Top Technology Headlines
What is known about the secret society of billionaire Peter Thiel?
'Dialog' is an invite-only society founded by billionaire Peter Thiel for influential figures in politics, finance and tech. Leaked documents reviewed by WIRED show 'Dialog' ranks members by wealth and fame, tracks their relationships and uses algorithms to decide who should meet whom. Alongside sessions such as "Navigating WWIII" and "How's Your Sex Life?", it also offers a matchmaking service.
Trump mistakenly calls Elon Musk 'my friend Leon', sparks health concerns
US President Donald Trump has sparked fresh health concerns after mistakenly referring to Elon Musk as "Leon". During a US Air Force event, Trump said, "My friend Leon," before correcting himself. Reacting to the incident, an X user wrote, "MAGA can't seriously think he's okay. They made fun of Joe Biden for looking sleepy, but [Trump] sounds confused."
Fortune 500 firms post record $2.1 trillion profit as workforce shrinks by 301,000
The Fortune 500 companies, the largest US firms by revenue, generated a record $21 trillion in revenue and $2.1 trillion in profits in 2026. However, their combined workforce declined for the second consecutive year to 30.5 million employees, a drop of 301,049 jobs. The decline was largely driven by companies that fell off the list after being taken private.
Josh Brolin, other Hollywood stars attended billionaire Thiel's secret society
Hollywood actors, including 'Avengers: Infinity War' star Josh Brolin and 'The Dark Knight Rises' actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, attended billionaire Peter Thiel's secret invite-only society, 'Dialog', according to a Swiss independent researcher. Levitt admitted his attendance and said, "I've been to two Dialog conferences. But I do not know Peter Thiel. I've never met him."
Who is Nobel laureate John Jumper, who exited Google DeepMind for Anthropic?
Chemist and computer scientist John Jumper, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work developing AlphaFold, announced that he is leaving Google DeepMind to join Anthropic. After nearly nine years at the company, Jumper will be leaving his role as VP, Engineering Fellow. He started as a Research Scientist in 2017 and became Director in 2023.
SpaceX investor defends AI layoffs, says 'We're freeing people'
Billionaire Peter Diamandis, an early investor in SpaceX, defended AI-led layoffs and said the technology will take over "mourning jobs that humans never should have been stuck doing". "Did anyone dream of being in a call centre queue? We are freeing people [for] the interesting problems we face!" he added. Reportedly, AI is replacing workers faster than ever in 2026.
Mythos is a super weapon, needs gun license: Early testers to Anthropic
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said early testers of Mythos, the company's most powerful AI model, called it a "super weapon" that should require a "gun license" to use. He added that some testing companies asked Anthropic not to release it. Anthropic recently paused access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 after the US government ordered restrictions for foreign nationals.
Perplexity unveils 'Brain' that can improve AI models while users sleep
Perplexity unveiled 'Brain', a memory system that helps AI models improve themselves while users sleep. Brain builds a memory (context graph) of the work Perplexity Computer performs and uses it after set intervals to teach itself how to work better. Brain also works on a feedback loop, where it remembers its mistakes and corrections made in the past by users.
Hand-powered private AI, that makes users feel how hard it's thinking, launched in Europe
European startup Squeez Labs revealed CrankGPT, a private AI voice-based chatbot that aims to make AI usage cost-effective and less resource-intensive. CrankGPT has no batteries and only works when users manually rotate a pedal attached to it. Squeez said the pedal gets harder to rotate when CrankGPT thinks harder, like when it undertakes speech synthesis and LLM inference at once.
Controversial Sam Altman movie dropped by Amazon months after $50 billion OpenAI deal
A nearly completed Sam Altman biopic that portrays the OpenAI CEO in a negative light has been dropped by its distributor, Amazon. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the movie 'Artificial' stars Andrew Garfield as Altman. Amazon's decision comes months after the company deepened its ties with OpenAI by committing $50 billion in investment to the AI startup.