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 S62Great leaders know when to deploy the 3 types of innovation   During my four-decade career at IBM, where I most recently served as the Chief Technology Officer for IBM Cloud, we faced several challenges requiring innovative solutions. I didn’t realize it then, but experience shows us that there are patterns to innovation that need to be teased out and differentiated. Looking back, differentiating these patterns is key to managing the challenges that manifest when innovating. It doesn’t matter if you are in a small or large organization; these situational challenges are endemic.Part of why it’s not obvious to us nor well understood yet is that the myriad of books that talk about innovation make incomplete assumptions about all the elements involved. Innovation is NOT invention. Too many people confuse or align the two. Invention usually requires a deep understanding of a particular subject or connected subjects and results in deep, new, original insights. On the other hand, innovation requires a deep understanding of individual and/or group behaviors where inventions may or may not change a desired behavior. For an invention to become an innovation, someone’s behavior must change relative to that invention. Look at the contrast between the invention of the Apple Newton in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s and the eventual introduction of the iPhone over a decade later. Both were significant inventions, but only the iPhone hung around and fundamentally changed the behavior of millions to billions.
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S42Children Anticipate What Others Want, But Great Apes Don't  New cross-species research suggests a theory of mind is one thing that sets humans apart from apesHave you ever guessed what dish your significant other would order at a restaurant before they even picked up the menu? If so, congratulations, you’ve engaged in a behavior that some researchers believe might be “uniquely human.”
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S56Mass Layoffs Are Causing Big Problems in the Video Games Industry  As games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake II, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Spider-Man 2, and so many more marked 2023 as a year of instant hits and commercial success, developers were suffering. Layoffs rolled across the industry worldwide, knocking out a reported 6,500 jobs from studios like Amazon Games, Ubisoft, Epic Games, and Niantic. Roughly one-third of developers were affected either directly or indirectly by job losses in 2023, according to new data released today by organizers of the Game Developers Conference, and the industry impacts will be felt for months to come.Each year, the GDC polls attendees about issues facing the industry, from layoffs to generative AI to diversity efforts. For the current survey, they polled 3,000 developers from game studios large and small. The replies paint a concerning picture about long-term career sustainability within the game industry, a field that perhaps grew too quickly during the Covid-19 pandemic and is in the midst of rapid consolidation as well as burgeoning unionization efforts.
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S60The One Part of Apple Vision Pro That Apple Doesn't Want You to See  Apple's new Vision Pro mixed-reality headset goes on sale tomorrow, and the hype cycle has officially begun. The pricey product, which could be a giant bust or mark the beginning of a new era of spatial computing, was placed firmly on the heads of a first round of tech journalists and influencers earlier this week. WIRED's Julian Chokkattu had a demo today and reported that the technology is impressive, even if the user experience is a little awkward.Apple's mixed-reality headset is both in an existing product category and distinct from it. Like Meta's Quest headset, which originated from the Oculus line, it fully covers the eyes and forehead. Like Meta's Quest headset, Apple uses (impressive) pass-through video tech so that the wearer can still opt to see the outside world through the goggles. And as with the Meta Quest, a lot of the apps run as 2D applications in a 3D environment, meaning the apps themselves aren't fully volumetric, but they're projected into your field of vision with apparent depth.
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S35Taupo: The super volcano under New Zealand's largest lake  Located in the centre of New Zealand's North Island, the town of Taupo sits sublimely in the shadow of the snow-capped peaks of Tongariro National Park. Fittingly, this 40,000-person lakeside town has recently become one of New Zealand's most popular tourist destinations, as hikers, trout fishers, water sports enthusiasts and adrenaline junkies have started descending upon it.The namesake of this tidy town is the Singapore-sized lake that kisses its western border. Stretching 623sq km wide and 160m deep with several magma chambers submerged at its base, Lake Taupo isn't only New Zealand's largest lake; it's also an incredibly active geothermal hotspot. Every summer, tourists flock to bathe in its bubbling hot springs and sail through its emerald-green waters. Yet, the lake is the crater of a giant super volcano, and within its depths lies the unsettling history of this picturesque marvel.
