2 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Ai Artificial Intelligence Archive

Archives for May 2026

Lauren Feiner
Lauren Feiner
Illinois is close to enacting an AI safety law with broader mandates than other states’.

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.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Anthropic raised a funding round valuing it at nearly $1 trillion.

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.

Rivian’s software chief thinks you don’t need CarPlay or buttons
Play

Wassym Bensaid on why AI-powered voice control should be the future interface of car software.

Nilay Patel
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Figma Make can edit your production codebase now.

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.”

A screenshot of Figma Make being used to edit a website.
The Figma Make app builer is now a visual software editor.
Image: Figma
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Vertu’s new luxury foldable phone is an AI ‘command center.’

The Alphafold costs $6,880 (and that’s if you want to slum it with a calfskin finish), with more expensive options including alligator leather, gold, and diamonds. That gets you a year-old Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip, a five-megapixel telephoto (yes, five, not 50), and an AI agent called Hermes.

Vertu Alphafold press image
Vertu Alphafold press image showing the inner screen
Vertu Alphafold press image showing the cameras
Vertu Alphafold press image showing the Vertu hinge logo
Vertu Alphafold press image showing the phone on its side
1/5
The Hermes agent is what Vertu claims makes the Alphafold special.
Image: Vertu
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Your preferred sources for Google will now be highlighted in AI searches.

If you’ve set up preferred sources — like, say, The Verge — they’ll be labeled in AI Overviews and AI Mode, according to Google. The company says that “people are twice as likely to click through to a Preferred Source.”

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

A screenshot of Google’s AI Mode showing Preferred sources.
Image: Google
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Amazon Prime Video is adding animated series made with AI.

Amazon MGM Studios greenlit three shows as part of its GenAI Creators’ Fund, which gives producers access to the company’s AI filmmaking platform. The projects include Cupcake & Friends from BuzzFeed Studios; Love, Diana Music Hunters from former Nickelodeon exec Albie Hecht; and Punky Duck from animator Jorge R. Gutierrez.

All three shows will debut on Prime Video “at a future date.”

<em>Love, Diana Music Hunters.</em>
<em>Cupcake & Friends</em>.
<em>Punky Duck.</em>
1/3
Love, Diana Music Hunters.
Image: Prime Video
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
ElevenLabs says its updated AI music generator can create genre-switching songs.

Its new Music v2 model can generate songs that can switch from opera to heavy metal mid-track, while handling faster rap delivery and non-musical sound effects, according to ElevenLabs. The new model is available today and is trained “only on licensed data and cleared for commercial use.”