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“Political ads are deliberately designed to shape your emotions and influence you. So, the culture of political ads is often to do things that stretch the dimensions of how someone said something, cut a quote that’s placed out of context,” says Gregory. “That is essentially, in some ways, like a cheap fake or shallow fake.”

Meta did not respond to a request for comment about how it will be policing manipulated content that falls outside the scope of political advertisements, or how it plans to proactively detect AI usage in political ads.

But companies are only now beginning to address how to handle AI-generated content from regular users. YouTube recently introduced a more robust policy requiring labels on user-generated videos that utilize generative AI. Google spokesperson Michael Aciman told WIRED that in addition to adding “a label to the description panel of a video indicating that some of the content was altered or synthetic,” the company will include a more “more prominent label” for “content about sensitive topics, such as elections.” Aciman also noted that “cheapfakes” and other manipulated media may still be removed if it violates the platform’s other policies around, say, misinformation or hate speech.

“We use a combination of automated systems and human reviewers to enforce our policies at scale,” Aciman told WIRED. “This includes a dedicated team of a thousand people working around the clock and across the globe that monitor our advertising network and help enforce our policies.”

But social platforms have already failed to moderate content effectively in many of the countries that will host national elections next year, points out Hany Farid, a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information. “I would like for them to explain how they’re going to find this content,” he says. “It’s one thing to say we have a policy against this, but how are you going to enforce it? Because there is no evidence for the past 20 years that these massive platforms have the ability to do this, let alone in the US, but outside the US.”

Both Meta and YouTube require political advertisers to register with the company, including additional information such as who is purchasing the ad and where they’re based. But these are largely self-reported, meaning some ads can slip through the company’s cracks. In September, WIRED reported that the group PragerU Kids, an extension of the right-wing group PragerU, had been running ads that clearly fell within Meta’s definition of “political or social issues”—the exact kinds of ads for which the company requires additional transparency. But PragerU Kids had not registered as a political advertiser (Meta removed the ads following WIRED’s reporting).

Meta did not respond to a request for comment about what systems it has in place to ensure advertisers properly categorize their ads.

But Farid worries that the overemphasis on AI might distract from the larger issues around disinformation, misinformation, and the erosion of public trust in the information ecosystem, particularly as platforms scale back their teams focused on election integrity.

“If you think deceptive political ads are bad, well, then why do you care how they’re made?” asks Farid. “It’s not that it’s an AI-generated deceptive political ad, it’s that it’s a deceptive political ad period, full stop.”

The relationship between Elon Musk and the European Union further deteriorated Monday, with the bloc launching a formal investigation into the way X has been run since the billionaire took over last year.

Senior officials from the European Commission said they were concerned about a range of new features that have been added to X under Musk, as well as the way violent content related to the Hamas attack on Israel was allowed to spread without consistently being labelled with a graphic content warning.

EU officials also said they would be investigating if users on the platform are being misled about the trustworthiness of people who pay for blue ticks—a feature that was previously reserved for verified users such as celebrities, public figures, or journalists. Since Musk’s takeover, the platform has allocated blue ticks to paying subscribers, a feature that researchers say have been leveraged to spread scams and disinformation.

Another focus for the investigation is whether Community Notes —X’s crowd-sourced fact check program—can work in languages other than English or intervene fast enough during elections.

Other concerns raised by the EU included the way users can notify X when they have seen illegal content and whether the platform is too focused on the English language in its content moderation operations. X has more than 2,000 English speaking moderators, compared to one Dutch-speaking moderator, and one Polish, according to a tally the company released last month.

With the investigation, X becomes the first major platform to face a formal investigation for violating rules included in the European Union’s new Digital Services Act, which has the power to tell tech companies to change the way they operate or fine them up to six percent of their global revenue. “Today’s opening of formal proceedings against X makes it clear that, with the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are “too big to care” has come to an end,” said Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal markets commissioner. An in-depth investigation will now take place.

“X remains committed to complying with the Digital Services Act,” company spokesperson Joe Benarroch told WIRED, adding the platform is cooperating with regulators. “It is important that this process remains free of political influence and follows the law.”

The investigation is the beginning of a process where officials will carry out interviews and gather more evidence. “We take any breach of our rules very seriously. And the evidence we currently have is enough to formally open a proceeding against X,” said Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president for digital affairs in Europe.

