EU reaches provisional agreement on AI Act, paving way for landmark law

The earliest that we will likely see these rules come into force is 2025. | The Verge

Following a round of intense negotiations this week, lawmakers in Brussels have now reached a “provisional agreement” on the European Union’s proposed Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). The EU’s AI Act is anticipated to be the world’s first comprehensive set of rules to govern AI and could serve as a benchmark for other regions looking to pass similar laws.

According to the press release, negotiators established obligations for “high-impact” general-purpose AI (GPAI) systems that meet certain benchmarks, like risk assessments, adversarial testing, incident reports, and more. It also mandates transparency by those systems that include creating technical documents and “detailed summaries about the content used for training” — something...

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Apple has seemingly found a way to block Android’s new iMessage app

Illustration: The Verge

It appears that Beeper Mini, an easy iMessage solution for Android, was simply too good to be true — or a short-lived dream, at least. On Friday, less than a week after its launch, the app started experiencing technical issues when users were suddenly unable to send and receive blue bubble messages. The problems grew worse over the course of the day, with reports piling up on the Beeper subreddit. Several people at The Verge were unable to activate their Android phone numbers with Beeper Mini as of Friday afternoon, a clear indication that Apple has plugged up whatever holes allowed the app to operate to begin with.

Beeper Mini was the result of a comprehensive attempt to reverse engineer Apple’s messaging protocol. A 16-year-old high...

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The spreadsheet revealing who got cut at Spotify

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Well, it’s been a messy, messy week. Today, I have a look at the departure of Spotify CFO Paul Vogel, who (as first reported by Podnews) sold millions worth of stock on Tuesday. Plus, other key Spotify layoffs and the podcast download fallout of Apple’s iOS 17.

After an insensitive stock sale, Paul Vogel is out as CFO of Spotify

In an absolutely chaotic week for Spotify, the biggest layoff of all dropped on Thursday evening: Paul Vogel, who has been the company’s CFO for nearly four years, will leave in March. The news, which came after it was disclosed that he had sold $9.38 million worth of shares the day after the layoffs, was delivered by an atypically terse press release that made it clear Spotify’s leadership wasn’t satisfied with...

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Amazon scammers used hacks and bribes to make millions off fake returns

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon is suing a naughty but enterprising group called REKK for offering a paid service to willing shoppers looking to get big-ticket items like laptops and game consoles for cheap by exploiting its return and refund system.

This isn’t like the times you try to return a small item purchased from Amazon, like a pair of socks, and the system refunds you without telling you to send it back. As reported by Bloomberg, Amazon’s lawsuit accuses REKK of using social engineering and phishing attacks on Amazon fulfillment employees or bribes to get millions of dollars in refunds without actually sending the items back.

Image: US District Court

A text exchange shows REKK recruiting an Amazon employee.

REKK advertised...

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There won’t be a small Chevy Bolt EV on GM’s Ultium platform

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Say goodbye to the Chevy Bolt EV... again.

General Motors won’t be bringing over the original hatchback Bolt to the automaker’s Ultium platform, just the larger Bolt EUV, GM confirmed after InsideEVs first reported the news. That comes after GM said it was discontinuing Bolt production but later confirmed that it would resurrect the EV as an Ultium vehicle for 2025.

The original Bolt EV was built on GM’s older and soon-to-be-obsolete BEV2 platform. The automaker has since shifted to the Ultium battery architecture for its next-generation EVs, including the Cadillac Lyriq, Hummer EV, and GMC Sierra EV. Chevy is building a trio of Ultium-built EVs, including the Silverado EV, Blazer EV, and Equinox EV.

“We are glad to see the enthusiasm...

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Apple Wallet ticket sharing is becoming more like NameDrop

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

With iOS 17.2, you’ll be able to share passes from the Wallet app by bringing two iPhones next to each other, according to MacRumors. I haven’t tested the feature myself, but it sounds a lot like Apple’s NameDrop contact-sharing tool it introduced with the first release of iOS 17.

If you’re looking at a pass or ticket in the Wallet app and you bring your iPhone next to another running iOS 17.2, you’ll see a “share” button appear at the bottom of your screen, MacRumors says. Tap that to pass the pass over AirDrop.

Note that you can already share passes from within Wallet. When looking at a pass, you can tap the share icon at the top of the screen to see ways to send it to other people, like through Messages or the traditional AirDrop...

