The Verge's coverage of AI and artificial intelligence
2025 was defined by an AI arms race among OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and other rivals, with Nvidia soaring to become the world’s most valuable company. Data centers multiplied globally as every app, device and enterprise pursued AI strategies. The Vergecast’s year‑in‑review podcast recapped these trends, highlighting the best and worst tech moments and inviting listener participation. The episode also previewed bold predictions for 2026 despite past misses.
Meta announced that its AI chatbot will now draw information from major news outlets including CNN, Fox News, USA Today and People Inc., alongside conservative sites Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, and French media group Le Monde. The move follows a...

Amazon has launched Alexa Plus on Fire TV, an AI‑driven feature that jumps to specific movie moments on Prime Video when users describe the scene aloud. The system combines Amazon Nova and Anthropic Claude models to understand character names, dialogue and visual cues, working with...
OpenAI announced that free users of its Sora video generator are now limited to six generations per day, citing GPU overload. Google responded similarly, cutting the free image generation limit for its newly launched Nano Banana Pro to two images...
Amazon has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, alleging that its Comet browser’s shopping agent violates Amazon’s terms of service and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by automating purchases on the site. The legal action highlights the emerging "DoorDash...
Google has launched Nano Banana Pro, an upgraded image generation and editing model built on Gemini 3 Pro, now available for free trial worldwide through the Gemini app’s “Create image” feature. The model can blend up to 14 images, render...

Google announced that Gemini can now identify whether an image was created or edited by a Google AI tool, letting users ask “Is this AI-generated?” within the app. The feature initially supports only images using Google’s SynthID watermark, but Google...

London reporter Robert Hart rode one of Wayve's Ford Mustang Mach‑E robotaxis, marking one of the UK’s first Level 4 autonomous trips. Wayve, backed by more than $1 billion from Nvidia, Microsoft and SoftBank, is testing its end‑to‑end AI model that drives...

Mozilla announced the development of an AI‑powered "AI Window" for Firefox, an opt‑in browsing mode that integrates an AI assistant and chatbot. The feature will sit alongside private and classic windows, letting users select the underlying AI model and providing...

LinkedIn has introduced an AI‑powered people search that lets users describe the type of professional they need—e.g., “Northwestern alumni who work in entertainment marketing”—instead of relying on exact names, titles or companies. The system uses generative AI to surface and...

Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company is "really excited about AI" and envisions Disney+ letting subscribers both create and consume short‑form AI‑generated videos. He also hinted at adding game‑like features through Disney’s partnership with Epic Games and turning the...
Researchers from Stanford and the Center for Democracy & Technology report that AI chatbots—including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini and Mistral’s Le Chat—are dispensing dieting advice, tips for concealing eating‑disorder behaviors, and generating hyper‑personalized “thinspiration” images. The study cites concrete...

Victoria Song’s first‑hand account shows that despite the proliferation of AI‑powered translation apps and dedicated devices like Pocketalk and Timekettle T1, real‑world travel still exposes their shortcomings—offline language packs must be pre‑loaded, devices need charging, and latency can make them...

Amazon has introduced Kindle Translate, an AI-driven translation service for self‑published Kindle books that entered beta on Thursday for a limited group of KDP authors. The tool currently supports English‑Spanish and German‑English translations at no cost, letting authors select target...

New deposition testimony from OpenAI co‑founder Ilya Sutskever, part of Elon Musk’s lawsuit, details why Sam Altman was briefly ousted in November 2023. Sutskever alleges Altman repeatedly lied to the board, pitted senior executives against each other, gave conflicting information...
Dennis Crowley, co‑founder of Foursquare, has launched BeeBot, an AI‑powered iOS app that delivers short, location‑based audio updates through headphones, acting like a personalized radio DJ that tells users about nearby friends, events and local news. The app activates automatically...

Google announced that Gemini’s Deep Research feature can now access users’ Gmail, Drive, and Chat data to augment AI‑generated research reports. The agentic tool first creates a multi‑step research plan, then pulls information from web searches and the selected Workspace...

OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Atlas, an AI‑powered web browser that embeds a ChatGPT interface in each tab, allowing users to query the current page, automate form‑filling, shop via Instacart, and search their browsing history. The move reflects a broader trend...

Elon Musk’s xAI mandated that employees submit biometric data—including faces and voices—to train its new "Ani" AI chatbot, an anime‑styled, NSFW companion offered to X’s $30‑a‑month SuperGrok subscribers. Staff assigned as AI tutors were required to sign release forms granting...
Microsoft has launched its first in‑house text‑to‑image model, MAI‑Image‑1, now integrated into Bing Image Creator and Copilot Audio Expressions. The model, praised by AI chief Mustafa Suleyman for its photorealistic rendering of food, nature and nuanced lighting, promises faster generation...

Google introduced Gemini for Home, an AI layer in the Google Home app that analyzes video from Nest cameras and delivers detailed, written descriptions of activities, plus daily "Home Brief" summaries. In a 72‑hour test, the system generated mostly accurate...

OpenAI has launched its AI video app Sora on Android, making it available in the United States, Canada, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam via the Google Play Store. The app, which debuted on iOS in September, amassed more than...
Google Maps is introducing live lane guidance for Polestar 4 electric vehicles, using the car’s front‑facing camera to detect lane markings and road signs and feed that data to Google’s AI. The system delivers real‑time audio and visual cues on...

OpenAI refuted viral claims that a recent policy update bans ChatGPT from giving legal or medical advice, stating the chatbot’s behavior remains unchanged. Karan Singhal, head of health AI, said the new October 29 usage policy merely reiterates existing prohibitions on...

The Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), representing Japanese IP owners such as Studio Ghibli, Bandai Namco and Square Enix, sent a formal letter to OpenAI demanding that the company stop using their copyrighted works to train its text‑to‑video model Sora 2....
Coca‑Cola rolled out a new AI‑generated holiday commercial titled “Holidays Are Coming,” featuring a mishmash of animated critters that critics say look sloppy and inconsistent, though the iconic Coke truck wheels finally turn. The ad was produced with AI studios...

Big‑tech firms Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta are collectively spending more than $350 billion on AI this year and expect the figure to top $400 billion next year, while dedicated AI players such as OpenAI are generating $12 billion in revenue but face...

OpenAI signed a seven‑year, $38 billion agreement with Amazon Web Services that grants the AI firm access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs, with all capacity slated for deployment by the end of 2026 and the option to expand through...
Google removed its Gemma AI model from the AI Studio platform after Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn alleged the model fabricated false criminal accusations about her. Gemma, designed for developers and accessible via API, was being used by non‑developers to answer...
Adobe unveiled a suite of experimental AI tools at its Max conference, highlighted by Project Frame Forward, which lets editors modify the first frame of a video and automatically propagate additions or removals across the entire clip. The demo showed...

At GitHub Universe, Microsoft unveiled Agent HQ, a new interface that lets AI coding assistants such as OpenAI’s Codex, Anthropic’s Claude Code, Google, Cognition and xAI agents plug directly into the GitHub ecosystem. Senior Vice President Jared Palmer said the goal is...
OpenAI’s Sora 2 video generator now supports reusable “character cameos,” allowing users to create AI avatars from themselves, pets, illustrations or toys and assign distinct permission settings for private, follower‑only, or public use. The update also adds video‑stitching to merge...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company will significantly increase AI‑generated posts in users' feeds, framing it as the next era of social media. Meta is embedding AI tools across its apps and piloting dedicated AI‑focused platforms such as...
TikTok unveiled three AI‑driven creator tools at its US Creator Summit: Smart Split, which automatically chops long videos (over a minute) into multiple short, vertically‑framed clips with captions; AI Outline, an AI‑generated pre‑production assistant that drafts video titles, hashtags, hooks...
YouTube announced that videos uploaded in 240p‑720p will be automatically upscaled to HD using AI, with 4K upscaling planned, but both creators and viewers can opt out and original files will be preserved. The rollout includes a new “super resolution”...
Cameo filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in a California federal court against OpenAI, alleging that the "cameo" feature in OpenAI's Sora 2 video‑generation app dilutes and tarnishes Cameo's brand. The complaint seeks unspecified monetary damages and a court order prohibiting...

