Artificial intelligence is more a part of our lives than ever before. While some might call it hype and compare it to NFTs or 3D TVs, generative AI is causing a sea change in nearly every part of the technology industry. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is still the best-known AI chatbot around, but with Google pushing Gemini, Microsoft building Copilot, and Apple adding its Intelligence to Siri, AI is probably going to be in the spotlight for a very long time. At The Verge, we’re exploring what might be possible with AI — and a lot of the bad stuff AI does, too.
This week, 404 Media reported that Proton would be “re-interviewing” staff to ask about how they use AI at work and published an investigation into the company’s push into AI, driven in part by CEO Andy Yen.
But today, 404 Media reports that Yen is canceling the interviews. There will be a reorganization, but Yen said that “there will be no loss of jobs from AI.”
[404 Media]
Anthropic is renaming its Claude Max plans. The Max 5x plan is now just Max, while the Max 20x plan is Ultra. (Apple also does Max followed by Ultra for its most powerful chips.) The prices for the plans stay the same: $100 per month for Max, $200 per month for Ultra.
[X (formerly Twitter)]
The SpaceX-owned AI coding tool says the modified version of Claude Code appeared on its extension marketplace from 5:27AM ET and 4:35PM ET on Thursday. The extension contains malicious code that collects various information, including hostname, username, operating system, home directory path, public IP address, and more.
Cursor has since removed the malicious extension from its marketplace and verified that “no other extensions were tampered with.”
Android Authority spotted code in a beta version of the Android Google app (v17.71.17) referencing the new mode, with the tagline, “Use Gemini Live without an internet connection.” They say the code doesn’t hint at how the local-only Gemini Live mode would work, though, or whether it would support camera and screen-sharing features.
As part of the acquisition, which was disclosed under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, Apple will “make employment offers to and hire certain employees” at Ascend.io, a startup that specializes in agentic data engineering. An update on Ascend.io’s website says the startup is “winding down operations as we prepare for our next great adventure.”
The music streaming platform is reportedly aiming to release the feature, which would allow users to prompt AI-generated remixes and covers of participating songs, in the first quarter of 2027. This is expected to be a paid add-on for Premium subscribers, with Spotify considering charging an additional $4 to $5 a month.
[Financial Times]
As tech billionaires pour record millions into Maine’s high-stakes Senate race, rural voters push back against the resource strain, rising utility costs, and phantom jobs of the AI data center boom.
OpenAI’s latest claimed breakthrough, one of three major results announced Monday, refutes the long-held Exponential Time Hypothesis. Wired captures the excitement and uncertainty among researchers. It’s a familiar story in mathematics, where a barrage of AI-generated discoveries has left researchers scrambling to understand what’s actually been achieved.
The company launched Jules in December 2024, positioning it as a tool that can complete coding jobs “you don’t want to do.” But now, Jules is shutting down, and Google says it will bring its learnings from the tool into its AI coding platform, Antigravity:
We’re working on bringing our learnings from Jules into @antigravity so you get the best of both worlds: autonomous remote background task execution and an agent-first development environment. As we focus on this unified experience, Jules will be winding down.
The judge in Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI has set a trial start date of July 19th, 2027, as reported by 9to5Mac.
However, the company has seen “promising results” with its ad experiments, chief business officer Philipp Schindler said on yesterday’s earnings call.
It’s also turning on AI Mode ads for more people and in more scenarios: ahead of that call, Google announced that it’s bringing ads in AI Mode to new countries and launching ads in follow-up queries in AI Mode in the US.
After making Large 4 available in a public preview earlier this month, Mistral is now releasing an improved version to everyone, which it says ranks as the “best open-weight model for coding.” The model offers advancements in cybersecurity-related tasks, like creating patches or reproducing vulnerabilities, and is more likely to refuse “malicious cyber requests” compared to other open models, according to Mistral.
Reuters reports that Finnish police said the criminal probe will look into “ambiguities and shortcomings in the drainage and water management at the construction site.” Google also reportedly cleared forests around the data center site near Muhos, Finland before completing required environmental impact assessments.
SemiAnalysis’ Joey Brookhart helps break down the Anthropic S-1 and why he thinks the company could be worth $10 trillion.
Anthropic faces intense competitive pressure and huge fixed costs. Can Claude build itself fast enough to succeed?
These alerts, which Meta first brought to Instagram in February, also apply to conversations about self-harm with its AI chatbot across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram.
If you or anyone you know is considering self-harm or needs to talk, contact the following people who want to help: In the US, text or call 988. Outside the US, contact https://www.iasp.info/.
The New York Times reports that US intelligence officials believe an executive at one of Nvidia’s data center customers, Megaspeed, may be a “Chinese intelligence asset,” and has a “close relationship” with Nvidia CEO Huang. Details are sparse in the article, especially on how close that relationship was — Nvidia says she’s just one of “thousands of customer executives” Huang meets every year.
[The New York Times]
Industry has drained the state’s water reserves for decades. Data centers are the breaking point.
Developer Maxon is teasing a new AI tool generating a model based on an uploaded image, alongside options to reference text and sketches. It’s not clear how the image and sketch options will differ, but 3D creatives are reacting in the comments with other questions: Will it let you turn anyone’s art into a model?
Epic’s VP of development, Marcus Wassmer, told This Week in Videogames that “we are definitely using AI to develop code and features for Unreal Engine.” Wassmer says that the UE team has seen benefits like “faster” development of features, and the ability for engineers to “explore ideas” that they haven’t had “the time to tackle.”
CEO Tim Sweeney said this month that Epic is retooling for “maximum AI acceleration,” and the company said it “vibe coded” its updated games launcher.
[This Week in Videogames]
AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:
The company launched a new Gemini agent for enterprise earlier this month, and Google will bring that “same experience” to consumers later this year, starting with the Gemini app, CEO Sundar Pichai said on today’s Q3 2026 earnings call.
I’m curious how it will differ from Google’s Gemini Spark agent, which I tested in May, but given the launch window provided by Pichai, we may not have to wait too long to find out.
The US Department of Justice has “made inquiries” about the $13 billion deal, including how it could affect competition in the AI industry, according to a report from Reuters. It adds to existing regulatory scrutiny surrounding Nvidia, as it’s also reportedly facing a DOJ investigation over its AI chip dominance.
As reported by Semafor, the hosts of the popular podcast haven’t been using President Trump’s preferred “super intelligence” word for AI as much as they did at the beginning of the month.
OpenAI had promised this was coming for its AI agents, but now the feature is here. You can text through iMessage or RCS, OpenAI says. It’s rolling out in preview for US Pro users.
