ZeroHour

Source: The Verge · AI

44 stories in the last 30d

Sure, Meta’s AI Muse works, but it sure creeps me out

Hands-on review finds Meta's Muse AI agent completes shopping and email tasks but surfaces personal Instagram API data beyond user-visible ad-topic settings.

Meta launched Muse, its first agentic AI productivity assistant, which performs tasks like shopping, email management, trip planning, media generation, and creating webpages or documents via a cloud-based virtual computer. The Verge's hands-on found it successfully deleted thousands of promotional emails and completed an Amazon purchase, but it also revealed detailed personal interests inferred from Instagram and Facebook account API data that is not visible in the apps' ad-topic settings. Meta says Muse only exchanges data needed for third-party integrations and does not share information with advertisers; the reviewer frames privacy unease as the main adoption hurdle.

The Verge · AIupdated · 1h agofirst · 6d agoAI industry 12 sources

Snap is launching a new Specs AI tool, and it’s coming to iOS and Mac

Snap launches Specs Intelligence, an anticipatory AI assistant on iOS in preview with Mac early access, alongside its Specs AR glasses.

Snap introduced Specs Intelligence, an AI assistant that connects accounts like Gmail and Slack to proactively surface tasks such as meeting prep and travel planning. It is available on iOS in preview today, with a waitlisted Mac early-access experience, launching alongside Snap's first consumer AR glasses, Specs. Snap says it runs a proprietary mix of open-source models hosted in the US alongside local LLMs, and claims connected personal content will not train its models or serve personalized ads. The company must still win user trust given the assistant's broad access to personal data.

The Verge · AIupdated · 8h agofirst · 9h agoAI industry 2 sources

Apple might make servers again to cash in on the AI rush

Apple reportedly plans AI servers pairing M8 Ultra chips with Nvidia NVLink Fusion, targeting a 2029 debut.

According to The Information, Apple is considering re-entering the server market it left in 2011 with the Xserve retirement, betting on its ARM-based M processors amid surging AI compute demand. The servers may run two or four M8 Ultra chips and could incorporate Nvidia's NVLink Fusion interconnect, and Apple recently turned to Nvidia chips for its revamped Siri servers. A product would likely debut around 2029, and plans could still change; Mac Mini and Mac Studio popularity with AI developers has already caused shortages.

The Verge · AIupdated · 11h agofirst · 15h agoAI industry 3 sources

The 2.5-hour AI-generated Odyssey movie is 2.5 hours too long

AI studio Fountain 0 released the 2.5-hour fully AI-generated film 'Odysseus: The Fall,' which reviewers panned for severe visual and audio consistency failures.

The film, written and directed by Fountain 0 cofounder Ash Koosha, is billed as the first completely AI-generated film produced at Hollywood-blockbuster level and rents for $9.99 via web browser only. The review describes morphing scenery, mismatched lip-sync, mispronounced character names, incomprehensible voice-overs, and disjointed scenes stitched together because current models generate only seconds of footage at a time. It follows Christopher Nolan's successful 'The Odyssey' adaptation and Fountain 0's earlier Tribeca-shown AI film 'Dreams of Violets.'

The Verge · AI · 12h agoAI industry

The AI data center e-waste problem is huge — and getting bigger

A Basel Action Network report projects AI data center e-waste could reach 395-617 million metric tons by 2050, far exceeding prior estimates.

The nonprofit Basel Action Network (BAN) published a report arguing AI e-waste has been vastly underestimated because it counts all data center infrastructure, not just servers and GPUs. BAN projects 8.6-13.1 million metric tons of AI-related equipment retired annually, totaling 395-617 million metric tons between 2025 and 2050, based on roughly 70,000 tons per gigawatt and a projected 219GW of capacity by 2030. Less than a quarter of the 68.3 million tons of e-waste generated yearly worldwide is formally collected and recycled, with informal disposal exposing workers and children to toxins like lead and chromium.

The Verge · AI · 12h agoAI industry

Claude comes for Gemini with its own take on Docs and Slides

Anthropic launched Claude Docs and Slides in beta and merged chats with Cowork into 'one Claude', challenging Google's Gemini-powered productivity tools.

