The Suicide Squad game’s final season is coming less than a year after launch

Image: Warner Bros. Games

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League only came out in February, but the game’s final season, which starts tomorrow, is going to be its last. Season 4 Episode 7 launches on Tuesday, and Episode 8, which is set to release on January 14th, 2025, will “serve as the last seasonal Episode for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League,” developer Rocksteady announced on Monday.

After the release of the final content, the game will still be available to play online, according to a WB Games FAQ. But the game is also getting an offline mode tomorrow — which had been previously announced, though without a specific date beyond “2024” — that will let you play the main story and all seasonal story mission content without an internet connection.

The game has had a troubled history. The game was originally set to release in 2022 before being delayed multiple times. And a largely unsuccessful launch — in our review, we said the game “hides its brash personality under a generic looter shooter” — resulted in Warner Bros. Discovery announcing in May that it would be taking a $200 million loss on the game.

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Google reveals quantum computing chip with ‘breakthrough’ achievements

Image: Google

Google’s quantum computing lab just achieved a major milestone. On Monday, the company revealed that its new quantum computing chip, Willow, is capable of performing a computing challenge in less than five minutes — a process Google says would take one of the world’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years, or longer than the age of the universe.

That’s a big jump from 2019 when Google announced its quantum processor could complete a mathematical equation in three minutes, as opposed to 10,000 years on a supercomputer. IBM disputed the claim at the time.

Along with more powerful performance, researchers also found a way to reduce errors, something Google calls “one of the greatest challenges in quantum computing.” Instead of bits, which represent either 1 or 0, quantum computing uses qubits, a unit that can exist in multiple states at the same time, such as 1, 0, and anything in between.

As noted by Google, qubits are prone to errors because they “have a tendency to rapidly exchange information with their environment.” However, Google’s researchers discovered a way to reduce errors by introducing more qubits to a system and were able to correct them in real time. Their findings were published in Nature.

“This historic accomplishment is known in the field as ‘below threshold’ — being able to drive errors down while scaling up the number of qubits,” Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven writes on Google’s blog. “You must demonstrate being below threshold to show real progress on error correction, and this has been an outstanding challenge since quantum error correction was introduced by Peter Shor in 1995.”

Introducing Willow, our new state-of-the-art quantum computing chip with a breakthrough that can reduce errors exponentially as we scale up using more qubits, cracking a 30-year challenge in the field. In benchmark tests, Willow solved a standard computation in <5 mins that would…

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) December 9, 2024

Willow, which has 105 qubits, “now has best-in-class performance,” according to Neven. Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM are working on quantum computing systems of their own.

Google’s next goal is to perform a first “useful, beyond-classical” computation that is both “relevant to a real-world application” and one that typical computers can’t achieve. Going forward, Neven says quantum technology will be “indispensable” for collecting AI training data, eventually helping to “discover new medicines, designing more efficient batteries for electric cars, and accelerating progress in fusion and new energy alternatives.”

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Spotify shuts down Car Thing, and now owners have one last chance at a refund

Photo by Ashley Carman / The Verge

Spotify has officially shut down its Car Thing accessory that offered simple and slick control over music and playlists while driving, and it’s giving owners just over a month (January 14th) to reach out to the company and get a refund. The device started to display its final words early today as enthusiasts mourn the loss of the device on its dedicated subreddit.

The final message on the Car Thing reads:

Car Thing is discontinued and no longer operational. Thank you for being on this journey with us, safe travels. For more information, visit carthing.com. Contact customer service by no later than January 14th, 2025 to discuss your refund options.

Spotify announced in May that it intended the already discontinued devices would shut down in December, and now they have. The company also said, eventually, that it would work to issue refunds, but owners need to contact the company and provide proof of purchase to receive compensation.

For most users, the Spotify Car Thing is just another piece of e-waste humans will have to deal with later. The company recommends resetting it to factory settings and “safely disposing of your device following local electronic waste guidelines.”

