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Emergency first-responder leaders told federal regulators in a private meeting last month that they were frustrated with the performance of autonomous vehicles on their streets—that city firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and paramedics are forced to spend time during emergencies resolving issues with frozen or stuck cars. One fire official called them “a safety issue for our crews as well as the victims.” WIRED obtained an audio recording of the meeting.Officials from San Francisco and Austin, where Waymo has been ferrying passengers without drivers for more than a year, said the vehicles’ performance is getting worse. “We are actually seeing something…
The week of April 20 finished with a tight race in total viewers between NBC News’ Today and ABC News’ Good Morning America. The two morning shows were separated by 72,000 total viewers, with Today continuing to lead.Today, despite its first-place finish in total viewers, dipped below the 3 million viewers mark, while GMA was the only broadcast to finish the week with gains in both total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo.However, all three networks registered positive week-to-week movement in the advertiser-coveted demo.According to Nielsen’s national live+same-day big data plus program ratings, GMA averaged 2.924 million total viewers and…
Mike Vichich grew up in Michigan. His family, he recalls, dedicated their lives to public service. His parents were teachers, his uncle was in the FBI, while both sets of grandparents served in the Army. “Growing up, public service was always a really admirable way to spend one’s life and one’s career,” he told TechCrunch. “I have three young kids. I want them to grow up in a country where government can actually get stuff done.” He went on to work in consulting, then launched a consumer company that he sold to Olo for $200 million back in 2021. After…
An 18-year-old woman who promotes herself as the “#1 female looksmaxxer” is suing the highly controversial streamer Braden Eric Peters, aka Clavicular, for fraud, battery, and alleged sexual assault.In the suit, which was filed in Miami-Dade County court and obtained by WIRED, Aleksandra Mendoza, who goes by the name @zahloria, or Alorah Ziva, on Instagram, alleges that she first encountered Peters in May 2025, when she was just 16 years old. According to the complaint, Peters promised Mendoza he could make her “the female face of looksmaxxing,” the online trend of using surgery or drugs to enhance one’s facial features.Eager…
Key Takeaways: Co-creation works best if the artist has a genuine connection to the brand. Risk tolerance has to rise as the creative depth of the partnership increases. When pitching a pop star collab to the boardroom, lead with business impact. The brand-pop star collab playbook has been upended.During an ADWEEK House panel at the Possible ad industry conference, leaders from Maybelline, Nespresso, creative agency Croing, and Latin Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Joaquina unpacked how the new-look partnership model works. “Ten years ago, when I started my agency, the partnerships were more about the music as background, and the celebrity there as a…
Parallel Web Systems, the AI agent-tool startup founded by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, has raised a $100 million Series B at a $2 billion valuation led by Sequoia. Existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, Spark Capital, and Terrain Capital also participated, the company said. This raise comes just five months after the startup announced its $100 million Series A at a $740 million valuation led by Kleiner and Index, and brings the total capital it raised to $230 million. Parallel offers a suite of web search and research APIs specifically for AI agents and…
When a new administration moves to Washington, DC, there are always changes in policy priorities and personnel. Alex, a lawyer in the Department of Justice’s Voting Section, had survived Donald Trump’s first term, and thought he could make it through the second.Within hours of the president’s inauguration, he knew he had misjudged the situation.“I was just wrong,” he says. “It was wildly different than the first Trump administration. There was just a sense that this was not going to be the same. And then in the Voting Section, what happened is they just started dismissing cases.”The Voting Section was established…
Retail media spend is projected to hit nearly $70 billion this year, according to Emarketer. But the high-growth industry still has a lot of kinks to work out.During an ADWEEK House discussion at Possible in Miami, executives from commerce media networks, brands, and adtech companies took the stage to discuss challenges related to profitability, measurement, collaboration, and standardization.Stuttering growthAmazon and Walmart represent the vast majority of retail media spend, using a model that’s nearly impossible for many retailers to replicate given Walmart and Amazon’s size. That’s meant that the promise of a fast-growing ad business based on first-party data has…
