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Image: Cruise Cruise, the autonomous vehicle division of General Motors, is now operating a “small” fleet of driverless robotaxis in San Francisco during daylight hours for the first time. The news comes as Cruise continues to operate in the red, losing $561 million in the first quarter of 2023.The company earned just $30 million in revenue for GM, though most of that money comes from interest and other non-operating sources. Cruise, which operates robotaxis in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Austin, says it remains on track to hit $1 billion in revenue by 2025 and $50 billion by 2030.Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said the company expanded its driverless fleet size by 86 percent, from 130 to 242 “concurrently operating AVs.” The vehicles have since passed the... Continue reading…

AI language models can be used to generate convincing text — as long as you remember to remove the label. | Image: The Verge A big worry about the rise of AI language models is that the internet will soon be subsumed in a tidal wave of automated spam. So far, these predictions have not yet come to pass (if they prove true at all), but we are seeing early signs that tools like ChatGPT are being used to power bots, generate fake reviews, and stuff the web with low-grade textual filler.If you want proof, try searching Google or Twitter for the phrase “as an AI language model.” When talking to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the system frequently uses this expression as a disclaimer, usually when it’s asked to generate banned content or give an opinion on something subjective and particularly human. Now, though, “as an AI language model” has become a shibboleth for machine... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple, Meta, Google, and more report how their companies are performing. Continue reading…

Image: Netflix Season 3 of The Witcher finally has a premiere date. Netflix announced that the fantasy series will return in June, though not all episodes will be available at once.Similar to how Stranger Things 4 was split in two halves, The Witcher’s third season will be released in two batches: episodes 1-5 will start streaming on June 29th, while 6-8 will be available on July 27th. The third season was previously pegged for a summer 2023 timeframe. We also got a first look at the season via a brief minute-long teaser trailer.The show’s second season debuted at the end of 2021, and since then, Netflix has attempted to expand the Witcher universe through spinoffs like 2022’s Blood Origin, which starred Michelle Yeoh and was set 1,000 years before... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp users are no longer restricted to using their account on just a single phone. Today, the Meta-owned messaging service is announcing that its multi-device feature — which previously allowed you to access and send messages from additional Android tablets, browsers, or computers alongside your primary phone — is expanding to support additional smartphones. “One WhatsApp account, now across multiple phones” is how the service describes the feature, which it says is rolling out to everyone in the coming weeks.Setting up a secondary phone to use with your WhatsApp account happens after doing a fresh install of the app. Except, rather than entering your phone number during setup and logging in as usual, you instead tap a new “link to... Continue reading…

Image: Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge The end is nigh for the Chevy Bolt.General Motors plans to end production of the Chevy Bolt EV and EUV at the end of 2023, GM CEO Mary Barra announced in an earnings call Tuesday. The company plans to use the capacity at its Orion Township, Michigan, assembly plant to build electric trucks starting in 2024.The end of production of the Chevy Bolt EV and EUV is a huge blow to affordable EV ownership. The Bolt is one of the cheapest EVs currently on the market, with a starting price of around $24,000. The price could be even lower when applying the $7,500 EV tax credit.The Bolt was always at a disadvantageBut the Bolt EV and EUV were always at a disadvantage, built on GM’s older and soon-to-be-obsolete BEV2 platform. The automaker... Continue reading…

Seyka in Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores. | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge I was relieved when I first looked at the small map in Horizon Forbidden West’s new expansion, Burning Shores.Sony’s Horizon series is renowned for its expansive open worlds that are littered with things to do. When you look at the huge maps in both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, they’re covered with tiny icons pointing you to quests to help your fellow humans, battle with fearsome robot dinosaurs, and even just interesting places to see. You can easily spend dozens upon dozens of hours in each game and not see everything they have to offer.But for me, both games just had too much. With each, I’ve tried to be open to exploring at my own pace and letting my curiosity lead the way, but I’d inevitably get tired of the busywork of trying to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The best thing about Slack’s new Canvas feature is that I barely need to explain it to you. It’s like Google Docs but inside of Slack. Make a canvas, add some stuff, and share it with whoever you want. Every channel in your Slack now has a canvas attached to it, and you can also make and share as many as you want. That’s it!Slack first announced Canvas last year, and it’s starting to roll out to all Slack users today. I’ve been testing an early version over the last few days, and they’re definitely going to be one of my more-used Slack features going forward. They’re maybe the most useful organizational tool Slack has ever created.See, the problem with Slack is that it’s chaos. Since it’s primarily a messaging app, everything that... Continue reading…

