Slick Tom Cruise Deepfakes Signal That Near Flawless Forgeries May Be Here When they're not lighthearted movie star cameos, the digital doppelgängers have scary disinformation potential. A deepfakes researcher hopes our wariness keeps up with the tech's quickening advances. Emma Bowman
Microtransactions Are Great For Game Companies, Less Fun For Players Microtransactions are small in-game purchases that grant you mostly cosmetic upgrades — but sometimes, they can affect game play. And some gamers say they're becoming increasingly intrusive. Keller Gordon
Lou Ottens, Inventor Of The Cassette Tape, Has Died "Next time you make that perfect playlist on Spotify, or send a link to share a song, you can thank Lou Ottens," documentary filmmaker Zack Taylor told NPR. Bill Chappell
Biden Administration Gears Up For A Showdown With Big Tech President Biden is expected to add prominent tech critics to his administration. Some have advocated for breaking up major companies like Facebook. Shannon Bond
Privacy and your Seattle commute: Potential dark side to city data monitoring ‘There is evidence of a significant market for geolocation data from cell phones. Standing right at the front of the line is the federal government.’ Kim Malcolm
Far-Right Misinformation Is Thriving On Facebook. A New Study Shows Just How Much Research from New York University found that far-right accounts known for spreading misinformation drive engagement at higher rates than other news sources. Michel Martin
What's An NFT? And Why Are People Paying Millions To Buy Them? The latest Internet hype is about a thing that doesn't really exist. Some collectors are spending millions of dollars on these digital items called non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Bobby Allyn
What's A Non-Fungible Token? Why Some Collectors Are Spending Millions Them The market for a "non-fungible token" is the talk of Silicon Valley. Collectors spent from $3 to millions for what amounts to digital art: a clip of Lebron dunking; a cat meme; and cartoon CytoPunks. Bobby Allyn
Don't Swat This Bug. It Might Be A Robot On A Rescue Mission Scientists are trying to build a tiny drone with the agility of a mosquito. These light but strong flying robots could be used in critical situations, such as finding people in a collapsed building. Noel King
Bitcoin: Revolutionary Breakthrough, Or Mother Of All Bubbles From 21st century carmaker Tesla to 170-year-old life insurer MassMutual. From banks to the auction house Christie's. They have all opened their doors to cryptocurrency, bringing it to the mainstream. Uri Berliner
