The Michigan U.S. Senate candidate on campaigning with Hasan Piker, being a capitalist, and why his fellow-Democrats need to "stop compromising." Abdul El-Sayed, the front-runner in Michigan's Democratic primary for Senate, is sometimes lumped together with other rising stars on the left. He does refer to the Democratic Party's "brand" as "bullshit" and has taken clear left-leaning positions on health care, Israel, and much else. But, at the same time, he is a self-described capitalist. He is also a former public-health official and a Rhodes Scholar. As he told me when we spoke recently for The New Yorker Radio Hour, his influences include both Bernie Sanders, a socialist, and Barack Obama, a liberal Democrat. He refers to Israel's war in Gaza as a genocide, but unlike, say, Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is almost certainly going to win a congressional seat in New York, he denounces the October 7th massacre--and certainly would not have attended, as Chavalier did, a pro-Hamas rally on October 8th, or ever. El-Sayed is forty-one and the son of Egyptian immigrants. If elected, he would be the first Muslim ever to serve in the U.S. Senate. His opponent in the August 4th primary, Haley Stevens, represents the Party establishment: she has won endorsements from Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. She is a former Obama Administration official who worked on the rescue of the car industry, which is an especially appealing credential in Michigan. Stevens and groups supporting her have spent sixty million dollars on ads--half of that sum has come from the pro-Israel lobbying group . At this point, polls suggest that El-Sayed is leading Stevens in the Democratic Party race, but in a general election he is trailing the Republican Mike Rogers by ten points, while Stevens is running even. El-Sayed, who is both fluid and charming, also shows flashes of bravado and hauteur, particularly directed against his opponents. It was perhaps not a good idea, considering his Oxford and Ivy League bona fides, to say that Stevens could not "string together two coherent sentences." According to, El-Sayed recently said on a call with donors, referring to Senator John Fetterman, "You put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message, and all of a sudden starts to sound a lot different." He is strong with younger voters; he is trailing with Black voters. He would ban, withhold funding for arms for Israel, push for Medicare for All, and "get money out of politics."

For decades, the senator has argued that concentrated wealth threatened American democracy. Now he's betting that frustration with Big Tech, billionaires, and unchecked AI is reaching a tipping point. It's hard to believe Bernie Sanders . Not because the longtime Vermont senator bears the hallmarks of a liar. Yes, he's a career politician, but the 84-year-old progressive torchbearer counts more viral memes than scandals to his name. Rather, it's hard to believe Bernie Sanders because, for decades, he's told Americans that this country can radically change, while championing ideas too far afield from the status quo to really have a chance. He wants to bring billionaires to heel, for one. And implement universal, government-run health care. If Sanders had his way, it wouldn't even exist. I believe it, and WIRED champions it. Sanders, though, is now hard at work adding one more big, improbable change to the pile: Since 2023, he's been advocating for firm and decisive regulation of the AI industry . In March of this year, Sanders and his frequent collaborator, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, proposed legislation that would halt data center construction until a series of safeguards are implemented. In June, Sanders announced the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which would essentially tax AI's richest companies and result in direct payments to American citizens. I wanted to talk to Sanders about those bills, and his perspective on AI more broadly. On a deeper level, though, I was curious about how Sanders sees the barriers to regulation--from tech oligarchs and deep-pocketed super PACs, to a federal administration happier to enrich itself via technology than actually govern it--and whether he thinks those seemingly intractable obstacles can be overcome. After a few months of haranguing, Sanders agreed to sit down, which is how I found myself in his modest DC campaign office watching the senator--thoughtful, genuine, vociferous as ever--grapple in real time with what he describes as "the most consequential, transformational technology in the history of humanity." Sanders and I spoke on Tuesday, June 23, as the New York Democratic primary was underway. I woke up the next day, our conversation echoing in my head, to find that a coalition of democratic socialists had swept their respective elections and sent party stalwarts into an existential tailspin. A few hours later, New Jersey representative Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, became the most mainstream member of the party to publicly support an AI data center moratorium .

