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.
It’s a remarkable piece of technology. But the future sure is creepy.
The smart lighting company best known for its modular RGB lighting panels has been acquired by OneRobotics, the parent company of Switchbot. According to a filing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, the purchase will take two years to complete.
Nanoleaf just announced a pivot to robotics and AI, an area in which the smart home company Switchbot is heavily involved, launching its first humanoid household robot at CES this year.
Along with a new ARM CPU for Windows laptops, Nvidia’s Computex news includes another feature it’s adding to the DLSS 4.5 suite ahead of that other DLSS AI graphics update. Called Ray Reconstruction, it uses a second generation transformer AI model to “generate higher-quality pixels in the noisy parts of a ray traced frame where rays were not sampled.”
They say it will deliver cleaner particle effects plus better lighting accuracy, available on RTX 20 and newer GPUs starting in August.
Nvidia’s RTX Spark ‘superchip’ shows promise for Windows laptops. But it also comes at the worst time.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier accuses OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman of promoting ChatGPT even though its use can allegedly lead to “self-harm, cognitive decline, and behavioral addiction,” according to NBC News.
The state is seeking penalties and a court order instead of criminal charges, but its criminal investigation into OpenAI is ongoing.
Apple’s Greg Joswiak is teasing a very glowy logo ahead of next week’s WWDC — one that could match the rumored design for Siri’s big upgrade that’s expected to be revealed at the show. I like it.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. on human creativity in the age of AI
Tech companies want to film you doing chores as training data for the next generation of household robots. If you’re not a fan, and don’t mind living in chaos, there’s always another way to participate.
Electric Mayhem:
Poison their data: put dirty dishes in the clothes dryer, mop your ceiling, apply a translucent film of mayonnaise to your windows, dance with your vacuum, become ungovernable!
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Gudtrip is the most ridiculous AI/crypto/weed product to ever touch the internet. Could it possibly be real?
Can race, guilt, and empathy get you to pay $40 for this $9 belt buckle on TikTok?
The biggest public offering ever is financial nihilism’s final form.
After launching on Mac, Codex’s computer use feature is headed to Windows, which means the app can “see” your screen and perform tasks on your device. OpenAI says you can also manage and review Codex’s jobs while away from the computer using the ChatGPT app.
[X (formerly Twitter)]
The app will combine GitHub Copilot, the Copilot chatbot, Copilot Cowork, and a “new agentic workflow capability internally named Autopilot” into one place, Fortune reports. Sounds like a Microsoft version of something like OpenAI’s “super app” ambitions.
Perhaps it will be shown off at Microsoft Build next week?
The feature, which let you edit code or text side-by-side with ChatGPT, will no longer be available with GPT-5.5 Instant or GPT-5.5 Thinking, according to OpenAI. ChatGPT subscribers can still access Canvas for a “limited time” through legacy models.
OpenAI is also trying to make GPT-5.5 Instant’s responses easier to read by trimming their length and cutting down on “bullet-heavy” text.
[OpenAI]
Copilot Health, first announced in March, is now open to Microsoft 365 subscribers. Microsoft says they can use it to find doctors and get insights on data from connected medical records, wearables, and other apps like Apple Health, similar to health AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic.
[Microsoft Copilot Blog]
Following online backlash, Jorge Gutierrez announced that he will no longer be making the AI series Punky Duck:
My intent was to showcase artists, both new and seasoned, both inside and outside the studios, driving this new tech. My sincerest apology to those I upset. I promise to do better moving forward. Thank you for your patience with me. I will try harder.
Punky Duck was one of three animated AI series set to appear on Prime Video as part of Amazon’s GenAI Creators’ Fund.
The new Google Workspace feature, rolling out to users starting June 3rd, adds an option to share a snapshot of Gemini conversations using Google Drive’s sharing interface. As Neowin reports, whoever you share Gemini chats with can continue them, but “those new changes do not alter the owner’s original thread.”
The Firefly AI Assistant isn’t as good as a professional human designer or photo editor, but it’s fun to watch it work.
That’s what Amazon exec Dave Treadwell told employees after the company shuttered an internal leaderboard tracking which staff members use AI the most, the Financial Times reports:
The decision came after the tool led some workers to assign AI agents — autonomous bots that can take actions on behalf of users — to carry out needless tasks in an apparent attempt to climb the rankings.
As computing becomes more expensive, employee “toxenmaxxing” reportedly increased costs at Amazon.
Governor JB Pritzker says he plans to sign a bill passed Wednesday by the state legislature, which would require independent audits and whistleblower protections at AI companies. Those features go beyond recently passed AI safety laws in New York and California, according to NBC News, while also including similar protections.
The $65 billion Series H round gives Anthropic an eye-watering $900 billion valuation. That gives the company a higher valuation than OpenAI’s last valuation of $730 billion, according to The New York Times.
Anthropic says the funds will go toward advancing safety research, expanding compute, and scaling its products.
Wassym Bensaid on why AI-powered voice control should be the future interface of car software.
Teams can use Figma Make as a visual surface for building and editing real software by connecting Make with a production or sandbox repository via the Figma desktop app. Figma is also introducing a new editing panel in Figma Make for “precise design adjustments like layouts, colors, font sizes, and effects.”
