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AI

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.

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Tom Warren
Tom Warren
Microsoft says its latest AI image model is a ‘production workhorse.’

MAI-Image-2-Efficient is debuting on Microsoft Foundry and MAI Playground today, as Microsoft’s “best text-to-image model” yet. It’s essentially a faster and cheaper version of MAI-Image-2 that Microsoft claims is a “production workhorse” for businesses. “Use it when you need volume, speed, and tight cost control — product shots, marketing creatives, UI mockups, branded assets, batch pipelines,” says Microsoft.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Humanizing Zuckerberg.

The Meta CEO has always had a bit of an image problem, but surely reported plans to replace him with an AI clone will help?

eatyrgho.st:

“For years, our CEO has been dogged by memes and jokes claiming he is an inhuman freak. How do we fix this?!”

Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.

Read OpenAI’s latest internal memo about beating the competition — including Anthropic

“The market is as competitive as I have ever seen it,” wrote Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s chief revenue officer.

Hayden Field
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Peak deepfake America.

After assailing Pope Leo XIV and calling him “WEAK on crime,” Donald Trump, a real US President, posted this AI-generated image of himself as some kind of Jesus, healing… Ethan Hawke?

Screenshot
Screenshot
Robert Hart
Robert Hart
SoftBank creates new company building ‘physical AI.’

It wants to make an AI model that can autonomously control machines and robots by 2030, Nikkei reports. The project, part of SoftBank’s robotics push, has buy-in from domestic giants including Sony, Honda, and Nippon Steel. It comes as countries increasingly encourage sovereign AI efforts to compete with US and Chinese firms.

The AI code wars are heating up

OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are eating the software world alive.

David Pierce
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
OpenAI responds to Axios HTTP hack by updating security certificates.

When hackers got access to an account belonging to the maintainer of Axios, they inserted a script that granted remote access to users’ Windows, macOS, and Linux devices. This malicious version potentially compromised ChatGPT’s macOS apps, so OpenAI is issuing an update and new certificates to mitigate any risks.

Your article about AI doesn’t need AI art

A New Yorker profile of Sam Altman was accompanied by controversial artwork.

Cath Virginia
My baby deer plushie told me that Mitski’s dad was a CIA operative

Fawn Friends is a befuddling mix of AI companionship, fantasy lore, and social robots. AI Burt Reynolds is also involved.

Victoria Song
How Iran out-shitposted the White House

The truth favored the Iranian regime. AI slop carried its message better.

Sarah Jeong
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
“Now I am awake in the middle of the night and pissed, and thinking that I have underestimated the power of words and narratives.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman published a post on his personal blog addressing today’s situation where a person allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at his house and an “incendiary article about me a few days ago,” which I am guessing refers to the big New Yorker article.

The post includes his beliefs about AI, some personal reflections on OpenAI’s work, and “some thoughts about the industry,” including how no one company should control AGI.

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[Sam Altman]

The Iranian Lego AI video creators credit their virality to ‘heart’

Explosive Media is going up against the White House in a meme war.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Fear and loathing at OpenAIFear and loathing at OpenAI
David Pierce
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Claude Cowork is ready to take over your company.

Anthropic’s shared, agentic AI workspace for macOS and Windows is getting much-needed tools for IT admins to do company-wide deployments, letting anyone build and deploy autonomous workflows so long as their organization is on a paid plan. It now adds the ability to turn Zoom meeting transcripts into action items.

The AI industry’s race for profits is now existential
Play

It’s a make-or-break year for Anthropic and OpenAI, which are facing more pressure than ever to make more cash than they burn.

Nilay Patel
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Anthropic loses an appeal attempting to pause its supply chain risk designation.

As a result, “the company will continue to be excluded from new contracts and Pentagon systems,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Tubi is the first streaming service with a ChatGPT app.

Tubi just announced that it has launched its own app inside ChatGPT:

Users can add Tubi’s app from ChatGPT app store and type “@Tubi” anytime to describe what they’re in the mood for, whether that’s “a movie that feels like a fever dream but isn’t horror” or “a thriller for tonight.” They’ll then receive curated, interactive results that they can watch on Tubi.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Google Meet’s AI speech translation heads to mobile.

This feature, which came to Google Meet on the web in January, translates speech into your preferred language in real-time. Now it’s coming to subscribers on mobile with select Google AI and Workspace subscriptions, with support for translations between English and Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Italian.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
OpenAI releases its framework for AI child safety policies.

The blueprint — created with the help of NCMEC and the Attorney General Alliance — is aimed at “modernizing laws” to address AI-generated CSAM, improving the reporting process, and building systems that interrupt exploitation attempts.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Google Finance’s AI makeover is going global.

After launching across the US and India, Google is bringing its revamped Finance app to more than 100 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, and Mexico. Users in these countries can now interact with the app in their local language, as well as access a built-in Gemini chatbot, new charting tools, and an upgraded news feed.

Image: Google
The vibes are off at OpenAI

OpenAI is juggling public controversies, strategy shifts, and increasing competition.

Hayden Field
Mia Sato
Mia Sato
Congratulations, Jim Cramer.

Muck Rack collected millions of responses from ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI platforms to try to measure which news outlets and writers LLMs tend to cite the most. The data, as reported by Press Gazette, is fascinating: niche and little known publications seem to be showing up frequently (along with people like Jim Cramer at CNBC). It’s an AI visibility rat race out there.