It's tough being a startup founder. For many, just posting on LinkedIn is a full time gig, and that's before you get into <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/16/yet-another-former-silicon-valley-darling-is-convicted-of-investor-fraud/">venture capitalist parties</a>, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo-steph-korey-toxic-work-environment-travel-inclusion">Slack inquisitions</a>, and <a href="https://www.thegazelle.org/issue/246/romanticization-hustle-culture">hustle-culture burnout</a>.
In today's increasingly polarized world, they also have to contend with the threat of assassination — at least in their fertile imaginations.
Meet Deep Prasad, the Canadian engineer and entrepreneur whose "quantum computing" AI startup, GenMat, claims to be developing an AI that can "predict the behavior of atoms combined together," among other <a href="https://www.genmat.xyz/solutions-technology">pie-in-the-sky wonders</a>.
Most recently, Prasad went viral on X-formerly-Twitter recently after claiming he was shot at twice outside of his San Francisco hotel.
"They chased me to my hotel and shot the second time when I ran inside and got one of the staff to come out," the <a href="https://x.com/Deepneuron/status/1906025543813992673">founder wrote</a>, tagging tech bigwig Garry Tan, the CEO of Y Combinator. "We both heard a glock and he saw the gun while I saw the bullet impacts. I’m still shaking."
The alleged shooting came after a verbal exchange with a BMW full of guys who apparently told Prasad to "stay within the crosswalk" if he doesn't want to get hit, according to <a href="https://sfstandard.com/2025/04/01/san-francisco-techie-mistakes-fireworks-for-gunshots/">the San Francisco Standard</a>, which spoke with the founder. "I said, 'shut the fuck up, dumbass,’" Prasad recalled. "Those were my exact words."
Some time later, Prasad said he saw the same car pull around to the front of the hotel, when he heard a "loud bang," which a hotel worker said was gunfire.
This is where things get fuzzy: security footage reviewed by the Standard tells another story, namely that the "gunfire" he heard actually came from firecrackers.
If there was actually gunfire, it would also follows that police would have found bullet holes in the side of the hotel, necessitating an investigation. Instead, police offered thoughts and prayers: "this sounds like a frightening incident, and I’m sorry this happened in our city," an SFPD spokesperson told the Standard.
Netizens were quick to turn Prasad's excitable posts into a meme, blasting him for tagging Tan, as if there was anything he could do. "My girlfriend is not eating her vegetables @garrytan," <a href="https://x.com/FedericoNoemie/status/1906833472712495522">one user quipped</a>.
It doesn't appear to be the first time Prasad's posts have been of this world.
A now-dormant reddit account sharing his handle on X-formerly-Twitter has posted prolifically on a UFO subreddit while claiming to be Deep Prasad. The account previously posted about <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ufo/comments/e7axfa/information_drop_science_done_on_ttsas_metal/">extraterrestrial metals</a>, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ufo/comments/cki2zu/community_research_project_for_metamaterials/">UFO debris</a>, and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ufo/comments/exbtoc/the_ttsa_and_project_serpo_connection/">Project Serpo</a>, a conspiracy theory claiming that the US military runs a "human exchange" with aliens from the <a href="https://www.serpo.org/">planet Serpo</a>.
One post links to a file owned by "deeptanshu.prasad" containing a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h1U1loPBjObaA_-LVQrVBRWp5oeQ7wTT/view">catalogue</a> of "samples of materials said to have been ejected by/dropped from UAP [unidentified aerial phenomenon], or have been found after a UAP sighting." The 54-page catalogue is credited to Keith Basterfield, an Australian <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-30/australian-ufo-unexplained-phenomena-research-institute/104643372">ufologist</a>, and lists analyses of samples taken from events like the 1947 "<a href="https://openminds.tv/test-confirms-roswell-debris-733/">Roswell Incident</a>" in New Mexico, and the "<a href="https://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2017/10/mexico-remembering-1977-ufo-crash-in.html">Puebla UFO crash</a>" of 1977.
Like his crosswalk candor, Prasad's online persona is a little touchy, to put it mildly. The reddit account frequently came to blows with other users on r/UFO, usually arguing over academic credentials and various ufology personalities. Most arguments descend into hollering about honor and personal pride.
"I have a big ego which keeps me afloat from being slowed down by naysayers like yourselves," the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ufo/comments/gzm3ye/comment/ftlpw4u/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button">account raged</a> in a thread about the state of the UFO community. "I've never called myself the next Einstein, only others have."
Other scrums crumble into credentialism.
"Im [sic] waiting on your correction of my integration tough guy..come on," the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ufo/comments/e9it5l/comment/fau6jjp/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button">account posted</a> after a long argument with "mr_knowsitall" about whose physics career was more impressive. "Prove to all of r/UFO you dont know jack shit about basic math and physics lolol. I am waiting."
If Prasad's e-manners are any indication, it's really not hard to believe he rubbed a couple of pranksters the wrong way — a hypothesis even he's embracing.
"Realistically there’s no recovering from this," he posted in a <a href="https://x.com/Deepneuron/status/1907259580712616022">lighthearted followup</a>, again tagging Garry Tan. "I’m taking the L and the kids who followed me around at 4am in a BMW and threw fireworks successfully pranked tf out of me it’s high key embarrassing but at least we got a good meme out of it."
More on tech founders: <a href="https://futurism.com/alarm-app-advertisement-snooze">Alarm App Demands You Watch Advertisement to Hit "Snooze" Button</a>

Deep Fake

Pew!

