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I sat down in the Musk v. Altman trial courtroom today, painfully aware that no one was going to ask Shivon Zilis the question on everyone's minds: Girl, what the fuck are you doing? Zilis, who testified under oath that she is the mother of four of Musk's children, was… what's the best way to characterize this? A Musk advisor? She denies she was a "chief of staff" but says she worked for Musk's "entire AI portfolio: Tesla, Neuralink, and OpenAI" starting in 2017. The two met through OpenAI, and they had what she referred to as a "one off" before becoming "friends and colleagues." The "one off...

Google has pulled the plug on Project Mariner, an experimental feature designed to perform tasks for you across the web, as reported earlier by Wired's Maxwell Zeff. The Project Mariner landing page now contains a message that says: "Thank you for using Project Mariner. It was shut down on May 4th, 2026 and its technology voyaged to other Google products." Google first revealed Project Mariner in December 2024 and later announced an update allowing it to perform up to 10 tasks at a time. Over the past year, Google has integrated features powered by Project Mariner into its other AI tools, inc...

AI and Crypto Czar David O. Sacks speaks during a meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education at the White House. | Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter exclusively for Verge subscribers about tech, politics, and Washington intrigue. (It's basically House of Cards, but for nerds.) Not a subscriber yet? You really should become one, and to save you a Google search, here is the direct link to do so! And do you think I should know something? Send it to tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com. On Monday, The New York T...

Mira Murati, OpenAI's former CTO, has testified under oath that CEO Sam Altman lied to her about the safety standards for a new AI model. In a video deposition shown during the ongoing Musk v. Altman trial on Wednesday, Murati said Altman falsely stated that OpenAI's legal department determined a new AI model did not need to go through the company's deployment safety board. "As you understand it, was Mr. Altman telling the truth when he made that statement to you?" Murati was asked in the deposition. "No," Murati said. Murat said that during her tenure at OpenAI, Altman made her work more dif...

Want real human feedback related to your search results? Google’s AI now fetches it for you. | Image by Google / The Verge Google is updating its AI Search features to make it easier for users to find information from sources they know and trust. One of the more notable changes introduces "a preview of perspectives" from firsthand sources like social media, Reddit, and other web forums, effectively linking your search queries with online conversations around similar topics. Google says this update aims to address that "people are increasingly seeking out advice from others" when searching for...

Microsoft's LinkedIn CEO, Ryan Roslansky, took on an expanded role at the company as head of Office last year, and he's now getting more responsibilities as part of the latest leadership reshuffle inside Microsoft. Sources tell me that the Microsoft Teams organization is moving to report to Roslansky, who will now lead a new Work Experiences Group at Microsoft. The changes are part of a broader reshuffle triggered by Rajesh Jha, executive vice president of Microsoft's experiences and devices group, retiring from Microsoft after more than 35 years. Jha was responsible for the teams behind Wind...

Google Chrome may be taking up more of your storage than expected thanks to a large on-device AI model file that, in some cases, is being automatically downloaded to the browser's system folders. Users who have noticed unexplained drops in their available desktop device storage are now discovering that Chrome is installing a 4GB weights.bin file inside their browser directory when certain AI features are enabled. The weights.bin file in question is connected to Google's Gemini Nano AI model, which powers Chrome AI tools like scam detection, writing assistance, autofill, and suggestion feature...

Google Home users can now ask Gemini to complete more complex, multi-step tasks and combine multiple tasks in a single command. Google has updated Gemini for Home to Gemini 3.1, which it says will improve the smart home assistant's ability to interpret and act on requests. The upgrade will also make Gemini for Home better at handling recurring and all-day events and allow users to "move around" upcoming events. Last month, Google also updated Gemini for Home with improvements for understanding natural language and identifying devices correctly. The upgrades follow reports of bugs in Google's ...

