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Kara Swisher Is Sick of Tech People, So She Wrote a Book About Them

Kara Swisher Is Sick of Tech People, So She Wrote a Book About Them

In her new memoir, Burn Book, Kara Swisher cites a 2014 profile that dubbed her “Silicon Valley’s Most Feared and Well-Liked Journalist.” She might prefer to downplay the first and emphasize the second. Some people would switch that around. But there is no dispute about Swisher’s impact: When it comes to tech punditry, she’s at the top of the heap.

No tech journalist has built a bigger brand for herself. Her three-decade career is a study in hard work and uncommon confidence. She rose from being a reporter at The Washington Post to The Wall Street Journal’s internet reporter and then, in her biggest leap, the cofounder of the All Things D Conference and website with her revered mentor, tech reviewer Walt Mossberg. In one of their most famous interviews, she and Mossberg moderated a blissfully convivial joint session with lifetime rivals Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in 2007 that brought many in the audience to tears. Swisher and Mossberg left the Journal in 2013 and started the successful Code conference, with Swisher heading a news site. Her interviews can be tough, the most famous being with Mark Zuckerberg in 2010, when he was so rattled by the way Swisher and Mossberg pressed him on privacy that he literally sweated through his hoodie. In addition to interviewing the entire tech CEO pantheon, Swisher has tossed questions at figures in politics and culture—Hillary Clinton, Kim Kardashian, Maria Ressa, and so on. All the while Swisher has broken plenty of news, fueled by her deep sources. In the past few years, she has mastered the podcast medium with two hits—On With Kara Swisher, an interview show, and Pivot, with business professor Scott Galloway—as well as a coveted stint hosting HBO’s Succession podcast. Swisher also had a short, high-profile run as a New York Times op-ed columnist. She’s played herself on Silicon Valley and The Simpsons. Her current affiliations are with Vox and New York magazine, and she is a permanent panelist on The Chris Wallace Show, a CNN Saturday morning talkfest.

Despite the title, Burn Book is less a scorched-earth exposé than a primer for Swisher newbies and those who want to know the tech world from an insider perspective. On her podcasts she loves to riff on the big trouble she’s courting by revealing the skeletons in tech’s closet, but for her regular listeners there’s little in Burn Book that they won’t have already heard. (She explains that the title is a play on her Mean Girls reputation, a reference to the book of rumors written by the movie’s high school bullies, and that the cover shot of her face with her trademark Ray-Bans, a raging inferno reflected in the lenses, is kind of a joke.) In the memoir, Swisher slashes her way through the tech world like John Wick with a word processor, vanquishing vain CEOs and clueless legacy media bosses and emerging without a scratch. Those humbled bros include Elon Musk, a former pal who’s now a nemesis. But unlike Musk, who Swisher says recently declared her an “asshole,” most of the tech world still, well, likes and fears her. Other journalists dream of interviewing the likes of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. At one stop on Swisher’s book tour, Altman is slated to interview her.

During my afternoon with Swisher at her house in a tony neighborhood in northwest Washington, DC, she took frequent breaks for fond exchanges with three of her four children, her wife Amanda Katz (an editor for The Washington Post), and her ex-wife, Megan Smith, a former US chief technology officer, who dropped in. Our conversation, though, was feisty, as we talked about her storied career, why she abandoned the conference business and The New York Times, and how she answers to the charge that she’s mean.

Steven Levy: What prompted you to write a memoir?

Kara Swisher: I didn’t want to. Jonathan Karp, the publisher of Simon & Schuster, bugged me for years to write something. I was much more interested in the blogs or the podcasts or whatever. I never really liked writing my books. The process was so slow. And I’d had enough of these [tech] people. I don’t like most of them anymore. I didn’t want to reflect on them. I’m sick of them. They’re sick of me. And Walt Mossberg was supposed to write his memoir, right?

‘AI Girlfriends’ Are a Privacy Nightmare

‘AI Girlfriends’ Are a Privacy Nightmare

You shouldn’t trust any answers a chatbot sends you. And you probably shouldn’t trust it with your personal information either. That’s especially true for “AI girlfriends” or “AI boyfriends,” according to new research.