Google announced on Wednesday a new wave of AI-powered features coming to Google TV, alongside a dedicated short-form video feed that brings YouTube Shorts directly to the home screen. At the center of this update are more Gemini capabilities. Within the Gemini tab, a “Create” button lets users experiment with generative AI tools Nano Banana and Veo. These are rolling out first on Gemini-enabled TCL TVs in the U.S., with broader device support expected later. Nano Banana, Google’s image-generation and editing model, lets users transform photos using simple voice prompts. Users can swap outfits, change backgrounds, or generate entirely new…
SenseTime, a Chinese AI company best known for its facial recognition technology, released a new open source model on Tuesday that it claims can both generate and interpret images far faster than top models developed by US competitors. SenseNova U1 could help the company reclaim lost ground after it slipped from its place among the leading players in China’s AI development race.The model’s secret sauce is its ability to “read” images without translating them to text first, speeding up the process and reducing the amount of computing power required. “The model’s entire reasoning process is no longer limited to text.…
Liz Rutgersson is leaving her post as North America CEO of Dentsu media agency iProspect to pursue a new opportunity, ADWEEK has learned. Liz Vance, chief client officer at iProspect North America, will step in to lead the agency alongside Will Swayne, global practice president of media and integrated solutions at Dentsu, an agency spokesperson confirmed. Beth Ann Kaminkow, Americas CEO and global chief client officer, will also be closely involved with leadership. “We thank Liz for her contributions and leadership during her time with iProspect,” Dentsu said in a statement shared with ADWEEK, adding that the new leadership team aims to “ensure…
Google Photos on Wednesday announced a new AI-powered feature that will soon turn photos of your clothes into a digital closet where you can create new outfit ideas, and even virtually try on your creations. Yes, the idea takes obvious inspiration from Cher’s iconic virtual wardrobe featured in the movie “Clueless,” where she could scroll through her various ensembles while deciding what to wear. Google says the new feature will leverage AI technology to automatically create a copy of your wardrobe that’s based on the pieces of clothing appearing in your Google Photos library. From the app, you’ll be able…
In This GuideIf You Want All the Bells and WhistlesWhisker Litter-Robot 5 ProJump to reviewA Model That Refills Litter for YouWhisker Litter-Robot 4Jump to reviewAs the pet tech writer here on the Reviews team at WIRED, I have a lot of opinions about which automatic litter box you should get. I’ve tested nearly 20 models, but I still go back to one of the first models my cats ever used, the Litter-Robot 4. Among all the brands I’ve tested, Whisker’s connected phone app is leagues above the rest. The app design is clean, easy to use and understand, allows you the…
The CW is extending its programming reach beyond broadcast this upfront season.Recognizing that a large viewership base no longer consumes content through traditional linear channels, the CW Network on Wednesday announced new distribution partnerships for sports and original programming with ESPN and Roku, respectively.The CW’s extensive live sports portfolio will be exclusively streamed on the ESPN app for ESPN Unlimited subscribers. Launching in the summer of 2026, subscribers will be able to watch live coverage of college football and men’s and women’s basketball from the ACC, Pac-12, and Mountain West conferences, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, WWE NXT, PBA…
Roku’s latest streaming bet is off to a solid start. Its affordable subscription service, Howdy, has now passed 1 million subscribers, according to data from research firm Antenna. This is a notable milestone for a platform that’s still pretty new, and suggests that it’s striking a chord with viewers who are tired of paying for yet another expensive subscription. Launched in August 2025, Howdy is Roku’s first real push into paid, ad-free streaming. At just $2.99 a month, Howdy is aimed at people who want something extra to watch for a lower cost. The service includes around 10,000 hours of…
Like clockwork, Motorola is back with a new set of Razr folding flip phones. The formula is the same as last year, with three phones differing in specs and price: the Razr Ultra, Razr+, and Razr. But alongside these models, Motorola is finally launching its first-ever book-style folding phone, the Razr Fold, which it first teased at CES 2026.The company announced the new handsets at an event in Los Angeles, where it also revealed a new pair of Moto Buds 2 Plus wireless earbuds that look eerily like Apple’s AirPods Pro, but in blue; these will retail for $150 and…