Paranoid AI Founder Reportedly Thought He Was Being Shot At After Hearing Innocuous Noise

<h2>Got the Receipts</h2>
OpenAI's latest image-generating 4o model is <a href="https://futurism.com/openai-new-image-generator-perfect-text">surprisingly good at generating text</a> inside images, a feat that had proved particularly difficult for its many predecessors.
And that makes it a powerful tool for generating images of fraudulent documents, as users have found.
Case in point, Menlo Ventures principal Deedy Das <a href="https://x.com/deedydas/status/1905909215308447874?">tweeted a photo of a fake receipt</a> for a lavish meal at a real San Francisco steakhouse, as <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/31/chatgpts-new-image-generator-is-really-good-at-faking-receipts/">spotted by TechCrunch</a>.
"You can use 4o to generate fake receipts," Das wrote. "There are too many real-world verification flows that rely on 'real images' as proof. That era is over."
<h2>Doc Holiday</h2>
The image itself, at first blush, is pretty convincing and includes a breakdown of a multicourse meal, a correct subtotal, and even a tip calculation.
Another user even <a href="https://x.com/michaelgofman/status/1906085276956442795?">managed to edit the image further</a> by adding a realistic filter and food stains — the perfect way to commit expense fraud, if you were so inclined.
And that's the tip of the iceberg. Das <a href="https://x.com/deedydas/status/1908009842876502163">also found</a> that 4o was happy to generate fraudulent prescriptions for controlled substances like Zoloft.
<h2>Fraud Squad</h2>
The development highlights how far AI-powered image generators have come. Previous models infamously struggled with recreating letters, often resulting in garbled shapes and <a href="https://futurism.com/google-image-corn-ai-slop">unintentionally hilarious phrases</a>.
Beyond faking expenses for lavish meals, OpenAI's increasingly canny ability to generate fake documents could open up the door for everything from phony tax forms and bank cheques to fake IDs and birth certificates.
Whether our ability to detect this storm of faked documents remains to be seen. But given AI companies' current efforts, it's not looking good. Guardrails like <a href="https://www.maginative.com/article/google-photos-adds-metadata-with-ai-edit-labels/">appended metadata</a> or <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/12/meta-releases-a-tool-for-watermarking-ai-generated-videos/">watermarks</a> that divulge whether an image was generated by an AI are easily overcome.
Even before the advent of powerful AI-powered image generators, a <a href="https://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2015/most-employees-fib-on-expense-reports/">2015 survey</a> found that 85 percent of respondents admitted to lying to get reimbursed with more money. Many of these kinds of fraud cases <a href="https://www.quadient.com/en/blog/top-four-types-expense-abuse-and-how-prevent-them">fall through the cracks</a> due to a lack of internal controls and flawed accounts payable processes.
In other words, you can no longer believe anything you see online.
More on image generators: <a href="https://futurism.com/lawyer-studio-ghibli-legal-action-openai">Lawyer Says Studio Ghibli Could Take Legal Action Against OpenAI</a>

Kobe Steak for Everybody

Fake receipts. Phony prescriptions. Bogus passports. And more.

OpenAI's New Image Generator Is Incredible for Creating Fraudulent Documents

Researchers have developed a virtual reality program that puts domestic abusers in the position of their victims — and they say it seems to be working toward rehabilitating them.
In <a href="https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/i-tried-the-vr-headset-that-puts-domestic-abusers-in-victims-shoes-t6zk386xn">reporting for The London Times</a>, crime reporter Rachel Sylvester said that she ended up having to remove the VR goggles because she "feared the male avatar was going to hit the female character I had become."
With pilot programs in six prisons around Spain's Catalonia region, the VRespectMe program is meant to help men convicted of domestic abuse learn how the experience felt for their partners.
"We want to improve empathy in men who have been violent towards their partners," explained Nicholas Barnes, a government psychologist in Catalonia who developed the technology, in an interview with the Times. "The early results are positive, we can see a tendency towards improving empathy."
Like Sylvester, many of the men involved in Barnes' program had visceral reactions to the virtual abuse they experienced.
"What are you doing?" the looming, pixelated abuser in Sylvester's simulation said as he approached her avatar. "Have you seen yourself in the mirror?... There’s not one woman out there who looks as wretched as you do right now, you’re disgusting."
"Aren’t you going to say anything?" the abusive avatar continued. "Typical you, I have to come home every day and look at your shitty face, that scared little puppy dog face."
According to the Times, more than 1,000 men have participated in the program since Barnes introduced it to prisons. Some of them had been moved to tears during the experience — and others, like the reporter, had to take off the headsets before the simulation was over.
Along with the name-calling scenario the reporter tested, others developed by Barnes, in tandem with Spain's justice department and the University of Barcelona, include witnessing a sexual harassment interaction in a bar and, convolutedly, a conversation with a victim before turning into her and reliving the experience from her perspective.
A man who'd taken part in the latter VR scenario told the English newspaper that it changed the way he thought about what he had done.
"I let myself be carried away by rage," the prisoner, who was not named, told his partner — and then himself — in virtuality. "I am aware of the damage I caused you. I let my anger get the better of me and I couldn’t control myself. Now that I know I made a lot of mistakes I am very sorry."
The discomfort from such interactions is clearly part of the program. It remains to be seen, <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/04/26/1071412/inmates-vr-real-world-skills-incarcerated-instructions/">as with</a> other <a href="https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/news/2024/october/virtual-reality-could-help-rehabilitate-prisoners-new-dmu-research-shows.aspx">prison VR programs</a>, how rehabilitative such tools really are.
More on prison VR: <a href="https://futurism.com/prisons-vr-headsets-solitary-confinement">What Are the Ethics of Strapping VR Headsets on Inmates in Solitary Confinement?</a>