An analysis into 11 so-called romance and companion chatbots, published on Wednesday by the Mozilla Foundation, has found a litany of security and privacy concerns with the bots. Collectively, the apps, which have been downloaded more than 100 million times on Android devices, gather huge amounts of people’s data; use trackers that send information to Google, Facebook, and companies in Russia and China; allow users to use weak passwords; and lack transparency about their ownership and the AI models that power them.

Since OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT on the world in November 2022, developers have raced to deploy large language models and create chatbots that people can interact with and pay to subscribe to. The Mozilla research provides a glimpse into how this gold rush may have neglected people’s privacy, and into tensions between emerging technologies and how they gather and use data. It also indicates how people’s chat messages could be abused by hackers.

Many “AI girlfriend” or romantic chatbot services look similar. They often feature AI-generated images of women which can be sexualized or sit alongside provocative messages. Mozilla’s researchers looked at a variety of chatbots including large and small apps, some of which purport to be “girlfriends.” Others offer people support through friendship or intimacy, or allow role-playing and other fantasies.

“These apps are designed to collect a ton of personal information,” says Jen Caltrider, the project lead for Mozilla’s Privacy Not Included team, which conducted the analysis. “They push you toward role-playing, a lot of sex, a lot of intimacy, a lot of sharing.” For instance, screenshots from the EVA AI chatbot show text saying “I love it when you send me your photos and voice,” and asking whether someone is “ready to share all your secrets and desires.”

Caltrider says there are multiple issues with these apps and websites. Many of the apps may not be clear about what data they are sharing with third parties, where they are based, or who creates them, Caltrider says, adding that some allow people to create weak passwords, while others provide little information about the AI they use. The apps analyzed all had different use cases and weaknesses.

Take Romantic AI, a service that allows you to “create your own AI girlfriend.” Promotional images on its homepage depict a chatbot sending a message saying,“Just bought new lingerie. Wanna see it?” The app’s privacy documents, according to the Mozilla analysis, say it won’t sell people’s data. However, when the researchers tested the app, they found it “sent out 24,354 ad trackers within one minute of use.” Romantic AI, like most of the companies highlighted in Mozilla’s research, did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. Other apps monitored had hundreds of trackers.

In general, Caltrider says, the apps are not clear about what data they may share or sell, or exactly how they use some of that information. “The legal documentation was vague, hard to understand, not very specific—kind of boilerplate stuff,” Caltrider says, adding that this may reduce the trust people should have in the companies.

The One Internet Hack That Could Save Everything

The One Internet Hack That Could Save Everything

The impact on the public sphere has been, to say the least, substantial. In removing so much liability, Section 230 forced a certain sort of business plan into prominence, one based not on uniquely available information from a given service, but on the paid arbitration of access and influence. Thus, we ended up with the deceptively named “advertising” business model—and a whole society thrust into a 24/7 competition for attention. A polarized social media ecosystem. Recommender algorithms that mediate content and optimize for engagement. We have learned that humans are most engaged, at least from an algorithm’s point of view, by rapid-fire emotions related to fight-or-flight responses and other high-stakes interactions. In enabling the privatization of the public square, Section 230 has inadvertently rendered impossible deliberation between citizens who are supposed to be equal before the law. Perverse incentives promote cranky speech, which effectively suppresses thoughtful speech.

And then there is the economic imbalance. Internet platforms that rely on Section 230 tend to harvest personal data for their business goals without appropriate compensation. Even when data ought to be protected or prohibited by copyright or some other method, Section 230 often effectively places the onus on the violated party through the requirement of takedown notices. That switch in the order of events related to liability is comparable to the difference between opt-in and opt-out in privacy. It might seem like a technicality, but it is actually a massive difference that produces substantial harms. For example, workers in information-related industries such as local news have seen stark declines in economic success and prestige. Section 230 makes a world of data dignity functionally impossible.

