Up 1.5 Billion Crypto Treasury by Joel Khalili Inside the'Whites Only' Community in Arkansas by David Gilbert Why the US Is Racing to Build a Nuclear Reactor on the Moon by Becky Ferreira Join us live in San Francisco on September 9th. 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.

Hosts Lauren Goode and and Michael Calore speak with staff writer Reece Rogers to find out what's behind these models that AI companies bill as their most powerful, and whether they could become a staple in our future. 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. Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors. Michael Calore: Hey, this is Mike.

On today's episode, our host Zoë Schiffer is joined by WIRED's senior business editor Louise Matsakis to run through five of the most important stories we published this week, from Meta continuing its AI talent poaching spree to how much faster our brains have aged since the pandemic. Afterward, they dive into the surprising reason ChatGPT reportedly went full demon mode last week. Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com. Mentioned in this episode: The Real Demon Inside ChatGPT by Louise Matsakis Meta's AI Recruiting Campaign Finds a New Target by Kylie Robison The Pandemic Appears to Have Accelerated Brain Aging, Even in People Who Never Got Covid by Javier Carbajal Age Verification Laws Send VPN Use Soaring--and Threaten the Open Internet by Lily Hay Newman and Matt Burgess This Smart Basketball Tracks Data About Every Shot. 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.

Brain-computer interfaces might have inspired works of science fiction, but the technology behind them is real and quickly developing. Companies like Synchron and Neuralink are racing to build a model that they can commercialize. Lauren and Mike speak with WIRED's Emily Mullin to discuss why Synchron's model is standing out, and the promises and limitations of these interfaces. 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.

This week, our host Lauren Goode, along with two of our senior writers, Kate Knibbs and Paresh Dave, dive into the show's inbox to answer listeners' questions. We look into a range of queries--from how AI is shaping the film industry to brainstorming how the Jony Ive and Open AI's collaboration could look like. Mentioned in this episode: This Viral AI Chatbot Will Lie and Say It's Human by Lauren Goode and Tom Simonite A Political Battle Is Brewing Over Data Centers by Molly Taft 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. Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors. Lauren Goode: This is WIRED's Uncanny Valley, a show about the people power and influence of Silicon Valley.