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.
Google cites ‘high demand,’ while OpenAI says users can always buy more generations.
‘AI will be involved in nearly all future production.’
The USPTO has rescindedits AI-specific patent guidelines from last year, andnow says “The same legal standard for determining inventorship applies to all inventions, regardless of whether AI systems were used in the inventive process.”
Meta isbooting rival AI companies out of WhatsApp to reduce the competition for its own Meta AI assistant, a classic sign of confidence.
Dkfkhfkwkdnc:
A product so good the producer has to protect people from alternatives lol
Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter,The Verge Daily.
The workers, part of Project Sandbox, were one month into an expected three month stint,Business Insider reports. Around a dozen people were involved, though it’s not clear how many were cut.
“The client has recently communicated a change in their internal priorities, which directly affects ongoing work on this program,” Uber emailed the affected contractors on Monday.
AI-generated images of food attached to nonsense recipes and Google AI Overview remixes of actual recipes are taking a huge toll on traffic for recipe bloggers. But home cooks are also wasting time and money following recipes that claim to be for cookies but only yield melted pools of cloyingly sweet dough. According toBloomberg:
An AI-assembled version of [Eb] Gargano’s Christmas cake, for instance, would have people cooking a 6-inch cake for 3 to 4 hours at 320°F (160°C). “You’d end up with charcoal!” she said. Meanwhile, traffic to her turkey recipe is already down 40% year over year.
There’s “no separate mode needed,” OpenAI wroteon X. “You can talk, watch answers appear, review earlier messages, and see visuals like images or maps in real time.”
[X (formerly Twitter)]
Fresh off a settlement with the DOJ overits software allegedly enabling landlord collusion to raise rents, RealPage is now suing the state of New York overa new law that bans algorithmic rent pricing, claiming it violates the company’s First Amendment rights.
RealPage is seeking a judgment and injunction against a recently adopted statute that seeks to prohibit the use of math and publicly available information to provide advice or recommendations to RealPage’s customers who own and manage rental housing properties. Among other things, the statute seeks to ban software that uses public data about rental or lease terms to advise or recommend market-appropriate rent prices for rental housing properties.
Microsoft, just likeOpenAI,Google, andPerplexity, hasannounced new AI shopping updates, as US users of Copilot in Edge will have access to Cashback, Price Comparison, Price History, Product Insights, and Price Tracking features. It also says Copilot’s AI will now proactively tell you if there’s a cheaper deal elsewhere.
Huang said this during a company meeting with employees last week,Fortune reports. Apparently some managers have told Nvidia employees to useless AI? Not on Huang’s watch. He said he wants AI to automate “every task” that can be automated with AI – and employees shouldn’t worry about AI taking their jobs in the process.
Cutting-edge research shows language is not the same as intelligence. AI companies are ignoring it.
The goal is to speed scientific breakthroughs onkey priorities including meeting soaring energy demand that’s raising electricity costs for Americans.
The infrastructure buildout will add nearly 1.3 gigawatts of capacity for AI and cost up to $50 billion,the company said. US government customers will have access to both AWS Trainium AI chips and NVIDIA chips, and Amazon said it plans to start building the data centers in 2026.
Indie devs are using anti-gen-AI statements to make their games stand out.
A group of 280 state lawmakers expressed “strong opposition” toplans to preempt state AI laws in a must-pass bill. “Freezing state action now would stifle needed innovation in policy design at a moment when it is most needed,” they wrote. You can find a running list of opponentshere.
[Americans for Responsible Innovation]
A pair ofSearch Engine episodes from Sruthi Pinnamaneni gets at the most physical part of the AI hype cycle: the data center. Reporting from “Data Center Alley” and Memphis, TN — home of Elon Musk’s Colossus — Pinnamaneni reveals how these massive infrastructure works get sold to communities, built by communities, and ultimately, what they will cost those communities.
Cameo, the service that gives purpose to has-beens, has secured a temporary restraining order thatprohibits Altman and Co from using “Cameo” to name a Sora feature that lets peopleinsert themselves andcharacters into AI-generated videos. The TRO expires shortly after a trademark hearing scheduled for December 19th.
As part of thesettlement with Universal, Udio hasamended its terms of service, and users canno longer download their outputs. This hasAI music makers furious, and with good reason. Unfortunately, they have little recourse, as the contract they sign when creating a Udio account includes a waiver of the right to bring a class action. This should alarm customers ofrival services likeSuno, which is also in the crosshairs of the major labels.
We already knew that the old-schoolblue books were popular again, given how easy it is tocheat with AI.The Economistreports that blue book sales have nearly tripled from 2022 to October 2025, topping $300,000 in just the first 10 months of this year, according to data firm Circana.
[The Economist]
Video generators like Sora rely on a monoculture that no longer exists — and their creations are straight-up trash.
The White House drafted an executive order to preempt state AI laws, according to a copyobtained byThe Verge, but some Trump allies worry it won’t work. “I don’t think the executive branch has the authority to enforce preemption on the states,” Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) toldPunchbowl News.
[Punchbowl News]
Is the promise of jobs worth all the water and chemicals it takes to manufacture chips in the Arizona desert?
It’s the first international expansion of Amazon’s upgraded, AI-powered Alexa, which launched first in the US. Amazon plans to invite “tens of thousands of Canadians every week to enjoy the new experience,”according to a blog post.