Abuser Avatars

"We want to improve empathy."

New VR Program Gives Domestic Abusers a Taste of Their Own Medicine

A British startup called Pulsar Fusion has come up with a wild new concept for a nuclear fusion-powered space rocket that, it claims, could significantly cut down the time it takes to travel to Mars in half.
As <a href="https://www.cnn.com/science/nuclear-powered-rocket-pulsar-space-spc/index.html">CNN reports</a>, the UK Space Agency-funded company's Sunbird rocket harnesses the power of nuclear fusion, the same process that powers stars, as a form of propulsion.
"It’s very unnatural to do fusion on Earth," Pulsar founder and CEO Richard Dinan told CNN. "Fusion doesn’t want to work in an atmosphere. Space is a far more logical, sensible place to do fusion, because that’s where it wants to happen anyway."
It's important to note that the propulsion device is still almost entirely theoretical. But Pulsar sees potential.
The firm is hoping to achieve fusion in orbit for the first time in 2027, a moonshot plan that could put far-flung destinations in our solar system within much easier reach — if everything goes perfectly according to plan, at least.
Instead of splitting atoms to release copious amounts of energy, fusion energy involves combining isotopes into heavier ones. For decades, scientists have tried to replicate this process inside special reactors, using immense amounts of heat and pressure.
Turning that idea into a viable source of renewable energy has proven extremely difficult, particularly at a meaningful scale. Scientists are still breaking their heads over how to do so efficiently, and are only starting to devise methods that allow them to harvest <a href="https://futurism.com/fusion-facility-generates-twice-power-put-in">more energy</a> than what they had to put in to get the reaction started.
In space, however, where fusion reactors in the form of stars and our Sun, are abundant, the situation could look quite different. Instead of having to harness the swirling plasma inside circular reactors, Pulsar Fusion's rocket would have a "nuclear exhaust," shooting out protons from an expensive type of fuel called helium-3.
In the long run, Pulsar Fusion envisions an entire gas station-like system.
"We launch them into space, and we would have a charging station where they could sit and then meet your ship," Dinand told CNN. "You turn off your inefficient combustion engines, and use nuclear fusion for the greater part of your journey."
"Ideally, you’d have a station somewhere near Mars, and you’d have a station on low Earth orbit," he added, "and the (Sunbirds) would just go back and forth."
As <a href="https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/futuristic-alien-like-nuclear-fusion-rockets-developed-in-total-secret-could-revolutionize-space-travel-if-they-actually-work">Live Science reports</a>, each Sunbird would be around 100 feet in length and feature "tank-like" armor plating to protect them from cosmic radiation and micrometeorites. Each rocket could cost upwards of $90 million, a steep price in large part due to its unusual fuel source.
For its inaugural proof of concept test in 2027, the company is hoping to construct a "linear fusion experiment" to test "key technological components." A fully functional prototype could be ready four to five years after that — if the company doesn't run out of funding by then.
"If we are going to be the species that actually get to other planets, then exhaust speeds are pretty much the most important thing," Dinan said during a space convention earlier this year, as quoted by Live Science. "In terms of what can be [theoretically] produced in exhaust speeds, fusion is king."
More on fusion: <a href="https://futurism.com/fusion-thruster-startup-anticipates-first-town-on-mars">Fusion Thruster Startup Anticipates "First Town on Mars"</a>

Fusion Rocketry

"Space is a far more logical, sensible place to do fusion, because that’s where it wants to happen anyway."