The announcement follows an initial EU investigation that was opened against X in October, also citing concern that graphic illegal content and disinformation linked to Hamas’ attack on Israel was able to spread widely. Back then, Musk clashed publicly with Breton. In a series of posts on X, Musk accused Breton of carrying out backroom dealing, prompting Breton to use his account to promote X competitor BlueSky.

There is no deadline for when the EU investigation has to conclude.

Draper and Proops say the efforts used repeated messaging, often replying to “verified” accounts on X that are linked to anti-vaccination sentiments, and consistently mentioned conspiracy theories such as the “great reset.”

“A lot of it is playing on anti-vaxxers’ vulnerabilities to being paranoid about things like the next pandemic, or other kinds of vaccines, like the measles vaccine,” Draper says.

The Telegram channels, where administrators impersonate doctors, also follow similar patterns to one another. Many of the channels have names related to Covid-19 vaccinations, and they claim to sell pandemic-related travel passes, allowing people to enter the UK, US, Canada, and other countries. They can sell the passes for around $250 to $500 each, with payments often being requested in bitcoin. Photos of the documents they claim to sell look similar to the official versions of the documents.

However, the vast majority of countries no longer require proof of vaccination to enter them and haven’t done so for long periods of time—for instance, the UK removed travel restrictions in 2022. “Over time, we started seeing a trend change where it wasn’t just Covid passes,” Proops says. The Telegram channels have offered tuberculosis test results, meningitis vaccine results, and documentation around hepatitis A and B, tetanus, polio, and more, he says.

The researchers say they believe doctors are being impersonated to give the scammers a veneer of legitimacy. The Logically researchers contacted several doctors who were not aware their identities were being used. One doctor, they say, had not heard of Telegram. Collins says she was not aware of her image being used in this way until she was contacted by Logically and WIRED. She added that her image had also been used on a scam Instagram account.

Since the researchers started monitoring the X accounts and Telegram channels last year, many of the accounts and channels have been removed by the social media companies; however, around half of the Telegram channels are still active. Neither Telegram nor X responded to WIRED’s request for comment on the accounts or whether Telegram was aware of the impersonation of doctors taking place.

A WIRED review of the Telegram channels still active shows regular posts from administrators and other members. Some of the channels have only a few hundred members; others have a few thousand. The administrators of some channels have been inactive for several months. Within the channels is a slurry of well-worn and debunked conspiracy theories.

As Hurricane Larry curved north in the Atlantic in 2021, sparing the eastern seaboard of the United States, a special instrument was waiting for it on the coast of Newfoundland. Because hurricanes feed on warm ocean water, scientists wondered whether such a storm could pick up microplastics from the sea surface and deposit them when it made landfall. Larry was literally a perfect storm: Because it hadn’t touched land before reaching the island, anything it dropped would have been scavenged from the water or air, as opposed to, say, a highly populated city, where you’d expect to find lots of microplastics.

As Larry passed over Newfoundland, the instrument gobbled up what fell from the sky. That included rain, of course, but also gobs of microplastics, defined as bits smaller than 5 millimeters, or about the width of a pencil eraser. At its peak, Larry was depositing over 100,000 microplastics per square meter of land per day, the researchers found in a recent paper published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment. Add hurricanes, then, to the growing list of ways that tiny plastic particles are not only infiltrating every corner of the environment, but readily moving between land, sea, and air.

As humanity churns out exponentially more plastic in general, so does the environment get contaminated with exponentially more microplastics. The predominant thinking used to be that microplastics would flush into the ocean and stay there: Washing synthetic clothing like polyester, for instance, releases millions of microfibers per load of laundry, which then flow out to sea in wastewater. But recent research has found that the seas are in fact burping the particles into the atmosphere to blow back onto land, both when waves break and when bubbles rise to the surface, flinging microplastics into sea breezes.

The instrument in a clearing on Newfoundland was quite simple: a glass cylinder, holding a little bit of ultrapure water, securely attached to the ground with wooden stakes. Every six hours before, during, and after the hurricane, the researchers would come and empty out the water, which would have collected any particles falling—both with and without rain—on Newfoundland. “It’s just a place that experiences a lot of extreme weather events,” says Earth scientist Anna Ryan of Dalhousie University, lead author of the paper. “Also, it’s fairly remote, and it’s got a pretty low population density. So you don’t have a bunch of nearby sources of microplastics.”