To date, content moderation has too often been beholden to the quest for attention and engagement, regularly disregarding the stated corporate terms of service. Rules are often bent to maximize engagement through inflammation, which can mean doing harm to personal and societal well-being. The excuse is that this is not censorship, but is it really not? Arbitrary rules, doxing practices, and cancel culture have led to something hard to distinguish from censorship for the sober and well-meaning. At the same time, the amplification of incendiary free speech for bad actors encourages mob rule. All of this takes place under Section 230’s liability shield, which effectively gives tech companies carte blanche for a short-sighted version of self-serving behavior. Disdain for these companies—which found a way to be more than carriers, and yet not publishers—is the only thing everyone in America seems to agree on now.

Trading a known for an unknown is always terrifying, especially for those with the most to lose. Since at least some of Section 230’s network effects were anticipated at its inception, it should have had a sunset clause. It did not. Rather than focusing exclusively on the disruption that axing 26 words would spawn, it is useful to consider potential positive effects. When we imagine a post-230 world, we discover something surprising: a world of hope and renewal worth inhabiting.

In one sense, it’s already happening. Certain companies are taking steps on their own, right now, toward a post-230 future. YouTube, for instance, is diligently building alternative income streams to advertising, and top creators are getting more options for earning. Together, these voluntary moves suggest a different, more publisher-like self-concept. YouTube is ready for the post-230 era, it would seem. (On the other hand, a company like X, which leans hard into 230, has been destroying its value with astonishing velocity.) Plus, there have always been exceptions to Section 230. For instance, if someone enters private information, there are laws to protect it in some cases. That means dating websites, say, have the option of charging fees instead of relying on a 230-style business model. The existence of these exceptions suggests that more examples would appear in a post-230 world.

Nick Hornby’s Brain-Bending Sculptures Twist History Into New Shapes

Nick Hornby’s Brain-Bending Sculptures Twist History Into New Shapes

You can get a crash course in Nick Hornby’s work in the span of an hour-long London walk. The artist has three permanent sculptures installed across the city, metal silhouettes that start off familiar but transform depending on your vantage point. In St. James, his conquering equestrian, modeled on Richard I, becomes an amorphous squiggle as you circle; while in Kensington, his take on Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer turns abstract; and a bust of Nefertiti doubles as the Albert Memorial.

Raising questions about power and the role of the monument, the trio are a clever combo of craft and concept. They’re also feats of digital innovation. The equestrian, for example, started out as a digital model scripted in Python. It was then unrolled into individual components to be laser-cut from metal, then assembled by fabricators. “It was a lovely, seamless relationship between concept, digital processes, and mechanical fabrications—165 pieces manipulated into the six-and-a-half ton object,” says Hornby from his studio in northwest London. “But when people look at it, they don’t see that at all.”

“I like to think that one of the distinctive features of my work is its ambition to capture the imagination of anyone, not limited to the art world; to try to address complicated ideas in plain English. Anyone will recognize the trope of the man on the horse and will have a reaction to how I have manipulated it.”

White abstract sculpture with images of a human body overlaid in areas on a white pedestal in a white room

Resting Leaf (Joe) is from a set of autobiographical works created using hydrographics—each resin sculpture is dipped into a wet medium containing an image transfer.

Photograph: Benjamin Westoby

This kind of technical-conceptual wizardry is Hornby’s calling card. Favoring the screen over the sketchpad, he uses 3D modeling as the foundation for abstract sculptures that reference the art-historical canon and challenge notions of authorship—contorted mashups of works by Hepworth, Brancusi, Rodin, and more; the profile of Michelangelo’s David extruded to a single point, legible only from above.

He started young, creating life-size terracotta figures in school while his classmates labored over simpler pots. “But then I went to art school, and it was like, I didn’t want to do pastiche of Rodin. I wanted to be part of the future. I wanted to be innovative,” he says. “So I jumped on technology.”