Startup Says Its Nuclear Fusion Rocket Could Cut Time to Mars in Half

What happens when you drive a Cybertruck around the nation's capital? You get yelled at, talked down to, and flipped off — a lot.
That was the experience of Saahal Desai <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/cybertruck-washington-dc/682232/">for The Atlantic</a>, who concluded after his ordeal that the "Cybertruck is a 7,000-pound Rorschach test." 
Desai rented the polarizing Tesla pickup — which has come to embody <a href="https://futurism.com/musk-why-mad">everything people hate about its creator Elon Musk</a> — in a "journalistic experiment to understand what it's like behind the wheel of America's most hated car." And not because, as Desai later admits, he thinks it's "kind of a cool" ride. (Debatable.)
After just one day of tooling around Washington, DC, Desai was given the bird at least 17 times. He was called a "motherfucker," a "fucking dork," and a lot more. Seldom did he escape mockery or derision. Diners getting brunch on a sidewalk laughed and jeered as he passed. Someone audibly considered egging his vehicle. This is the Cybertruck Owner's Burden.
"As I idled with the windows down on a street in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood," Desai recalled, "a woman glared at me from her front porch: 'Fuck you, and this truck, and Elon,' she yelled. 'You drive a Nazi truck.'" 
Then, Desai continued, "she slammed her front door shut, and then opened it again," adding that "I hope someone blows your shit up."
Of course, pulling off this stunt in The District of all places is pretty much asking for negative attention, and isn't necessarily reflective of the average Cybertruck driver experience. "This is, after all," Desai notes, "the radioactive center of DOGE's blast radius." 
That said, nationwide, Tesla — and the Cybertruck especially — have unquestionably been on the receiving end of waves of outrage. The automaker's dealerships have faced <a href="https://futurism.com/hundreds-protest-tesla-dealership">angry protests</a>, <a href="https://futurism.com/wave-vandalism-protest-tesla">acts of vandalism</a>, <a href="https://futurism.com/windows-dealership-gunfire">gunfire</a>, and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/teslas-set-fire-molotov-cocktails-shot-las-vegas-attack-rcna196942">firebombings</a>. Countless random Tesla vehicles on the road have been <a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-vandalism-defaced-video">defaced with spray paint</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/15/vandalized-tesla-elon-musk-trump">smeared with feces</a>, pelted with eggs, and had their <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/tesla-vandalism-cybertruck-novato-20248147.php">windshields smashed</a>.
Musk is the reason why. His public image has soured since he threw his weight behind the presidency of Donald Trump, bankrolling his campaign to the tune of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/31/elon-musk-trump-donor-2024-election/">nearly $300 million</a> and crescendoing his years-long public descent into far-right circles. 
He has led the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration's <a href="https://futurism.com/doge-kid-helped-cybercrime-ring">cadre of pipsqueak mercenaries</a> tasked with gutting the federal government by slashing expenditures and firing tens of thousands of employees. In response to the rising anti-Musk sentiment, the administration and its security apparatus closed ranks: the FBI <a href="https://futurism.com/fbi-task-force-protect-tesla">launched a brand new task force</a> to crack down on the Tesla vandals, describing the acts as "domestic terrorism." 
As for the Cybertruck, it's a bold, polarizing vehicle even without all that political baggage. It looks weird and is itself a bold middle-finger to common-sense automotive norms. It costs more than a Corvette when Musk initially promised it'd sell for less than $40,000. Fans hyped it as the culmination of Elon's visionary genius. That it's turned out to be an unreliable lemon has only made it riper a punching bag for Musk's critics, and by extension, anyone not a fan of the Trump administration.
Desai did receive some thumbs-ups as he drove through tourist-heavy areas. One person remarked that it was "awesome." A kid screamed "Cybertruck!" But these were few and far between, and by no means redeemed the overall Cybertruck experience.
"The disaster of the Cybertruck is not that it's ugly, or unconventional, or absurdly pointy," Desai concluded. "It's that, for most people, the car just isn't worth driving."
More on Tesla: <a href="https://futurism.com/government-punishing-vandalism-tesla-dealership">Government Seeking Wild Punishment for Man Accused of Vandalizing Tesla Dealership</a>

Finger on the Pulse

Spoiler: it was a lot.