The team found that even before and after Larry, tens of thousands of microplastics fell per square meter of land per day. But when the hurricane hit, that figure spiked up to 113,000. “We found a lot of microplastics deposited during the peak of the hurricane,” says Ryan, “but also, overall deposition was relatively high compared to previous studies.” These studies were done during normal conditions, but in more remote locations, she says.

The researchers also used a technique known as back trajectory modeling—basically simulating where the air that arrived at the instrument had been previously. That confirmed that Larry had picked up the microplastics at sea, lofted them into the air, and dumped them on Newfoundland. Indeed, previous research has estimated that somewhere between 12 and 21 million metric tons of microplastic swirl in just the top 200 meters of the Atlantic, and that was a significant underestimate because it didn’t count microfibers. The Newfoundland study notes that Larry happened to pass over the garbage patch of the North Atlantic Gyre, where currents accumulate floating plastic.

Our furry friends are important members of the family, and leaving them at home while we go out to do people things can be hard. However, pet cameras—specifically designed to keep watch over dogs and cats—can make the human’s absence from the home less stressful for both parties. If you’ve considered getting a pet camera, there’s no better time than now.

Read our Best Indoor Security Cameras, Best Outdoor Security Cameras, Best Dog Tech and Accessories, Best Dog Beds, and Best Cat Tech and Supplies guides for more.

Updated December 2023: Eufy’s Pet Camera Pro is our new top pick. We’ve added Furbo’s cat-specific 360 camera, and options from Petcube and Catit. We’ve also updated prices and links throughout.

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Before getting into details about specific cameras, it’s important to clarify the difference between pet cameras and your run-of-the-mill security camera.

Security cameras let you watch your pet while you’re away from home, but pet cameras often have a few more pet-specific features that can make them more helpful. Some can dispense treats or allow you to interact with your dog or cat using your voice or a type of video chat. They can help address common issues like separation anxiety and boredom, which can lead to destroyed furniture, other kinds of property damage, or undue stress.

That’s not to say that you can’t use a security camera as a pet cam—we actually have a recommendation below that can help. Regardless of what you buy, you should take steps to secure the device. Like any other smart home device that connects to Wi-Fi, there’s a chance it can be hacked and compromise your privacy. Make sure your Wi-Fi password is strong, set up two-factor authentication with your camera’s app, and keep it updated. It’s smart to keep it turned off when you’re home, too.

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We loved the older version of this camera, the D605 (9/10, WIRED Recommends). The N140 is just as great, with 2K video resolution versus 1080p. The design is nearly identical, though this one gets a light gray bottom, and there’s a $10 difference in price. If you find the older version on a super sale, that’s still a great choice. Both rotate 360 degrees, so you won’t ever miss an important moment because it was just out of frame.

I love tossing treats to my pets while I’m away, and you can opt in to have those moments recorded. If you want a sound to play before tossing a treat, choose between a squeaky toy or up to three of your own audio recordings. You can also turn it off completely; my cats always hear the mechanism moving and come running anyway. The app lets you know when the treat reservoir is almost empty too, which is a nice addition, and it can be removed from the rest of the camera body and washed in the dishwasher.

The Eufy N140 is a little bit bigger than the Furbo cameras below, but not by a staggering amount—they’re bigger than a typical security camera, given the addition of treat dispensing. Eufy has a leg up on the Furbo, though, thanks to local storage. You don’t have to pay for any monthly subscription to get video history. Most other cameras only give you a live view or require an SD card if you don’t want to subscribe. Here, you’ll have video history for about 15 days, give or take how quickly your activity log fills up. If you are interested in professional monitoring and emergency dispatch, Eufy does have a few plans to consider (the brand also partners with our favorite personal safety app, Noonlight, to send dispatch to you).

There are two solutions to this. A keycap’s width is measured in “u,” so the letters and numbers on your keyboard are all typically “1u.” Since the spacebar on the Creator Board is a 2u, I replaced the keycap with a 1u key, leaving 0.5u gaps on either side. This doesn’t fix anything, but it does make it easier for my thumb to know where to press, since there isn’t any dead space.

