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Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
If this week wasn’t dominated by headlines about how AI will kill us all, I’d be quite excited about this.

Google Home just announced MCP integration. Read about how this could help your smart home — assuming we’re not all living in a post-apocalyptic battery farm — in my explainer.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Behold the Carhartt WIP x Omnium Mini-Max.

This cargo bike is meant to get your workman juices flowing by fitting “bear trap” pedals to a limited edition Omnium Mini-Max with a stainless-steel frame, left raw (but clear coated) to revel in the heat discoloration of its welds. There’s no motor here — if you need one, this collab isn’t for you. Just 150 units will be sold in Europe for €4500 starting September 24th.

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Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Apple will use the iPhone 18 Pro to shoot some of tomorrow night’s Giants vs. Dodgers game.

After using four iPhone 17 Pros during a Tigers vs. Red Sox game in 2025, Apple will use 14 of its new iPhone 18 Pro to capture “unique perspectives that would be difficult to achieve with traditional broadcast cameras” at tomorrow night’s season final of Friday Night Baseball. The cameras will record “positions within the pitch clock, backstop, foul pole, and both bullpens.”

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An iPhone 17 Pro used to capture a MLB game at a stadium.
One of the four iPhone 17 Pro phones used to capture an MLB game in 2025.
Image: Apple TV Plus
Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
Lucid scores another robotaxi deal.

The EV company announced plans to sell 25,000 vehicles to Estonia-based mobility company Bolt for a robotaxi service in Europe. The robotaxi will be based on Lucid’s upcoming midsized Cosmos vehicle and will be Level 4 capable. This is Lucid’s second major robotaxi deal, after announcing plans to deploy 20,000 vehicles with Uber and Nuro in the US. With Lucid burning cash and facing heavy market pressure, these types of deals are a possible bridge to a more secure financial future.

Microsoft AI CEO says AI threats are real, and Anthropic is making it worse
Play

Mustafa Suleyman on the AI safety debate, why AI isn’t consciousness, and how the industry pushes toward alignment.

Nilay Patel
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Judge orders Google to make its ad tech work with rivals and share ad data with customers.

US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema said in her unsealed ruling on Google’s ad tech trial that measures to break it up were “neither realistic nor needed,” the New York Times reports. Brinkema also called for Google to appoint a monitor to make sure it complies with the order.

The Apple Watch Series 12 is the start of a new wearable era

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Verge Score

A surprisingly consequential update for the world’s most popular smartwatch.

Victoria Song
Inside the suddenly explosive world of AI safety

Researchers warned AI would go rogue. This is only the beginning.

Hayden Field
Tom Warren
Tom Warren
Bill Skarsgård is the lead role in Kojima’s Physint.

Physint just switched publishers from PlayStation to Xbox, and Hideo Kojima appeared at Xbox’s Tokyo game show stream today to reveal the lead role for the game. Swedish actor and producer Bill Skarsgård, best known for playing Pennywise the Clown in the It horror films, will portray the lead role alongside Charlee Fraser in Kojima’s upcoming action-espionage game. Kojima says Physint “continues to make steady progress,” months after Sony gave the studio an unexpected cancellation notice in June.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Tim Cook and Sam Altman are also having dinner with China’s president.

They’ll be joining Nvidia’s Jensen Huang next week at a White House state dinner for Xi Jinping. It’s the first chance for Tim Cook to earn that $47 million pay package in his new role as Apple’s dedicated Trump whisperer: You is smart, you is strong, you is important.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
OpenAI reveals six more “concerning” AI incidents under its new rules for reporting safety issues.

A Wednesday night blog post OpenAI benignly titled “Our framework for reporting model misalignment” lays out some new self-created reporting standards for when it notices AI behaving badly.

It is also “inaugurating” the process with six new reports, ranging from searching for exposed API keys without permission and then making them up, to uploading files to the internet to use as a citation, or adding instructions to conceal mistakes:

Summary During 5.6-sol training, some model instances added instructions to their summaries to conceal mistakes or misaligned behavior from the user. For example, compaction summaries included instructions to invent missing data without disclosing it and to hide failures. These instructions were often followed. These are examples of how misaligned behavior can persist across contexts through the compaction summaries. What happened During 5.6-sol training, we observed misaligned behavior from the model where it added instructions in compaction summaries to remind itself to conceal information such as mistakes or misalignment from the user. In one example an agent preparing a financial model could not find the requested historical data. Its summary proposed inventing reasonable historical values and withholding that fact unless asked.
One of OpenAI’s new Misalignment Notices and Reports
Screenshot: OpenAI
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Show’s over!

Spiegel just wrapped us up. I got to try the Specs, check out my story!

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Imogen Heap is onstage and doing an improv music show with Specs.

