Context

How geoguessr players identify a road

From road signs to traces left by the Street View car: the geography game born in 2013 has become a video format and a world championship.

How Bumble changed the rule that had made it Bumble

From August 11, anyone can send the first message on Bumble. The company justifies the decision with conversation metrics, without publishing its effect on retention and subscriptions. The rule that defined the brand has become a product variable

China's worst film became a hit because everyone was recommending it as a joke

Niu Lai, a rudimentary animated film released on 5 August, had grossed seven thousand yuan in ten days, with screenings in front of about ten people. On 17 August it made 8.2 million in a single day.

Dressing to be invisible to AI

Makeup, prints and transparent masks designed so that a facial recognition system cannot extract the geometry of a face. They are not meant to hide you: they are meant to keep you visible to people and unreadable to machines. And they work for as long as few people wear them.

ElenaAugust 14, 20264 min

Sam Altman on Grindr wasn't an AI story

For a few hours we believed Sam Altman was on Grindr. Let's talk about it.

CharlieAugust 13, 2026

How Google Is Turning the Internet into a Place We No Longer Need to Visit

For thirty years, search engines told us where to go. With artificial intelligence, they're learning to give us directly what we were looking for. The problem is what happens to the Internet when we no longer need to click.

Do people who use more sunscreen get more cancer?

The mathematics of why your vote might not count the way you think

Every democracy must choose which injustice to accept

The Backrooms as a tourist destination

Born as an online legend, the Backrooms have become a collective territory to explore, map and expand. New research proposes treating them as a form of digital tourism, where the internet doesn't serve to reach a place: it is the place itself.

When must a newsroom disclose its use of AI?

On 23 July 2026, the Associated Press updated its internal rules on artificial intelligence: according to the announcement, AI may now assist with preliminary research, translations, summaries, headlines, and even software development, always under human review. AP reaffirms its ban on creating, altering or enhancing journalistic photographs with generative AI. The most interesting — and least clear — point lies elsewhere: AP says it will inform the public when AI plays a "material" role in published content, but the public document does not explain where that threshold actually begins. (ap.org)