‘AI girlfriends’ are a privacy nightmare

PLUS: The Feds Just Bet Even Bigger on American-Made Heat Pumps, and more. [View this email in your browser]( | [Manage newsletter subscriptions]( 02.14.24   [heat pump]( PUMP IT UP | 3-MINUTE READ [The Feds Just Bet Even Bigger on American-Made Heat Pumps]( BY MATT SIMON [The US Department of Energy is announcing another $63 million to supercharge domestic manufacturing of the devices—in the name of national, energy, and climate security.](   [Black and white photograph of three people wearing suits with a hazy pink and teal overlay effect]( SEEKING SATOSHI | 5-MINUTE READ [The Puzzling Testimony of Craig Wright, Self-Styled Inventor of Bitcoin]( BY JOEL KHALILI [In a lengthy cross-examination in the UK High Court, Craig Wright rejected all claims he had forged and manipulated evidence that indicate he is Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of Bitcoin.](   [Photo collage of Elon Musk, traffic cones, and a spray-painted hashtag]( BOOK EXCERPT | 5-MINUTE READ [The Story Behind Elon Musk’s Tweet Restriction Fiasco]( BY ZOË SCHIFFER [Last summer, Elon Musk began rate-limiting the number of tweets users could see on Twitter. Here’s the real reason why.](   [Illustration of a person with a girlfriend who is feeding them cotton candy. The girlfriend is cut out and a large red eye is showing through.]( CIRCUIT BREAKER | 5-MINUTE READ [‘AI Girlfriends’ Are a Privacy Nightmare]( BY MATT BURGESS [Romantic chatbots collect huge amounts of data, provide vague information about how they use it, use weak password protections, and aren’t transparent, new research from Mozilla says.]( ADVERTISEMENT [GET WIRED]( [Stay WIRED-IN during our email exclusive sale. Get full tech coverage with a subscription to WIRED for just$30 $5.Plus free stickers!Subscribe Now.](   [The White House]( PRIVATE MATTERS | 5-MINUTE READ [Surveillance Fight Pits the White House Opposite Reproductive Rights]( BY DELL CAMERON AND ANDREW COUTS [Prominent advocates for the rights of pregnant people are urging members of Congress to support legislation that would ban warrantless access to sensitive data as the White House fights against it.](   [Collage of a person smoking, a hand putting out a cigarette, and a diagram of cytokines]( SMOKING GUN | 4-MINUTE READ [Smoking Alters Your Immune System for Years After You Quit]( BY CELIA FORD [By switching genes on and off, cigarettes have a long-lasting effect on immunity, and appear to shape your immune system just as much as aging.](   [Photo collage showing machinery in a factory, chicken nuggets, details of an architectural blueprint and the Upside Foods logo.]( U-TURN | 4-MINUTE READ [The Leading Lab-Grown Meat Company Just Paused a Major Expansion]( BY MATT REYNOLDS [Upside Foods is putting plans for its Illinois-based cultivated meat factory on hold and laying off staff to focus on its existing plant.](   [2023 15-inch Apple MacBook Air]( DEALS | 1-MINUTE READ [You Can Snag Apple’s MacBook Air for Less Than $1,000 Right Now]( BY BRENDA STOLYAR [The 13- and 15-inch models of Apple’s laptops with the M2 processor are on sale.](   [Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of a P1 bacteriophage. A bacteriophage, or phage, is a virus that infects bacteria, in this case Escherichia coli and Shigella species. It consists of an icosahedral (20-sided) head (top), which contains the genetic material, a tail (cylinder) and tail fibres (leg-like), which fix it to a specific receptor site. On infecting a cell, the bacteriophage can either enter lysogeny or a lytic cycle. In lysogeny, the genome remains dormant in the cell as an autonomous plasmid (circle of DNA). In the lytic cycle, the bacteriophage replicates itself many times and then bursts the bacterial cell, releasing itself into the environment. Magnification: X228,346 when printed at 10 centimetres wide]( SUPERBUGS | 5-MINUTE READ [A Virus Found in Wastewater Beat Back a Woman’s ‘Zombie’ Bacteria]( BY EMILY MULLIN [Viruses called phages are a promising treatment option for bacterial infections when antibiotics stop working, but they have limitations.](   Looking for a new job? 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