9 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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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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Adi Robertson
Adi Robertson
A German court says Google’s responsible for false AI search results.

The early decision found AI summaries are different from conventional search:

A regular search engine just points to outside websites. But AI overviews generate “independent, new, and substantive statements” by evaluating and combining content from various third-party sites. And only Google can check those statements, the court said, “at least by comparing the underlying third-party websites with its own statements based on them.”

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
This week in the big AI data center buildout.

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:

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Warner Music acquires AI startup that fights unauthorized AI.

WMG has agreed to buy Sureel AI — an attribution company that uses “AI DNA” to track how artists’ content is used to train generative AI models — for an undisclosed sum. The startup will continue to operate as a standalone platform.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
McDonald’s latest AI drive-thru test will let customers ask, “Can I get my usual?”

Five restaurant locations are piloting the new ArchIQ tech, which puts a chatbot at the drive-thru that appears to identify repeat customers, according to a demo shown at McDonald’s Worldwide Convention last week. The demo also shows the chatbot taking an order in Spanish and “remembering” that a customer doesn’t like cheese on their quarter-pounder.

Robert Hart
Robert Hart
‘EU law is non-negotiable.’

The European Commission and Apple are at loggerheads over Siri AI after Apple blamed EU law for delays. Brussels says nothing in the law blocks a launch. Apple says compliance would create unacceptable privacy and security risks.

The standoff continues.

I tried Siri AI, and so far it actually works

It’s basic, but ‘it works’ is a big deal.

Allison Johnson
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Now you can use Google’s live AI translations just by holding your phone to your ear like you’re taking a call.

The feature previously required a pair of headphones, but Google’s Gemini 3.5 Live Translate update is expanding support across more than 70 languages:

For Android users, we’re also starting to roll out a new ‘listening mode’ with 3.5 Live Translate that lets you hear translations directly through your phone’s earpiece. Simply hold your phone to your ear just like a regular call, and the translated audio streams straight to you.

Hayden Field
Hayden Field
Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, said it’s “really, really dangerous” to speculate about AI consciousness.

On an episode of The Verge’s “Decoder” podcast, Suleyman said that in Anthropic’s Claude Constitution, they “speculate about its consciousness and whether it has those feelings and is aware.” He called it both “dangerous” and a “philosophical failing,” adding, “We want AIs to be controllable, contained, accountable, aligned tools that serve humanity.”

Apple is embracing the fantasy of AI photo editing

The company has some new ideas on ‘What is a photo?’

Jess Weatherbed
Nick Statt
Nick Statt
Microsoft swears its OpenAI breakup isn’t a messy divorce.

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman came on Decoder this week to talk about the path to superintelligence and the company’s ever-evolving relationship with OpenAI. When asked whether Microsoft was using Build to flex its independence from OpenAI like a “freshly single divorcée,” Suleyman had this to say:

Definitely not. No, not at all. Look, I mean, obviously that’s a cool headline and a fun phrase. But the reality is that we are in partnership with OpenAI for years and years to come… So naturally, that’s going to continue. And so I think that’s just a natural course of these sorts of partnerships.

I don’t think it’s anything untoward or surprising. I think OpenAI is very understanding and supportive of that. I mean, they’ve obviously been an incredibly fast-growing company, and they understand that we have to pursue our own agenda as well.

Apple’s AI promises are finally, almost, sort of here

The company is going all in on AI agents, but how will its years-late promises compete in today’s AI market?

Hayden Field
Apple’s best AI idea looks a lot like vibe coding

Siri AI and Image Playground will get all the hype, but Apple can actually make our lives better in Safari and Shortcuts.

David Pierce
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Built for un-intelligence.

Apple’s WWDC keynote leaned heavily on a new Siri and updated Apple Intelligence features, the most advanced of which will only run on an elite cadre of Apple devices… not including the “Built for Apple Intelligence” iPhone 16.

morgannels:

So the iPhone 16, which was sold as being built for Apple Intelligence, was not only built for an Apple Intelligence that didn’t exist, but also turns out NOT to have been built for the Apple Intelligence that will exist?

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Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Apple Vision Pro users can ponder the Siri orb.

Literally — the upcoming visionOS 27 update lets you add a glowing, animated Siri AI ball anywhere on your workspace, and ask questions when you look at it. It’ll even shine light on any nearby surfaces, making it truly feel like part of the environment.

Nathan Edwards
Nathan Edwards
Apple AI runs on Nvidia chips.

At a tech talk during WWDC 2026, Apple revealed that the company worked with Nvidia, Google, and Intel to make Private Cloud Compute work on the industry-leading AI hardware. Apple Foundational Model runs on Nvidia hardware within Google’s cloud. For more details, see our live blog.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Apple blames the DMA again for “delayed” Siri AI in the EU.

While Apple is launching Siri AI in English later this year, it wants EU users to have someone to blame for why it won’t be available there immediately on all of its platforms (only macOS, watchOS, and visionOS at first), similar to other EU-delayed Apple Intelligence updates:

Siri AI is private by design and deeply integrated across Apple’s platforms using on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute, which extends the privacy and security of iPhone into the cloud. However, under EU regulators’ extreme interpretation of the DMA, Apple would have to give any virtual assistant direct access to users’ private data — and the ability to directly control other installed applications — as soon as Siri AI is made available in the EU, without the essential protections necessary to keep users and their data safe.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Google is reportedly turning to Intel to make its AI chips.

Following capacity shortages at TSMC, Intel will “manufacture more than three million Tensor Processing Units in 2028,” half the estimated 6 million TPUs Google’s expected to make in the next two years, The Information reports. Nvidia and SK Hynix are also reportedly testing Intel’s tech for manufacturing their chips.

Microsoft’s AI chief says superintelligence is near, but won’t take your job
Play

Mustafa Suleyman on automation, OpenAI, and why it’s ‘dangerous’ to call AI ‘alive.’

Nilay Patel
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
“Chat is dead.”

That’s according to a “senior OpenAI employee,” speaking to the Financial Times. The FT reports that OpenAI’s frequently-rumored “superapp” overhaul of ChatGPT is rolling out in the “coming weeks,” and “will initially appear as changes to ChatGPT’s website and mobile apps, encouraging customers towards using coding, image-generation and apps from external partners.”

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Mayor vs. the Monorail.

The mayor of Shelbyville, Indiana, potential home of a proposed $2 billion data center, says he only sees signs opposed to the project “in shitty houses.” As ever, there’s a Simpsons quote for that.

SteveBigAndTall:

It’s more of a Springfield idea I guess.

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

AI ‘content creators’ are getting harder to spot

Social media platforms are baffled.

Robert Hart