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Threads is counting down to an EU launch next week

The lengthy delay in Threads European rollout has been attributed to the EU’s DMA rules. | Illustration: The Verge

Following its rollout in countries like the US and UK this past July, Threads will finally be expanded to users in the European Union on December 14th. Meta hasn’t made an official announcement yet, instead opting to sneakily update the Threads website with an untitled countdown timer (which won’t be viewable in countries where Threads is already available) with just under six days remaining on the clock.

European Instagram users can also search for the term “ticket” within the app to discover a digital invitation to Threads, alongside a scannable QR code and a launch time — which may vary depending on the country in which the user is based. We have contacted Meta to confirm the details, like which EU countries Threads might launch in,...

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An ‘AI’ fast food drive-thru is mostly just human workers in the Philippines

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Artificial intelligence-powered drive-thru company Presto Automation described itself as “one of the largest labor automation technology providers in the industry,” and boasted its ability to increase sales and “save” human labor time.

But according to recent filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, off-site human workers are stepping in and completing over 70 percent of orders.

Despite the company’s branding and marketing suggesting magical drive-in tech, Presto Automation uses workers in places like the Philippines, according to Bloomberg. The AI drive-thru technology is used by fast food restaurants including Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, Del Taco, and Checkers across the country, promising to lower labor costs and increase...

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Google’s AI note-taking app is now available to users in the US

Illustration: The Verge

NotebookLM, Google’s experimental AI-powered note-taking app, is now widely available in the US. It’s also getting several new features and is “starting” to use Google’s Gemini Pro AI model “to help with document understanding and reasoning,” according to the company.

NotebookLM can already do things like summarize the documents you import into the app, come up with key points, and even answer questions about your note-taking sources. But now, Google is adding a way to transform your notes into other types of documents, too. Once you select all the notes you want to include, NotebookLM will automatically suggest formats, such as an outline or study guide. However, Google notes that you can also tell NotebookLM to transform your notes...

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The Verge’s 2023 holiday gift guide for kids

Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge

Let us help you find all kinds of gifts for all kinds of kiddos.

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The fight to clean up the toxic legacy of semiconductors

Illustration by Sisi Kim for The Verge

President Joe Biden has promised to revitalize American manufacturing. Longtime Silicon Valley residents hope hazardous chemicals won’t be coming back with it.

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Homes need to be built for better internet

Illustration by Sisi Kim for The Verge

A lot of homes are being built, but a lack of understanding of internet infrastructure and a need to cut costs means they kind of suck for internet.

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Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron is a beautiful relic — and the end of an era

Image: Studio Ghibli

The latest Studio Ghibli film is out in North American theaters after premiering in Japan earlier in the year.

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Why is Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot so unfunny?

Do you trust this man to know a good joke? | Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

Fine. Let’s talk about xAI, which is getting funded to the tune of $1 billion or whatever.

xAI is, according to some commentators, Elon Musk’s bid to “save X,” the platform better known as Twitter. Musk may have spectacularly struck out with advertisers and failed to make up the shortfall with subscriptions, the thinking goes, but he can fundraise off the hype of a new AI product currently available only to a subset of blue checks. That product is Grok: a ChatGPT-style answer bot allegedly possessing a sense of humor. This raises several questions, particularly since AI chatbots remain a money pit with an unsure path to profit. But one sticks out to me: why is Grok so unfunny?

xAI’s website makes it clear Grok is launching from a weird...

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YouTubers can now pause comments after Google moderation tweaks

YouTube’s new comment moderation feature lets you take a break from commenters without removing your existing video comments. | Image: YouTube

YouTube has introduced a new moderation tool for creators that allows them to pause comments, preventing any new comments from being added to videos while preserving those that have already been posted. In a blog post published on Thursday, YouTube said the feature enables creators to “take a break from managing comments if they become overwhelming” and provides some flexibility over how comments are managed.

Before this update, YouTube creators only had two options for moderating what would otherwise be a complete commenting free-for-all: either hold comments for manual review before publishing them, or completely disable all comments on a video. YouTube says the Pause feature is rolling out now — we’ve asked the company for...

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Geoff Keighley let video game developers down

Photo by JC Olivera / Getty Images

At this point, you cannot talk about how amazing 2023 has been for the quality of games released this year without also mentioning how it’s been utterly disastrous for the people who made them. But that’s exactly what Geoff Keighley did during this year’s Game Awards.

The numbers vary, but estimates say anywhere between six and seven thousand workers have lost their jobs just this year. No level of studio size or success has been spared. And those who have been let go are now being forced to contend for an ever-dwindling number of open job postings.

