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Is Hollywood Finally Turning on Tech Oligarchs?
Is Hollywood Finally Turning Against Tech Oligarchs? A new wave of films by directors like Aaron Sorkin and Luca Guadagnino takes on Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Elizabeth Holmes, and "shapeshifter" Sam Altman. Get your news from a source that's not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Big Tech is back on the big screen--but its bosses might not be thrilled. This fall, Hollywood will release four movies on tech executives: Luca Guadagnino's, on CEO Sam Altman's tumultuous time as the head of OpenAI; Aaron Sorkin's, on the investigation into Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg dismissing its platforms' negative impacts on young users and inciting violence and hate speech; the all-encompassing, by documentarian Alex Gibney, on the Tesla and SpaceX CEO's family life, corporate controversies, and engagement in right-wing politics; and You Can See Everything, an unsettling documentary in which directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim follow Elizabeth Holmes, who invited them to film her in the weeks before she began serving her federal prison sentence for defrauding investors at the now-defunct health tech company Theranos.
Elon Musk's Exes Are the Most Damning Part of a Massive New Documentary
Elon Musk's Exes Are the Most Damning Part of a Massive New Documentary On Friday morning, Shivon Zilis, a top executive and lieutenant of Elon Musk at his brain chip implant company Neuralink --as well as mother of four of the 14 children he is known to have fathered--took to his social media platform, X, to announce an abrupt shift in their relationship. "It's hard to go from in love to let go in a week with no warning, but that's just how it is sometimes," Zilis wrote, sharing a screenshot of the X account @BigTechAlert that showed Musk had unfollowed her there. Zilis' post continued: "I feel happy that I got to show Elon how it feels to be deeply understood, nurtured, and peacefully loved with stability and gentleness," followed by warm praise and best wishes for Musk. "I do hope and pray he and I can be great friends and coparents," Zilis concluded, leaving some ambiguity as to what exactly changed between them and whether she remains a director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, though it does not appear as if she has left the position. While this was a strange revelation of a private matter, it seemed hardly out of the ordinary for Musk's dizzyingly complicated family life.
The Best Early Amazon Prime Day Deals 2026: WIRED-Tested Picks to Shop Now
Prime Day Deals Are Already Here. These Are the Ones I'd Buy Amazon Prime Big Deal Days officially begin tomorrow, but I've already spotted early discounts on gear our team recommends. Amazon Prime Day deals are back, baby. The second sale of the year is officially dubbed Prime Big Deal Days and will arrive tomorrow and last until 11:59 pm PT Wednesday. However, early deals have already started, and I've been using my 13 years of deal-hunting experience to find true discounts on the gadgets and gear the WIRED Reviews team has hand-tested and would recommend to our friends.
A Prediction Market About the Past? Sure, Why Not!
As prediction markets surge in popularity, a new platform called Verifact Markets is pushing the concept even further, letting users trade on "disputed facts." Would you put money on whether Covid-19 originated from a lab? How about whether some of the footage from the Apollo 11 moon landing was actually filmed on Earth? Verifact Markets, a new startup that bills itself as a "prediction market for disputed facts," is betting that people will be eager to weigh in on questions like these. The company's premise is so quirky it sounds like something a couple of philosophy and economics majors dreamed after too many bong rips in their dorm room: Instead of wagering on the future, why not trade on stuff that already happened?
Trump's Appearance in Ohio Underscores All the Reasons the GOP Is Unpopular
Trump's Appearance in Ohio Underscores All the Reasons the GOP Is Unpopular Will the president's steadfast support of data centers cost Ohio Republicans a victory? President Donald Trump speaks during a midterm election rally, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in Vandalia, Ohio. Get your news from a source that's not owned and controlled by oligarchs. On Saturday, President Donald Trump hosted a campaign rally for Ohio senatorial and gubernatorial candidates, John Husted and Vivek Ramaswamy. As part of his campaign to revive GOP turnout and avoid what is widely predicted to be a Democratic sweep, he appeared in Ohio following weekend visits to Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama.
Rural Data Centers Are in for a Big Federal Tax Break
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, data center projects in rural areas could be eligible for major tax benefits starting next year. Some hyperscalers do not seem eager to take the free cash. Welcome back to Power Play! Each week, senior writer Molly Taft tackles a topic around this midterm season's biggest issue: data centers. If you've got a question or thought for the column, feel free to shoot Molly an email at [email protected] or reach them securely on Signal at mollytaft.76.
The Nvidia Shield TV Is 7 Years Old. It Just Got a 100 Price Hike
The Nvidia Shield TV Is 7 Years Old. The price of anything with memory is skyrocketing thanks to AI. Aging streaming devices are no exception. The era of generative AI has upended technology supply chains, and there is one ironclad rule in 2026: If it has memory or storage, it's getting more expensive. Even devices with years-old tech inside are still apparently subject to that unwritten rule. Nvidia has just announced that the Shield TV Pro is getting $100 more expensive, effective immediately.
Muse Creates Detailed Profiles of All Your Friends and Family
Millions have downloaded Meta's AI agent Muse. But getting it to do your bidding comes with privacy costs. Meta's new personal assistant, Muse, has become a viral hit, with millions downloading the AI agent, connecting it to bank accounts, messages, or health data, and allowing it to complete tasks for them. But as Muse takes off among consumers, data from inside the app is providing insight into how it organizes and presents information to users. In recent days, multiple researchers have extracted Muse's internal files and dumped the agent's operating instructions, providing a glimpse of how the system was built and behaves. Meta has maintained that it intended for these files to be accessible in the interest of transparency, and they do provide insight into how Muse responds to prompts and questions about, for example, highly politicized or sensitive topics.
The Future of Wildfire Response: AI, Drones, and Robots
The tech is "expected to enhance early detection, tracking, suppression efficiency, and firefighter safety." Get your news from a source that's not owned and controlled by oligarchs. During the Sand Creek Fire, which has burned since the start of August in southwestern Montana, difficult terrain and fire-weakened trees posed hazards to crews searching for areas still smoldering on steep slopes after the blaze passed. So instead of relying only on firefighters to find hidden embers, fire managers used unmanned aircraft to seek out heat sources. The operation is part of a broader technological shift underway in wildfire response.
A Decade-Long Experiment Is Unlocking the Mysteries of the Ocean's 'Deep Reefs'
A Decade-Long Experiment Is Unlocking the Mysteries of the Ocean's'Deep Reefs' Scientists left structures up to 100 meters under the surface. Here's what they found when they retrieved them 10 years later. On a bright, sunny day last May, I stood on a boat surrounded by the turquoise waters of the island nation of Palau . I was there in the western Pacific watching scuba divers as they prepared to bring up evidence of a mysterious aquatic world. Palau is famous for its spectacular and rich coral reefs . But these divers were planning to descend past those sun-lit marine communities and down into a lesser-known twilight zone known as the "mesophotic coral ecosystem." Divers prepare to retrieve research structures from down in the "deep reefs."