The Verge AI
The Verge's coverage of AI and artificial intelligence
YouTube Will Let You Opt Out of AI Upscaling on Low-Res Videos
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” label in settings and applies only to videos not already remastered to 1080p. In parallel, YouTube is expanding thumbnail limits to 50 MB for 4K images, testing larger video uploads, and adding TV‑focused features such as instant QR‑code shopping and immersive homepage previews. The changes target the platform’s fastest‑growing surface – TV screens – to improve visual quality and commerce opportunities.
Cameo Sues OpenAI over Sora’s ‘Cameos’
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...
OpenAI Completed Its For-Profit Restructuring — and Struck a New Deal with Microsoft
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...
You Can Tell Adobe Express’s New AI Assistant to Edit Your Designs for You
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’s New AI Audio Tools Can Add Soundtracks and Voice-Overs to Videos
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...
Photoshop and Premiere Pro’s New AI Tools Can Instantly Edit More of Your Work
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...
If You Can’t Afford a Vacation, an AI App Will Sell You Pictures of One
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...
‘Clinical-Grade AI’: A New Buzzy AI Word that Means Absolutely Nothing
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...
EA Partners with Stability AI for ‘Transformative’ AI Game-Making Tools
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’s AI Can Now Take Reservations over the Phone
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 and SAG-AFTRA Say OpenAI Is Taking Their Deepfake Concerns Seriously
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...
The Friend AI Pendant’s Creator Publicized a ‘Friend Protest’ in NYC
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...
These Nonprofits Lobbied to Regulate OpenAI — Then the Subpoenas Came
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: ‘Dr. Google Is Going to Be Replaced by Dr. AI’
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...
Facebook’s New Button Lets Its AI Look at Photos You Haven’t Uploaded Yet
Meta is rolling out an opt-in Facebook feature in the US and Canada that scans users’ phone camera rolls, uploads unpublished photos to Meta’s cloud, and suggests edits and collages to make images more “shareworthy.” Meta says the uploaded media...
These AI Glasses Promised to Make Me Smarter, and All I Got Was Clippy for My Face
A Verge review of Halo Glass — an always-listening AI companion running on Even Realities G1 prototype hardware — finds the product underwhelming in practice, plagued by firmware glitches, awkward interaction (you must tilt your head 15–40° to trigger the...
Anthropic Connects Claude to Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and OneDrive
Anthropic has integrated its Claude AI assistant with Microsoft 365—including SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook and Teams—allowing Claude to surface and analyze documents, emails, chats and meeting summaries directly in conversations. The Microsoft 365 connector, built on Anthropic’s open-source Model Context Protocol,...
New York Bans AI-Enabled Rent Price Fixing
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law banning landlords from using AI-enabled price-setting software, making New York the first U.S. state to outlaw algorithmic rent pricing after several city-level bans. The statute not only forbids using such tools to...
Uber Is Turning Its App Into an AI Training Ground
Uber launched a US pilot letting drivers and couriers earn small payments for AI “microtasks” — like voice recordings, photos and document uploads — positioning its app as a new data-labeling marketplace. Tasks pay small amounts (examples include up to...
Spotify Says It’s Working with Labels on ‘Responsible’ AI Music Tools
Spotify announced a formal agreement with major labels — Sony, Universal, Warner, Merlin and Believe — to jointly develop “responsible” generative AI music products and to stand up a dedicated research lab and product team. The pact emphasizes upfront deals,...
Major Federation of Unions Calls for ‘Worker-Centered AI’ Future
The AFL-CIO launched a “workers first initiative on AI,” urging employers and policymakers to embed labor protections into AI deployment through stronger collective bargaining, regulation, and worker involvement in development. The federation — representing 63 unions and nearly 15 million...
OpenAI Partners with Broadcom to Produce Its Own AI Chips
OpenAI is teaming up with Broadcom to produce its own computer chips to power its AI data centers. The deal is the latest in a series of partnerships designed to reduce the company’s reliance on Nvidia and secure enough computing...
Copilot on Windows Can Now Create Office Documents and Connect to Gmail
Microsoft is updating its Copilot app on Windows to allow it to create documents from a chat session and connect to Gmail and Outlook accounts. The updated Copilot app is rolling out initially to all Windows Insiders, ahead of a...
OpenAI’s Sora Has Already Hit More than 1 Million Downloads
OpenAI’s social AI video-generating app, Sora, has reached over 1 million downloads in fewer than five days since its launch. That’s according to Sora head Bill Peebles, who said on Wednesday that Sora racked up downloads faster than ChatGPT did...
The AI Industry Is at a Major Crossroads
Hey there, and welcome to Decoder! I’m Hayden Field, senior AI reporter at The Verge and your Thursday episode guest host. I’m subbing in for Nilay while he’s still out on parental leave, and I’m excited to keep diving into...
DC Comics Won’t Support Generative AI: ‘Not Now, Not Ever’
DC wants Superman and other characters under the stewardship of human artists. DC Comics president and publisher Jim Lee said that the company “will not support AI-generated storytelling or artwork,” assuring fans that its future will remain rooted in human creativity....
OneDrive Is Getting a New Windows App and an AI Photo Agent
Microsoft is getting ready to release a new OneDrive app on Windows next year that will include a photo gallery, people view, AI-powered slideshows, and editing features. It’s part of a number of new features coming to OneDrive in the...