At the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he enrolled in the late 1990s, Hornby thrived in the new. There were forays into video; a semester at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he joined the artist-hacker collective Radical Software/Critical Artware; and musical experiments with MAX MSP, the object-oriented programming language employed by Radiohead in the early 2000s. But it was only after pursuing a master’s in his thirties that his career took its current shape.

“I actually had quite a radical sea change in my relationship to tech,” he says. “I got quite frustrated by people saying, ‘Wow, that’s really cool. How did you do it?’ because I find that question really boring. I’m much more interested in the question, ‘What does it mean?’” So, over the past decade Hornby has eliminated “any form of human subjectivity,” he says. The wires and screens were obscured, the rough edges erased with laser precision. All the better to invite questions of substance rather than process.

Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro Review (2024): A Top Linux Laptop

Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro Review (2024): A Top Linux Laptop

The other thing I noticed is the European-style keyboard. Tuxedo sent me a German keyboard, which is fine, I touch type anyway, so once I set the layout to US in the settings, the keyboard was mostly fine. Except for the Enter key. Most US keyboards use what’s known as an ANSI design, which features a long thin Enter key. Tuxedo uses an ISO-format keyboard, which has a taller Enter key with another key to the left of it. This is helpful for European users because it provides another accent key, but it’s definitely something that will trip you up for a bit if you’re used to US keyboards. I got around this by remapping the extra accent key to Enter (using Input Remapper), so that even if I mistyped, I got the result I intended.

Otherwise the keyboard was quite nice. The keys are on the tall side for a chiclet-style keyboard and have a satisfying amount of travel. I was able to type just as fast as I do on my Thinkpad T14.

Tuxedo also offers a wealth of keyboard customization options. You can put pretty much anything you want on the keyboard, including nothing. You can also have your custom logo etched in the lid.

The InfinityBook Pro is built around an Intel Core i7-13700H. The model I tested had integrated graphics, but there is an option to configure your InfinityBook Pro with a high-end Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card. I never felt the need for it, but if you plan to do anything more than light gaming, that’s probably the way to go. (The screen refresh tops out at 90 Hz, which is fine for gaming but not quite as fast as some displays.) I did a good bit of video editing on this machine, and while that did get the fan spinning, it was plenty fast for my needs.

Speaking of fans, the InfinityBook Pro 14 is equipped with a dual-fan cooling system, which is double what you’ll get in most thin laptops of this design. It works well, too. Even as I exported large 5.2K video footage down to 4K, the laptop never got too hot to have in my lap.

As with most Linux laptops, battery life is good, but can’t match new MacBooks. Doing our usual battery drain test (looping a Full HD video at 75 percent brightness), the InfinityBook Pro managed 6.5 hours. I haven’t felt constrained by battery life in the months I’ve tested the InfinityBook Pro. I liked the brightness at about 40 percent for web browsing and document, so that’s generally where I left it unless I was editing photos or video. Average use, at 40 percent brightness, generally got me between nine and ten hours. A full day’s work and some change. This can be further improved and tweaked using Tuxedo’s excellent Control Center app (more on that below).

Ports on the Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro 4

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Ports on the Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro 4

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

The InfinityBook offers more ports than you might think. There’s a Thunderbolt 4/USB-C port that can charge as well, a USB-C 3.2 Gen2 port, two USB-A ports, a full-size SD card reader, HDMI port, headphone/mic port, and a separate power plug. The latter is the fastest way to charge up, though you can use a standard USB-C cord to charge. You’ll want want a 100-watt charger, though. My 60-watt charger worked, but under heavy load—exporting video for example—the laptop drained power faster than it could charge. Tuxedo’s website has a whole page devoted to the best settings to charge from USB-C.

The trackpad on the InfinityBook Pro is large and responsive. It did occasionally pick up my palms as touch events while I was typing, but I prefer to turn off tapping anyway.

It Runs Tuxedo OS, or Other Linux Distros

Screenshot of Tuxedo OS

Tuxedo via Scott Gilbertson

Like System76, Tuxedo laptops ship with a customized OS based on Ubuntu Linux, though they will run just about any Linux distribution. (I tested Fedora to see if it worked and Arch because that’s what I use most of the time.) Tuxedo OS, which is built around the KDE desktop, provides a good, beginner-friendly Linux experience.

