From ChatGPT to Gemini: how AI is rewriting the internet – The Verge

OpenAI just gave up on Sora and its billion-dollar Disney deal

2026-03-25T03:13:06-04:00

A frame from a Sora 2-generated video. | Image: OpenAI

On Tuesday afternoon, OpenAI announced "We're saying goodbye to Sora," the video generation tool that it launched at the end of 2024, and centered in a massive licensing deal with Disney only a few months ago. The Wall Street Journal reported the move earlier, saying that OpenAI boss Sam Altman had informed staff that both the TikTok-like Sora app and API access for developers would be discontinued, with no plans to roll the feature into ChatGPT as had previously been rumored.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, as a result, the deal Disney announced in December, saying it would invest $1 billion in OpenAI, license its characters for use w …

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Google’s new Pixel 10 ads made me go ‘Wait, WHAT are they trying to sell?’

2026-03-23T17:49:06-04:00

Ever watch a TV ad and wonder, "How did this get approved?" Today, Google has not one but two new ad spots for its six-month-old Pixel 10 phones, and… let's just say they may not come across as intended.

First, there's "With 100x Zoom," an ad that appears to suggest that if a vacation rental company lies to you about the view from your hotel room, you should lie to all your friends and family, too!

Take a watch below:

The YouTube description makes Google's intent fairly clear: "So even if that breathtaking view you were promised turns out to be miles away, now you can zoom your way to a photo that makes it look like you were right there. …

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Now everyone in the US is getting Google’s personalized Gemini AI

2026-03-17T12:39:01-04:00

Google announced on Tuesday that all users in the US will now have access to its Personal Intelligence feature, which lets you connect various Google apps to provide context for Gemini's responses and suggestions. Access was previously limited to Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers. Now, free-tier users in the US can also use Personal Intelligence through AI Mode in Search, Gemini in Chrome, and the Gemini app. However, the feature is currently only available to users on personal Google accounts, not business, enterprise, or education users.

Personal Intelligence uses data from connected apps, like YouTube, Google Photos, and Gmail, to …

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One of Grammarly’s ‘experts’ is suing the company over its identity-stealing AI feature

2026-03-11T19:52:14-04:00

Journalist Julia Angwin is one of the writers whose likeness was used in Grammarly’s “expert review” feature. | Photo: Eóin Noonan / Sportsfile via Getty Images

For months, Grammarly has been using the identities of real people (including us) for its "Expert Review" AI suggestions without getting their permission, and now it's facing a lawsuit from one of the journalists included, as previously reported by Wired. The class-action complaint filed by journalist Julia Angwin on Wednesday alleges that Superhuman violated the "experts'" privacy and publicity rights by breaking laws against using someone's identity for commercial purposes without their consent.

Angwin says she found out her identity was used by way of Casey Newton, who is also one of the experts that The Verge uncovered being used by Gra …

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Grammarly says it will stop using AI to clone experts without permission

2026-03-11T18:34:40-04:00

Superhuman says it has disabled Grammarly's "expert review" AI feature that said its edit suggestions were "inspired by" real writers, including our editor-in-chief and other Verge staff members.

"After careful consideration, we have decided to disable Expert Review as we reimagine the feature to make it more useful for users, while giving experts real control over how they want to be represented - or not represented at all," Ailian Gan, Superhuman's director of product management, said in a statement to The Verge. "Based on the feedback we've received, we clearly missed the mark. We are sorry and will do things differently going forward."

…

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Gemini is winning

2026-01-17T11:50:35-05:00

If you want to win in AI - and I mean win in the biggest, most lucrative, most shape-the-world-in-your-image kind of way - you have to do a bunch of hard things simultaneously. You need to have a model that is unquestionably one of the best on the market. You need the nearly infinite resources required to continue to improve that model and deploy it at massive scale. You need at least one AI-based product that lots of people use, and ideally more than one. And you need access to as much of your users' other data - their personal information, their online activity, even the files on their computer - as you can possibly get.

Each one of thes …

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You can’t trust your eyes to tell you what’s real anymore, says the head of Instagram

2025-12-31T18:58:26-05:00

Instagram boss Adam Mosseri is closing out 2025 with a 20-images-deep dive into what a new era of "infinite synthetic content" means as it all becomes harder and harder to distinguish from reality, and the old, more personal Instagram feed that he says has been "dead" for years. Last year, The Verge's Sarah Jeong wrote that "…the default assumption about a photo is about to become that it's faked, because creating realistic and believable fake photos is now trivial to do," and Mosseri eventually concurs:

For most of my life I could safely assume photographs or videos were largely accurate captures of moments that happened. This is clearly …

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I’m obsessed with Redfin’s AI search

2025-12-09T14:26:52-05:00

A girl can dream. | Image: Redfin / The Verge

Look, I'm as fed up as the next guy with AI chatbots stuffed into every app. I don't want to brainstorm coverage options with an LLM every time I renew my car insurance. I'd much rather message a human than a robot to pester FedEx about my missing package. But I have found one scenario where AI is actually pretty great: real estate.

I need to confess something: I'm a Redfin looky-loo. A Zillow zealot. Not because I am actually shopping for a new home. With these interest rates? God, no. But I am perpetually window-shopping for a new home - partly out of nosiness, and partly because I like imagining what life might look like in a different a …

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Spotify says it’s working with labels on ‘responsible’ AI music tools

2025-10-16T09:32:54-04:00

The recently-rumored AI partnership between Spotify and the major record labels is now a reality. The streaming service announced today that it's entering into an agreement with Sony Music Group, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Merlin, and Believe to develop "responsible AI products." Unfortunately, your guess is as good as ours as to what exactly that means.

Spotify didn't detail any specific products in the works but said it was building a "state-of-the-art generative AI research lab and product team focused on developing technologies that reflect our principles and create breakthrough experiences for fans and artists."

Most …

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What happens when an AI-generated artist gets a record deal? A copyright mess

2025-10-16T09:33:49-04:00

Two weeks ago, record company Hallwood Media signed a deal with Telisha "Nikki" Jones after negotiations that purportedly included an offer of $3 million, Billboard reported. Jones is a Mississippi-based lyricist behind the R&B artist "Xania Monet" whose most popular song on Spotify racked up over 1 million listens, and whose Reels regularly top 100,000 views on Instagram - despite her likeness, vocals, and music being AI-generated.

Multiple copyright experts speaking with The Verge have been quite clear: the law is not at all settled but generally one cannot copyright AI-generated works by themselves without human intervention, but you may …

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