Apple has agreed to pay $250 million to settle a class action lawsuit that accused it of misleading customers about the availability of its Apple Intelligence features. The proposed settlement would apply to people in the US who purchased all models of the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 15 Pro between June 10th, 2024 and March 29th, 2025. The settlement will resolve a 2025 lawsuit, alleging Apple's advertisements created a "clear and reasonable consumer expectation" that Apple Intelligence features would be available with the launch of the iPhone 16. The lawsuit claimed Apple's products "offered a ...

Xbox is "winding down Copilot on mobile" and "will stop development of Copilot on console," new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced on Tuesday. The move follows Sharma's reorganization of the Xbox platform team earlier on Tuesday, which added executives from Microsoft's CoreAI team - where Sharma worked before taking over Xbox - to the Xbox side of the company. Sharma, on X: Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers. Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us for...

The next update to Apple's operating systems could allow users to choose their preferred AI model for running Apple Intelligence. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is planning to allow third-party chatbots to power its AI features system-wide in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, all expected for this fall. In addition to running Siri, compatible third-party AI models, called "Extensions," will also now be able to run other Apple Intelligence features like Writing Tools and Image Playground. According to Gurman, Apple will also allow users to choose different Siri voices for different...

OpenAI's newest default model for ChatGPT might not make stuff up as much. Hallucinations have been an ongoing problem for AI models, but OpenAI says its new GPT-5.5 Instant model has "significant improvements in factuality across the board." The company claims that, based on "internal evaluations," GPT-5.5 Instant produced "52.5% fewer hallucinated claims" than its Instant model for GPT-5.3 "on high-stakes prompts covering areas like medicine, law, and finance." GPT-5.5 Instant also "reduced inaccurate claims by 37.3% on especially challenging conversations users had flagged for factual erro...

Meta is facing a class action lawsuit filed by five major book publishers and one author over claims the company "engaged in one of the most massive infringements of copyrighted materials in history" when training its Llama AI models, as reported earlier by The New York Times. In their suit, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, Elsevier, Hachette, Cengage, and author Scott Turow allege that Meta "repeatedly copied" their books and journal articles without permission. The lawsuit accuses Meta of knowingly ripping copyrighted work from "notorious pirate sites," such as LibGen, Anna's Archive, Sci-Hub, Sci-M...

OpenAI's first hardware product might be a phone instead of a mysterious Jony Ive gadget. As reported by MacRumors, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shared details about the rumored phone, claiming OpenAI is "fast-tracking" it and aiming to start mass production in early 2027. According to Kuo, the phone will run on a "customized version of the [MediaTek] Dimensity 9600," which is expected to launch this fall and follow up the Dimensity 9500 currently powering phones like the Vivo X300 Pro and the Oppo Find X9 Pro. The custom chip's "headline spec" will be its image signal processor (ISP), w...

Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and Elon Musk's xAI have agreed to allow the US government to review new AI models before they're released to the public. In an announcement on Tuesday, the Commerce Department's Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) says it will work with the AI companies to perform "pre-deployment evaluations and targeted research to better assess frontier AI capabilities." CAISI, which started evaluating models from OpenAI and Anthropic in 2024, says it has performed 40 reviews so far. Both companies "have renegotiated their existing partnerships with the center to bett...

The cars rolling off production lines right now are filled with old ideas. From beginning to end, the creation of a new vehicle can take five years or longer - which is plenty of time for a lot of tastes, politics, and gas prices to change. That's one reason car manufacturers are so enthusiastic about the potential for AI to help speed up certain parts of the process, from model-making to wind-tunneling. LLMs could be poised to change the way we get around. Verge subscribers, don't forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Vergecast wherever you get your podcasts. Head here. Not a subscriber...

Anthropic has spent years building itself up as the safe AI company. But new security research shared with The Verge suggests Claude's carefully crafted helpful personality may itself be a vulnerability. Researchers at AI red-teaming company Mindgard say they got Claude to offer up erotica, malicious code, and instructions for building explosives, and other prohibited material they hadn't even asked for. All it took was respect, flattery, and a little bit of gaslighting. Anthropic did not immediately respond to The Verge's request for comment. The researchers say they exploited "psychological...

