Elon Musk gives a tour to then-President-elect Trump and lawmakers of the control room before the launch of a SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas. Musk's businesses have been built with billions of dollars of government support that could be at risk after his relationship with Trump ruptured this week. Brandon Bell/Getty Images hide caption
Donald Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of the SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas, shortly after Trump's election victory. Brandon Bell/Getty Images hide caption
Open AI CEO Sam Altman speaks during a conference in San Francisco this week. The company said it has recently taken down 10 influence operations that were using its generative artificial intelligence tools. Four of those operations were likely run by the Chinese government. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
The inside of a cell is a complicated orchestration of interactions between molecules. KEITH CHAMBERS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY hide caption
People talk near a Meta sign outside of the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Jeff Chiu/AP hide caption
A screenshot of the website for Chloe Samaha's startup BOND, an earlier version of which was almost entirely vibe coded. bondapp.io/Screenshot by NPR hide caption
A woman walks past a Google logo at the Google Campus in Warsaw on Feb.13, 2025. SERGEI GAPON/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
President Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk listen to a question from a reporter in the Oval Office on Friday, as Musk concludes his role leading Trump's Department of Government Efficiency. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images hide caption
Spectators watch SpaceX's ninth Starship rocket launch from its pad in the newly incorporated city of Starbase, Texas on May 27, 2025. The test flight ended with Starship tumbling out of control and burning up over the Indian Ocean. Michael Gonzalez/The Texas Newsroom hide caption
Episode art for Understood: Who broke the internet? Kelsey Cueva/CBC hide caption
Is Buy Now, Pay Later another lifestyle subsidy? Getty Images hide caption
Cooling towers at the nuclear reactor facility at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Waynesboro, Ga. President Trump signed executive orders which seek to reorganize America's nuclear regulator while giving a boost to new nuclear technologies. Mike Stewart/AP hide caption
Serhii, head of Vyriy production company operating fpv drone on testing field in Kyiv March 21, 2025. Anton Shtuka or NPR hide caption
Jony Ive attends the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" exhibition on Monday, May 5, 2025, in New York. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP hide caption
Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun participates in a session during the Token 2049 crypto conference in Dubai on May 1, 2025. Sun is a top investor in Trump's meme coin and says he plans to attend an exclusive dinner with the president. Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Passengers arrive at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey on May 7, 2025. Kena Betancur / AFP/Getty Images hide caption
An employee holds a full-size prototype LMR battery cell at the General Motors Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center. GM has prototyped approximately 300 full-size LMR cells as it worked with LG Energy Solution to crack the code on the chemistry. Steve Fecht for General Motors/Handout from GM hide caption
Elon Musk speaking during a town hall meeting on March 30, 2025 in Green Bay, Wisc. ahead of a state Supreme Court election where he invested millions of dollars, only to see his preferred candidate lose. The billionaire announced on Tuesday that he planned to spend less on politics going forward. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption
The Verizon logo is displayed on the exterior of a Verizon store. The FCC approved its $20 billion deal to buy Frontier Communications, a day after Verizon told the U.S. regulator that it would end many of its diversity-related policies. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
Daniel Berulis filed a whistleblower disclosure with Congress claiming that DOGE staffers compromised the NLRB's computer networks and may have taken sensitive data in the process. Grace Raver/NPR hide caption
An AI generated image of a murder victim, Chris Pelkey. YouTube/Annotation by NPR hide caption
President Trump and Vice President Vance meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 28. Researchers are testing AI's potential for coming up with agreements to end the war in Ukraine. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images hide caption
Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, following a hearing at the Robert E. Peckham U.S. Courthouse on March 17, 2023 in San Jose, California. Evans has raised millions of dollars for a new health tech startup that Holmes is advising him on. Philip Pacheco/Getty Images hide caption
Google has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to Texas to settle claims that the company collected users' data without permission, the state's attorney general said Friday. Jeff Chiu/AP hide caption