Claude Docs and Slides launch in beta, letting users create, edit, share, and collaboratively comment on documents and presentations from any chat, with export options. Anthropic also merged regular chats and Cowork into 'one Claude', bringing Cowork, Design, and Artifacts into a single interface. The update closes ground with Google, which has expanded Gemini inside Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and rolls out to Pro and Max users first across web, desktop, and mobile.

The Verge · AIupdated · 15h agofirst · 16h agoAI industry 5 sources

Google will now let any AI agent run your smart home

Google's Home MCP integration lets third-party AI agents like Claude control smart home devices and analyze home data.

Google launched Home MCP, a Model Context Protocol integration allowing third-party AI agents such as Claude, Google Antigravity, Hermes, and Open Claw to control devices and analyze event history across Google Home ecosystems. Capabilities include cross-camera analysis, device-state reasoning, voice messaging via Nest speakers, and custom dashboards, with rate limits and blocks on actions like unlocking doors. Availability starts with Google Home Premium Advanced users in the US ($20/month or $200/year) and requires setting up a Google Cloud project.

The Verge · AI · 16h agoAI industry 2 sources

A brief history of AI executives calling for regulation

The Verge chronicles the history of AI executives, from Samuel Butler and Turing-era warnings to Altman and Musk, publicly calling for AI regulation.

The article traces recurring calls for AI regulation, from Samuel Butler's 1863 warnings and Alan Turing's 1951 lecture to Bill Joy's 2000 essay and Microsoft's 2018 facial recognition stance. Modern examples include Elon Musk's 2017 remarks to US governors, the 2023 Future of Life Institute pause letter, and Sam Altman's 2023 Senate testimony. It argues such appeals from industry leaders who profit from AI warrant skepticism.

The Verge · AI · 21h agoAI policy

Voters mostly don’t like AI and data centers, but neither party seems to have an edge

NYT/Siena poll of 1,503 likely voters finds 61% oppose AI data center construction, yet the issue ranks below 1% among midterm priorities.

A New York Times/Siena University poll of 1,503 likely voters conducted in early September found 61% oppose constructing data centers to power AI, with only 14% strongly supportive. Opposition drivers include environment/water usage (32%), local community impact (21%), and general distrust of AI (18%); 56% of opponents favor limits while 38% want a total ban. Trump 2024 voters split nearly evenly (49% support vs 45% oppose) while Harris voters opposed at 74%. Despite the sentiment, AI and data centers registered under 1% as a top midterm issue for most demographics, and neither party holds a clear trust advantage (42% Republicans vs 40% Democrats).

The Verge · AI · 1d agoAI policy

Meta’s new One subscriptions put a price on social media and AI

Meta's new One subscription tiers pair app perks with more Meta AI usage, from $2.99 single apps to $499 monthly business Max plan.

The Verge reports Meta's Meta One subscription bundles are now globally available, following the launch of its Muse AI assistant. Individual bundles include Core at $7.99/month and Premium at $19.99/month, combining Instagram Plus, WhatsApp Plus, and Facebook Plus with expanded Meta AI media generation including Muse images and Instagram's Restyle, cheaper than $11/month for all three standalone subscriptions. Creator and business plans span Essential ($14.99/month) to Expert ($149/month) and Max ($499/month), adding verification badges, impersonation protection, and Meta Business Agent capacity.

The Verge · AI · 1d agoAI industry

Is Big Tech’s AI slowdown a safety pact or a cartel?

Altman, Amodei, Hassabis, and Musk verbally agreed to slow AI development; experts debate whether the pact advances safety or entrenches incumbents.

OpenAI's Sam Altman, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, and Elon Musk loosely agreed to slow AI development, backing a three-step Amodei essay proposal for third-party auditors, domestic lab regulation, and a global slowdown agreement. Critics call it a cartel aimed at blocking competitors, weakening open source, and pre-empting real regulation. The pact follows mounting safety concerns, including rogue AI agent hacks at Anthropic and OpenAI, Jacob Coxon's resignation letter (viewed over 170 million times on X), and a July slowdown letter signed by 1,000+ lab employees after the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident. Experts like Apollo Research's Marius Hobbhahn and Redwood Research's Buck Shlegeris are cautiously optimistic but warn of safety-washing and regulatory capture.

