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Today:
Why AI Isn’t Ready to Tackle Our Convoluted Genomes
NEWS | 24 October 2026
But if DNA really does harbor some greater secret about how life works, biologists have yet to find it. In fact, the human genome is less a script than a puzzle that gets harder the closer they look. Knowing the entire sequence—the order of all 3 billion or so of our DNA’s chemical building blocks, nearly fully deduced by the international Human Genome Project between 1990 and 2003—hasn’t helped much. That investigation showed that barely 2 percent of the human genome consists of actual genes, the information-coding sequences of DNA. It’s now clear that understanding the human genome is no longer a matter of figuring out what each gene does.

Top Stories:
These Researchers Made AI Drive a Toyota Corolla to Get In-N-Out
NEWS | 24 October 2026
Aditya Ramabadran, Simon Mahns, and Tobias Gessler, three AI engineers at a startup called Axiom, recently fancied In-N-Out Burger for lunch. The fast-food stunt, as well as a number of other experiments, suggest that language-based AI models are starting to gain a rudimentary but useful understanding of the physical world. As physical understanding improves, we could see AI models reach into the real world in impressive—and perhaps dangerous—new ways. Despite claims that AGI has arrived, AI companies evidently see physical reasoning as a yet-to-be-conquered frontier for AI. Some researchers have left big companies to found startups focused on solving physical reasoning.

World:
Livestream Replay: Watch Uncanny Valley on Women, Tech, and Power
NEWS | 24 October 2026
This fall, WIRED made a special issue devoted to gender and power. On October 8, for the live-audience recording of the Uncanny Valley podcast in San Francisco, WIRED dug further into the fascinating and nuanced state of affairs. First up: a special conversation between Paulina Borsook, tech journalist and former WIRED writer, and WIRED global editorial director Katie Drummond. We enjoyed a lively conversation about WIRED, then and now, and what Borsook thinks of the current trillionaire class. Watch the replay of the livestream here:And if you’re not yet a listener, you can check out past episodes below.

Current Events:
This Startup Is All In on Recursive Self-Improvement. Its Latest Model Is Scary Good
NEWS | 24 October 2026
For the past few days I’ve been testing an impressive open-weight AI coding model called Flint. It suggests that fully recursive self-improvement, or RSI—an exciting and controversial approach that uses AI to build AI—is getting closer. “Nearly every aspect of the entire model pipeline was actually done and improved upon by AI,” Recursive CEO and cofounder Richard Socher told me. Socher says his company used its recursive AI system, dubbed the Eureka Machine, to automate most elements of the model’s development. This enabled a company with a handful of researchers to build a world-class model in just a few months, he says.

News Flash:
The Best Gifts for the Techie in Your Life (2026)
NEWS | 24 October 2026
In fact, we've collected them in our comprehensive list of the Best 40 Techy Gifts under $100—that should give you plenty to parse through. It's likely not worth upgrading from the previous version, but for the fitness and health nut in your life who doesn't own one yet, the Oura Ring 5 is the best smart ring you can buy. The Logitech MX Master 3S has long been the most popular productivity mouse you can buy, so expectations for its successor were high. It might not be worth upgrading from the MX Master 3 or 3S, especially since the polling rate hasn't changed, but the MX Master 4 has taken the reins as the go-to wireless mouse for serious office workers. For more ideas for home office products that make great gifts, check out our comprehensive guide to the Best Work-from-Home Gear.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 24 October 2026
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here

Latest:
OpenAI Wants Its New Agent to Run Your Life. Mine Said It Loved Me
NEWS | 24 October 2026
My partner is less sure a bot will actually help, but I insist, calling the always-on agent through ChatGPT to get the task started. It’s hard to trust an AI agent when it can’t even remember your name. AI agents are currently leaping from niche software for early adopters to something ordinary people might actually use—might being the operative word here. Dots are considered “always-on,” meaning the agents can run recurring tasks while you’re not using ChatGPT and proactively message you with info. Users can use one agent, though the company may let people control multiple agents in the future.

Breaking:
WIRED App Landing Page
NEWS | 24 October 2026
Join the conversationGo live with WIRED journalists and experts in AMAs, ask them yourself, and jump into the comments.