“This has been one of the most volatile periods in the games industry in the last 15 years,” said Jakin Vela, executive director of the International Game Developers Association, in an...

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Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on Xbox

Image: Larian Studios

Baldur’s Gate 3, which just won Game of the Year at the 2023 Game Awards, is now available to purchase on Xbox Series X and S. You can buy it now for $69.99.

The Xbox version of the game has been in the works for a little while. A few weeks after the hugely-successful PC launch of the game in August — and just before the release of the PS5 version — Larian Studios announced that it would be bringing Baldur’s Gate 3 to Microsoft’s consoles, though without split-screen co-op on the Xbox Series S.

At the time, Larian also said the Xbox version only allows cross-save between the Steam and Xbox Series consoles, so if you’re hoping to move your PS5 save over to Xbox, you may be out of luck. (Although I’m sure somebody will test the PS5 to...

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Final Fantasy XVI stealth launches one DLC with another on the way

Image: Square Enix

Square Enix already let us know that it was working on DLC for Final Fantasy XVI. But during the Game Awards, we learned it was working on not one but two DLC chapters with one of them available... right now. Watch the trailer here.

The first DLC, Echoes of the Fallen, is a new story chapter that takes place before the final battle. It features the whole gang working together (honesty, I choked up to see it) to investigate — what else — more messed up crystals. In the DLC, Clive will also be able to wield the iconic buster sword weapon from Final Fantasy VII as well as earn a chiptune version of the FFXVI song “Away”. It’s available right now, but I haven’t been able to find a link in the PlayStation store yet.

The other DLC, The Rising...

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Capcom announces Monster Hunter Wilds for 2025

Image: Capcom

Things are about to get a little bit wild in the world of Monster Hunter. At The Game Awards this evening, Capcom revealed the latest entry in the franchise: Monster Hunter Wilds.

There aren’t a lot of details yet about what makes this one different from past MonHun titles, and the game isn’t expected to launch until 2025. It’s slated for the PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X / S. There’s at least a very beautiful trailer to watch full of lots of mounts to ride and monsters to hunt (obviously). More news on Wilds is expected in the summer of 2024.

MonHun has been on a roll in recent years. The launch of Monster Hunter World in 2018 saw the franchise break out and become a global hit, and it was followed by a live-action film, the Switch spinoff...

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The Finals launches with destructive chaos like I’ve never seen before

Image: Embark Studios

The Finals is a unique new shooter where everything is destructible. It’s available now on PS5, Xbox Series S / X, and PC.

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Light No Fire is the next ambitious game from the studio behind No Man’s Sky

Image: Hello Games

A decade ago, at the Spike Video Game Awards, Hello Games made a splash by announcing the wildly ambitious sci-fi exploration game No Man’s Sky. This evening, at the 2023 edition of The Game Awards, the studio did it again, revealing Light No Fire. This time, instead of offering a massive universe of different planets to explore, the game is focused on a single, incredibly detailed world.

According to Hello’s Sean Murray, the game has been in development for the last five years by a small team. He describes it as “the first real open world” with no boundaries, which also has an online multiplayer component. From the trailer it appeared to have elements like crafting and mining, and also the ability to ride flying mounts.

Here’s the...

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Arkane is making a Blade game

Image: Marvel Entertainment

Arkane Lyon is making a game based on Marvel’s Blade franchise, the studio announced at The Game Awards 2023 on Thursday.

The game was revealed in a brief cinematic trailer, so we didn’t get any gameplay of the title or any details about when it might be released. But Arkane Lyon studio director Dinga Bakaba said that it would be an “immersive third-person action adventure,” so we can look forward to that. The trailer’s description also notes that it’s single-player and that it’s set in Paris. A press release notes that Arkane Lyon has “just begun” development, so we might be waiting a long time to see it.

Arkane Studios, which is one of many big developers under Microsoft’s increasingly-large empire, had a big stumble with the release...

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Hideo Kojima teases mystery Xbox game OD

Image: Kojima Productions

It wouldn’t be a Game Awards without Hideo Kojima. This time, however, the director wasn’t on hand to show off Death Stranding 2 — instead he revealed a new Xbox game called OD. We didn’t get to see much of the game, which was teased last year, and the first teaser mostly just showed the cast doing motion capture tests. It ended with the tagline “For all the players and screamers.”

That said, the game does have a strong cast, including Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier. Also Jordan Peele is involved somehow. Kojima teased other big names who are working on the project, but wouldn’t say who just yet. OD is billed as something of a cross between a game and a movie, with a press release describing it as an experience that...