Man Rents Cybertruck, Counts How Many Times He Gets Flipped Off in a Single Day

That "<a href="https://futurism.com/killer-asteroid-most-populous-cities">city-killer</a>" asteroid may no longer be projected to strike Earth any time soon, but scientists are still keeping close tabs on it.
Using the mighty James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have imaged the once-menacing space rock, dubbed 2024 YR4, in infrared light, providing our best estimate yet of its true size. It's also a convincing demonstration of the telescope's usefulness in assessing the hazards of near-Earth asteroids in the future.
Previously, our ground-based glances at 2024 YR4 in visible light had suggested that it could be as long as nearly 300 feet. Now, the latest observations reveal that it's somewhat smaller, between 174 to 220 feet in stature — or about the size of a 10-story building, <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/planetary-defense/2025/04/02/nasa-update-on-the-size-estimate-and-lunar-impact-probability-of-asteroid-2024-yr4/">according to NASA</a>.
"This is the smallest object targeted by the mission to date, and one of the smallest objects to have its size directly measured," Andy Rivkin, principal investigator of the Webb telescope's Director's Discretionary Time program, <a href="https://phys.org/news/2025-04-qa-webb-asteroid-yr4-sized.html">said in a statement</a>. 
"While we are confident that 2024 YR4 will not hit Earth in 2032, there is still great value in making these observations and analyzing the results," Rivkin added. "This will help us determine the best approach to use during a more urgent observing program should another asteroid pose a potential impact threat in the future."
2024 YR4 was <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/2024-yr4/#:~:text=Credit%3A%20ATLAS-,Discovery,Chile%20on%20December%2027%2C%202024.">first detected in </a><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/2024-yr4/#:~:text=Credit%3A%20ATLAS-,Discovery,Chile%20on%20December%2027%2C%202024.">December</a>. By February, the chances it would strike Earth had <a href="https://futurism.com/city-killer-asteroid-odds-up-again">exceeded 3 percent</a>. Those were by no means guaranteed odds, but as the asteroid was deemed large enough to wipe out an entire metropolis, they were still way too high for comfort. But just as astronomers had anticipated, those threat estimates were quickly downgraded to <a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/2025/02/24/latest-calculations-conclude-asteroid-2024-yr4-now-poses-no-significant-threat-to-earth-in-2032-and-beyond/">no threat at all</a>. 
Nevertheless, the episode rekindled both the public's and the scientific community's interest in planetary defense. There are over a million asteroids in the inner Solar System <a href="https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Planetary_Defence/30_000_near-Earth_asteroids_discovered_and_rising">that we know about</a>, and close to 40,000 near-Earth ones. If one suddenly pops up out of the blue, how can we quickly assess it?
Rivkin explains how the James Webb can help in that scenario.
"Most telescopes observe asteroids by measuring sunlight reflected from their surfaces, and it's hard to precisely determine their sizes from this information," he said in the statement. With the Mid-Infrared Insturment (MIRI), however, "the heat given off by asteroids themselves can be measured and used to directly give the asteroid's size."
In any case, the 2024 YR4 <a href="https://futurism.com/killer-asteroid-return">saga ain't over yet</a>. The latest Webb data indicates that there's still a 3.8 percent chance it <a href="https://www.space.com/the-universe/asteroids/city-killer-asteroid-2024-yr4-could-hit-the-moon-instead-of-us-scientists-say">could smash into the Moon</a>, according to NASA, which is even higher than what was projected a month ago. Let's see if hypocritical humans will show the same levels of horror and urgency now that it's not their world in the crosshairs.
More Webb chronicles: <a href="https://futurism.com/james-webb-planets-star-system">James Webb Space Telescope Captures Images of Individual Planets in Distant Star System</a>

Eye On You

And we now know its true size.

Fearless James Webb Telescope Stares Down "City Killer" Asteroid That Had Been Feared to Strike Earth

What you're seeing isn't Photoshop, or — heaven forbid — AI slop. That's a real rhino, weighing over 2,800 pounds and suspended from the bottom of a helicopter by its legs, upside down. 
This isn't the giant herbivore's idea of thrill seeking. And it's okay to laugh. What you're seeing is called "translocation," and it's become a favored way of rescuing the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/black-rhino">critically endangered creatures</a> from poachers, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250327-the-vietnam-war-helicopters-riddled-with-bullet-holes-airlifting-rhinos-to-safety">BBC reports</a>. That it looks like some hilarious circus act is just an added bonus.
It wouldn't be a stretch to call this a miracle in the animal conservation world. In the wilderness of South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana, where these black rhinos roam, transporting a creature that can weigh more than a ton overland isn't always practical. Roads don't reach everywhere, and the long, bumpy rides are far from comfortable for the rhino passengers.
But helicopter airlifts sidestep those problems. Using them has "revolutionized the world of rhino conservation," according to Ursina Rusch, population manager for the World Wildlife Foundation's South Africa Black Rhino Range Expansion Project. 
The project shelters over 400 black rhinos across eighteen sites. For reference, black rhinos have a total population of just 6,500 globally, which is more than double what it was three decades ago, per the BBC.
"Really none of this would be possible without helicopters, both in terms of darting and transferring rhinos out of inaccessible areas," Rusch told the broadcaster
First, the rhino is immobilized with a tranquilizer dart. After microchipping the behemoth to track it, a ground team ties straps around each of its four ankles, which connect to a single rope dangling beneath a chopper, usually an Airbus AS350 Astar, or an old UH1-H Huey. Then the rhino's ready to fly, usually for a duration of ten to thirty minutes.
As precarious — and ridiculous — as it looks, the intervention is pretty safe. Conservationists have spent years experimenting with multiple methods, including using nets, but Rusch says that hanging the rhinos upside down has proven the most dependable.
One reason why is that the rhinos can still breathe properly in that position. Amazingly, with their horns acting as a "tail feather or wind vane," the rhinos are also  surprisingly well-suited to being suspended in the air.
"The great thing about lifting the rhinos upside down by their feet is that they're aerodynamic themselves," Robin Radcliffe, associate professor of wildlife and conservation medicine at Cornell University, told the BBC.
Since it began, the WWF project has translocated 160 rhinos via airlift, per the BBC's reporting. And it's not just to save them from poachers, either. "If we don't translocate rhinos and create new populations, they will inbreed enough that they crash, or run out of resources and stop breeding," Rusch said.
We said this was a miracle in the world of conservation. From the perspective of a rhino, which is high on an opioid while this is all happening and isn't used to seeing the landscape rush by hundreds of feet below them, it's literal deus ex machina — a term that originates from ancient Greek theater, in which god was brought in, poetically, with a crane.
More on wildlife: <a href="https://futurism.com/sharks-make-noises">It Turns Out Sharks Make Noises, and Here's What They Sound Like</a>

