The Secret to Success on YouTube? Kids

Kids love YouTube. They love the pinging of the xylophones in the upbeat “Thank you song” on CoCoMelon, a channel with more than 53 million subscribers that plays animated nursery rhymes. They love watching other kids open and test toys, as they do on Ryan ToysReview (subscriber count: 20,749,585). And they love the Baby Shark…

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Drag Queen vs. David Duke: Whose Tweets Are More ‘Toxic’?

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have been making significant investments in the development of artificial intelligence to moderate content and automate the removal of harmful posts. These decision-making technologies typically rely on machine learning techniques and are specific to types of content, such as images, videos, sounds, and written text. Some of…

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Sonos and Ikea Have Made a Great Speaker (and a Nice Lamp)

Our home lives are shrinking. Last year, the average size of new houses built in the US fell for the third straight year, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Worldwide, the UN expects more and more people to gravitate toward urban areas over the next 30 years. The smart homes of the future,…

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UPS Wants to Go Full-Scale With Its Drone Deliveries

UPS thinks it’s time the feds let its drones carry cargo and bring in cash.UPSIf UPS gets its way, it’ll be known for vehicles other than its famous brown vans. The delivery giant is working to become the first commercial entity authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration to use autonomous delivery drones without any of…

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7 Things You’ll Need to Travel Like a Pro

Whether your stuck on the tarmac or trapped at cruising altitude, these items will make your next journey more tolerable.We’ve nearly halfway through summer (sorry, the passage of time is not something we’re able to control with an app yet), which means the WIRED Gear team has done a fair amount of traveling. And with…

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How Scientists Built a ‘Living Drug’ to Beat Cancer

In 2010, Emily Whitehead was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a cancer of certain cells in the immune system.This is the most common form of childhood cancer, her parents were told, and Emily had a good chance to beat it with chemotherapy. Remission rates for the most common variety were around 85 percent.It would be…

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Using AI, and Film, to Track Tear Gas Use Against Civilians

Filmmaker Laura Poitras’ Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour centers on the pale, calm face of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden holed up in a plain Hong Kong hotel room. Her latest star is even more impassive—an aluminum tear gas grenade—but seen amid surreal pulsating color.The 10-minute short, Triple Chaser, is named for that tear gas canister,…

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