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S40Extreme exhaustion and burnout: How it happens and what to do about it  More than a third of adults report feeling fatigue most or all of the time, while diagnoses of burnout are at an all-time high. What is leading us to feel so exhausted? And how can we develop greater resilience?To find out, science writer David Robson spoke to Anna Katharina Schaffner, a cultural historian and executive coach specialising in burnout. Her new book, Exhausted: An A-Z for the Weary, examines the history and science of exhaustion, and offers evidence-based advice to cope with the stresses that life throws at us.
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S41The politics of Apple's AirDrop security flaw  AirDrop was a powerful tool for activists during 2022’s A4 protests, as people across China took to the streets to speak out against the government’s handling of the pandemic. With so many iPhones in the crowd, organizers realized they could use AirDrop to push protest material to large groups without leaving a digital record of the message. It was an optimistic moment for tech, reminiscent of Twitter in the Arab Spring — until Apple shut it down. At the height of protests, Apple placed heavy restrictions on AirDrop use in China, particularly on messages received from outside a user’s contacts. Apple’s never given a clear answer as to why, but it’s pretty clear the company didn’t want a system built for file transfers playing a role in a geopolitical upheaval.
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S69S37Did Australia's boomerangs pave the way for flight?  The aircraft is one of the most significant developments of modern society, enabling people, goods and ideas to fly around the world far more efficiently than ever before. The first successful piloted flight took off in 1903 in North Carolina, but a 10,000-year-old hunting tool likely developed by Aboriginal Australians may have held the key to its lift-off. As early aviators discovered, the secret to flight is balancing the flow of air. Therefore, an aircraft's wings, tail or propeller blades are often shaped in a specially designed, curved manner called an aerofoil that lifts the plane up and allows it to drag or turn to the side as it moves through the air.
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S52AI Hits the Campaign Trail  It's an election year in the US, which means you can expect a fresh tsunami of campaign ads in your feeds, in your inbox, and jammed in front of YouTube videos. This is also the first election of the AI era, where anyone can generate just about anything—an image, a Twitter bot, a speech—by typing a few lines of text into a prompt. Whether it's bad actors generating misleading deepfakes or candidates using text generators to write cringey campaign emails, AI is now firmly part of the election process.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED senior politics writer Makenna Kelly joins us en route from the Iowa caucus to talk about how scammers and political campaigns alike are using AI to influence voters at the polls.
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S66Scientists scrutinize happiness research  We all want to be happy — and for decades, psychologists have tried to figure out how we might achieve that blissful state. The field’s many surveys and experiments have pointed to a variety of approaches, from giving stuff away to quitting Facebook to forcing one’s face into a toothy grin.But psychology has undergone serious upheaval over the last decade, as researchers realized that many studies were unreliable and unrepeatable. That has led to a closer scrutiny of psychological research methods, with the study of happiness no exception. So — what really makes us happy? Under today’s more careful microscope, some routes to happiness seem to hold up, while others appear not to, or have yet to re-prove themselves. Here’s what we know so far, and what remains to be reassessed, according to a new analysis in the Annual Review of Psychology.
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S55A Gene-Edited Pig Liver Was Attached to a Person--and Worked for 3 Days  Surgeons at the University of Pennsylvania announced today that they successfully attached a genetically altered pig liver to a brain-dead person and found that the organ functioned normally for 72 hours. The experiment represents a step toward using pig organs to help extremely ill patients with failing livers.The researchers behind the experiment think pig livers could be used to stabilize patients who need a liver transplant and are waiting for a donor. For patients whose own livers could recover, pig organs could also offer temporary support. "If you can provide some kind of way to increase the chance of recovery, maybe you can avoid transplantation," says Abraham Shaked, a surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania Transplant Institute, who oversaw the study.
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S20How to Turn Down a Job Offer Without Burning Bridges  What would you do if you’ve been offered a big job or a major project that your gut tells you to decline? Navigating the situation effectively can have a big impact on future opportunities, especially when you’re just starting out. Here are a few ways to handle it without burning a bridge.
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S39S68Google lays off 100 at YouTube; CEO says more layoffs are coming  Today's Google layoff announcement concerns YouTube, which plans to lay off 100 employees. Tubefilter was the first to report the news. This is the third Google layoff announcement in eight days (the other two were at Google Assistant/Hardware and Google Ads) and the 10th Google layoff announcement we've covered in the past 12 months. It feels like we could be doing this kind of reporting via a template by now.