Heap is a Specs “visionary” (a celebrity partner), and she’s interacting with digital elements she can see in the Specs to make a song in real-time. It’s all very sci-fi.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Specs will have a Harry Potter-themed app.

Spiegel is trying it out now. He’s been flipping through a virtual book to try out different experiences, and got a letter from a virtual owl that was “sitting” on his arm. He’s also doing a Wingardium Leviosa spell.

I wore Snap’s $2,200 smart glasses

Snap has spent half a decade working toward its first consumer pair of AR glasses. They’re finally here — and they’re bold as can be.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Snap is opening a pop-up store for Specs where you can try the AR glasses.

The “SPECS First Look” opens at Westfield Century City in LA on October 1st, where you can “experience SPECS in person, meet members of the team, and check out what we’re building,” Snap says. Meta has also used pop-up shops as a way to show off its hardware.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Snap’s Specs are getting a charging case with cellular connectivity.

The case, available as part of a bundle for $2,395 (a $200 increase over the Specs on their own), gives you an option to more easily get internet while wearing the Specs. In the US, Snap is working with Verizon to offer data plans and financing options.

An image of the Snap Specs case.
The Snap Specs case.
Image: Snap
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Specs for your hobbies.

After a brief interlude about how Specs can work in enterprise environments, Spiegel is pitching how Specs can help you learn things. Spiegel is down a live demo showing himself practicing drawing. He’s using a real pen to trace a digital alien mascot that’s layered over a real piece of paper.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Even on stage, you can see a glow in front of Speigel’s eyes.

I usually can’t see his eyes — they’re hidden behind the digital content he’s looking at.

Right now, doing a live demo where he’s trying to watch a YouTube video in a browser on the Specs, and it’s not working. He’s starting all the way over. (It eventually worked.)

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Snap is going to stream Spiegel’s point of view from Specs he’s wearing onstage.

We’ll see how this goes! Right now, he’s showing some menus, including quick access items that he pulled up by looking at his palm.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Evan Spiegel is on stage at the Specs event.

He’s giving an overview of the Specs AR glasses, which were initially announced in June. He says we’ll get live demos.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
I’m seated for Snap’s big Specs launch event.

Made a friend walking in the door. I should have asked what he’s looking at.

The show starts at 7PM ET, and I’m planning to post anything interesting out of it. You can catch a livestream on Snap’s website.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
iFixit now has guides for repairing your Steam Machine.

The new guides cover everything from replacing the motherboard to cleaning the heatsink, and offer a neat look at the Steam Machine’s internals.

A partially disassembled Steam Machine
A partially disassembled Steam Machine
A partially disassembled Steam Machine
1/3Image: iFixit
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Monster Hunter Wilds players won’t have to pay to edit their characters starting next year.

Capcom’s getting rid of its character edit vouchers with the upcoming Ascendance expansion, so you can change your character’s appearance for free without needing workarounds. Capcom is giving players 10 free character and Palico edit vouchers to tide them over in the meantime.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Cricket Wireless offers home internet now, too.

Similar to home internet offerings from Mint Mobile and Straight Talk, customers can bundle Cricket’s 5G home internet with a phone plan starting at $75/month for new customers or as a $45/month add-on for existing customers. Both prices factor in an autopay discount.

Travis Larchuk
Travis Larchuk
Today’s Vergecast: Your AI apocalypse questions, answered.

Last week, an Anthropic researcher resigned and posted on X, “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” These warnings are nothing new, but this one managed to go mainstream. So, do the people making AI really think it could kill us all? How? And if it really could be as dangerous as they say, why would anyone continue to work on it? Senior AI reporter Hayden Field joined us to answer your questions about the AI freakout.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Memory chip giant SK Hynix is reportedly in talks with Intel about making chips in the US.

A Reuters report claims SK Hynix is considering leasing part of Intel’s Ohio chip factory or forming a venture with Intel and other companies.

However, SK Hynix says “nothing has been finalized regarding cooperation with any specific companies mentioned in the article,” while Reuters notes any deal to produce HBM or DRAM chips may face opposition from South Korea’s government.

Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
House approves AM radio requirement for new cars.

The bill would require all new cars, including electric vehicles like Tesla, to be capable of receiving AM radio broadcasts. It now advances to the Senate, where a companion bill has already racked up 60 cosponsors. The bill’s main sponsor Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) celebrated the House passage in a statement:

This vote sends a clear message to car manufacturers that AM Radio is a lifeline that must be protected in new vehicles. From emergency response to sports, entertainment, and news, AM radio is an essential communication tool for tens of millions of Americans.

Some automakers have dropped AM radio in recent years, citing dwindling audiences and possible interference with electric powertains.

Update September 16th: Cars would be required to receive AM broadcast, not send broadcasts.