The second solution is a testament to this keyboard’s customizability, but could also be seen as a representation of its greatest flaw. If you want, you can desolder the singular spacebar switch and replace it with two regular keys, which can then function as a split spacebar. It’s a great solution, but it feels like it’s solving a problem of its own creation. For what it’s worth, Work Louder says it’s considering adding a stabilizer to the spacebar key, which would eliminate the issue. That would be fantastic, and I’d wait to buy one until this fix.

Terrifyingly Efficient

What matters is how effective this keyboard is for multimedia editing. And, quite frankly, it’s brilliant if you have the time to customize it. This keyboard comes preinstalled with a generic 40 percent layout to get you started, and it lets you change whatever you want right out of the box using VIA, one of the most powerful keyboard customization tools available today.

With VIA, you can change whatever you want. Need to add a second mode that transforms all of your keys into shortcuts? Need to scroll through brush sizes using a dial? Or how about setting one of your keys to automatically apply your favorite Adobe Lightroom preset? As long as the command can be quantified as a series of consistent mouse movements and key presses, you can do it.

Some of my favorite everyday uses for the dials include zooming in and out, swapping between windows, and adjusting system volume—all of which I can have mapped to different dials at the same time! Work Louder has hinted at other modules that can be added to the Creator Board, like a specialized module for audio production, but it hasn’t announced anything yet.

All of this doesn’t mean the Creator Board is going to be your single-keyboard solution to everything. As a purpose-built tool, it naturally falls short in other places. Number-heavy typing is an absolute slog due to the lack of a number row, and the limited design doesn’t exactly lend itself to gaming either, so you’ll likely want a second keyboard stowed away for when you need it.

But there’s a huge elephant in the room: the price. This keyboard has the design, charm, and niche functionality of a Teenage Engineering product, with a matching price too. The base Creator Board starts at $259. With both add-ons (what I was sent for review), it will run you $409. The XL version, which adds on a number pad with a larger footprint, brings the total to $559. That’s a lot.

If you’re the kind of person who wants a keyboard with these features, it’s one of the only options on the market. Sure, there are other modular keyboards, other ortholinear boards, and others that are deeply customizable, but this is the only keyboard that combines all of those into a single package. I think it’s fantastic for the specific use cases it’s intended for. If you look at this keyboard and think, “That’s exactly what I need,” then you’ll be very happy with it. This keyboard does exactly what it’s meant to, and I think that’s beautiful, even if it’s not for everyone.

We run through so many travel mugs, and not all of them are winners. These are a few we like, just not as much as the ones above.

Contigo Luxe Autoseal for $36: What makes the Contigo “automatic” is a button on the side of the lid that opens the sippin’ hole. There’s a lock to prevent the button from opening the hole too. With or without the lock activated, the Contigo never leaked a single drop. Of all the tumblers and bottles I’ve tested, this is the easiest to reach down and quickly use one-handed. You don’t want to mess with latches while you’re piloting a wheeled missile down the road. Some buyers have complained that the metal lid gets too hot, but I filled up the Luxe Autoseal with scorching, molten coffee, and the lid barely even got lukewarm, so consider that myth busted.

KeepCup Thermal for $33: The answer to those who like the KeepCup LongPlay’s ergonomic shape and paper-cup-imitating feel but long for a cup that can keep their coffee warmer for longer. The Thermal is, like most of the vessels in this guide, vacuum-insulated stainless steel that insulates against heat loss or, in the case of cold beverages, heat gain. It shares the Brew Cork’s slightly dribbly lid, although it loses some of the novelty of the Brew Cork’s glass.

Miir Camp Cup for $28: Miir’s insulated coffee mug doesn’t fumble any crucial details. It doesn’t leak, it insulates hot and cold drinks just fine, and the coating is as tough as any Miir. But it’s up against tough competition, and for the same money the Hydro Flask Mug is a bit nicer. The Miir lacks the stainless steel rim, and the transparent plastic lid feels a little cheaper.

Hydro Flask All Around Travel Tumbler for $35: With its soft, pastel colors and chunky handle, the All Around Travel Tumbler seems to be crying out, “Hold me!” The rounded handle is comfortable to hold, which is important in an 18.4-ounce mug loaded with up to 32 fluid ounces of drink. Like most Hydro Flask products, it comes with the same bomb-proof powder coating that resists scratches and chips like a nuclear fallout shelter, with the addition of a straw poking through its lid. There’s also a 40-fluid-ounce version for $40.

