Today on, we talk about why the AI industry is investing in the development of humanoid robots, and what that means for us non-robots. This week, WIRED learned that OpenAI is ramping up its efforts in robotics--specifically, by hiring researchers who work on AI systems for humanoid robots. Humanoids, robots built to resemble us and perform daily tasks, were famous for their clumsiness just a few years ago. Senior writer Will Knight tells us about how that's rapidly changing on today's episode cohosted by Michael Calore and senior correspondent Kylie Robison. 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 . My Lord and Savior Lauren Goode, I'm so happy to fill in for her, but I miss her dearly. Also on the show this week, we have Will Knight, our AI expert at WIRED. Welcome back to the show, Will. Given the topic of today's episode, I want to ask you both. Do you have a favorite robot movie? Mine is The Iron Giant. I was just looking up when that came out because I swear I watched it on VHS as a kid. Yeah, I loved that movie. It's got a very sad ending. The robot is no longer.

CEO Sam Altman announced an age-prediction system and new parental controls in a blog post on Tuesday. OpenAI announced new teen safety features for ChatGPT on Tuesday as part of an ongoing effort to respond to concerns about how minors engage with chatbots . The company is building an age-prediction system that identifies if a user is under 18 years old and routes them to an " age-appropriate " system that blocks graphic sexual content. If the system detects that the user is considering suicide or self-harm, it will contact the user's parents. In cases of imminent danger, if a user's parents are unreachable, the system may contact the authorities.

At a weekend hackathon in San Francisco, more than 100 coders gathered to test whether they could beat AI--and win a $12,500 cash prize. On a breezy San Francisco afternoon last Saturday, I found myself at a nondescript coworking space filled with shoeless coders. Just over a hundred visitors had crowded into an office building in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood for a showdown that would pit teams armed with AI coding tools against those made up of only humans (all were asked to ditch their shoes at the door). The hackathon was dubbed " Man vs. Machine," and its goal was to test whether AI does help people code faster--and better. Roughly 37 groups were randomly assigned "human" or "AI-supported."

The chatbot-enabled Friend necklace eavesdrops on your life and provides a running commentary that's snarky and unhelpful. Worse, it can also make the people around you uneasy. The AI-powered Friend pendant is now out in the world. If you live in the US or Canada, you can buy one for $129. The smooth plastic disc is just under 2 inches in diameter; it looks and feels a little like a beefy Apple AirTag. Inside are some LEDs and a Bluetooth radio that connects you (through your iPhone) to a chatbot in the cloud that's powered by Google's Gemini 2.5 model. You can tap on the disc to ask your Friend questions as it dangles around your neck, and it responds to your voice prompts by sending you text messages through the companion app.

Thank you to everyone who attended our most recent AI Unlocked livestream Q&A session, Chatbot Basics: Beginner Advice For Claude, a ChatGPT Alternative. Staff writer Reece Rogers and senior correspondent Kylie Robison provided an overview of Anthropic's Claude chatbot, one of the most-used alternatives to OpenAI's ChatGPT and popular with AI insiders. They also answered audience questions about all kinds of topics, such as the main differences between Claude and ChatGPT, why chatbots hallucinate, privacy considerations, and even using chatbots for spiritual guidance. You can watch the livestream below, and find all of our previous livestreams here. Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.