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S32S59Apple's Vision Pro Headset Shows the Future of Computing Is Bulky and Weird  I spent a little more than 30 minutes wearing the Apple Vision Pro today, and I saw the future of computing. The impressive technology in Apple's upcoming mixed-reality headset lays the groundwork for what's to come, but I am at a crossroads. I'm not sold on the bulky headset.Apple announced the Vision Pro at its Worldwide Developer Conference last year. It's a $3,500 wearable computing platform you don over your head. Preorders start tomorrow, January 19, and it goes on sale on February 2, which is when you'll be able to demo it at Apple Stores worldwide. My time with it today showcased a final version of the official hardware with some new experiences.
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S61What was it like when the first living worlds formed?  It’s almost unfathomable how far humanity has come in just the past few decades in terms of discovering potentially habitable worlds. As recently as 1990, there were no known, confirmed planets beyond the ones here in our Solar System; as of today, there are more than 5000 confirmed exoplanets, from super-Jupiters all the way down to sub-Earth sized worlds. Many of the smaller ones are around stable, Sun-like stars; many of them are thought to have thin atmospheres; many likely possess the heavy elements needed for life processes; many are part of multi-planet systems, with the potential for Earth-like temperatures and pressures at their surface.While Earth might be the template for what we think of as an ideal, habitable world, we can still envision a wide variety of circumstances that are very different from our own that might also support life on a long-term basis. It took more than 9 billion years of cosmic evolution before Earth formed, however. It’s wildly unreasonable to assume that the Universe required all of that time to create the necessary conditions for habitability.
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S49First-of-Its-Kind Procedure Uses Pig Liver to Filter Human's Blood  A genetically modified pig liver successfully filtered the blood of a human who had completely lost brain activity and did so for three days. The achievement offers a potential temporary treatment for people with acute liver failureFor the first time, researchers have successfully connected a functioning liver from a pig to a human body. In a step toward testing the procedure in living people, a team at the University of Pennsylvania externally connected the liver to the body of a person who had suffered brain death. The liver, which came from a pig with 69 genetic modifications, properly filtered human blood for three days without being rejected by the human body.
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S5411 Awesome Travel Deals for Your Next Trip  New year, new travel plans. As you look ahead to the potential of 2024, do you see any travel in your future? A flight, a road trip, or even a day trip? Then don't miss these deals. We've rounded up discounts on everything from great luggage and hip packs to noise-canceling headphones and tablets to keep you (and your companions!) entertained. Plus, handy accessories like power banks—because nothing is sadder than running out of power halfway through a movie. Happy travels!Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.
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S46S50Ocean Trawling May Release Locked-Away Carbon  Some scientists say the controversial fishing practice of ocean trawling stirs up buried organic matter, some of which makes its way to the surface in the form of carbon dioxideSeagulls follow the Guide Me prawn trawler in Loch Long on March 5, 2019 in Greenock, Scotland.
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S67S30S344 Questions to Assess the Trustworthiness of Your Company's GenAI  Generative AI has the potential to reinvent work, freeing us to unleash our creativity on the problems that really matter. But in order for this to happen, companies need to build people’s trust in the technology. The author, who has spent years researching trust, recommends asking four questions to assess the trustworthiness of your company’s generative AI efforts.
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S38Shukubo: The Japanese temples where you can sleep alongside monks  In the serene world of Japanese Buddhist monks, life takes on a distinctive form, interwoven with discipline and mindfulness. These monks subscribe to a unique method of meditation, often sitting upright, supported only by a modest cushion. In this position, they uphold a constant state of awareness, embodying the Buddhist quality of prolonged concentration. This approach to faith is just one facet of a monk's lifestyle, which revolves around spiritual dedication and mindfulness.Their days typically commence with pre-dawn meditation, followed by a simple breakfast composed of vegetarian or vegan offerings. As the sun rises, the monks chant to foster self-awareness and inner peace.
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S58Cable Firms to FTC: We Shouldn't Have to Let Users Cancel Service With a Click  Lobbyists for cable companies and advertisers yesterday expressed their displeasure with a proposed "click-to-cancel" regulation that aims to make it easier for consumers to cancel services.Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan has said that changes are needed because "some businesses too often trick consumers into paying for subscriptions they no longer want or didn't sign up for in the first place." The FTC proposed the new set of rules in March 2023, and comments from industry groups were taken this week in a hearing presided over by an administrative law judge.
