
The balance sheet for 2020
What not to miss in December

Salesforce to Acquire Slack for $27.7 Billion
The move caps an acquisitive streak by Salesforce and ends Slack’s run as an independent publicly traded company.

How venture capitalists are deforming capitalism
Even the worst-run startup can beat competitors if investors prop it up. The V.C. firm Benchmark helped enable WeWork to make one wild mistake …

The state of EU tech 2020: 20 things you should know
Atomico’s annual report on European tech is bigger than ever. We’ve highlighted the best bits to save you reading the whole thing.

How our data encodes systematic racism
Technologists must take responsibility for the toxic ideologies that our data sets and algorithms reflect. I’ve often been told, “The data does not lie.” …

The 8 Best Books About AI to Read Now
Algorithms have crept into our feeds, streets, and workplaces. Here’s what WIRED staff are reading to understand what that means for the future.

Inside Timnit Gebru’s last days at Google
By now, we’ve all heard some version of the story. On December 2, after a protracted disagreement over the release of a research paper, Google forced out …