Elizabeth Warren is a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street on April 17, 2025 in New York City. Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street on April 17, 2025 in New York City. Elizabeth Warren is a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. Americans are hanging on by their fingernails in an economy that funnels wealth to the ultra-rich and leaves crumbs for working people.

Companies Keep Slashing Employees' Benefits for the Worst Reasons Workers are getting worse health care, parental leave, and retirement benefits, showing once and for all that your job doesn't love you back. Employee benefits are in the spotlight this week, and that's because of three recent stories about US companies cutting back on non-wage compensations for workers. A Texas tech consulting firm with a forgettable name--TTEC--suddenly became a lot more memorable when it suspended its discretionary 401(k) match program for 16,000 employees through at least the end of 2026. According to Business Insider, which viewed an internal TTEC memo, the company plans to invest in AI certifications, AI tools and training, and automation, among other things. The auditing and consulting giant Deloitte is also reportedly slashing benefits for some workers starting next year.

I'm standing in front of a quantum computer built out of atoms and light at the UK's National Quantum Computing Centre on the outskirts of Oxford. On a laboratory table, a complex matrix of mirrors and lenses surrounds a Rubik's Cube-size cell where 100 cesium atoms are suspended in grid formation by a carefully manipulated laser beam. The cesium atom setup is so compact that I could pick it up, carry it out of the lab, and put it on the backseat of my car to take home. I'd be unlikely to get very far, though.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an AI guy. Last week, during a stop in Nashville on his Take Back Your Health tour, the Health and Human Services secretary brought up the technology between condemning ultra-processed foods and urging Americans to eat protein. "My agency is now leading the federal government in driving AI into all of our activities," he declared. An army of bots, Kennedy said, will transform medicine, eliminate fraud, and put a virtual doctor in everyone's pocket. RFK Jr. has talked up the promise of infusing his department with AI for months.

Roughly five years ago, Ant Group reined in its ambitions after a derailed initial public offering. Today, the Jack Ma-backed company is betting on a very different business to fuel its next phase of growth: health care powered by artificial intelligence. What began as a digital payments platform has become one of China's biggest investors in medical AI, backing software that fields patient questions and connects them with doctors, pharmacies and insurers. In November, Ant elevated its health unit to the same level as operations including Alipay and its lending businesses, underscoring how central the effort has become to the company's strategy. After years focused on consumer lending, wealth management and insurance technology, health care is now where executives believe AI can unlock the next wave of growth, leveraging Ant's massive user base to become its biggest business outside of payments.

Are you interested in learning more about the ways in which AI is being used? We've launched a new weekly newsletter series exploring just that: digging into how generative AI is being used and deployed across sectors and what professionals need to know to apply it in their everyday work. Each edition of Making AI Work begins with a case study, examining a specific use case of AI in a given industry. Then we'll take a deeper look at the AI tool being used, with more context about how other companies or sectors are employing that same tool or system. Finally, we'll end with action-oriented tips to help you apply the tool. The first edition takes a look at how AI is changing health care, digging into the future of medical note-taking by learning about the Microsoft Copilot tool used by doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Others say they don't need us. It's time for us to think of ourselves not as the high priests of health care but as what we have always been: healers. Not long ago, I cared for a middle-aged man I'll call Jim, who was generally healthy but had recently started to feel sluggish. One of his friends told him to try a hormone supplement. After Jim saw on social media that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Trump Administration's Secretary of Health and Human Services, had endorsed supplements as a part of an "anti-aging" regimen, he ordered one from a telehealth company. A few months later, he noticed swelling and pain in his calf. ChatGPT warned him that he might have a blood clot.

Which of These Updated Health-Care Plans Is Right for You? Thrilling news: it's time to decide what health-care plan you'll be opting in to for the coming year. Given the feedback we've received about how limited and expensive health care has become in this country, we've made some updates to our available offerings. Please choose from the following options. This is our most popular plan. It covers things like breathing (allowed, no co-pay), sleeping (hint: you must pretend to sleep in order to fall asleep), and eating (you pay for your own food).