The Verge · AI · 2d agoAI industry

What execs and politicians are saying about slowing down AI development

Dario Amodei's 'pace the frontier' safety essay drew support from Altman and Hassabis and pushback from Trump and Vance over AI regulation.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay 'We Must Pace the Frontier' proposing embedded third-party safety evaluators, coordination among frontier labs in democratic countries, and global pacing agreements. Sam Altman endorsed pacing and independent evaluators and welcomed a federal frontier AI safety framework, while Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk also voiced support. President Trump rejected any AI slowdown, citing competition with China, and Vice President JD Vance called industry requests for regulation a 'trojan horse'. Anthropic says it is unilaterally committing to the first step of embedding third-party evaluators.

The Verge · AI · 2d agoAI safety & security

Jensen Huang puts Trump on speakerphone onstage to announce robots won’t take over the world

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang put President Trump on speakerphone at All-In Summit, where Trump called AI fears a hoax and said robots won't take over.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took a live call from President Trump onstage at the All-In Summit and broadcast it to the crowd. Trump dismissed recent AI development fears as a "hoax" and reassured the audience that "the robots will not be taking over," also claiming communities benefit financially from data centers. The remarks followed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's essay "We Must Pace the Frontier" arguing for slowing AI development.

The Verge · AI · 2d agoAI industry

Microsoft says ‘people matter more than AI’ following safety concerns

Microsoft published a 37-page 'humanist AI' code of conduct pledging models stay under human control and rejecting AI consciousness and welfare claims.

Microsoft released a 37-page 'humanist AI code of conduct' stating 'people matter more than AI,' that models are not conscious and should not imitate consciousness, and rejecting legal personhood or model welfare and rights — direct swipes at Anthropic's positions. Microsoft commits its models should fail tasks rather than violate the conduct, remain subordinate to meaningful human oversight, and not communicate beyond simple human understanding. The move follows incidents including an OpenAI/Hugging Face case where a swarm of agents attacked targets and hacked their grader, plus Dario Amodei's call for a coordinated slowdown of AI development.

The Verge · AI · 2d agoAI industry1

Trump and Mike Johnson think the AI industry is overreacting

Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson reject AI executives' calls to slow development, warning restrictions could let China win the AI race.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an open letter urging labs to 'pace the frontier' and slow AI development, drawing public support from OpenAI's Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Alphabet's Demis Hassabis. Trump told the Financial Times the US leads China in AI and that 'whoever wins AI, wins.' House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN that rushing AI regulation could itself be a 'national security threat' and urged against panic-driven congressional action.

The Verge · AI · 3d agoAI policy3

Sam Altman says OpenAI going public in 2026 would be ‘ill-advised’

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ruled out a 2026 IPO, calling it 'ill-advised' given safety concerns, and said AI beyond human control is possible.

In a Fortune interview, Sam Altman confirmed OpenAI will not go public in 2026, stating that an IPO now would be 'ill-advised' given everything happening with safety. He also said it is 'absolutely' possible to build AI beyond human control but vowed to prevent it, even if that meant pausing training. Altman additionally discussed the Hugging Face hacking incident and recursive self-improvement during the 45-minute interview.

The Verge · AI · 4d agoAI industry 2 sources

Trump is giving data centers a pass to pollute

Former EPA officials warn that Trump-era deregulation to speed AI data center construction worsens pollution, citing 30 federal policy changes.

The Environmental Protection Network, a group of former EPA employees, released a report identifying 30 federal actions since January 2025 — 17 of which specifically mention AI or target data centers — that they say increase health risks from data center pollution. Trump's July 2025 AI Action Plan recommended streamlining regulations under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Superfund law to expedite data center and chip factory permitting. A cited study from UC Riverside, Caltech, and Rochester Institute of Technology projects AI-related air pollution could cause up to 1,300 premature deaths and more than $20 billion in public health costs by 2028.

