AI is causing a crisis of agency. Back in the web-traffic-obsessed days of 2018, at a time of dawning awareness of how easily audiences online could be manipulated and spoofed by bots, the writer Max Read argued that the internet had crossed a threshold known as "the Inversion." Not only had bots proliferated across the internet; they had come to constitute it. In outnumbering humans, bots were also loosening everyone's grasp on the very reality of online experience. "What's gone from the internet, after all, isn't'truth,' but trust: the sense that the people and things we encounter are what they represent themselves to be," Read wrote.

AI-generated vloggers like Chloe VS History (left) and Nova VS History are, their creators say, 'taking an already-proven format and applying it to history' AI-generated vloggers like Chloe VS History (left) and Nova VS History are, their creators say, 'taking an already-proven format and applying it to history' The content creators behind channels like Chloe VS History are using AI tools to'bring history to life in a really visceral way' "I have just arrived in Tudor London, 1536," a young woman in a green puffer jacket tells the camera. "I'm going to check in at my room in the inn, get into the market. Then, later I am meeting the actual king - yep, Henry VIII - in person." On YouTube and other social platforms, users are flocking to watch AI-generated "history influencers", characters that vlog their travels to historical settings. One of the most popular channels is Chloe VS History, with more than 610,000 Instagram followers and 15m views on YouTube.

A new AI-powered avatar of Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne could make its first UK appearance in Birmingham. Osbourne's wife Sharon and son Jack announced plans for the hyper-real version of the Birmingham-born singer at an expo in the US last week. Talking to Ed James on BBC Radio WM, she said that plans for the avatar were brilliant. I've seen the tests that they've done of Ozzy and you can see every pore on his face, his beard's coming through, it's that detailed, she said. Osbourne died in July aged 76, less than three weeks after he had performed at Villa Park with Black Sabbath.

A Ukrainian flying ace is leveraging his aerobatics skills to protect his countrymen from nightly attacks. The most challenging part of an international aerobatics contest is the Free Unknown. Pilots arrive at a competition after having polished sequences of loops, stall turns, and barrel rolls. But for the Free Unknown section they learn which assortment of tricks they must perform only a day in advance. Contestants plan out how they will string together the stipulated moves in the most pleasing fashion, but they cannot rehearse the routine, except in their minds. It's a test of imagination and airmanship that often decides the competition. In 2019, the World Intermediate Aerobatics Championship, which was held on an airfield in the Czech town of Břeclav, contained three Free Unknowns. The winner of the first was a twenty-five-year-old Ukrainian pilot named Timur Fatkullin. At the controls of his red-and-silver Extra 330LX--a nimble German sports plane--he made the unusual move of starting his sequence upside down. He then executed a complicated routine as if he'd practiced it for months. The Ukrainian team, boosted by Fatkullin's performance, won gold. Trevor Dugan, who served as a navigator with the R.A.F. in Afghanistan and Iraq, was on the British team, which took bronze. Fatkullin, he said, was "absolutely phenomenal." Not long after that championship, Fatkullin stopped entering aerobatics competitions: first came the pandemic, then the war with Russia. He moves through life impatiently. Now thirty-two, he has five children. He is tall, with a tight beard, pale-green eyes, and a square jaw. Even in casual situations, he stands ramrod straight, as though about to give or receive an order. He often wears a shirt with three buttons undone, a beige leather flying jacket with the collar turned up, combat pants, and Nike high-tops. He plays the guitar, a little piano. He often carries a thick fold of high-value bills. He speaks several languages, including English (almost perfectly) and Spanish (conversationally). He once spent thirty days in jail after breaking the ribs of a man who'd threatened his wife. He can dance the tango. When Fatkullin was in his mid-twenties, he started doing stunts with a group of other extreme athletes: parachutists, motorcyclists, a free diver.

Plus: Google publishes a live exploit for an unpatched flaw, the feds arrest two men accused of creating thousands of nonconsensual deepfake nudes, and more. A WIRED investigation this week found that a former Phoenix police officer who owns a company that offers firearms training to Immigration and Customs enforcement was involved in six shootings, four of which were deadly . Meanwhile, a New York police officer's lawyer has been banned from Madison Square Garden amid a lawsuit the cop filed over injuries sustained during a boxing match at an MSG venue. The Take It Down Act went into effect in the United States this week, allowing people to demand that websites and other platforms remove their nonconsensual nudes. WIRED reached out to more than a dozen companies to give you a rundown on how to take action .