Illustration by The Verge Substack CEO Chris Best may have not really answered Nilay Patel’s Decoder questions about whether racist speech would be allowed on its new Twitter-like Substack Notes platform. But last Friday — more than a week after Best’s interview on the Decoder podcast — co-founder Hamish McKenzie shared a firmer statement in (where else?) a Substack Note.“Last week, we caught some heat after Chris didn’t accept the terms of a question from a podcast interviewer about how Substack will handle bigoted speech on Notes,” McKenzie said. “It came across poorly and some people sternly criticized us for our naivety while others wondered how we’d discourage bad behaviors and content on Notes. We wish that interview had gone better and that Chris had... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge “Thousands” more of Disney’s employees are being fired this week in the second of three rounds of company-wide layoffs meant to help get the entertainment giant back on solid financial footing.Following CEO Bob Iger’s announcement back in March that Disney was seeking to lay off some 7,000 of its employees, Reuters reports that the second round of firings began today and is projected to continue through Thursday before picking up again later this year. While the frontline hourly workers at Disney’s parks and resorts aren’t expected to be affected by the layoffs, cuts are being made across a number of the company’s corporate arms, like ESPN, Disney Entertainment, the products division, and Disney Parks’ corporate leadership.“The senior... Continue reading…

Along with cloud syncing, Google Authenticator is also getting a new logo. | Image: Google Google Authenticator is adding a long-standing customer request: you can now sync your two-factor authentication codes to your Google account. So when you set up a new phone and log in to your account, Authenticator will be ready to go without requiring its own setup process. This also means that if you lose your phone or it’s stolen, getting back into your accounts from another device will be less of a nerve-racking ordeal.Cloud syncing has become relatively common across other two-factor tools like Authy, but Google really dragged its feet bringing it to Authenticator, which launched all the way back in 2010.“One major piece of feedback we’ve heard from users over the years was the complexity in dealing with lost or stolen devices... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge An appeals court has upheld the status quo in Epic’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple, affirming a decision that was largely a victory for Apple. In a ruling delivered on Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that Apple’s closed App Store and security restrictions didn’t violate antitrust law but that Apple couldn’t maintain anti-steering rules that prevent users from learning about alternate payment options.Apple spokesperson Marni Goldberg provided The Verge with the following statement:

Photo by Daniel Slim / AFP via Getty Images The Supreme Court is set to hear two cases that could decide if the First Amendment allows government officials to block users on personal social media accounts where they post about their work.The cases are O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier and Lindke v. Freed, both concerning public officials who use social media. The first involves two elected school board members who blocked parents who left repetitious comments on their posts. The second involves James Freed, the city manager of Port Huron, who blocked accounts and deleted comments from his Facebook page. Neither case applies to whether platforms can ban or otherwise moderate users, an issue that the Supreme Court is likely to take up at a later point.Public officials blocking users... Continue reading…

Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega Today, workers at Sega of America’s Irvine, California, office have filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The new union, Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS), is partnered with the Communications Workers of America and consists of a supermajority of 144 employees across Sega’s QA, localization, live service, marketing, and product development departments, making AEGIS the largest video game union in the United States made up of workers across numerous departments.The Verge had the opportunity to speak with workers ahead of the filing who talked about their experience with Sega, the organizing process, and what it means to be a part of a small but growing unionization force in the video game... Continue reading…

