7 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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OpenAI

OpenAI kicked off an AI revolution with DALL-E and ChatGPT, making the organization the epicenter of the artificial intelligence boom. Led by CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI became a story unto itself when Altman was briefly fired and then brought back after pressure from staff and Microsoft, an investor and close partner.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
A rapid increase in ChatGPT subs.

As OpenAI’s Sam Altman reveals the company is ready to let ChatGPT sext with verified adult users, one commenter points out that this may create some ambiguity in the future.

Lewise:

Soon we’ll need some disambiguation when OpenAI reports how many subs it has

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

Robert Hart
Robert Hart
How OpenAI plans to make all its money.

OpenAI wants to spend more than $1 trillion on its quest to build superintelligent AI, according to the Financial Times.

The figure dwarfs the roughly $13 billion it takes in each year, so the startup is counting on new shopping tools, consumer gadgets, online advertising, sales from Sora, and government deals to get it there. “Creative” debt arrangements are also on the table.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
ChatGPT will soon help you shop at Walmart.

After rolling out Instant Checkout for Etsy purchases in September, OpenAI is expanding the feature to Walmart, allowing you to complete your purchase on the retail giant’s website from within ChatGPT.

Maybe it’s real, maybe it’s SoraMaybe it’s real, maybe it’s Sora
David Pierce
The AI industry is at a major crossroads

Imbue CEO Kanjun Qiu comes on the show to discuss this week’s OpenAI news and whether the AI industry will trend toward closed or open ecosystems.

Hayden Field
Robert Hart
Robert Hart
More affordable ChatGPT Go is now available in 18 countries.

OpenAI says Go has been expanded to 16 more countries in Asia, after launching in India and Indonesia earlier this year. The plan, which costs less than $10 a month, includes higher image generation limits and better access to its flagship AI model than ChatGPT’s free tier.

Robert Hart
Robert Hart
AI legal risks are proving uninsurable.

Ballooning liabilities have underwriters avoiding AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic, the Financial Times reports. They’re spooked by the sheer volume of claims for things like wrongful death and copyright infringement, as well as enormous judgments against them. Investor funds are reportedly being considered to settle claims.

Robert Hart
Robert Hart
A busy week for OpenAI’s social video machine.

Analytics firm Appfigures told The Verge Sora was downloaded 627,000 times in its first week on Apple’s App Store. Sora is still invite-only, so it’s hard to tell how many people are actually using it, but its first week has been plagued with controversy after users generated a torrent of AI slop, deepfakes, and disturbing copyright violations.

Sora exceeded ChatGPT’s first week of 606,000 iOS downloads.
Sora exceeded ChatGPT’s first week of 606,000 iOS downloads.
Image: Appfigures Intelligence
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Apps, but make them AI.

Generative AI is going to remake the world, but first, it’s giving us apps.

chespirito:

Genius, who ever would have thought of apps

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

Hayden Field
Hayden Field
OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT said it will significantly evolve in the next six months.

During a Q&A with reporters at DevDay, Nick Turley referenced one of the event’s earlier announcements — that OpenAI is introducing a way to work with apps like Canva, Zillow, Coursera, and Spotify inside ChatGPT — and the chatbot’s next stage of growth. “What you’re going to see for the next six months is an evolution of ChatGPT from an app that is really, really useful into something that feels a little bit more like an operating system.” Within ChatGPT, he said, people will be able to access services and software — both existing software they’re used to using and new software built “natively” atop ChatGPT.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
OpenAI will eventually allow “mature” ChatGPT apps.

When creating apps for ChatGPT, developers must follow a set of guidelines that say apps must be appropriate for everyone, including people aged 13 to 17. However, OpenAI notes that it will support mature (18+) apps once it implements the “appropriate age verification and controls.”

App developer guidelines

[OpenAI Developers]

Elissa Welle
Elissa Welle
Sam Altman: “almost all new code written at OpenAI today is written by Codex users.”

Sam Altman announced that the company’s GPT-5-Codex-powered AI coding tool is now out of research preview and has a direct Slack integration, with more features coming soon.

Cisco, Duolingo, and Instacart are a few of the companies he mentioned that are already using Codex.

Screen: OpenAI
Screen: OpenAI
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Developers can bring Sora 2’s AI video generation into their own apps.

Mattel has already been using Sora 2 via OpenAI’s API to “bring product ideas to life more quickly,” says CEO Sam Altman.

Image: OpenAI / Mattel
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
OpenAI’s new AgentKit gives devs the tools to build AI agents.

The suite of tools includes an Agent Building platform, which offers a visual canvas for developers to create and deploy AI agents. AgentKit also includes access to a customizable chat interface that devs can embed into a website, along with tools to evaluate an agent’s performance. Box, Canva, and Evernote are already using the platform.

Screenshot: OpenAI
Hayden Field
Hayden Field
I’m on the ground at OpenAI’s annual event, DevDay.

The San Francisco event will kick off with a keynote by CEO Sam Altman, followed by a media Q&A with OpenAI executives like Greg Brockman and Brad Lightcap, a developer state of the union, and a closing fireside chat between Altman and famed former Apple designer Jony Ive.

No word yet on exactly what will be announced, but we may hear updates about the buzzy AI device OpenAI is building with Ive and his team, as well as how OpenAI could change Sora, its new social media app for AI-generated video.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Don’t be that guy.

There are a lot of reasons to be cautious about generative AI tools like OpenAI’s Sora — environmental, ethical, financial, and more — but let’s not forget the fact that it can also be really, really annoying.

ItWasRamirez:

Only one of my friends makes this slop and he’s easily the most annoying guy in my group chat

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

Elissa Welle
Elissa Welle
OpenAI buys into personal investing.

OpenAI has acquired Roi, a personal investing startup backed by Kevin Durant that promised AI-driven “insights, education, and guidance.”

Roi will shut down its service, which offered traditional investment options alongside crypto and NFTs, on October 15th and says it’s deleting all user data.

OpenAI acquired personal investment app Roi.
OpenAI acquired personal investment app Roi.
Image: Roi / OpenAI
I’ve fallen into Sora’s slippery slop

OpenAI is the latest company filling your social media feed with AI — but are the memes worth the harms?

Hayden Field
Robert Hart
Robert Hart
Sora’s soarin’.

OpenAI’s AI video app has jumped to the top of the charts on the US App Store. It’s invite-only and launched just three days ago. You don’t need an invite code to download it, though.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Sora 2 users are having fun with Sam Altman’s face.

People are unsurprisingly teasing the OpenAI CEO after he allowed anyone to use his likeness via the AI video generator’s “cameo” feature. Some of the Sora 2 clips shared by PetaPixel show Altman stealing Studio Ghibli art and GPUs and, uh, roleplaying a low-effort cat fursona.