Rhino Spin

Look at him go.

Behold This Bonkers Photo of a 2,800-Pound Rhino Dangling Upside Down From a Helicopter

Teslas get a bad rap these days. Aside from the whole <a href="https://futurism.com/numbers-consumers-against-tesla">Elon Musk thing</a>, the electric vehicles are becoming notorious for <a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-held-together-glue">shoddy construction</a>, <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-cybertruck-recall-piece-flying-off">massive consumer recalls</a>, and <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-change-name-full-self-driving-china">sketchy self-driving software</a>.
There is, however, one thing Teslas seem to excel at: mowing down motorcyclists.
According to a <a href="https://fuelarc.com/news-and-features/self-driving-teslas-are-fatally-striking-motorcyclists-more-than-any-other-brand-new-analysis/">new analysis</a> by FuelArc, Teslas have a totally unique propensity for plowing over motorcyclists among self-driving cars — supporting a belief among some motorcyclists that Teslas are <a href="https://motorcycleridersfoundation.wildapricot.org/page-1654841/13214391">particularly dangerous to ride next to</a>.
FuelArc's analysis scrapes National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data on <a href="https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/ffdd/sgo-2021-01/SGO-2021-01_Incident_Reports_ADAS.csv">self-driving collisions</a> dating back to 2022. It found that Tesla logged five motorcycle fatalities in the past three years, the only self-driving vehicle manufacturer to do so.
In other words, of all the recorded motorcycle deaths involving a self-driving vehicle, a Tesla was responsible for every single one.
While motorcycle deaths are certainly tragic, they're unfortunately nothing new in our world of <a href="https://www.motortrend.com/features/why-americas-roads-keep-getting-deadlier-safety-research/">6,000 lb SUVs and lifted trucks</a>. What is alarming, FuelArc notes, is the fact that Teslas are killing motorcyclists overwhelmingly from behind.
In four of the five cases reviewed, NHSTA data and news reporting shows the Teslas sustained some kind of front-end impact — meaning the self-driving software is <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/31/tesla-in-crash-that-killed-motorcyclist-was-using-self-driving-system-authorities-say.html">failing to register motorcyclists</a> before it's too late.
And it's not just drivers on two wheels. The NHTSA previously forced Tesla to <a href="https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2023/RCLRPT-23V838-8276.PDF">issue a recall</a> on self-driving vehicles in 2022 after numerous incidents where the EVs barreled headfirst into <a href="https://electrek.co/2023/08/09/damning-footage-shows-tesla-vehicles-autopilot-crashing-into-police/">emergency vehicles</a>. Though the NHTSA <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-asked-nhtsa-redact-information-autopilot-fsd-use-crashes-report-2023-8">graciously redacts</a> Tesla crash statistics at the corporation's request, its 2022 investigation found Musk's cars have a knack for "frontal plane crashes" — a fancy way to say "ramming into stuff at full speed."
Sadly, many of these deadly frontal crashes could have been prevented. Of all the self-driving Tesla crashes analyzed by the NHTSA, 93 percent of them involved hazards "visible to a human in time to either avoid the accident entirely or at least take action to mitigate the severity of the accident," according to FuelArc.
While some will no doubt argue that five motorcycle fatalities is too small a sample size to draw any conclusions from, the simple fact that there are any self-driving fatalities at all suggests something is seriously wrong with this tech.
As software, self-driving remains under-regulated by safety authorities. Thanks to commercial licensing laws, Tesla is allowed to claim that its self-driving software is proprietary, meaning we have <a href="https://thenextweb.com/news/self-driving-cars-crash-responsible-courts-black-box">very little information</a> about how these cars make their life-altering decisions. Nonetheless, we still allow them on our roads, a decision that turns motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists like into <a href="https://www.autosafety.org/why-are-pedestrians-being-used-as-the-guinea-pigs-in-the-self-driving-vehicles-experiment/">human guinea pigs</a>.
While this <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-self-driving-car-road-test-we-are-the-guinea-pigs-1526212802">grand experiment</a> has been underway throughout the US since 2018, residents of Austin, Texas are about to become rats in a whole new type of maze: Tesla's "<a href="https://electrek.co/2025/03/26/tesla-hypes-unsupervised-full-self-driving-june-actually-launch/">unsupervised full self-driving</a>" program, slated to start in June.
The NHTSA is currently reviewing whether Tesla's previous recall in 2022 was effective at ending front-end dive bombs (spoiler alert, <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/10/18/business/nhtsa-to-investigate-elon-musks-tesla-after-several-full-self-driving-crashes/">it wasn't</a>). What it decides as Musk <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/19/deeply-concerned-crash-victims-families-ask-dot-not-to-water-down-tesla-oversight-00236890">culls the agency's staff</a> remains to be seen, but unless lawmakers drastically upend their <a href="https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2023-09-11-corporate-capture-california-waymo-robotaxies/">current approach</a> to regulation, the self-driving bloodbath isn't likely to end anytime soon.
More on self-driving cars: <a href="https://futurism.com/someone-else-tested-tesla-crash-wall-painted-road">Someone Else Tested Whether a Tesla Will Really Crash Into a Wall Painted Like a Road</a>