Image: Yuga Labs A judge has ruled in favor of Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs in a lawsuit against conceptual artists Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen, whom Yuga Labs accused of trademark infringement over a parody of BAYC’s non-fungible token (NFT) collection. On Friday, a California court said that Yuga was entitled to protect the BAYC trademark and that Ripps and Cahen’s project, known as RR/BAYC, isn’t artistic expression protected by the First Amendment. “Defendants’ sale of RR/BAYC NFTs is no more artistic than the sale of a counterfeit handbag,” wrote US District Judge John Walter in a summary judgment.Ripps and Cahen released a set of RR/BAYC NFTs last May featuring duplicates of BAYC artwork and selling them for less than a high-priced... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge Rad Power Bikes is partnering with Redwood Materials, a battery company founded by a former Tesla executive, to recycle e-bike batteries when they reach the end of their lifespan.Customers will be able to bring in their depleted batteries to Rad Power Bikes’ retail locations, after which the company will send them to Redwood Materials for processing and recycling. (Rad currently operates 10 retail and service locations in North America.) Select Rad stores in California and Washington will also serve as drop-off locations for old smartphones, laptops, and tablets, for Redwood’s growing consumer e-waste collection program.It’s a noteworthy deal considering that Rad Power Bikes is the number one seller of electric bikes in North... Continue reading…

Runway’s new iOS app is its first available for mobile. | Image: Runway AI startup Runway has launched its first mobile app on iOS, letting people use the company’s video-to-video generative AI model — Gen-1 — directly from their phones. You can download the app here, with free users offered a limited number of credits.Gen-1 allows you to transform an existing video based on a text, image, or video input. Functionally, it works a lot like a style transfer tool (though, unlike style transfer, it generates entirely new videos as an output rather than applying filters). You can upload a video of someone cycling in the park, for example, and apply an aesthetic or theme. You can give the video the look of a watercolor painting or charcoal sketch, and so on.Of course, because this is a generative AI, the output... Continue reading…

Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic While major record labels have been trying to fend off songs using AI voice tracks of famous artists, Grimes has other ideas.“I’ll split 50% royalties on any successful AI generated song that uses my voice,” Grimes posted on Twitter Sunday night. “Feel free to use my voice without penalty,” she said, claiming she has no label and “no legal bindings.”At this point, Grimes’ Sunday night tweet seems to be just that — a late-night tweet that maybe, possibly, potentially could become something in the future. Grimes didn’t add much detail as to how arrangements like this would work but said the profit sharing could apply to “viral” or “super popular” tracks made using her voice that are already floating around.Grimes isn’t the first artist... Continue reading…

Honkai: Star Rail. | Image: HoYoverse The studio behind the massively popular online fantasy RPG Genshin Impact is back this week with its next game. Called Honkai: Star Rail, the game looks similar to Genshin but with more of a sci-fi twist. That means slick anime visuals, large worlds to explore, and a seemingly never-ending list of things to do, thanks to its live-service nature.Here’s the basic premise:

The Nintendo Switch OLED Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Edition is available to preorder for $359.99. | Image: Nintendo We’re now just a few days away from Nintendo’s Zelda-inspired Nintendo Switch OLED launch on April 28th. The special-edition console retails for $359.99 and commemorates one of this year’s most anticipated video games, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which will drop alongside a new Zelda-themed controller and carrying case two weeks later, on May 12th.Where to preorder the Nintendo Switch OLED Tears of the Kindom EditionFor those eager to get their hands on the limited-edition console first, you can still preorder it directly from Nintendo as well as Amazon and Best Buy. Unlike the standard Switch, the Switch OLED boasts a vibrant seven-inch OLED display, 64GB of storage, and an improved kickstand, along with a handful of... Continue reading…

The Jib True 2 come in some funky colors, but today’s deal is only on the light gray and blue combo. | Image: Skullcandy I keep rubbing my eyes, thinking my vision must be off, but these wireless earbuds are really on sale for less than one Jackson. That’s right, the Skullcandy Jib True 2 Bluetooth earbuds are just $16.99 ($23 off) at Amazon in their gray-and-blue color combo. These ultra-affordable buds often sell for around $24, but this is a new low that makes them an easy choice for a child or anyone on a tight budget seeking wireless convenience.The Jib True 2 aren’t going to win any awards in the sound department, but while their predecessors were a little overly bass-y, they were more than serviceable for the low price. Plus, this new model has built-in Tile tracking to help locate a missing bud should you misplace one. So they’re not just for... Continue reading…

