Internal emails, interviews and in-app messages show Uber and Lyft deployed a powerful lobbying playbook to stop minimum wage laws in Minnesota. But drivers had a playbook of their own.

(Image credit: Jenn Ackerman for NPR)

NPR's Lauren Frayer talks with Wired senior writer Andy Greenberg about how healthcare hacks are on the increase after a major attack against Change Healthcare earlier this year.

A round up of this week's developments and drama in artificial intelligence: Apple announced a slew of AI features for its new iPhone and Elon Musk dropped his lawsuit against the maker of ChatGPT.

The Stanford Internet Observatory studied how social media platforms are abused. Now, its top leaders are out and future funding is uncertain amid attacks on its work by conservatives.

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The billionaire philanthropist tells Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep his new TerraPower nuclear plant is safer than traditional builds. He’s putting his own money behind the project.

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There’s finally a consensus that ongoing digital attacks on the U.S. healthcare system constitute a crisis. The U.S. government is trying to work with partners to staunch the bleeding.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Michael Bommer, a man dying of colon cancer who created an AI avatar of himself for his wife, Anett, to interact with after he dies.

The platform X is now hiding all users' likes, with few exceptions. It says the change protects users' privacy — but critics say it removes a layer of accountability in the process.

(Image credit: Kirill Kudryavtsev)

A flexible film bristling with tiny sensors could make surgery safer for patients with a brain tumor or severe epilepsy.

Michael Bommer likely only has a few weeks left to live. A couple years ago, he was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer.

Then, an opportunity arose to build an interactive artificial intelligence version of himself through a friend's company, Eternos.Life, so his wife, Anett, can interact with him after he dies.

More and more people are turning to artificial intelligence to create digital memorials of themselves.

Meanwhile Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, a research associate at the University of Cambridge, has been studying the field of "digital death" for nearly a decade, and says using artificial intelligence after death is one big "techno-cultural experiment" because we don't yet know how people will respond to it.

Artificial intelligence has opened the door for us to "live on" after we die. Just because we can, should we?

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G7 leaders are meeting in Italy, where Pope Francis will join them to talk about the ethics of artificial intelligence.

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Do you have "screen apnea"? Former Microsoft executive Linda Stone coined this term around 2007 after noticing she'd developed an unhealthy habit while answering emails: She held her breath. On this episode, she tells host Manoush Zomorodi how she tested her friends and colleagues for screen apnea and what she has done since.

Then, Manoush talks to the bestselling author of Breath, science writer James Nestor, who explains how shallow breathing impacts our physical and mental health. He takes us through a simple exercise to "reset" our breath and relieve screen time stress.

Binge the whole Body Electric series here.

Sign up for the Body Electric Challenge and our newsletter here.

Talk to us on Instagram @manoushz, or record a voice memo and email it to us at BodyElectric@npr.org.

Apple has announced a much-anticipated partnership with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. The deal to bring AI features to iPhones and other devices is a major move for Apple, which has been slower than some competitors to jump on the AI bandwagon.

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Ten models that exist only in the digital realm have made it to the finals of what's being billed as the world's first beauty pageant involving AI.

Early adolescence is a time when kids are becoming more independent and spending more time on social media. When it comes to curbing screen time in this age group, new research suggests some parental strategies work better than others.

(Image credit: Kathleen Finlay)

Ten models that exist only in the digital realm have made it to the finals of what's being billed as the world's first beauty pageant involving AI.

What is our justice system for? Many Republicans over the past week have suggested it's for revenge, calling for the prosecution of Democrats across the country following Trump's guilty verdict. Brittany looks at how the justice system can be politicized with NPR's national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson and national political correspondent Mara Liasson.

Plus, we all have examples of how bad those those new artificial intelligence search engine results can be. So why does it seem like every tech company is all in on the hottest tech trend? Brittany gets into it with NPR's technology correspondent Bobby Allyn and disinformation correspondent Shannon Bond.

A new report by an Israeli watchdog group ties an Israeli firm to a covert online campaign intended to sway crucial Democratic lawmakers to continue backing Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

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Early adolescence is a time when kids are becoming more independent and spending more time on social media. When it comes to curbing screen time in this age group, new research suggests some parental strategies work better than others.

(Image credit: Kathleen Finlay)

The hallmarks of Russian-back influence are consistent: trying to erode support for Ukraine, discrediting democratic institutions and seizing on existing political divides.

(Image credit: Olga Maltseva)

In less than 24 hours, former President Donald Trump amassed over 2 million followers on TikTok — nearly a third of the following he has on his own social media platform, Truth Social.

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The story of the two artists highlights the complexities of authorship and ownership in the world of AI content.

The image, with over 50 million shares, is considered the most viral ever AI-generated photo. Tracing the image’s history has revealed a rift over its true creator.

On June 1, 1999, the music-sharing website Napster launched. It's a date that changed the music industry forever.

Napster, a free, online music-sharing platform was created 25 years ago. It didn't last long, but we look at how it made lasting changes to the way we consume music.

Google has introduced new AI Overviews to make searching more intuitive. NPR's Bobby Allyn speaks to University of Pennsylvania professor Ethan Mollick about why some of the results have been inaccurate — and ocassionally absurd.

A new lab analysis conducted for NPR by Arizona State University data scientists shows that OpenAI's "Sky" voice is more similar to Johansson's than hundreds of other actors analyzed.