Drive Thru

So they are good at something.

There's Something Very Sketchy Going on With Self-Driving Teslas Running Down Motorcycles

If climate scientists, policy makers, and environmental activists haven't made it clear that our planet is <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientist-terrified-climate-falling-apart">pretty much doomed</a>, maybe Wall Street will: bank tycoons are the latest — and perhaps the most self-interested — to join the chorus sounding the alarm on the now <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/27/un-chief-issues-climate-sos-warns-of-unimaginable-catastrophe">grim prospect</a> of avoiding a climate catastrophe.
Recent reporting <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/big-banks-quietly-prepare-for-catastrophic-climate-change/">by </a><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/big-banks-quietly-prepare-for-catastrophic-climate-change/">Scientific American</a> has found that finance titans Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and the Institute of International Finance have all but given up on building a sustainable future. Instead, they're pivoting their strategies to stay profitable on a rapidly warming Earth, through investments in sectors like <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/big-banks-predict-catastrophic-warming-with-profit-potential/">air conditioning</a>, while pulling away from <a href="https://www.monitordaily.com/news-posts/major-u-s-banks-withdraw-from-climate-coalition-amid-political-pressure/">clean energy pledges</a>, which were previously an industry standard.
The shift in sentiment comes as the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/climate/what-is-the-paris-agreement/index.html">Paris Agreement</a> — the massive international accord to hold global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), an already <a href="https://www.livescience.com/41690-2-degrees-of-warming-too-much.html">low bar</a> — is looking like a pipe dream. Recent <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/climate/paris-climate-agreement-breach/index.html">scientific research</a> has shown that we've likely already passed a raise of 1.5 degrees Celsius, and are on pace to rapidly overshoot the 2 degree benchmark.
"We now expect a 3 degree world," Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in an analysis of HVAC stock futures, echoing an <a href="https://www.esgdive.com/news/climate-change-should-be-incorporated-into-daily-decision-making-jpmorgan/740391/">earlier analysis</a> by JPMorgan Chase, which noted that we're in a "new climate era" thanks to the certainty of global warming.
It's probably no surprise given US policymakers' regression into straight-up climate change denial. Though we can thank <a href="https://jacobin.com/2024/06/big-oil-democrats-biden-climate-policy">lawmakers of all stripes</a> for the backslide, the new administration led by Donald Trump is proudly spearheading the effort, removing the US from the <a href="https://climate.law.columbia.edu/content/president-trump-announces-withdrawal-paris-agreement-0">Paris Agreement</a>, attacking <a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/trump-usda-grants-farmers">renewable energy,</a> and even hollering that climate change <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-convince-world-climate-change-good-1235306675/">could be "good</a>."
Big banks aren't the only financial institutions reneging on climate change. For the past few years, major insurance companies have been reeling from increasing costs and alarming risk forecasts related to our rapidly warming earth. States like California and Florida have had to deal with an <a href="https://stateline.org/2024/06/05/states-beg-insurers-not-to-drop-climate-threatened-homes/">exodus of insurers</a> in high-risk areas as increased wildfires, mudslides, and hurricane flooding scares business away.
Insurance giants have blamed high-risk home locations and over-regulation in order to exploit climate tragedies for <a href="https://consumerwatchdog.org/insurance/trying-to-cash-in-on-wildfire-tragedy-state-farm-demands-immediate-740-million-bailout/">taxpayer bailouts</a> and <a href="https://consumerwatchdog.org/insurance/insurance-industry-exploits-california-wildfire-disaster-to-promote-deregulation-in-congress-consumer-watchdog-says/">deregulation</a>. Climate protestors and consumer watchdogs, meanwhile, have gone after insurance companies for continuing to underwrite <a href="https://jacobin.com/2022/01/ricardo-lara-fossil-fuel-contributions-gifts-policy">fossil fuel giants</a>, even as they cry foul at the <a href="https://greencentralbanking.com/2024/12/10/increasing-climate-change-losses-insurance-industry-financial-stability/">unstable market</a> caused by climate change.
All told, it's a crystal-clear example of the contradiction between business goals and climate action. As billionaires <a href="https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/capitalism-the-failure-behind-preventing-los-angeles-fires-and-climate-change/">loot local water supplies</a> and tech monopolies dump <a href="https://arena.org.au/exponential-abyss-technology-and-waste/">mountains of e-waste</a> into the ground, it's no wonder financial institutions are taking the hint and turning their backs on <a href="https://jacobin.com/2023/11/black-friday-amazon-climate-footprint-worker-organizing">climate promises</a>.
As a spokesperson for the Institute of International Finance told SciAm, the "banking industry can support the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy but capital will only move 'at scale when the economics make sense.'"
Translation: at this point, it's more profitable to loot the earth than to save it.
More on climate change: <a href="https://futurism.com/bill-gates-gives-up-climate-change">Bill Gates Gives Up on Climate Change</a>