About a week into the Musk v. Altman trial, we've heard from some of the most powerful people in tech - including OpenAI president Greg Brockman, Elon Musk's fixer Jared Birchall, and Musk himself. But one of the most prominent characters is hovering around the margins: Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind. Hassabis is the architect of Google's in-house AI lab. He founded DeepMind as an independent startup in 2010 and sold it to Google four years later, reportedly for between $400-650 million. Since then, he's been at the helm of many of Google's largest AI research breakthroughs, like Alph...

Staffers at Google DeepMind's headquarters have voted to unionize in an effort to prevent the AI firm's technology from being used by Israel and the US military. In a letter to Google management on Tuesday, employees requested that the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite the Union be recognized as joint representatives, with 98 percent of CWU members at DeepMind voting in support of the move. "We don't want our AI models complicit in violations of international law, but they already are aiding Israel's genocide of Palestinians," an unnamed DeepMind employee said in a statement shared ...

When the bromance sours, we all end up in court. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images The strongest witness for Elon Musk's case against OpenAI so far has been Greg Brockman's journal. Brockman himself is running as a close second. Brockman was called to the stand in a rather unusual way - he was cross-examined first, followed by a direct examination - and he had some serious high school debate club energy. There was a lot of "I wouldn't characterize it that way," "I wouldn't say it that way," and "That sounds like something I wrote. Can I see it in context?" When Musk's attorney,...

The first “Familiar” from Colin Angle’s new startup, Familiar Machines & Magic, is a robot that is designed to live in your home and interact autonomously with family members. | Image: Familiar Machines and Magic Colin Angle, the maker of the Roomba and the man who helped put 50 million household robots into people's homes, is back with a new robot. But this one is designed as a companion, not a cleaner. The first robot from Angle's new company, Familiar Machines & Magic, is a dog-sized robotic pet that resembles a cross between a bear, a barn owl, and a golden retriever. It has an expressive...

Downey at home in LA with one of his channel’s frequent guest stars. | Image: The Verge; Shutterstock It's not hyperbole to call DualShot Recorder an overnight sensation. It took only 12 hours from the time it was released to hit number one on the App Store's list of top paid apps. It was a surprise success - but what's even more surprising is the app's origin story: it all started with a cadre of friendly neighborhood squirrels and their favorite caretaker. Derrick Downey Jr. built a career on short-form videos documenting his interactions with the squirrels that visit his patio in LA. His I...

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on how AI is changing music and the music industry, follow Terrence O'Brien. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started The use of generative AI in pop music started almost as a gimmick. There was a sense of experimentalism to 2018's I AM AI by Taryn Southern and 2019's Proto by Holly Herndon, albums that were created with significant assistance from AI. Others got in on the action too, exploring the outer limits of tools like ...

The Pentagon has struck deals with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Elon Musk's xAI, and the startup Reflection, allowing the agency to use their AI tools in classified settings, according to an announcement on Friday. At the same time, the Defense Department has left out Anthropic - which it previously used for classified information - after declaring it a supply-chain risk. This builds upon deals with OpenAI and xAI, which have already reached agreements with the Pentagon for the "lawful" use of their AI systems. A report from The Information suggests Google has struck a similar a...

Elon Musk is the one who wanted this trial. He has spent months claiming OpenAI "stole a nonprofit," and saying he was the actual driving force behind one of the most important companies currently in tech. All indications are that he won't win his case against the company, but he's fighting it anyway. So you'd think he'd have done better when it was his time to take the stand. Verge subscribers, don't forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Vergecast wherever you get your podcasts. Head here. Not a subscriber? You can sign up here. Instead, Musk spent much of the week arguing with lawyers ...