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S43Can this AI Tool Predict Your Death? Maybe, But Don't Panic  Amid the machine-learning boom, model developers have built an all-purpose digital oracle from a trove of big dataIt may sound like fantasy or fiction, but people predict the future all the time. Real-world fortune tellers—we call them actuaries and meteorologists—have successfully used computer models for years. And today’s accelerating advances in machine learning are quickly upgrading their digital crystal balls. Now a new artificial intelligence system that treats human lives like language may be able to competently guess whether you’ll die within a certain period, among other life details, according to a recent study in Nature Computational Science.
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S28S45Math Explains Why Your Friends Are More Popular Than You  The inspection paradox makes sense of social networks, long train wait times and why the call center is always busy Do you ever feel like your friends have more friends than you do? Though your mom might insist that you’re just as popular as they are, math’s inspection paradox explains why you’re probably right. It also reveals why it often feels like you’re waiting too long for the train or bus, why call centers always seem to be experiencing higher-than-average call volume and other daily frustrations.
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S47S64The surprising success of "honest placebos" in medicine  Lying to patients violates part of doctors’ ethical code, which requires them to respect patients’ autonomy. Patients can’t make autonomous decisions if they are being lied to. If I lie and say that a new treatment has no negative side effects, you cannot make an autonomous decision about whether it would be a good idea for you to take it. Sadly, until only a few decades ago, such unethical lying happened more often than we might assume with both placebos and active treatments. [Ethicist and philosopher] Sissela Bok reports a horribly unethical case that might make your blood boil as much as it does mine:In 1971 a number of Mexican-American women applied to a family-planning clinic for contraceptives. Some of them were given oral contraceptives and others were given placebos, or dummy pills that looked like the real thing. Without knowing it the women were involved in an investigation of the side effects of various contraceptive pills. Those who were given placebos suffered from a predictable side effect: 10 of them became pregnant. Needless to say, the physician in charge did not assume financial responsibility for the babies. Nor did he indicate any concern about having bypassed the “informed consent” that is required in ethical experiments with human beings. He contented himself with the observation that if only the law had permitted it, he could have aborted the pregnant women!
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S70Bing Search shows few, if any, signs of market share increase from AI features  Not quite one year ago, Microsoft announced a "multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment" in OpenAI, a company that had made waves in 2022 with its ChatGPT chatbot and DALL-E image creator. The next month, Microsoft announced that it was integrating a generative AI chatbot into its Bing search engine and Edge browser, and similar generative AI features were announced for Windows in the apps formerly known as Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, and other products.
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S51Fight for justice -- even if you don't live to see it  Storyteller Golriz Lucina recounts how the historic sacrifice of Iranian 19th-century poet and mystic Táhirih planted the seeds for the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests today, offering an inspiring lesson in the value of acting with conviction — even if we don't live to see the results.
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S25S22How to Stay Engaged at Work (Without Burning Out)  Research shows that over 50% of Gen Z and younger millennials are more burned out than their older peers, and professionals under 35 are the most disengaged, feeling little connection to their colleagues. What can young professionals do to regain a sense of control over their careers and stay engaged without burning out?
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S27S53'Stablecoins' Enabled $40 Billion in Crypto Crime Since 2022  Stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to a stable value like the US dollar, were created with the promise of bringing the frictionless, border-crossing fluidity of Bitcoin to a form of digital money with far less volatility. That combination has proved to be wildly popular, rocketing the total value of stablecoin transactions since 2022 past even that of Bitcoin itself.It turns out, however, that as stablecoins have become popular among legitimate users over the past two years, they were even more popular among a different kind of user: those exploiting them for billions of dollars of international sanctions evasion and scams.
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S65Europe's busiest airport? Heathrow and Istanbul battle for the title  Squint at this map and you’ll see the Blue Banana: the European megalopolis that stretches from Manchester to Milan. It’s home to 100 million people and represents the developed world’s largest concentration of wealth, population, and international airports.Six of Europe’s 10 busiest international airports are in or near the Blue Banana, including two of London’s six: Heathrow (LHR) and Gatwick (LGW). It also contains the capital city airports of the Netherlands and France: Amsterdam (AMS) and Paris (CDG).
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