The Best of Ars Technica
20+ most popular Ars Technica articles, as voted by our community.
Original news, reviews, analysis of tech trends, and expert advice on the most fundamental aspects of tech.
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Netflix’s test of streaming games is small, but it’s poised to be a big deal
Some UK and Canadian subscribers can test the streaming giant's first titles.
Quake II gets a remaster for PC and consoles—and it’s exactly what it needs to be
It features both split-screen and online multiplayer, new levels, and 4K.
High-speed AI drone beats world-champion racers for the first time
University creates the first autonomous system capable of beating humans at drone racing.
Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome
Chrome now directly tracks users, generates a "topic" list it shares with advertisers.
New robot searches for solar cell materials 14 times faster
RoboMapper saves both time and energy in searches for photovoltaic materials.
Ars Technica on AI Art
AI wins state fair art contest, annoys humans
Stealth win for AI-generated art inspires heated ethics debate on social media.
Shutterstock partners with OpenAI to sell AI-generated artwork, compensate artists
As DALL-E synthesis comes to Shutterstock, Getty Images makes countermoves.
Ars Technica on Apple
Apple has finally embraced key-based 2FA. So should you
Hardware keys are more secure—and finally ready for the masses.
Report: Apple plans to support sideloading and third-party app stores by 2024
Europe's Digital Markets Act was the catalyst.
Ars Technica on Artificial Intelligence
Flooded with AI-generated images, some art communities ban them completely
Smaller art communities are banning image synthesis amid a wider art ethics debate.
A jargon-free explanation of how AI large language models work
Want to really understand large language models? Here’s a gentle primer.
«ChatGPT is built on a neural network that was trained using billions of words of ordinary language.»
Ars Technica on Game Development
Explaining how fighting games use delay-based and rollback netcode
How to design your game for optimal play over a network.
Ars Technica on Gaming
Inside the $100K+ forgery scandal that’s roiling PC game collecting
From Akalabeth to Xenobia, many rare PC titles are now considered elaborate scams.
New Go-playing trick defeats world-class Go AI—but loses to human amateurs
Adversarial policy attacks blind spots in the AI—with broader implications than games.
Ars Technica on Self Driving
Are self-driving cars already safer than human drivers?
I learned a lot by reading dozens of Waymo and Cruise crash reports.
The “death of self-driving cars” has been greatly exaggerated
GM’s Cruise aims to turn self-driving into a billion-dollar business.
Ars Technica on Space
We’re effectively alone in the Universe, and that’s OK
Solitude is not a curse—it urges us to explore the mysteries of our galaxy and beyond.
The US government is taking a serious step toward space-based nuclear propulsion
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Ars Technica on Stable Diffusion
With Stable Diffusion, you may never believe what you see online again
AI image synthesis goes open source, with big implications.
«Image synthesis arguably brings implications as big as the invention of the camera—or perhaps the creation of visual art itself. Even our sense of history might be at stake, depending on how things shake out. Either way, Stable Diffusion is leading a new wave of deep learning creative tools that are poised to revolutionize the creation of visual media»
Stable Diffusion copyright lawsuits could be a legal earthquake for AI
Experts say generative AI is in uncharted legal waters.
Ars Technica on Technology
How Apple, Google, and Microsoft will kill passwords and phishing in 1 stroke
You've heard for years that easier, more secure logins are imminent. That day is here.
Liquid metal could turn everyday things like paper into smart objects
This futuristic new liquid metal coating can make ordinary objects extraordinary.
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NASA scientists say images from the Webb telescope nearly brought them to tears
Deep field images of the universe, exoplanet atmospheres, and more to be unveiled.
How to get started with machine learning and AI
We wrap our hands around the basics of AI/ML and show you how to get a model off the ground.
This is the first X-ray taken of a single atom
SX-STM enables detection of atom type, simultaneous measurement of its chemical state.
Suddenly working at home? We’ve done it for 22 years—and have advice
Your productivity, your health, and your sanity: We have your home office covered.
«Do you like background noise? Set up an unobtrusive radio feed so that your home office environment doesn't feel overbearingly silen»
Would building a Dyson sphere be worth it? We ran the numbers.
Here's the math behind making a star-encompassing megastructure.
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