Recent articles
April 1, 2026
Robotaxi Outage in China Leaves Passengers Stranded on Highways
A suspected system failure froze Baidu’s robotaxis across Wuhan, trapping passengers and reportedly causing traffic disruptions and crashes.
www.wired.com
March 27, 2026
AI Research Is Getting Harder to Separate From Geopolitics
A policy change announced by NeurIPS, the world’s leading AI research conference, drew widespread backlash from Chinese researchers this week and then was quickly reversed.
www.wired.com
March 19, 2026
A New Game Turns the H-1B Visa System Into a Surreal Simulation
Inspired by real immigrant stories, H1B.Life captures the uncertainty, trade-offs, and pure luck that shape the lives of people trying to build a future in the US.
www.wired.com
March 13, 2026
China’s OpenClaw Boom Is a Gold Rush for AI Companies
Hype around the open source agent is driving people to rent cloud servers and buy AI subscriptions just to try it, creating a windfall for tech companies.
www.wired.com
March 6, 2026
Apple users in the US can no longer download ByteDance's Chinese apps
Move comes in the wake of TikTok's transfer of US operations.
arstechnica.com
March 5, 2026
ByteDance’s AI Ambitions Are Being Hampered by Compute Restraints and Copyright Concerns
ByteDance’s new Seedance 2.0 AI video model seemed unstoppable—until heavy demand strained the company’s compute capacity and copyright complaints began piling up.
www.wired.com
March 5, 2026
Apple Blocks US Users From Downloading ByteDance’s Chinese Apps
In January, after TikTok announced a deal to transfer its US operations, Apple began blocking people in the US from downloading or updating ByteDance apps designed for the Chinese market.
www.wired.com
February 26, 2026
How Chinese AI Chatbots Censor Themselves
Researchers from Stanford and Princeton found that Chinese AI models are more likely than their Western counterparts to dodge political questions or deliver inaccurate answers.
www.wired.com
February 21, 2026
Trump Imposes New Tariffs to Sidestep Supreme Court Ruling
The president signed an executive order implementing 10 percent global tariffs after calling the justices who struck down his signature trade policy a "disgrace."
www.wired.com
February 20, 2026
Supreme Court Rules Most of Donald Trump’s Tariffs Are Illegal
In a 6-3 ruling, justices upended the Trump administration’s signature economic policy, potentially putting the US government on the hook for at least $175 billion in tariff refunds.
www.wired.com
February 13, 2026
OpenAI Is Nuking Its 4o Model. China’s ChatGPT Fans Aren’t OK
As OpenAI removed access to GPT-4o in its app on Friday, people who have come to rely on the chatbot for companionship are mourning the loss all over the world.
www.wired.com
February 12, 2026
A Wave of Unexplained Bot Traffic Is Sweeping the Web
From small publishers to US federal agencies, websites are reporting unusual spikes in automated traffic linked to IP addresses in Lanzhou, China.
www.wired.com
February 5, 2026
The Rise and Fall of the World's Largest Gay Dating App
The new book The Wall Dancers explores the uneasy relationship between Chinese internet users and a government that is always watching.
www.wired.com
February 5, 2026
How iPhones Made a Surprising Comeback in China
Huawei’s and Xiaomi’s flagship devices are packed with impressive features, but Apple is dominating the Chinese smartphone market again—for now.
www.wired.com
January 22, 2026
What Happens When a Chinese Battery Factory Comes to Town
Chinese firms are building battery plants from Europe to North America, promising jobs while prompting local concerns about the environment, politics, and who really benefits.
www.wired.com
January 20, 2026
Chinese EV Batteries Are Eating the World
China’s lithium batteries aren’t always “made in China.” Companies like BYD and CATL are building factories on nearly every continent.
www.wired.com
January 13, 2026
China’s Hottest App Is a Daily Test of Whether You’re Still Alive
Are You Dead Yet soared to the top of app-store charts and became a magnet for investors. In an exclusive interview with WIRED, one of its creators says they’re changing the name anyway.
www.wired.com