The tech giant made thousands of engineers train their AI replacements--then fired them. When Meta engineer David Frenk posted an anti-AI farewell parody video in an internal message board, staff thought it perfectly captured shifts in company culture. Get your news from a source that's not owned and controlled by oligarchs. This week, Meta laid off 8,000 employees--10 percent of the company's staff--and reassigned another 7,000 to train AI models. Fear of the layoffs had been building around the company for weeks, compounded by the way that Meta has taken a sharp turn from a company built by coders to a company that has staked its future on AI.

Tragic way Kyle Busch was found unresponsive revealed after NASCAR great's sudden death at 41 This quiet announcement from Prince William was missed by most... but this is why royal insiders tell me it spells disaster for Harry and Meghan's future: RICHARD EDEN Dangerous truth about melatonin side effects... the astonishing dose you SHOULD be taking... and a new natural grocery store alternative hailed by doctors Dirty secret Hollywood's Cool Girls don't want you to know. Kyle Busch's eerie premonition on illness just days before NASCAR great's death at 41 - as devastated family reveal their'pain and shock' 'You never went to space': Watch the awkward moment a conspiracy theorist confronts NASA's Artemis II crew - telling them to'stop acting' CIA Nostradamus warned Trump about Iran... now he's calling the President's doctors. Police probe Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor over'sex offences': Stunning update on investigation of former prince as officers appeal for potential'victim survivors' to come forward How Meryl Streep's husband really feels about her secret relationship with Martin Short: Their years of agony... his hard red line... and why she won't divorce him The Olympic gold medalist risking it all to smash sport's biggest taboo: 'It's super forbidden... but we're just openly doing it' Former CDC director Robert Redfield warns Ebola outbreak could spark a new'significant pandemic' Heartbreaking video shows trans student, 19, washing her clothes in college laundry room unaware that stranger who'd just walked in had selected her to be murdered Fears for Ariana Grande: Insiders lift the lid on Ethan Slater's costly sacrifice... her private nightmares... and what's really keeping them apart Aussie model turns heads with embarrassing Photoshop fail: 'OMG, this is insane!' Mom-of-two abandons home in Pennsylvania to live on board CRUISE SHIP year-round - and her kids have'zero concept' their life isn't normal White man charged after he was filmed screaming at black female neighbor and using the phrase'You people' Astonishing secret list of elite Hollywood liberals conspiring to elect Spencer Pratt revealed to KENNEDY by her LA moles. The Trump administration released another trove of UFO files today containing the 46 classified videos requested by lawmakers earlier this year. In one file, audio from a medical debrief can be heard after Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad, Richard Gordon and Alan Bean described seeing mysterious flashes and streaks of light in the dark while trying to sleep.

Google is sprucing up its Gemini models, revamping search, and enabling AI agents in everything. There are also some spiffy new smart glasses coming this fall. Google just wrapped its keynote address at its annual I/O developer event . The company showed off a swath of new agentic AI features and some demos of its upcoming Android-powered smart glasses. As it has in the past few years, the spectacle largely revolved around Google's perpetual stream of AI efforts.

Eyes in the tech world have turned toward Mountain View, California this week. The San Francisco Bay Area city is where Google's headquarters is located, making it a logical place to hold the company's annual developer conference. That's right, gang, Google I/O 2026 kicked off on Tuesday with the usual opening keynote, which is where the company reveals what's arguably the event's most relevant info for consumers. Google made a ton of Android announcements last week, so its mobile ecosystem wasn't really on the agenda. But what else could the onus possibly have been on if not AI? We heard the word Gemini more times than I could possibly care to count, and the company had many updates to share on that front. Search, Google's longtime bread and butter, was a big focus of the event. The company talked up a new Ask YouTube feature as well as changes to AI subscription pricing and Workspace features like Docs and Gmail.

Google's Gemini Omni can generate'anything from any input,' starting with video Google's Gemini Omni can generate'anything from any input,' starting with video Google didn't forget AI creators in its latest round of Gemini announcements. Google didn't forget AI creators in its latest round of Gemini announcements as part of Google I/O . The company just officially revealed Gemini Omni, a new model that can create anything from any input -- starting with video, according to Google. The first model called Gemini Omni Flash is rolling out today to the Gemini app, Google Flow and YouTube Shorts. Google called Gemini Omni the next step up from Nano Banana and, presumably, its current video generator, Veo 3.1 .