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There is a constant arms race between law enforcement and criminals, especially when it comes to technology. For years, law enforcement has been frustrated with encrypted messaging apps, like Signal and Telegram. And law enforcement has been even more frustrated by encrypted phones, specifically designed to thwart authorities from snooping.

But in 2018, in a story that seems like it's straight out of a spy novel, the FBI was approached with an offer: Would they like to get into the encrypted cell phone business? What if they could convince criminals to use their phones to plan and document their crimes — all while the FBI was secretly watching? It could be an unprecedented peek into the criminal underground.

To pull off this massive sting operation, the FBI needed to design a cell phone that criminals wanted to use and adopt. Their mission: to make a tech platform for the criminal underworld. And in many ways, the FBI's journey was filled with all the hallmarks of many Silicon Valley start-ups.

On this show, we talk with journalist Joseph Cox, who wrote a new book about the FBI's cell phone business, called Dark Wire. And we hear from the federal prosecutor who became an unlikely tech company founder.

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Four out of five companies in Europe's largest economy continue to use fax machines. But Germany's parliament has until the end of June to stop relying on the antiquated communication technology.

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Most of the tools tested by researchers at the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate could be used to successfully clone a wide range of voices belonging to European and American politicians.

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AI tools have helped the people behind influence operations produce more content, but OpenAI says the operations it disrupted didn’t gain traction with real people or reach large audiences.

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ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is confronting fresh questions about how seriously it treats AI safety. Former employees and others say the company should not be trusted with governing itself.

Our special series, Body Electric, is back! This time, host Manoush Zomorodi does a deep dive into our headphone habits... because many of us wear them for hours at a time, and all that listening is taking a toll on our hearing.

Manoush speaks with exposure scientist Rick Neitzel, who has partnered with Apple on a first-of-its-kind study to find how our daily listening patterns are affecting our hearing. Neitzel offers advice on safe listening habits that can help protect our ears in the long term.

Later, Manoush takes us into the future of "consumer hearables" and how tech companies want us to never — ever— take our earbuds out.

Interested in joining the Apple Hearing Study? Sign up here.

Binge the whole Body Electric series here. Sign up for the Body Electric Challenge and our newsletter here.

Talk to us on Instagram @ManoushZ, or record a voice memo and email it to us at BodyElectric@npr.org.

Books take a lot of resources to make. Digital readers do, too. What's the more sustainable option? The answer isn't straightforward.

(Image credit: JGI/Daniel Grill)

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Amanda Fennell, a cybersecurity expert, about CAPTCHA tests that verify if a website visitor is human or bot. They are getting harder.

After the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 triggered Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began fleeing from the North of Gaza to the South. As they fled, many Palestinians reported passing through checkpoints with cameras. Israel had previously used facial recognition software in the West Bank, and some Palestinians reached out to The New York Times reporter Sheera Frenkel to investigate whether the same was happening in Gaza.

Science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel talks to Frenkel about how Israel launched this facial recognition system in Gaza late last year with the help of private companies and Google photos.

Read Frenkel's full article.

Want to hear us cover more stories about AI? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Lawmakers on Capitol Hill recently got a crash course in quantum science. The technology poses a range of threats and opportunities.

The fines and charges come after New Hampshire voters got robocalls from an AI-generated version of President Biden's voice urging them not to vote in the upcoming presidential primary.

(Image credit: Tasos Katopodis)

With IT systems down, staff at Ascension have to use manual processes they left behind some 20 years ago. It's the latest in a string of attacks on health care systems that house private patient data.

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo about a new "global AI safety network."

Many of us wear earbuds for hours at a time, sometimes all day long, and all that listening is taking a toll on our hearing. This episode, host Manoush Zomorodi investigates our headphone habits. She speaks with exposure scientist Rick Neitzel, who has partnered with Apple to create a first-of-its-kind study into how our daily sound exposure and listening patterns are affecting our hearing. Neitzel offers advice on safe listening habits that can help protect our ears in the long term.

Later, Manoush takes us into the future of "consumer hearables" and how tech companies want us to never — ever— take our earbuds out.

Interested in joining the Apple Hearing Study? Sign up here.

Binge the whole Body Electric series here.

Sign up for the Body Electric Challenge and our newsletter here.

Talk to us on Instagram @ManoushZ, or record a voice memo and email it to us at BodyElectric@npr.org.

Bad weather may have been a cause of Sunday's crash that killed Ebrahim Raisi. But mechanical issues, possibly exacerbated by a lack of spare parts due to U.S. sanctions, could also be a factor.

(Image credit: Atta Kenare)

Scarlett Johansson says she was approached multiple times by OpenAI to be the voice of ChatGPT, and that she declined. Then the company released a voice assistant that sounded uncannily like her.

The Seoul summit is a follow-up to last November's summit in the U.K., where participating countries agreed to work together to contain risks posed by galloping advances in artificial intelligence.

Johansson says she was approached multiple times by OpenAI to be the voice of ChatGPT, and that she declined. Then the company released a voice assistant that sounded uncannily like her.

(Image credit: Leon Bennett)

Oversharing can make children vulnerable to identity theft, harassment and predators. To protect their privacy, share a 'holiday card-or-less' amount of data online, says expert Leah Plunkett.

Scientists are testing the limits of artificial intelligence when it comes to language learning. One recent challenge? Learning ... whale! Researchers are using machine learning to analyze and decode whale sounds — and it's just as complicated as it seems.

Curious about other mysteries of nature? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

A helium leak pushed back a planned launch to May 25. Boeing's program that would shuttle astronauts to and from the International Space Station has been plagued with problems.