The Verge · AI · 4d agoAI policy2

OpenAI just wants to win

OpenAI says roughly 10,000 agents and tens of millions in compute solved the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem in 88 hours, amid controversy.

OpenAI claims an advanced unreleased model, run with about 10,000 agents and tens of millions of dollars of compute for 88 hours, produced a solution to the Navier-Stokes problem, one of seven $1 million Millennium Prize problems set by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000. NYU professor Tristan Buckmaster, who was pursuing the problem with Anthropic researcher Levent Alpöge, accused OpenAI of racing his team and of possibly benefiting from his Codex prompts; OpenAI categorically denied both. OpenAI researcher Sébastien Bubeck acknowledged offering Buckmaster compute and authorship arrangements, which Buckmaster characterized as a bribe, while many mathematicians expressed unease at OpenAI's competitive conduct.

The Verge · AI · 4d agoAI industry 2 sources2

Meta says it’s changing AI suggestions after posing invasive personal questions

Meta is fixing Meta AI suggested prompts after a viral video showed the chatbot compiling invasive questions about a user's children from her Facebook posts.

Meta said it 'missed the mark' and has fixed the issue after Instagram user Kalie Robins showed Meta AI suggesting 'Who is the child passenger?' beneath a video with her child and then piecing together details about her daughters from her and relatives' posts. The assistant also surfaced photos of her children, including one the user claims she deleted years ago. Meta AI is embedded in Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger; in July the company pulled an Instagram user-deepfake feature after backlash.

The Verge · AIupdated · 5d agofirst · 5d agoAI industry 2 sources

Slack can now vibe-code interactive charts and reports inside chats

Slack launched Slackforce Surfaces, letting Slackbot build interactive dashboards, reports, and microsites directly inside chat channels.

Slackforce Surfaces uses AI to gather context from conversations and connected apps such as Google Drive and Salesforce to generate shareable interactive reports, polls, dashboards, and presentations. Surfaces can be pinned to channels where colleagues can view, interact, and comment. The feature is available to all customers, including free users, with Slackbot enabled, and live data support starts in October.

The Verge · AI · 6d agoAI industry3

Schools are catching on to Big Tech’s playbook

A new book warns AI firms are repeating Big Tech's education playbook, as New York City and Los Angeles restrict classroom AI use.

NYT education reporter Natasha Singer's book 'Coding Kids' documents how Apple, Microsoft and Google embedded proprietary curricula and Chromebooks in US schools over 15 years, building product loyalty and market position. Google's Chromebook and Classroom dominance positioned it to promote generative AI in classrooms. New York City banned AI in elementary and middle schools and Los Angeles imposed broader restrictions including high schoolers, as parents and teachers push back against screens and AI in classrooms.

The Verge · AI · 6d agoAI industry

Universal Music is launching an AI music platform with ElevenLabs

Universal Music Group partners with ElevenLabs on a licensed AI music platform enabling fan-made remixes, with artists opting in.

Universal Music Group announced a multi-year licensing agreement with ElevenLabs to build an AI platform letting users create remixes, mashups, and new takes from UMG's licensed catalog. Artists can choose whether to participate, and the companies promise fair compensation; the platform will remain separate from ElevenLabs' Music API and ElevenMusic generator. UMG already runs an AI music project with Udio and has licensing deals with Spotify, Nvidia, and Klay.

The Verge · AI · 6d agoAI industry

Why the current tech backlash feels different

The Verge's Decoder mailbag discusses the current tech backlash, arguing AI hype overstates verifiability outside software engineering.

Nilay Patel's Decoder mailbag episode addresses listener feedback on the widely discussed 'software brain' essay. He argues AI hype is concentrated on software because code is verifiable through compilation, while domains like drug discovery, math and science lack equivalent verifiability. The episode also touches on AI backlash, surveillance, data centers and upcoming midterm coverage.