Olivia. | Photo by Helen Havlak / The Verge If you’ve got a pet, it’s likely you have something cool that you use to either feed the pet, amuse the pet, watch the pet, track the pet, or travel with the pet. Well, the folks here at The Verge are no different: many have animal companions whom they feed, pamper, worry about — even obsess about — and totally enjoy.We asked our co-workers to tell us about some of the techie (and not-so-techie) gadgets that they use to keep their pets clean, fed, and amused — along with portraits of the much-loved dogs and cats. We’ve got some great photos to show you. Enjoy.Aslan Mitchell Clark, former news writer Photo by Mitchell Clark Aslan. We got the WOpet automatic feeder after our vet informed us that our cat Aslan... Continue reading…

The Apple MagSafe Battery Pack attached to an iPhone 12 Mini. | Image: Dieter Bohn / The Verge More details are emerging about the design of Apple’s long-awaited mixed reality headset ahead of its expected unveiling on June 5th. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the headset’s external battery pack — which is designed to sit in the user’s pocket during use — will have a similar design to Apple’s MagSafe iPhone battery pack and will use a proprietary connector to attach to the headset.This circular connector is reportedly magnetic and designed to lock into the headset during use with a twist so it can’t be accidentally detached. Meanwhile, the opposite end of the cable is reportedly hardwired into the battery pack. The two “aren’t separable,” Bloomberg reports. So if this power cable develops a fault, it sounds like there’s no... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After chief twit Elon Musk made good on his promise to remove Twitter accounts’ legacy verification blue ticks last week, numerous high-profile accounts now appear to be re-verified — including a number of dead celebrities.It’s likely that the re-appearance of their blue ticks is part of a wider (but unannounced) scheme by Twitter to restore verification to users with over one million followers. But hover over the blue ticks of the accounts of dead celebs, and Twitter will tell you they’re verified “because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”Michael Jackson, Chadwick Boseman, Kobe Bryant, Barbara Walters, Anthony Bourdain, and Paul Walker are just a few of the many deceased stars to have regained... Continue reading…

See inside a few of our favorite things — retro, modern, you name it. Continue reading…

Climate activists wearing masks of company CEOs including LVMH’s Bernard Arnault (2nd L) Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg (C), Microsoft founder Bill Gates (2ndR) and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson (R) on April 13th, 2023. | Photo by John MacDougall / AFP via Getty Images Brands love making big promises around Earth Day, and a lot of them are BS. Continue reading…

Photo illustration by Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images Out of all the streaming services I use — Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, and Funimation — Discovery Plus is the one that I use the most. And I don’t even get it for free through some kind of promotion — I actually pay for it.At just $4.99 per month (or $6.99 without ads), it’s one of the cheapest streaming options out there, and for me, those five bucks go a long way. Discovery Plus is a melting pot of all the unscripted reality shows from Discovery itself, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigate Discovery, The History Channel, and a handful of other networks that I haven’t even heard of before, like “Quest.”That means it has some of the most bizarre, disturbing, cringe-worthy, and downright disgusting TV shows that I’ve ever... Continue reading…

Apple’s noise-canceling AirPods Max are currently $100 off in multiple colors. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Happy Earth Day, all! We’ve got a bunch of great deals to kick off the weekend, none of which have anything to do with Earth Day. Now that we’ve established that, let’s get to the deals!First up we have Apple’s AirPods Max, which are a little more affordable now that they’ve dropped to $449.99 ($100 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. The noise-canceling headphones are one of our top picks, boasting excellent sound, premium build quality, and spatial audio support that allows for a more immersive experience. While their battery life is only average, they pair well with other Apple devices, making them a particularly good buy for those who already own an iPhone, iPad, or other Apple gadgets. Plus, they come with a natural-surrounding... Continue reading…

Final Fantasy VI. | Image: Square Enix As I installed the original Final Fantasy, a game that first came out when I was three years old, on Sony’s most advanced console to date, I came to a realization: almost everything I’ve played this year has been old. Between the remakes, rereleases, and retro collections, it’s been a deluge of nostalgia. And I, for one, have welcomed it.These kinds of releases are nothing new, of course. What’s been different through the early months is the sheer quantity of classic releases. Two of the biggest blockbusters so far this year — Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 — are remakes of titles from well over a decade ago. They’re both slick and gorgeous updates that don’t look out of place amongst modern big-budget releases, but part of what makes... Continue reading…

Image via Kuba Wojciechowski You’ve seen renders and perhaps even a plastic mockup, but real-life footage of Google’s first foldable phone? Unless we’re getting the wool pulled over our eyes, behold the Pixel Fold!