In the beginning, platforms like Fiverr were places where people could hire freelancers to do specialized creative labor using skills that took years to develop. In the age of generative AI, though, many of these gig workers have embraced the technology in order to meet clients' demands. These workers' profiles emphasize that they can quickly (and cheaply) whip up images and videos of just about anything. But often, what their clients are looking for are dramatic animations inspired by the Christian Bible. On TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook it is very easy to stumble across AI-genera...

Microsoft is launching a new AI agent inside Word that's specifically designed for legal teams. Legal Agent handles document edits, negotiation history, and complex documents to help legal teams handle tasks like reviewing contracts. "Instead of relying on general AI models to interpret commands, the agent follows structured workflows shaped by real legal practice, managing clearly defined, repeatable tasks like reviewing contracts clause by clause against a playbook," explains Sumit Chauhan, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Office Product Group. The Legal Agent can work with existing ...

Okay, I am not a lawyer so I only understood about half of what just happened. But I am fairly sure, given the context, that Elon Musk's lawyers may have just fucked up big. Jared "James Brickhouse" Birchall, Musk's finance guy and all-around fixer, took the stand after Musk today. Most of his testimony was dull and seemed to exist primarily to get some documents read into the record, which sucks but is a normal part of sitting through trials. But at the very end of his boring testimony something interesting happened. I believe we all got a surprise, something that rarely happens in courtroom...

In a federal courtroom in California on Thursday, Elon Musk testified that his own AI startup, xAI, has used OpenAI's models to improve its own. The matter at question is model distillation, a common industry practice by which one larger AI model acts as a "teacher" of sorts to pass on knowledge to a smaller AI model, the "student." Although it's often used legitimately within companies using one of their own AI models to train another, it's also a practice that's sometimes used by smaller AI labs to try to get their models to mimic the performance of a larger competitor's model. Asked on the...

Manus, an AI company Meta acquired for $2 billion last year is running ads promising quick, easy money with AI: Find local businesses without websites or with bad websites, have AI build them one, then call them up and sell it to them. As part of the campaign, Manus was paying content creators to build out Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok accounts that promote its AI product as an easy, lucrative gig. (The creators' TikTok accounts were taken down after The Verge inquired about them.) Some of these videos would also appear as official ads for Manus, but the posts on the paid creator accounts th...

Microsoft's relationship with OpenAI has always been complicated, so I expected the close partnership-turned-situationship to end in tears. After all, executive disagreements, rearranged contracts, and frustrations over AI infrastructure have all regularly been part of the partnership, creating plenty of tension along the way. But against all odds, Microsoft and OpenAI divorced this week in a way that looks strangely amicable. Microsoft announced the updates to its long-standing OpenAI deal on Monday, with the most important change allowing OpenAI to make its products and services available a...

Here’s an early look at the new Gemini assistant on a vehicle infotainment system. | Image: Google Google is preparing to update vehicles that have Google built-in with its Gemini AI assistant. This will be an upgrade from the current Google Assistant according to Google's announcement, and promises to provide an improved experience for natural conversations, fetching vehicle-specific information, settings adjustments, and more. "When cars with Google built-in first hit the road in 2020, we made a commitment that your car will get better over time," Google senior product manager Alankar Agnih...

Despite only having one face, I made testing work. I'm currently wearing a pair of smart glasses called the Even Realities G2. Another two pairs, from Rokid, sit on my desk. A few feet away, I've got the Meta Ray-Ban Display charging alongside their Neural Wristband. In my closet are six pairs of $50 smart sunnies that an overzealous Walmart rep sent me. Those sit next to some Xreal, RayNeo, and Lucyd glasses, plus an old pair of Razer Anzu. Later, I'm calling my optician because I'm hoping to test a pair of the new Ray-Ban Meta Optics, which can supposedly handle my challenging prescription....