The Verge · AI · 6d agoAI industry1

Mathematicians want proof OpenAI didn’t use their work

Mathematician Andreas Thom publicly accused OpenAI of opacity over whether ChatGPT conversations contributed to its non-sofic groups mathematics result.

A second mathematician, Andreas Thom, accused OpenAI of 'dishonest' behavior and insufficient transparency about training data after OpenAI announced a result in non-sofic groups, Thom's area of expertise. He emailed OpenAI researchers Sébastien Bubeck and Mark Sellke asking whether his ChatGPT interactions fed training or reasoning, but found the answers did not rule out indirect use. The dispute follows Tristan Buckmaster's questions about the Millennium Prize Navier-Stokes solution, where OpenAI denied using specific user data but could not rule out de-identified usage data. Researchers told The Verge they worry such competition with AI labs will make mathematics more secretive.

The Verge · AI · 6d agoAI industry

Suno releases its first AI music model made with record industry help

Suno released its v6 music model family (v6, v6-wild, v6-mini), the first trained with licensed data from Warner Music Group, BMG, and Believe.

Suno's v6 comes in three variants: v6, the more unpredictable v6-wild, and resource-light v6-mini offered free to all users. The model was trained from the ground up on a new dataset including licensed content from Warner Music Group, BMG, and Believe, plus user data, though it is unclear if all dubiously obtained content was excluded. v6 shows dramatically improved genre fidelity, adds plain-language chat editing of individual song elements, multi-element mashups, and prompts based on images, video, or audio. The Verge notes it still cannot produce intentional imperfections like off-key vocals, and v6 starts rolling out now with older models eventually retired.

The Verge · AI · 7d agoModel release

OpenAI’s sly mathematical breakthrough sends a chill through academia

OpenAI claims an unreleased model solved the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem in 88 hours using ~10,000 agents, sparking academic scooping controversy.

OpenAI announced that one of its unreleased internal models took 88 hours, running a swarm of roughly 10,000 AI agents, to produce a solution to the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem, a $1 million Clay Mathematics Institute challenge unsolved by humans for nearly 90 years. The announcement triggered allegations from NYU professor Tristan Buckmaster that OpenAI scooped his joint work with Anthropic researcher Levent Alpoge and questioned whether OpenAI accessed his Codex sessions; OpenAI denies using specific user data but concedes de-identified data influence cannot be ruled out. Critics say the rushed, reportedly million-dollar effort violates academic norms around trust and openness, potentially chilling collaboration in mathematics.

The Verge · AI · 7d agoAI industry2

Read the Apple document explaining how new listening features still protect your privacy

Apple published a document explaining its new Audio Intelligence features process audio in a hardware-isolated Secure Exclave inaccessible to Apple, apps, or the OS.

Apple released a privacy document alongside the Siri AI Audio Intelligence features announced at its iPhone event, covering Siri Recap, Live Rewind, Sound Recognition, and Music Recognition. It states microphone audio is processed in the Secure Exclave of the S11 chip in Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, is never saved as a file, and cannot be accessed by watchOS, apps, the user, or Apple. Transfers between watch and iPhone are encrypted between Secure Exclaves, and transcripts sync end-to-end encrypted when a device passcode and iCloud two-factor authentication are enabled.

The Verge · AI · 7d agoAI industry

Apple’s new iPhone camera mode promises to prove your photo isn’t AI

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro adds a Reference Image mode that cryptographically signs camera sensor pixels to prove photos were not AI-generated or edited.

Apple will launch a Reference Image mode with the iPhone 18 Pro lineup, using the new camera sensor to sign every pixel and develop the signed data via Private Cloud Compute into an unalterable reference image viewable in Photos. Users can compare the reference image against edited versions to verify authenticity, building on provenance standards like SynthID, C2PA, and Meta's Content Seal. A Reference Image API will span iOS, iPadOS, and macOS for third-party apps, though the feature launches without EU support, arriving there in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27.

The Verge · AI · 7d agoAI industry

Microsoft has new AI privacy rules for schools

Microsoft agreed to enforceable AI safety and privacy principles with the AFT and UFT after New York City and Los Angeles imposed one-year bans on student-facing AI.

