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.
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This year’s event will feature Google’s ‘latest AI breakthroughs’ and updates across its products.
Anthropic launchedthe latest version of Claude Sonnet on Tuesday, which it says “approaches Opus-level intelligence,” featuring improvements in coding and computer use with tasks like navigating spreadsheets or filling out web forms. Sonnet 4.6 is now replacingSonnet 4.5 as the default model for free and pro Claude users.
[Anthropic]
Focus Features is billingThe AI Doc: Or How I Became An Apocaloptimistas an “eye-opening” exploration of “the most powerful technology humanity has ever created.” You’d think the doc might feature some critical voices, but itsnew trailer makes it feel like it might beone big commercial. The film premieres on March 27th.
TheNAACP sent anotice of intent to sue, accusing Musk’s company of illegally installing gas turbines in Mississippi to power its Colossus 2 data center. Thermal images taken by drone show more than a dozen turbines running at the site without a permit,according to aFloodlight investigation.
The legendary composer is celebrating 40 years of Music Mouse, which brought algorithmic composition to home computers.
AsAxios reports that the Department of Defense and / or War ispreparing to brand Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” one commenter wonders if the Claude company might revisit itsSuper Bowl ad to turn that to its advantage.
hodgdon:
“Extrajudicial killings are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”
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It can apparently recognize how much influence a given track or artist had on AI content, and can work with or without cooperation from AI developers. Sony thinks it could be used to create a licensing system for AI music, but “has yet to decide” when it might be put to use.
Europe’s privacy watchdog has opened yet another investigation into themillions of sexualized images, some of children, produced and shared on the platform last month. It joins theEU’s DSA effort already underway, whateverFrance is doing, and a fewmore in the UK.
Lockdown Mode is “not necessary” for most people and “tightly constrains how ChatGPT can interact with external systems to reduce the risk of prompt injection–based data exfiltration,”according to OpenAI.
Despite developers being increasinglyskeptical of generative AI, “AI-driven authoring is our second major area of focus for 2026,” Unity CEO Matthew Bromberg said in earnings remarksreported on byGame Developer. The company plans to reveal more about the new prompting tools at the GDC Festival of Gaming in March.
[Game Developer]
Should Anthropic get the designation, “anyone who wants to do business with the U.S. military has to cut ties with the company,”Axios says. The two sides have apparently been negotiating for months over how the military can use Anthropic’s AI tools.
St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican has partnered with Translated, an AI-assisted live-translation service, to make the liturgy available in 60 languages. Vatican visitors can use their smartphones to access audio and text translations via the web by scanning QR codes within the Basilica, no app or special equipment required.
The security camera maker’s Search Party feature, advertised during the Super Bowl, has sparked a surveillance backlash.
The former host ofMorning Edition and current host ofLeft, Right & Center claims that Google illegally replicated his voice for its male podcast host in NotebookLM. Google denies this, but Greene (and many of his friends and colleagues) say the resemblance is “uncanny.” As theWashington Post reports:
To Greene, the resemblance of the AI voice to his own is uncanny — and the harm is deeper and more personal than just a missed chance to capitalize on his most recognizable asset.
“My voice is, like, the most important part of who I am,” Greene said.
Enterprise customers, especially AI data centers, have alreadygobbled up the company’s capacity for 2026. At this point, consumer sales account for just 5 percent of the company’s revenue, so it’s no surprise WD is prioritizing high-capacity drives for data centers. What’s more, theyre alsodriving up prices. Tan told investors:
We’ve pretty much sold out for calendar year 26. We have firm POs with our top seven customers. And we’ve also established LTAs with two of them for calendar year 27 and one of them for calendar year 28.
What’s causing the issues or how widespread they are is unclear. We’ve been unable to reproduce the issue here, butDownDetector has seen a spike in reports over the past few hours. Users report that Gemini displays error messages orhangs after a prompt. We’ve reached out to Google for comment.
During the company’sQ4 earnings call, Gustav Söderström revealed that Spotify had fully embracedvibe coding. AI is coming for a lot of jobs, andsoftware developer is high on the list of those in danger. Still, it’s shocking that the top devs at Spotify haven’t written any code in 2026. PerBusiness Insider:
“When I speak to my most senior engineers — the best developers we have — they actually say that they haven’t written a single line of code since December… They actually only generate code and supervise it.” - Spotify CEO Gustav Söderström
On a frigid February evening, I went on four dates with AI companions at a pop-up dating café.
In a cease and desist letter, Disney includes examples of thenew Seedance 2.0 model making videos featuring characters like Spider-Man and Darth Vader,according toAxios. “ByteDance is hijacking Disney’s characters by reproducing, distributing, and creating derivative works featuring those characters,” Disney’s attorney said.
While we still lackreliable deepfake detection tech,Jeremy Carrasco (@showtoolsai) has been using his social platforms to help people visually identify red flags for AI in videos. Now, Carrasco is expanding his AI literacy efforts withRiddance — a dedicated text publication for AI media news, investigations, and analysis.
[Riddance]
Gemini-powered Audio Summaries give you a condensed overview of lengthy documents instead ofreading the entire thing. The feature isstarting to roll out to select business and Google AI users now, and can be found in the Tools menu in Google Docs.
Remember whenEssilorLuxottica said it sold 2 million and would hit 10 million a year by 2027? 10M seems well within reach. “In 2025, we sold more than 7 million units of AI glasses, posting exponential growth,” said CEO Francesco Milleri. Prices may stay high in the short term, though, they hintedon the earnings call.
Gore Verbinski’s latest film gets at the heart of everything that makes society feel poisoned about the big push for AI.
Bridget McCormack of the American Arbitration Association on AI-powered courts and the future of law.
Afteralready dunking on OpenAI’s plan tobring ads to ChatGPT, Anthropic isbolstering its own chatbot to attract anyone jumping ship. Free Claude users can now create and edit files (including spreadsheets, presentations, and PDFs), accessSkills for specialized tasks, connect tothird-party services, and more — features previously limited to paying subscribers.
Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleymanseems to think AI will be ready to replace most white-collar work within two years — presumably not including his own, of course. He also claimed more ofMicrosoft’s own AI models are due this year.
“White-collar work, where you’re sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person — most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.”