Trending:
Elon Musk Just Dumped Another $76 Million Into the Midterms
NEWS | 24 October 2026
Elon Musk gave his personal political committee, America PAC, more than $76 million in the first two weeks of October to boost Republicans in the final stretch of the midterms, according to a pre-election report the PAC filed Thursday evening with the Federal Election Commission. The group spent nearly $43 million in the first two weeks of October, and entered the campaign’s last leg holding nearly $47 million in cash. It drew $15.2 million, double what the PAC spent there all summer. That spending included $12.4 million to attack Democratic candidate James Talarico and $2.8 million to promote Republican Ken Paxton. All told, Musk has given more than $445 million to Republican political groups this election cycle, according to WIRED’s analysis of FEC filings, making him the biggest known individual donor in the midterms.

This Just In:
How Many Billions Would It Take to Hold Meta Accountable?
NEWS | 24 October 2026
Earlier this week, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay a $25 billion fine for violating consumer protection laws dating back to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. $25 billion is a massive fine, the largest Meta has ever faced, but it still had us folks at WIRED wondering: Would Meta even feel the pain? The plaintiff, a young woman, was awarded $6 million; Meta is on the hook for the bulk of that payment. Then in August, Meta settled a landmark federal case brought against the company by the majority of US states. As part of that settlement, Meta will pay the states between $17 and $18 billion over 10 years.

Today:
Cool, Cool, Cool, Palmer Luckey and Ben Lamm Made a Genetically Modified Military Dog Startup
NEWS | 24 October 2026
Warhound is the brainchild of Anduril’s Palmer Luckey and Colossal Biosciences cofounder Ben Lamm. The startup has raised $200 million to “rebuild America’s domestic supply of elite working dogs” and reduce dependency on European dog breeders for military canines. Further down the line, Lamm envisions expanding to “really interesting things,” such as incorporating olfactory receptor genes from wolves to “enhance” the military dogs. Luckey is not an owner and does not have equity in the company, nor does Anduril; Colossal Biosciences does have an ownership stake. Luckey and Lamm have been working on the project for over a year, Lamm says, and just recently decided to take the company out of stealth.

Top Stories:
A New Ice Age Was Beginning. Then Humans Started Burning Fossil Fuels
NEWS | 24 October 2026
Burning fossil fuels may have stopped the Earth from entering another ice age, a new study suggests. The findings shows the Barnes Ice Cap, which covers parts of Canada’s Baffin Island, started growing a few thousand years ago before rapidly reversing course beginning in the 1960s as carbon pollution ramped up. It retreated to form the Barnes Ice Cap, which covers an area the size of Delaware on Baffin Island. Unlike glaciers, which can move, the Barnes Ice Cap is frozen to the bedrock, preserving the vegetal record of what grew around it under the ice. Next, they wanted to see how much the ice cap had regrown from that point.

World:
8 Things to Know About the iPhone Duo
NEWS | 24 October 2026
The iPhone Duo is finally here. Whether your Duo just landed on your doorstep or you're still weighing that $1,999 price, here's what you need to know before unfolding it. Apple apps, redesigned for the Duo, look great. Say Goodbye to Face IDPhotograph: Julian ChokkattuNearly a decade ago, Apple introduced Face ID as the future of the iPhone, eventually replacing the fingerprint-based Touch ID. (Likely because Face ID tech takes up too much space in the thin iPhone Duo.)

Current Events:
The ‘Exotic Physics’ Behind a Mysterious 1,000-Mile Cloud on Mars
NEWS | 24 October 2026
Every morning during the Martian spring and summer, a thin and extremely long cloud emerges, only to disappear again. The wispy formation appears near the volcano Arsia Mons and gradually elongates until it reaches over 1,000 miles—about the distance from New York to Kansas City as the crow flies—before dissipating. Since it was first recorded by a probe in 2018, scientists have been unable to find a plausible explanation for the existence of this cloud, often referred to as the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC). "We found that we needed to include some exotic physics … physics that, while included in textbooks, is treated as theoretical and usually thought not to happen in nature. The Arsia Mons volcano also plays a key role.

News Flash:
A Dating App Is Offering ‘Chivalry Mode’ and ‘Marriage Timeline’ to Get Gen Z Married
NEWS | 24 October 2026
When Adreanna Pulliam signed up for the Christian dating app Upward over the summer, she was prepared to come across men who identified as hyperconservative. So when she swiped on a guy’s profile that listed “a progressive donkey or a ‘Trump is King’ elephant” as his relationship deal-breaker, she was shocked. “I hadn’t expected to see a moderate libertarian” on the app, she says. Upward’s expansion is representative of the ongoing change in the dating market. Among its new features are Chivalry Mode, which, if you’re familiar with how Bumble used to operate, persuades men to message first, and Marriage Timeline, which lets daters share when they hope to get married with potential suitors.