Apple CEO says the company doesn’t ‘want to ship AI for AI’s sake’
Apple's new CEO defended the company's current position in the AI landscape.
Weekly IT & AI Digest
Summaries are sourced from official RSS feeds. Click any headline for a brief excerpt and a link to the original report.
Judge allows NAACP lawsuit over xAI data center pollution to move forward
An NAACP lawsuit accuses the SpaceX-owned AI company of violating the Clean Air Act.
Get in the spirit with these horrors from YouTube
Rather than recommend a single horror film or an unsettling album for our final installment of spooky season recs, I present you with a small selection of creepy, disturbing, and just plain weird videos from YouTube. There's a little something for everyone here. Whether you're a fan of surreal art house shorts,…
Keyboards of The Verge
What is a keyboard if not the original brain-computer interface? You can tap on a touchscreen or talk to the computer, but if your work involves getting information out of your head and into the computer, you're probably spending a lot of time using a keyboard. We've written about many keyboards over the years, from…
Binance CEO says 90 percent of stolen assets have been ‘replenished’
After hackers stole a shocking $6.3 billion from Binance customers in a record-breaking crypto heist, the company's CEO says that 90 percent of the funds have been replaced, and the company plans to cover the remaining 10 percent as well. Binance is covering the stolen funds directly, and the remaining 10 percent…
OpenAI reportedly lowers funding target for new round
OpenAI’s latest funding round doesn't seem to be living up to expectations.
I built an AI Tamagotchi before Meta could
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta made AI look so stinking cute by giving it a squishy little face - and this holiday season, he wants to sell you a Muse Charm so you can carry your jolly AI helper around like a Tamagotchi. But I won't be buying one, because we have Muse Charm at home. It […]
Best Buy is bundling a $100 gift card with touchscreen MacBook Pro preorders
While the new touch-enabled MacBook Pro with the PROLED XDR screen is available for preorder across a few major retailers, Best Buy is sweetening the deal by including a $100 gift card. The gift card will be automatically added to your cart when you preorder one of Apple’s highest-end laptops available in 14- or…
Touchscreens everywhere!
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 150, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy Halloween, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I was in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee on a family vacation. It was delightful […]
Nvidia weighs playing the cosigner for Nscale’s AI data center in West Virginia
When investors get nervous about AI spending, it helps to have the chipmaker that sells the chips offer to cosign the loan.
Salesforce’s M&A spree continues with a reported $375M deal for defense tech startup Rune
The AI logistics startup will bolster the CRM giant's Missionforce defense platform.
Ollie, a privacy-focused AI assistant, is shutting down
As an increasing number of AI assistants flood the market, the founder of Ollie, an assistant that respected its users' privacy, says it will be shutting down in a week.
Intel’s stock crashes, knocking $12B from government’s stake
Intel is being hurt by PC sales as the AI industry gobbles memory and other components causing PC prices to rise.
Anthropic expected to receive high ‘junk’ rating from credit agencies following IPO, FT report says
Blackstone's forecast is just a prediction, but naturally, a high junk rating would make it more difficult and costlier for Anthropic to raise the money to keep funding its massive spending that has undergirded its business.
Last-minute Halloween costumes for tech nerds
No Halloween costume? Just be a deceptively cute AI agent icon, a PHP vulnerability, or sleepy time Bryan Johnson.
Cracks are emerging in the AI spending boom
Big Tech is pouring billions into AI infrastructure, but mounting debt, negative cash flow, and growing investor skepticism are raising questions about the sustainability of the AI spending boom.
Anthropic VS code extension on Cursor backdoored for nearly 12 hours
It's still unknown how attackers got access to Anthropic's verified Cursor account.
AI law firm Crosby bids on disintegrating, famed firm Weil Gotshal
Like a real-life episode of "Suits," the demise of famed white-shoe Wall Street law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges has been the talk of the legal industry. And now an AI firm has entered the picture.
Zest’s new AI agent finds restaurants and books reservations over text
Can't agree on where to eat? Zest's AI concierge can combine everyone's tastes, put restaurant options to a vote, and make the reservation.
Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz warns that the AI boom is ‘a great opportunity to go deceive people’
The cautionary Theranos tale takes on a new significance in the AI era, when companies that have never turned a profit are raising capital at trillion-dollar valuations.
The Download: GLP-1s and eating disorders, self-aware cities, and forever chemicals
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Eating disorders are on the rise. GLP-1s could make things worse. GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are one of the biggest biotech breakthroughs of the last decade. But to some clinicians,…
Making it easier for websites to express AI training preferences
OpenAI will honor a shared robots.txt signal to help website operators communicate their AI training preferences to participating providers.
Community safety report and new protections for teens
OpenAI is strengthening violence prevention in ChatGPT with expanded safeguards, earlier interventions, and a new commitment to public safety reporting.
Fair use benefits everyone
OpenAI shares excerpts from court briefs by creators, academics, accessibility advocates, and legal experts, among others, on how fair use supports AI training and innovation.