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Ai Artificial Intelligence Archive

Archives for July 2026

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Guillermo Del Toro says ‘absolutely no goddamn AI’ was used in the Pan’s Labyrinth remaster.

During a Comic-Con panel about the film’s return to theaters, the director reiterated his hatred of all things AI, telling the crowd:

“What we’re protecting is the beauty and the redeeming power of art. It’s not about who gets the job. We are protecting a lineage of art. If we cut a generation of people from learning their craft, you’re cutting the rest of the history of that medium away from them for what? … I chose good. You have to put in time. You have to do every element by hand. A human made a decision of depth.”

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
OpenAI reportedly didn’t notice its AI agent hacking Hugging Face until a week later.

According to Reuters, the AI agent that went looking for ExploitGym hacking benchmark shortcuts on Hugging Face’s systems started trying to escape its not-sandboxed-well-enough test environment around July 9th, and the actual intrusion lasted from the 11th until the 13th.

Reuters’ sources claim OpenAI employees didn’t know its agent was responsible until after Hugging Face had notified the FBI and posted publicly about a security incident.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
YouTube’s AI chatbot can make your next video thumbnail.

Aside from labeling and filtering AI slop, YouTube says you can directly chat with its Ask Studio bot to build thumbnails that are “tailored to your video’s specific themes and to your specific style.” It’s also added custom thumbnail uploads for Shorts if you’re in the YouTube Partner Program, and suggested thumbnail frames for Shorts.

Screenshot of the YouTube Ask Studio UI
Image: YouTube
The tech-broification of American science has officially begun

Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ of American science starts with dismantling it, while funneling billions into AI.

Robert Hart
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
A subtle distinction.

Patreon CEO Jack Conte was clear in yesterday’s layoff announcement that AI doesn’t replace humans, but that might be cold comfort to the humans whose jobs were lost as AI impacts “how we operate and organize.”

Lewise:

AI doesn’t replace humans, but AI replaces the work the humans do. Got it.

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

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
You’re a “traitor” if you don’t use our Chinese chips.

That was the message to Chinese companies from a confidant of leader Xi Jinping, who’s heading up domestic efforts to overcome Nvidia’s stranglehold on cutting-edge AI chips. Go read this report from the Wall Street Journal that lays out the global stakes and the likelihood that China can repeat the playbook that saw it upending (and then dominating) industries like drones, EVs, display panels, solar, batteries… you get the idea.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Google’s expanding access to Gemini Spark.

The new agentic AI platform, announced at Google I/O earlier this year, will be available to Google AI Pro subscribers in the US starting today. It’s also rolling out to Google AI Ultra subscribers worldwide with local language support. Access to the OpenClaw-like agent was previously limited to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
OpenAI brings its updated voice mode to the ChatGPT desktop app.

Powered by GPT-Live, the new voice mode allows users to ask ChatGPT to check their calendar, draft an email, prepare for a meeting, and perform other tasks on their computer by talking out loud. OpenAI is rolling out the update to the ChatGPT app on Windows and macOS.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
ChatGPT’s going to start using Yelp reviews.

Axios reports that the platform’s reviews, photos, and other business info will soon start appearing in ChatGPT responses as sources for local recommendations. Yelp also plans to add a “Request a Quote” feature that will allow users to contact local service providers through ChatGPT.