OpenAI is opening up about its goblin problem. After a report from Wired revealed instructions to OpenAI's coding model to "never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures," the AI startup published an explanation on its website, calling references to the creatures a "strange habit" its models developed as a result of their training. As outlined in the blog post, OpenAI began noticing metaphors referencing goblins and other creatures starting with its GPT-5.1 model - specifically when using the "Nerdy" personality option. OpenAI says the pro...

Spotify is launching a new verification program to combat spam, fakes, and AI. Some artists will now have a "Verified by Spotify" badge and a green checkmark on their profile, indicating that the company has confirmed a real person is behind the music and the profile. At least at launch, Spotify says that AI personas or profiles that primarily upload AI-generated music are not eligible for the verification program. It did leave the door open to the possibility in the future, though, saying, "the concept of artist authenticity is complex and quickly evolving." Not just anyone can be verified, ...

Meta is planning to pump billions more into AI investments this year, despite noting that millions of users have seemingly started to abandon its platforms. In an earning call on Wednesday, Meta reported that figures for "Family daily active people" - the term Meta has coined for all collective users of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger - declined by 20 million this quarter compared to the previous three months. Meta attributes this fall to "internet disruptions in Iran, as well as a restriction on access to WhatsApp in Russia." It's up to you whether you take Meta on its word, give...

OpenAI is preparing to launch a new frontier cybersecurity model, GPT-5.5-Cyber. CEO Sam Altman said the model will not be available to the general public, but will be first rolled out to a select group of trusted "cyber defenders" in order for institutions to shore up their cyberdefenses. The limited rollout will take place "in the next few days," Altman said on X. "We will work with the entire ecosystem and the government to figure out trusted access for Cyber." It's not clear who will get access to the model first, though previous "trusted access" schemes involved vetted professionals and ...

It's been almost three years since Silicon Valley started aggressively pushing large language model-based chatbots like ChatGPT as the supposedly inevitable future of everything, and there's no group that has felt the pressure quite like Gen Z. Like with many tech trends before it, it's no surprise that young people are among the biggest adopters of AI chatbot tools. But contrary to the tales spun by tech companies like OpenAI and Google, polling data shows that Gen Z students and workers are a big part of the wider cultural backlash against AI. And even as they utilize these tools, vast swat...

Just a simple country CEO who was being tricked by that sophisticated lawyer | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images About five hours into Elon Musk's testimony, I typed the following sentence into my notes: "I have never been more sympathetic to Sam Altman in my life." Musk's direct testimony was an improvement over yesterday - even if his lawyer kept asking leading questions to cue him in how to answer. But that memory was immediately obliterated by an absolutely miserable cross-examination. For hours, Musk refused to answer yes or no questions with yes or no, occasionally "forgot"...

Google Search queries hit an "all time high" in the first quarter of 2026, according to a statement from CEO Sundar Pichai published as part of Alphabet's earnings on Wednesday. "Our AI investments and full stack approach are lighting up every part of the business," Pichai says. "Search had a strong quarter with AI experiences driving usage, queries at an all time high, and 19% revenue growth." He also notes that Q1 was "our strongest quarter ever for our consumer AI plans, driven by the Gemini App" and that the company now has more than 350 million paid subscriptions, with "YouTube and Googl...

The Musk v. Altman trial is underway, and that means exhibits, or the evidence to be presented in court, are being revealed piece by piece. So far, email exchanges, photos, and corporate documents are circulating from the earliest days of OpenAI - and from before the AI lab even had a name. Some high-level takeaways: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave OpenAI an in-demand supercomputer, Musk largely drafted OpenAI's mission and heavily influenced its early structure, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared to want to lean heavily on Y Combinator for early support for OpenAI, OpenAI president Greg Brockman an...

Canonical's plan to add AI features to Ubuntu has some users asking for "a version of Ubuntu that does not include these features," while others say they'll stick with older versions of the Linux distro or even switch to a different one. After Canonical's announcement earlier this week that it's bringing AI features to Ubuntu, replies included requests for an AI "kill switch" or a way to disable the upcoming features, and comparisons to Microsoft's addition of AI features into Windows 11. Canonical's VP of engineering, Jon Seager, responded on Tuesday, stating that Canonical isn't planning to...