Green Washed

Follow the money.

This May Be the Most Terrifying Sign of Global Warming Yet

A South Korean website called GenNomis went offline this week after a researcher made a particularly alarming discovery: tens of thousands of AI-generated pornographic images created by its software, Nudify. The photos were found in an unsecured database, and included explicit images bearing the likeness of celebrities, politicians, random women, and children.
Jeremiah Fowler, the cybersecurity researcher who <a href="https://www.vpnmentor.com/news/report-gennomis-breach/">found the cache</a>, says he immediately sent a responsible disclosure notice to GenNomis and its parent company, AI-Nomis, who then restricted the database from public access. Later, just hours after Wired <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/genomis-ai-image-database-exposed/">approached GenNomis</a> for comment, both it and its parent company seemed to disappear from the web entirely.
GenNomis is far from the only AI startup peddling tools to generate pornography. It's a small part of a worrying trend enabled by unregulated generative AI across the world. Often known as "deepfakes" because of their lifelike nature, fake porn images and videos based on real people have <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/10/20/generative-ai-fueling-spread-of-deepfake-pornography-across-the-internet">exploded throughout the internet</a> as consumers get their hands on ever-more convincing generative AI.
The consequences of deepfake porn can be devastating, especially for women, who make up the <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250106-form-of-violence-across-globe-deepfake-porn-targets-women-politicians">vast majority</a> of victims. Beside the obvious lack of consent when a person is digitally undressed, this stuff has been used to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/31/magazine/sabrina-javellana-florida-politics-ai-porn.html">tarnish politicians</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/13/ai-porn-deepfakes-women-consent/">get people fired</a>, <a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/ai-deepfake-porn-singapore-mps-extortion-letters-victims-taylor-swift-4360226">extort victims for money</a>, and <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/2023/12/02/teen-girls-are-being-victimized-by-deepfake-nudes-one-family-is-pushing-for-more-protections/">generate child sexual abuse materials</a>. Beyond sexual violence, non-pornographic deepfakes are responsible for a huge increase in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/2025/01/23/fincrime-in-the-age-of-ai/">financial</a> and <a href="https://cltc.berkeley.edu/2025/01/16/beyond-phishing-exploring-the-rise-of-ai-enabled-cybercrime/#:~:text=Low%2Dlevel%20criminal%20outfits%2C%20previously,malicious%20code%20with%20minimal%20effort.">cyber</a> crimes and no small amount of <a href="https://theconversation.com/generative-ai-and-deepfakes-are-fuelling-health-misinformation-heres-what-to-look-out-for-so-you-dont-get-scammed-246149">blatant misinformation</a>.
It's also no surprise that GenNomis is based out of South Korea. A <a href="https://www.securityhero.io/state-of-deepfakes/#key-findings">2023 report</a> on Deepfake porn found that South Korean women made up 53 percent of individuals victimized by the practice — by far the most targeted group. For comparison, the US women made up the second most targeted group, ringing in at 20 percent.
The rise of generative AI enabling the rampant exploitation of women coincides with a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/podcasts/2024/7/17/the-take-behind-a-backlash-to-feminism-in-south-korea">meteoric rise</a> in sexist rhetoric and gender-based violence in South Korea, as reactionary politicians and influencers <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cml2kvd2dvno">blame feminism</a> for the rising rate of male suicide.
Overall, it's a strong argument for lawmakers to take a tougher approach to regulating generative AI, though this seems unlikely due to the AI industry's current freedom to <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/07/22/1095193/ai-companies-promised-the-white-house-to-self-regulate-one-year-ago-whats-changed/">regulate itself</a>. For comparison, <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-generated-material-labeled-china">China has mandated</a> that all AI-generated media be labeled as such from the drop. Though slower to the party, western lawmakers are <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/deepfake-porn-creators-could-face-004542993.html">catching up</a> on criminalizing deepfake porn creation and distribution, though laws and penalties vary from state to state in America.
Still, for thousands of women around the world, the fact that companies like GenNomis existed at all means it's too little, too late.
More on AI ethics: <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-generated-material-labeled-china">All AI-Generated Material Must Be Labeled Online, China Announces</a>