Welcoming Our New Chatbot Overlords
After launching, ChatGPT hit 1 million sign-ups much faster than Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter did.
Science & Technology
Now Is the Best Time To Embrace Artificial Intelligence
Which sentence in this podcast was generated using A.I.?
Vague Visa Rules Leave Laid-Off Twitter Worker Unable To Return to U.S.
Foreign-born tech workers in the U.S. have been especially vulnerable as tech giants lay off large shares of their work forces.
Utah Law Gives Parents Full Access to Teens' Social Media
Plus: Theatrics at the House hearing on TikTok, doomsday merger predictions haven't panned out, and more...
Federal Agencies Are Still Using Our Phones as Tracking Beacons
Our mobile devices constantly snitch on our whereabouts.
Congress Asks Is TikTok Really 'An Extension of' the Chinese Communist Party?
TikTok's CEO served as little more than a punching bag for lawmakers with a dizzying array of big tech grievances.
Banning Chinese Products in the Name of 'National Security' Could Have Disastrous Consequences
It would result in shortages, decreases in productivity, and higher production costs affecting millions of American workers and nearly every consumer.
Virtue Signaling by Scientific Journals Backfires, New Study Finds
Nature's 2020 endorsement of Joe Biden changed no minds but did significantly undermine trust in science.
Maybe A.I. Will Be a Threat—To Governments
The designer of China's Great Firewall sees new A.I. tech as a concern for public authorities.
SEC to Coinbase: Nice Crypto Exchange You Got There, It'd Be a Shame if Something Happened to It
Coinbase says the agency's assault will "only drive innovation, jobs, and the entire industry overseas."
Feds Say A.I.-Generated Art Is Ineligible for Copyright
Copyright law is just one area that must adapt to account for revolutionary A.I. technology.
Lawsuit Challenges Ban on Physical Mail at California County Jail
Prisons and jails around the country have been banning physical mail and used book donations under the flimsy justification of stopping contraband.
TikTok Is Too Popular To Ban
Plus: Police sue Afroman for using footage from raid, California bill could ban popular junk foods, and more...
FDA Says Lab-Grown Chicken Is Safe To Eat
"The future of our planet depends on how we feed ourselves…and we have a responsibility to look beyond the horizon for smarter, sustainable ways to eat," says GOOD Meat's CEO.
Kids Are Stealing Hyundais and Kias. Government Officials Blame Hyundai and Kia—and TikTok.
Federal, state, and local officials will always threaten to weaponize the state against private actors they don't like. The "Kia Challenge" provides the latest example.
This Just In: Conspiracy Theorists Not Quite as Kooky as Previously Reported
Greetings from the second International Conspiracy Theory Symposium, where one of the most cited findings in the field has been debunked.
The Crusade Against 'Malinformation' Explicitly Targets Inconvenient Truths
The legal challenge to censorship by proxy highlights covert government manipulation of online speech.
The FTC Is Closing In on Amazon
Plus: "No such thing" as a "harmless drag show" says university president, aggressive code enforcement in Florida, and more...
Of Course, the Trump Indictment Is Political
Plus: A listener asks the editors if the nation is indeed unraveling or if she is just one of "The Olds" now.
Shoddy Research Reinforces Anti-Vaping Narrative
Thanks to tendentiously sloppy research, most Americans think vaping is just as dangerous as smoking. That’s not true.
Who Owns Your Brain Data?
Nita A. Farahany's The Battle for Your Brain shows how neurotech can help, or hurt, human liberty.
Researchers Pressured Twitter To Treat COVID-19 Facts as 'Misinformation'
The latest Twitter Files shows a partnership between Stanford University researchers and government-funded organizations encouraged social media companies to police true information.
Review: The Progressive Backlash Against Influencer Moms
Momfluenced bemoans unrealistic expectations set on American mothers but then establishes new ones.
