Zoë Schiffer is joined by WIRED’s Vittoria Elliott to discuss her conversation with Sahil Lavingia. Lavingia worked at Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, within the Department of Veteran Affairs, until he was fired for speaking out about his experience. Lavingia said his time at the VA was marked by a lack of transparency from DOGE leadership, and chaotic day-to-day operations– the ramifications of which are still being felt today. Just this week, Senators called for a federal investigation into the Trump administration’s killing of hundreds of contracts for the Department of Veterans Affairs

Disney and Universal recently filed suit against Midjourney, an AI image generation startup, alleging the company has become a “bottomless pit of plagiarism,” and that it freely reproduces the studio's copyrighted content, including their most iconic characters. The lawsuit has the potential to shape how intellectual property is treated in the AI era. So, we'll dive into the details of the case and others, and explain how this conflict gives us a window into the growing tensions between AI companies, publishers, and creators.

Meta just announced a major move in its AI efforts – investing in Scale AI and building a superintelligence AI research lab. While Meta has been trying to keep up with big names in the AI race, such as Open AI, Anthropic and Google, the company's new strategy includes dropping some serious cash to acquire talent and invest in Scale AI. Today on the show, we dive into the deal between Meta and Scale AI, including what Meta aims to get out of investment, and we ask the question we are all wondering: What is superhuman intelligence, anyway?

You can follow our hosts on Bluesky—Michael Calore is @snackfight, Lauren Goode is @laurengoode, and Katie Drummond is @katie-drummond.

In recent days, Los Angeles residents have taken to the streets to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies and the increasingly frequent ICE raids. WIRED’s Senior Politics Editor Leah Feiger joins Zoë Schiffer, Director of Business & Industry, to discuss the related flood of information on social media, and how AI chatbots like Grok and ChatGPT are delivering incorrect and at times, inflammatory answers.

Articles mentioned in today’s episode:

• AI Chatbots Are Making LA Protest Disinformation Worse
• I Joined Every Class Action Lawsuit I Could Find, and So Can You
• Vibe Coding Is Coming for Engineering Jobs

You can follow Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky @zoeschiffer and Leah Feiger @leahfeiger.

In the past six months, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others have released web-browsing agents that are designed to complete tasks independently, with only minimal input from humans. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has even called AI agents “the next giant breakthrough.” On today’s episode, we'll dive into what makes these agents different from other forms of machine intelligence, and whether their capabilities can live up to the hype.

You can follow our hosts on Bluesky—Michael Calore is @snackfight, Lauren Goode is @laurengoode, and Katie Drummond is @katie-drummond.

WIRED's Senior Politics Editor Leah Feiger joins Zoë Schiffer, WIRED's Director of Business & Industry to discuss the ongoing fallout between President Trump and Elon Musk, and the future of DOGE.

Articles mentioned in the episode:

• Conspiracy World Thinks the Musk-Trump Breakup Is a 'Psyop'
• DOGE Is on a Recruiting Spree
• Silicon Valley Is Starting to Pick Sides in Musk and Trump’s Breakup
• WIRED Talked to a Fired DOGE Staffer About Who Was Really in Charge
• Trumpworld Is Getting Tired of Laura Loomer. They Hope the President Is Too
• The Epic Rise and Fall of a Dark-Web Psychedelics Kingpin

You can follow Zoë Schiffer and Leah Feiger on Bluesky: @zoeschiffer , @leahfeiger

Expanded deportations, a virtually shutdown asylum process, increased scrutiny of H1-B visa applicants—immigration policy has been overhauled under the latest Trump administration. And, just last week the Trump administration said it would begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students who are currently studying at U.S. schools. On today’s episode, we dive into the impacts that these changes could have on the tech industry from the talent pipeline to future innovations.

Articles mentioned in this episode: The Trump Administration Wants to Create an ‘Office of Remigration’, US Tech Visa Applications Are Being Put Through the Wringer

You can follow our hosts on Bluesky—Michael Calore is @snackfight, Lauren Goode is @laurengoode, and Katie Drummond is @katie-drummond.

There’s been a lot of talk about how AI tools like ChatGPT are changing education. Students are using AI to do research, write papers, and get better grades. So today on the show, we debate whether using AI in school is actually cheating. Plus, we dive into how students and teachers are using these tools, and we ask what place AI should have in the future of learning.

You can follow our hosts on Bluesky—Michael Calore is @snackfight, Lauren Goode is @laurengoode, and Katie Drummond is @katie-drummond.