This paper introduces a simulator designed for opinion dynamics researchers to model competing influences within social networks in the presence of LLM-based agents. By integrating established opinion dynamics principles with state-of-the-art LLMs, this tool enables the study of influence propagation and counter-misinformation strategies. The simulator is particularly valuable for researchers in social science, psychology, and operations research, allowing them to analyse societal phenomena without requiring extensive coding expertise. Additionally, the simulator will be openly available on GitHub, ensuring accessibility and adaptability for those who wish to extend its capabilities for their own research.

Lyft customers know it as the bright-pink app to tap when they need a car ride or to rent a bike or scooter. Today the company announced it wants to be the place to go to care for your own car. Lyft's app will offer a way to find and reserve parking in 16 cities, summon roadside assistance, and schedule vehicle maintenance. Adding those new services is a small step for an app but part of a much bigger shift in ride hailing. As Lyft and its larger competitor Uber search for a way to finally generate a profit, some visions they once espoused for the future have been tweaked, if not left on the side of the road.

The self-driving car has come to seem like an idea that's always a few years away from reality. According to two women leading efforts to commercialize autonomous vehicles, the technology has well and truly arrived--and while it might be limited to certain niches for now, they believe it could become a lot more common in the next few years. Jody Kelman oversees the autonomous driving division of the ride-share company Lyft, which has been testing self-driving taxis in Las Vegas since 2018. Aubrey Donnellan is a cofounder and the chief operating officer at Bear Flag Robotics, which retrofits tractors to make them autonomous. Kelman and Donnellan spoke to WIRED staff writer Aarian Marshall at WIRED HQ at CES, a virtual event exploring the standout gadgets, technologies, and ideas on show at the giant trade event.

The passenger experience will be influenced by ride-sharing partners, including Lyft, with each company providing its own user interface. Lyft said it designed its experience to mimic existing user behavior, including customers' tendency to turn to the Lyft app not only when hailing a car but during their rides, said Jody Kelman, general manager of Lyft Autonomous. "They don't have to kind of break their foundational patterns when they're taking a ride," Ms. Kelman said. Get weekly insights into the ways companies optimize data, technology and design to drive success with their customers and employees. Other companies such as Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo LLC, General Motors Co. 's Cruise LLC and Uber Technologies Inc. are also involved in developing their own driverless ride-sharing services.

Two years ago a novelist and as-yet-unproduced screenwriter named Nic Kelman went to work for Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes the popular collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. Kelman's job, though he might not put it this way, was to write a grimoire--a kabbalistic story bible. "Rules for magic out of the rules for Magic," as Kelman says. The company needed that grimoire because it was going to try to cast a spell in the real world--to transform a popular albeit niche game, complicated and nerdy, into a cross-media franchise. That has happened for comic books, for literature, even for toys, heaven help us.