GSI Outdoors Glacier 15-Fluid-Ounce Camp Cup for $20: Not too easy to find at retailers, unless you count Backcountry’s limited selection of two colors, this is an insulated version of GSI Outdoors’ classic camp cups. It’s awfully simple, particularly the incredibly basic lid, but it’s more than a little endearing. There’s a brushed stainless steel version and, my favorite, a “blue speckle” that imitates the classic enameled blue camp cups of past generations, although both of these colors are plain steel. Other colors come in a more durable-seeming pebbled coating.

Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug for $29: Zojirushi’s classic 16-ounce travel mug is a favorite around these parts. The stainless-steel interior is BPA-free and has a wide-mouth opening to accommodate ice cubes. The lid locks to avoid accidental spillage, and I accidentally left hot tea in it for 18 hours and found it still hot when I cautiously opened it again. It’s also small enough to fit in my jacket pocket on chilly morning walks. It’s not my preferred mug for daily use, simply because the lid has three separate parts—a mouthpiece, a gasket, and a lid—that are deeply ridged and hard to clean. I also need a bottle brush to wash the interior.

Rambler Stackable Pint Glass for $22: Never mind the fact that Yeti calls it a glass when there’s no glass—this insulated cup holds 16 fluid ounces, which is the capacity of a typical tall drinking glass. The best aspect of these is that they stack, so you can keep a bunch in your pantry without taking up much room. It comes with Yeti’s durable powder coating, too, making them among the toughest options out there.

Hydro Flask Mug for $28: This style of mug has become increasingly common. The Hydro Flask Mug merges a durable powder-coated, vacuum-insulated construction with the traditional, handle-sporting shape of a diner or camp mug. Hydro Flask does it better than most. The stainless steel rim makes it nicer to sip from than competitors’ mugs, and it comes with Hydro Flask’s usual drip-proof lid and bomber-tough powder coating that is nearly impossible to scratch. But it is more at home on a desk than at a campsite or in a car’s cupholder, which it can’t fit into.

Owala FreeSip for $28: Drinking from the FreeSip while wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet (by tilting the helmet up slightly and sipping from under the chin bar) was surprisingly easy, thanks to the built-in straw on this mug. If you’ve got mobility or pain issues that make tilting your head a hassle, this mug is a solid performer. It’s easy to grip too, with its flattened sides, which can come in handy for those with reduced hand dexterity.

OtterBox Elevation for $30: At 8.5 inches tall, the Elevation 20 looks a lot bigger than it is. It has a copper lining to maintain your beverage’s perfect temperature, and the clear press-on lid has a locking mechanism. You can also switch it out for a straw lid or a French press lid if you’re in a hurry. It comes in a variety of stunning ombre hues.

Purist Mover for $48: Ever empty a stainless-steel bottle of one beverage and fill it up with a different one, only to notice that the taste of the first drink lingers? The Purist has applied a thin layer of glass over the interior of the Mover, which keeps this taste transfer from happening. You can down a mug full of coffee and then fill it with herbal tea without risking a coffee aftertaste. I didn’t experience leaks from the Element top, but a high number of customers have reported their Purist lids leaking over time. I’ll keep using the Purist and update this page with information on how it performs over the course of the year.

S’well Traveler Tumbler for $30: S’well boasts that its tumblers are triple-walled, but we’re not convinced that has much real-world benefit over a normal double-walled tumbler. What really sets the S’well apart are its designs. There are 12 finishes, from plain colors and bare stainless steel to elaborate patterns, such as blue marble and faux wood, and a slide-open lid so you don’t have to pop it off every time you want a swig of coffee.

Stanley Classic Vacuum Pint for $26: Stanley’s vacuum pint includes a press-on lid with a deeply pebbled exterior that’s reminiscent of classic flasks, and also hard hats and construction sites. Although it’s billed as a 16-ounce pint, Stanley has added a few extra ounces to accommodate foam (or splashing hot coffee), and the lid comes with a slide-in metal bottle opener if you like to go immediately from work to happy hour.