9 Best Valentine’s Day Sex Toy Deals: Suction Toys, Vibrators, and Dildos

9 Best Valentine’s Day Sex Toy Deals: Suction Toys, Vibrators, and Dildos

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, but so is its ancient predecessor, Lupercalia! While we don’t celebrate this holiday anymore by running naked through the streets, there’s no reason you can’t observe a private celebration running naked through the sheets. To help with that, we’ve searched high and low (fully clothed) to find the best sex toy deals ahead of February 14. Be sure to check our list of the best Valentine’s Day deals if you’re on the hunt for something less spicy but still sweet.

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Updated February 9, 2024: We’ve added the Ava Vivv and the Ava Mini Go wand vibrator.

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Sex Toy Deals

Satisfyer Cutie Heart Suction Toy

Satisfyer Cutie

Photograph: Satisfyer

This one just screams Valentine’s Day! Satisfyer’s aptly named Cutie Heart suction toy is a pocket-sized air pulse stimulator shaped like an adorable little heart. The shape lends itself to solo use surprisingly well. During testing, I found the buttons a little finicky, but overall it was a solid suction toy.

Librator’s Fascinator sex blanket is exactly what it sounds like. It has a waterproof lining, a soft exterior, and it rolls up easily when not in use. This is a great pick for anyone with a partner who squirts, or if you just want to make sure your sheets stay dry when you’re having a good time. During testing, I found that the waterproof lining can be a little crinkly at first, but once it’s been used and worn in a little bit, it feels less plasticky.

The Lovense Hush is a vibrating butt plug but instead of having to fumble with buttons on a device awkwardly, it includes a remote control. This feature came in handy during solo use and partnered use; being able to adjust the intensity by remote control makes it a toy that’s versatile and fun to use.

Lelo Sila Cruise

Lelo Sila Cruise

Photograph: Amazon

Lelo’s Sila Cruise is a suction toy designed for the slow build. During testing, WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe praised its wide intensity range, which allows you to start extremely gentle and build to a deep and powerful orgasm. This is the Cruise version from Lelo, which will automatically ramp up the vibration intensity when you press it against your body harder.

This plug doesn’t vibrate and doesn’t have a remote control, but Blush’s Temptasia Pom butt plug is a small, approachable size, with an attached (faux fur) bunny tail for some added flair in the bedroom. I found the size to be perfect for casual play and not the kind of thing you need to prep extensively to use.

The Rose-shaped suction toy is a popular category lately, and this is one of our favorites. The One Rose is coated in soft silicone, and the buttons are clear and easy to use. The broad soft mouth makes it easy to stimulate a wide variety of erogenous zones, but it excels at clitoral stimulation.

Magic Wand Mini

Magic Wand Mini

Photograph: Amazon

The Magic Wand Mini tends to fluctuate in price frequently. It’s been this price since early December, but it does bounce back up to its MSRP now and then. This is our top pick in our Best Vibrators guide, and for good reason. I love its remarkable multi-session battery life (around 2.5 to 3 hours, depending on vibration intensity) and smaller form factor when compared to the classic (and gigantic) Magic Wand.

I don’t normally put a lot of stock in Amazon reviews, but the sheer volume of rave reviews on Ava’s Vivv wand vibrator caught my eye. The Vivv is a wand-type vibrator with a silicone unibody design, easily discernible buttons, and a battery with a surprisingly long life. During testing, I got pretty close to two hours of battery life out of it. On top of that, the vibrations it produces are deep and rumbly, even at high intensity and low intensity.

The Ava Mini Go is like a shrunk-down version of Ava’s Vivv wand massager. It’s surprisingly powerful, but I find it’s pretty loud. Like, this is not a discreet toy, but it is an intense little toy. The vibrations it produces are more buzzy than rumbly, which can be nice for more surface-level stimulation on sensitive erogenous zones.