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The studio behind Ori and the Blind Forest is making a gorgeous action RPG

No Rest for the Wicked. | Image: Moon Studios

Moon Studios, the team behind the beautiful and incredibly hard Ori games, has announced its next project. It’s called No Rest for the Wicked and is described as “a mature, precision action role-playing game.” The game is launching in early access on PC in early 2024, with a full release on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S planned for sometime afterward. And, of course, it looks absolutely stunning. Here’s the age-gated trailer.

It’ll be Moon’s first title outside of the Ori series, and it sounds like there is a very large focus on combat. In a press release, the studio says that “fights in the game are animation-driven, direct, and tactile, allowing skilled players to combine visceral strikes and deadly moves.” It also features co-op for...

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God of War Ragnarök is getting free DLC this month

Image: Sony Santa Monica Studios

God of War Ragnarök is getting a free DLC this month. During The Game Awards, mere moments after Kratos’ voice actor Christopher Judge made his triumphant (but far less winded) return to the stage, Sony Santa Monica debuted new DLC for 2018’s Game of the Year — God of War Ragnarök Valhalla.

God of War Ragnarök Valhalla is free DLC launching on the PS5 on December 12th. The DLC is set after the final battle of God of War Ragnarök and will feature Big Daddy Kratos and his BBF (that’s bodyless best friend) Mimir as they take on dungeons filled with monsters. The game will feature roguelike elements, where, upon death Kratos will reawaken outside the gates of Vahalla to try to defeat its challenges yet again.

“During each attempt, you will...

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Amazon Prime tests a $9.99 per month unlimited grocery delivery subscription

Amazon

Amazon has announced it’s testing a subscription model for unlimited grocery delivery for Prime members. For an additional monthly charge of $9.99, Prime members in three cities can get unlimited delivery on Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods orders over $35. Those who opt-in will also receive unlimited 30-minute pick-up on orders of any size.

It’s the latest in a series of changes that Amazon has made to a division that competes with the likes of Walmart, Postmates, Instacart, and the major grocery chains themselves. “We’re always experimenting with features to make shopping easier, faster, and more affordable, and we look forward to hearing how members who take advantage of this offer respond,” said Tony Hoggett, Amazon’s senior vice...

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Google just launched a new AI, and has already admitted at least one demo wasn’t real

Image: Google

Google just announced Gemini, its most powerful suite of AI models yet, and the company has already been accused of lying about its performance.

An op-ed from Bloombergclaims Google misrepresented the power of Gemini in a recent video. Google aired an impressive “what the quack” hands-on video during its announcement earlier this week, and columnist Parmy Olson says it seemed remarkably capable in the video — perhaps too capable.

The six-minute video shows off Gemini’s multimodal capabilities (spoken conversational prompts combined with image recognition, for example). Gemini seemingly recognizes images quickly — even for connect-the-dots pictures — responds within seconds, and tracks a wad of paper in a cup and ball game in real-time....

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The Game Awards 2023: the biggest news, trailers, and announcements

Image: The Game Awards

Geoff Keighley’s annual celebration of video games is back.

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Spotify’s CFO is out days after mass layoffs

Image: The Verge

Of all the layoffs happening at Spotify this week, this has to be the biggest. Chief financial officer Paul Vogel, who since 2020 has managed the company’s balance sheet as it expanded into podcasting and audiobooks, is leaving the company at the end of March 2024.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said the decision was made because Vogel didn’t have the experience needed to help the company both expand and meet market expectations. The company is starting the search for a successor.

“Spotify has embarked on an evolution over the last two years to bring our spending more in line with market expectations while also funding the significant growth opportunities we continue to identify. I’ve talked a lot with Paul about the need to balance these two...

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Here are the best deals on headphones and wireless earbuds we could find

Sony’s WH-1000XM5 are our favorite pair of noise-canceling headphones and are currently on sale.

When it comes to headphones and true wireless earbuds, there are a ton of brands and products to choose from. However, the sheer range of available models can also make them difficult to shop for, especially since many of them cater to different lifestyles, budgets, and priorities. Some are better suited for long-haul flights and vigorous workouts, for instance, while others let you tune out noise so you can focus better.

That’s why we’ve curated a list of the best headphone and earbud deals available. Here, you’ll find sales on all kinds of earbuds and over-ear headphones, all of which come with their own strengths and weaknesses. And if you want to do even more research before making a buying decision, we’ve put together guides to...

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