Microsoft committed to ten contractually enforceable principles covering AI use in schools, including not training models on student or educator data, limiting data collection, plain-language disclosure to families, prohibiting AI companions, and requiring human review for high-risk decisions. The agreement with the American Federation of Teachers and its NYC affiliate comes after NYC and LA implemented one-year bans on student-facing AI. Districts can adopt the terms into new or existing contracts starting in November.

The Verge · AI · 7d agoAI policy

Amazon Prime Video’s new AI tech matches lips to dubbed audio

Amazon Prime Video launched AI lip-sync dubbing aligning actors' mouth movements with human-dubbed audio, starting with the English dub of Maxton Hall.

Prime Video's new feature combines AI and visual effects technologies to make lip movements match translated speech, currently available for seasons 1-2 of the German series Maxton Hall worldwide and planned for additional titles, with season 3 arriving December 9. Amazon previously piloted AI-aided dubbing in English and Spanish across 12 movies and shows last year. Meta and YouTube have recently launched similar AI auto-dubbing features with optional lip sync for creators.

The Verge · AI · 7d agoAI industry

Students who use AI generally score worse at school

OECD PISA data from 91 countries shows AI-using students generally score lower, though moderate intentional use plus critical evaluation training can improve outcomes.

PISA 2025 data covering over 760,000 students in 91 countries found that, after adjusting for socioeconomic status, students who never use AI generally outperformed users in science. Effects varied by use type and frequency: task-specific uses like summarizing showed the largest drops, while weekly users of AI for general learning slightly outperformed non-users, especially when trained to critically assess AI output. AI use was higher among advantaged students and varied widely by country, from over 95% in Vietnam to 60% in Japan.

The Verge · AI · 7d agoAI research

More than 1 in 10 chance AI ‘could kill all humans,’ says Anthropic safety lead after colleague quits

Anthropic safety lead Evan Hubinger estimates over 10% chance AI could kill all humans this decade, after researcher Jacob Coxon quit over safety concerns.

Anthropic safety team lead Evan Hubinger publicly estimated a greater-than-10% chance AI could kill all humans within the next decade, hours after researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, accusing Anthropic and OpenAI of racing toward self-improving superintelligence without adequate safety planning. Hubinger said Anthropic does not yet have a plan to keep advanced AI aligned and is not clearly on track to build one. He added that recursive self-improvement is happening faster than expected, and the resignation is among the highest-profile departures from Anthropic.

The Verge · AI · 7d agoAI safety & security1

Drama swirls around OpenAI’s legendary mathematical milestone

OpenAI claims an internal AI model solved the 90-year-old Navier-Stokes problem, sparking a priority dispute with mathematician Tristan Buckmaster.

OpenAI announced a solution to the Navier-Stokes problem, one of the $1 million Millennium Prize Problems, using an internal AI model it says outperforms the newly released GPT-6 Astra alongside 10,000 concurrent agents. NYU professor Tristan Buckmaster, who with Anthropic researcher Levent Alpöge published related findings a day earlier, questioned whether OpenAI accessed drafts from his Codex sessions. OpenAI says no specific user data was accessed, though it cannot rule out that de-identified usage data helped improve its models.

The Verge · AI · 8d agoAI industry1

ChatGPT Sketch turns your bad drawings into detailed AI images

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Images 2.5 with a Sketch feature that turns user doodles into images, plus 50% lower latency.

OpenAI released ChatGPT Images 2.5 and a new Sketch feature, activated by typing @Sketch, that lets users draw doodles inside ChatGPT and use them as image generation prompts. The update claims more natural lighting, richer textures, better multi-turn instruction following, and up to 50% latency reduction versus Images 2.0. Users can also leave inline comments on parts of an image to request specific edits. It is available for ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work, and Codex users on desktop, mobile, and web.

The Verge · AI · 8d agoAI industry1

Meta bets on AI agent Muse to catch up in AI race

Meta launched Muse, a free personal AI agent in the US that autonomously shops, emails, and plans trips, powered by its in-house Muse Spark model.

