Inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup’

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03.13.25

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Elon Musk wearing a hat that reads Make America Great Again rearranging pieces in a dollhouse that's shaped like the White House.

BY MAKENA KELLY, DAVID GILBERT, VITTORIA ELLIOTT, KATE KNIBBS, DHRUV MEHROTRA, DELL CAMERON, TIM MARCHMAN, LEAH FEIGER, AND ZOË SCHIFFER | 19-MINUTE READ

Musk’s loyalists at DOGE have infiltrated dozens of federal agencies, pushed out tens of thousands of workers, and siphoned millions of people’s most sensitive data. The next step: Unleash the AI.

Elon musk with his arms up and a melting US constitution behind him

Elon Musk Has Wanted the Government Shutdown

BY JAKE LAHUT, LEAH FEIGER, AND VITTORIA ELLIOTT | 6-MINUTE READ

Sources tell WIRED that Elon Musk has wanted a government shutdown in part because it would potentially make it easier to eliminate the jobs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

► Listen: How a government shutdown would help Elon Musk

Image may contain: Donald Trump, Adult, Person, Accessories, Formal Wear, Tie, Car, Transportation, Vehicle, and Clothing

Donald Trump Bought a $90,000 Tesla With 37 Recall Notices Against It

BY JEREMY WHITE | 3-MINUTE READ

Here’s hoping Elon Musk won’t have to personally fix President Trump’s new EV anytime soon.

Image may contain: Alloy Wheel, Car, Car Wheel, Machine, Spoke, Tire, Transportation, Vehicle, and Wheel

What’s Driving Tesla’s Woes?

BY CARLTON REID | 6-MINUTE READ

As Tesla faces a global sales slump, and with shares down for the seventh consecutive week, could Elon Musk's antics really be to blame?

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 5: White House Senior Advisor to the President and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk departs the U.S. Capitol Building on March 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. Musk was meeting with Republican senators at a closed door lunch. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

What Really Happened With the DDoS Attacks That Took Down X

BY LILY HAY NEWMAN | 2-MINUTE READ

Elon Musk said a “massive cyberattack” disrupted X on Monday and pointed to “IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area” as the source of the attack. Security experts say that's not how it works.

Image may contain: Hugh Freeze, Blazer, Clothing, Coat, Jacket, Face, Head, Person, Photography, Portrait, and Formal Wear

The Worst 7 Years in Boeing’s History—and the Man Who Won’t Stop Fighting for Answers

BY LAUREN SMILEY | 30-MINUTE READ

Fatal crashes. A door blowout. Grounded planes. Inside the citizen-led, obsessive campaign to hold Boeing accountable and prevent the next disaster.

A conceptual image of a head shape with gear wheels floating in place of the brain could illustrate ideas around AI, thinking, and knowledge.

With GPT-4.5, OpenAI Trips Over Its Own AGI Ambitions

BY REECE ROGERS | 5-MINUTE READ

The release of OpenAI’s biggest model ever exposes the tension between building artificial general intelligence and making ChatGPT into a truly useful utility.

KATWIJK, NETHERLANDS - JANUARY 30: In this photo illustration, the Chinese AI app DeepSeek is displayed before a Chinese flag on an iPhone screen on January 30, 2025 in Katwijk, Netherlands. (Photo by Yuriko Nakao/Getty Images)

Chinese Companies Rush to Put DeepSeek in Everything

BY ZEYI YANG | 4-MINUTE READ

From video game developers to a nuclear power plant, companies across China are adopting DeepSeek’s AI models to boost stock prices and flaunt their national pride.

The Kryptos sculpture by the American artist Jim Sanborn located on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters, the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia.

AI Thinks It Cracked Kryptos. The Artist Behind It Says No Chance

BY STEVEN LEVY | 4-MINUTE READ

Jim Sanborn’s inbox is flooded with amateur cryptographers who say they’ve cracked the code with chatbots like Grok 3.

$Collage of 3 different electric bikes. Background: yellow and orange fractal texture.$

The 16 Best Electric Bikes for Every Kind of Ride

We tested the best electric bikes in every category: commuting, mountain biking, foldable, cruisers, and more.

It’s been a busy few weeks at WIRED, and we’re just getting started.

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