Google Photos is launching a new AI-powered feature you can use to virtually try on clothes you already have. Using the photos in your gallery, Google will create a virtual "wardrobe," allowing you to mix and match outfits, save the looks you like, and share them with friends. A video shared by Google shows how Photos organizes your outfits and individual pieces of clothing into a virtual "wardrobe." You can browse through the outfits you were captured wearing, as well as create new ones by choosing from tops, bottoms, skirts, dresses, and shoes to put together a new look. You can also select...

Seven families of victims injured or killed in the Tumbler Ridge school shooting in Canada have filed lawsuits against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, accusing the company and its leadership of negligence after they failed to alert police to the suspected shooter's ChatGPT activity. The families allege OpenAI stayed silent after its systems flagged activity by shooting suspect Jesse Van Rootselaar in order to protect the company's reputation and upcoming initial public offering (IPO). The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI "considered" flagging the 18-year-old's activity to police, which repo...

ChatGPT is struggling to keep up its once-explosive growth as users uninstall the app or opt for rival chatbots instead. According to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, ChatGPT experienced a 132 percent increase in uninstalls year over year in April. Its uninstall rate was even higher last month, up 413 percent year-over-year, following OpenAI's deal with the Pentagon in February. While ChatGPT is still growing its user base, Sensor Tower says that growth is slowing down - ChatGPT increased its monthly active users by 168 percent in January, but only 78 percent in April. ChatGPT...

Oracular spectacular? | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge If you want to know whether the AI bubble is bursting, there's only one publicly traded company that will tell you: Oracle. That's right, the database company. Oracle has burned its boats and pivoted to AI, but not in any kind of usual way. It is not a foundation model builder like OpenAI or Anthropic, obviously. It's not quite a neocloud, though it has entered the same bare-metal business as CoreWeave. It is a software-as-a-service company that has made an audacious bet on a very specific future version of AI as Oracle's traditional bu...

Scammers are using AI-generated videos of celebrities including Taylor Swift and Rihanna to promote shady services on TikTok, according to authentication company Copyleaks. The ads typically show celebrities in interview settings, such as red carpets, podcasts, or talk shows, and often manipulate real footage with AI, the company said. Many promote rewards programs claiming users can earn money by watching TikTok content and giving feedback. TikTok's official branding appears in some of the ads, though users are redirected to third-party services that ask for personal information. In one ad, ...

A Baidu Apollo Go robotaxi in Wuhan, China. | Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images China has suspended new licenses for autonomous vehicles, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. The move comes after dozens of robotaxis operated by Chinese tech giant Baidu ground to a halt in traffic last month in Wuhan, creating chaos. The restrictions will prevent companies from adding new driverless cars to their fleets, expanding into new cities, or starting new test projects. It is unclear when officials will start issuing new licenses again. Bloomberg said the Wuhan incident al...

GitHub employees fixed a critical remote code execution vulnerability in less than six hours last month. Wiz Research used AI models to uncover a vulnerability in GitHub's internal git infrastructure that could have allowed attackers to access millions of public and private code repositories. "Our security team immediately began validating the bug bounty report. Within 40 minutes, we had reproduced the vulnerability internally and confirmed the severity," explains Alexis Wales, GitHub chief information security officer. "This was a critical issue that required immediate action." GitHub's engi...

Gemini is coming to Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC vehicles. | Image: General Motors General Motors is planning to bring Google's Gemini AI assistant to around four million vehicles across the US. Model year 2022 and newer Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC vehicles with Google built-in will be eligible for the AI upgrade, which will be rolled out via over-the-air software updates for GM's infotainment system "over several months," according to GM's announcement. GM says this update represents "one of the largest deployments of Gemini in the industry," and that "customers will notice an...