Nvidia announced a deal to purchase $1 billion in Nokia shares and partner with the company to develop 'AI native' 5G-Advanced and 6G networks. The announcement coincided with Nvidia crossing a $5 trillion market cap.
OpenAI has finalized its for‑profit restructuring, converting its for‑profit arm into a public benefit corporation (OpenAI Group PBC) while the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation retains an equity stake valued at roughly $130 billion and continues oversight. The restructuring is paired with a...
Adobe has launched a public beta of an AI Assistant for its Express design platform, offering a chatbot‑style interface that lets users create or edit visuals through natural‑language prompts. The tool can handle vague requests like “make this pop,” specific...
Adobe unveiled two new generative‑AI audio tools, Generate Soundtrack and Generate Speech, in public beta on its Firefly platform. Generate Soundtrack analyzes an uploaded video and produces up to four instrumental clips—each up to five minutes—aligned to the footage, with...
Adobe unveiled a suite of generative‑AI upgrades at its Max event, letting Photoshop’s Generative Fill run on third‑party models such as Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash and Black Forest Labs’ Flux.1 Kontext alongside Adobe’s own Firefly. The company also introduced a web‑based AI Assistant for...
AI‑driven "manifestation" apps are letting low‑income users generate personalized fake vacation photos as a form of digital escapism, with products like Meta designer Laurent Del Rey’s Endless Summer creating fictional travel scenes from three user‑supplied selfies. The trend was highlighted by former...

Lyra Health unveiled a so‑called “clinical‑grade” AI chatbot aimed at helping users manage burnout, sleep issues and stress, but the phrase has no FDA or legal definition and the company says it falls outside medical‑device regulation. Industry analysts and legal...
Electronic Arts is partnering with Stability AI to co-develop AI models, tools and workflows intended to accelerate game content creation, including tools to generate photorealistic Physically Based Rendering materials and to pre-visualize full 3D environments from prompts. EA says the...
Yelp launched two AI voice agents—Yelp Host for restaurants and Yelp Receptionist for broader businesses—that can answer calls, take and modify reservations, provide wait times, capture special requests, send menu links, and handle lead qualification and scheduling. Host is priced...
Bryan Cranston, OpenAI, SAG-AFTRA and major talent agencies issued a joint statement saying OpenAI has “strengthened guardrails” around Sora 2 after unauthorized deepfakes of Cranston—including a viral image of him taking a selfie with Michael Jackson—appeared on the app. OpenAI...
Friend AI’s founder publicly highlighted a spontaneous “Friend protest” in New York after the company’s $129 chatbot-necklace and its >$1 million subway ad push drew widespread ridicule and vandalism. Founded in 2023 and only shipping this summer, the wearable has...

OpenAI has issued broad subpoenas to at least seven nonprofits that criticized its shift from nonprofit to commercial governance as part of its legal battle with Elon Musk, demanding extensive financial records, communications and documents related to OpenAI’s restructuring. Recipients...
Zocdoc CEO Oliver Kharraz told TechFutures that AI chatbots are poised to replace “Dr. Google,” but Zocdoc expects to remain the underlying infrastructure that powers AI-driven scheduling and access to care. The company touts that a plurality of bookings occur...

Medal co-founder Pim de Witte spun out AI lab General Intuition and raised a $133.7M seed round to train world models using gaming video data. Lead investor is Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures), with participation from General Catalyst and the Raine...
Uber has acquired Belgian startup Segments.ai to expand its data-labeling and AI services business, supporting its push into human-in-the-loop and data annotation offerings. The purchase aligns with Uber’s broader strategy to turn its platform and driver network into sources of...
Software giant Atlassian acquired The Browser Company for $610 million. The deal, announced prior to this article, brings the AI-powered Dia browser under Atlassian as Dia becomes widely available on macOS.