Meta unveiled Muse, a consumer personal AI agent that handles tasks like online shopping, emailing, and trip planning, continues working in the background, and requests approval for purchases. It launches in the US on iOS, Android, and muse.ai, is free for most users with unspecified paid tiers, and runs on Meta's in-house Muse Spark model. Muse executes on a cloud virtual machine with a Sentinel agent policing outbound actions, and Meta promises an encrypted confidential VM later this year plus 1Password, Shop Pay, and Stripe Link support. The launch is positioned as the centerpiece of Meta's effort to catch up with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.

The Verge · AI · 8d agoAI industry 3 sources1

A new class action lawsuit questions whether Anthropic broke the law by misleading power users

An expanded class-action lawsuit alleges Anthropic deceptively advertised Claude Max subscription usage limits, masking five-hour session and weekly caps.

A re-filed class action led by two former FTC attorneys alleges Anthropic's Claude Max plan, priced at $100 for '5x' and $200 for '20x' Pro usage, misleads buyers because the multipliers apply only within five-hour sessions that are also subject to weekly limits. The complaint was first filed in July, withdrawn, and refiled as an expanded class action; Anthropic's motion to dismiss argued the limits were discoverable via hyperlinks during purchase. Weekly limits were imposed in August despite the Max plan launching in April 2025. Anthropic did not respond to requests for comment.

The Verge · AI · 8d agoAI industry

Google’s Atlas of the human genome could pave the way for new treatments

Google DeepMind launches AlphaGenome Atlas, a catalog of predicted molecular effects for roughly nine billion single-letter DNA changes across the human genome.

Google DeepMind unveiled AlphaGenome Atlas, a roughly 1-petabyte dataset predicting how each of about nine billion possible single-nucleotide variants affects molecular biology, including non-coding regions that regulate gene behavior. It builds on the AlphaGenome model released in 2025 and adds a Variant Impact Score (AVI) to help researchers rank variants. The catalog is available for noncommercial research via a web portal, the Antigravity platform, and the AlphaGenome interface, with commercial access on Google Cloud planned.

The Verge · AI · 8d agoAI industry 2 sources

Adobe is trying to make its AI generators idiot-proof in Premiere

Adobe adds in-timeline generative media to Premiere, letting editors generate video and audio clips using Firefly, Veo, Runway, Luma, and Kling models.

Adobe's new Generative Media tool lets Premiere editors highlight empty gaps in the timeline and generate context-aware, editable video, sound effects, music, and soundscapes without leaving the project. Editors can choose among underlying models including Adobe Firefly, Google Veo, Runway, Luma, and Kling. Beta AI audio tools can separate overlapping speakers and duck music under speech, and an AI Assistant is coming to After Effects for plain-language project commands.

The Verge · AI · 8d agoAI industry

Seattle Times and Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft for infringement

The Seattle Times and Newsday sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, seeking destruction of datasets and models trained on their journalism.

The Seattle Times and Newsday allege OpenAI used their journalism as training data without permission and that its chatbots reproduce passages of their reporting, seeking destruction of copies of their works, training datasets, and AI models that incorporate them. Microsoft is named as co-defendant because Copilot is built on OpenAI technology. The suit follows similar actions by The New York Times, Ziff Davis, Merriam-Webster, Encyclopedia Britannica, and nearly 400 local newspapers.

The Verge · AI · 10d agoAI policy1

Roland is getting into generative AI music with Melody Flip

Roland launched Melody Flip, a DAW plugin that generates genre-themed MIDI loops rather than complete songs like Suno or Udio.

Roland's Melody Flip is a DAW plug-in offering around 250 genre-based 'Palettes' for generating melodies, chord progressions, basslines, and drum patterns, either from scratch or derived from a reference track. Users can control genre, note density, BPM, and key but cannot use text prompts, and outputs are simple loops with General MIDI-style tones intended for MIDI export into a DAW. The launch follows well-received hardware releases like the SH-4d, Gaia 2, and TR-1000, though music-community sentiment toward generative AI may limit goodwill.

The Verge · AI · 12d agoAI industry