The latest tech stories from around the world...

ACLU Warns DOGE’s ‘Unchecked’ Access Could Violate Federal Law

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told federal lawmakers on Friday that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have seized control of a number of federal computer systems that house data tightly restricted under federal statutes. In some cases, any deviations in the manner in which...

Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Working On A Custom Chatbot Called GSAi

For the past few weeks, Musk’s team has been working to swiftly cut costs across the US government, which has seen its annual deficit increase for the last three years. The Office of Personnel Management, which acts as the HR department for the government and is stacked with Musk...

E3’s Organizers Are Back With A New Event. This Time, Doctors Are Invited Too

The organizers of the extravagant E3 games conference pronounced the event dead in 2023. Attendance for the bombastic, news-packed trade show was on the decline in 2019, and after the Covid-19 lockdown, the organizers at the Entertainment Software Association held one more virtual-only show in 2021 before yanking the...

NOAA Employees Told To Pause Work With ‘Foreign Nationals’

A number of federal employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US federal agency that monitors and models the oceans and atmosphere for the purpose of predicting changes in climate and weather, have received orders to temporarily cease communicating with foreign nationals, including those working directly...

US Shoppers Face Fees Of Up To $50 Or More To Get Packages From China

Adhering to the new rules is also proving to be a major lift for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the US Postal Service. The latter briefly stopped accepting packages from China and Hong Kong altogether on Tuesday, as it scrambled to manage the deluge of packages from...

Chaos Consumes USAID As State Department Moves To Send Overseas Staffers Home

As Elon Musk’s DOGE team continues its efforts to dismantle the US government’s primary agency for distributing foreign aid, its overseas employees are stuck in limbo. Workers at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are stationed in dozens of different countries around the world, but reports from...

Google Lifts A Ban On Using Its AI For Weapons And Surveillance

Google announced Tuesday that it is overhauling the principles governing how it uses artificial intelligence and other advanced technology. The company removed language promising not to pursue “technologies that cause or are likely to cause overall harm,” “weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause...

Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Still Blocking HIV/AIDS Relief Exempted From Foreign Aid Cuts

USAID staff who still have access to their email accounts received a notice on Monday evening from Ken Jackson, the agency’s assistant to the administrator for management and resources, saying that the agency “would likely undergo a reorganization” and be integrated into the State Department. “As we evaluate USAID...

Elon Musk Ally Tells Staff ‘AI-First’ Is The Future Of Key Government Agency

In a Monday morning meeting, Thomas Shedd, the recently appointed Technology Transformation Services director and Elon Musk ally, told General Services Administration workers that the agency’s new administrator is pursuing an “AI-first strategy,” sources tell WIRED. Throughout the meeting, Shedd shared his vision for a GSA that operates like...

The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover

Both Bobba and Coristine are listed in internal OPM records reviewed by WIRED as “experts” at OPM, reporting directly to Amanda Scales, its new chief of staff. Scales previously worked on talent for xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company, and as part of Uber’s talent acquisition team, per LinkedIn. Employees...