Federal Judge Blasts SEC for Poorly Argued Attempts To Claim Cryptocurrencies Must Be Regulated by Them
SEC agents cannot explain to a federal judge what its policies and attitudes regarding virtual currencies are—or how they are going to impact the industry.
Blame America's Air Traffic Control System for Your Flight Delay
In countries that privatized, there are fewer delays and costs are lower. But labor unions and the private plane lobby stand in the way.
Blame the Government for the New Banking Crisis? Live With Lyn Alden, Arnold Kling and Zach Weissmueller
Join Reason on YouTube and Facebook Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern for a discussion of the Silicon Valley Bank meltdown and bailout of depositors with economist Arnold Kling.
House Republicans Pass Bill To Prevent Federal Meddling in Online Speech
The bill is overbroad and could have unintended consequences.
Spoonies: The Culture of Staying Sick
Online communities have made their diagnoses their identity.
Is Internet Spoonie Culture Keeping People Sick?
While the FDA keeps experimental treatments out of reach, the spoonie world makes a diagnosis into an identity.
Yes, There Are Libertarians During Bank Runs
Plus: The editors recommend the best books for sparking interest in free market principles.
Ayn Rand Would Hate the New Spotify Video Feed
Turning every streaming service into TikTok is bad for the internet. It'll be disastrous for music.
Sen. Pat Toomey on Cryptocurrency and FTX's Collapse
"It's not clear that FTX would have existed, at least at its scale, if we had domestic guidelines for American companies," the former senator tells Reason.
Democrats Deride the Twitter Files Reporters as 'So-Called Journalists'
Members of Congress showed their true colors at a Thursday hearing.
NetChoice Seeks Injunction Against California's Disastrous Internet Law
The trade association says the overbroad and vague A.B. 2273 places unconstitutional burdens on speech.
FTC Seeks Names of All Journalists With Whom Musk Shared Twitter Documents
Plus: U.S. special forces seeks “next generation” deepfake tech, the economic cost of the PRO Act, and more…
Politicians Use Subsidies To Squeeze Semiconductor Manufacturers
When politicians manipulate industry, the public pays the price.
Lie Detectors Are Junk Science, but We Keep Using Them
Amit Katwala’s Tremors in the Blood explores how unreliable technologies have been used in our criminal justice system.
The Luddites' Veto
Beware of activists touting "responsible research and innovation." The sensible-sounding slogan masks a reactionary agenda.
TikTok and How Congress Treats Americans Like 'Unruly Children'
Plus: The editors puzzle over Donald Trump’s latest list describing his vision for America.
TikTok Admits It's as Clueless on Teens as the Rest of Us
A new 60-minute screen time warning on TikTok won’t stop kids from scrolling.
The SAFE TECH Act Is Anything but Safe
The latest bid to amend Section 230 would threaten free speech and creators' ability to monetize content while also subjecting tech companies to a flood of frivolous lawsuits.
Review: Are Memes Upending Democracy?
In Meme Wars, so-called "disinformation" experts call for the suppression of more ideas and speakers to protect democracy.
Conservatives at CPAC Criticize—and Misunderstand—Section 230
A senator, a state attorney general, and a former congressman excoriated the law while getting much of it wrong.
Be Skeptical of the New Artificial Sweetener Scare
Plus: Liberal teens are more depressed than conservative ones, the outsize role of immigrants in U.S. innovation, and more...
The Government Is Subsidizing Microchip Firms—While Making It More Expensive To Produce Microchips
Politicians say they want to subsidize various industries, but they sabotage themselves by weighing the policies down with rules that have nothing to do with the plans.
Hester Peirce, Nic Carter: The Government vs. Cryptocurrencies
Meet the SEC commissioner who hates regulation and the bitcoin booster who says the crypto industry needs to police itself better.
Copyright Is the Latest Battle in the War Over A.I.
The U.S. Copyright Office determined that images produced by artificial intelligence cannot be copyrighted, even though they are generated by user-written prompts.