However, tinkerers are finding new uses for the hardware: Car Thing can be hacked to run custom software that doesn’t require Spotify’s backend. As 9to5Google notes, it’s a bit underpowered to run full-on Android, but some projects like “Desk Thing” can repurpose them as a controller at your computer desk.

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Meta’s new Quest update has faster hand tracking and at-a-glance PC connections

Photo: David Pierce / The Verge

Meta has announced the v72 Quest update, and it’s packed with features like faster hand tracking, an easier way to pair your headset with a Windows 11 PC, and better support for showing your keyboard while you’re in full virtual reality. The update is rolling out gradually, which also goes for certain features so you may not be able to use them immediately.

Meta says you can now connect to a paired PC with the Quest’s Remote Desktop feature simply by looking at it and tapping the “Connect” button that appears above your keyboard. That’s similar to how it works on the Vision Pro, but here, you’ll need the Mixed Reality Link app installed on your computer before you can pair the devices together from within your Quest headset’s Settings app. The feature requires Windows 11 22H2 and newer.

Image: Meta

Now you can connect to your PC just by looking at it.

Also, in Quest v72, the company says it’s “rolling out a more general keyboard tracking system” that should detect and let any keyboard around you appear through a passthrough “window” while you’re in a virtual environment, similar to the Vision Pro. Quest headsets have had a feature that shows a virtual version of your keyboard where your real one is since 2021, but that has only ever worked with specific keyboards.

Meta also says it has made the hand cursor more stable when navigating, pinching to select things, and pinching and dragging windows. The company also says it’s now easier to use your hands while in confined spaces and that it added a “hand ray visualization” to help find and target things with the cursor.

There is a little bit more in the update, too, including new live captions for calls from the People app and the addition of direct messaging in the Instagram app. Meta also added a Media Gallery app for viewing your images, videos (spatial included), and screenshots.

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Scientists advise EU to halt solar geoengineering

A thin layer of ice thaws on a puddle in the sunshine in Bavaria, Marktoberdorf. | Photo: Getty Images

Scientific advisers to the European Commission are calling for a moratorium across the EU on efforts to artificially cool Earth through solar geoengineering. That includes controversial technologies used to reflect sunlight back into space, primarily by sending reflective particles into the atmosphere or by brightening clouds.

Proponents argue that this can help in the fight against climate change, especially as planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions continue to climb. But small-scale experiments have triggered backlash over concerns that these technologies could do more harm than good.

The European Commission asked its Group of Chief Scientific Advisors (GCSA) and European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) to write up their opinions on solar geoengineering, which were published today alongside a report synthesizing what little we know about how these technologies might work.

Experiments have triggered backlash over concerns that these technologies could do more harm than good

There’s “insufficient scientific evidence” to show that solar geoengineering can actually prevent climate change, says the opinion written by the GCSA.

“Given the currently very high...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Manchester City is letting fans design its new kit with AI

Will Manchester City’s next uniform feature AI-generated cats? | Screenshot: Puma AI Creator

Manchester City is holding a competition that asks fans to generate its future kit design with AI. Players will wear the winning design during the 2026-2027 season as City’s official third kit, and it will even be sold to fans.

The club partnered with Puma to launch a text-to-image uniform generator powered by the AI company DeepObjects. To use the tool, you’ll have to create an account and enter a prompt that describes the look you’re going for. You then have to choose a style the AI will use when generating your design, such as “abstract,” “emotive brushstrokes,” or “dream visions.”

Screenshot: Puma AI Creator

This wasn’t quite what I was envisioning when I entered a prompt for “soccerballs shooting through space like stars on a galaxy background.”

The Puma AI Creator will then generate four different design options that appear on a virtual uniform, allowing you to customize the collars, trim colors, and badges.

You get 15 credits to create designs (generating one design costs one credit), but you can only enter two of your creations in the contest, which ends December 20th. Fan ratings, along with experts from Manchester City and Puma will help determine the winner.

Image: Manchester City

City players designed this goalkeeper kit with AI.

Manchester City says its players, Ederson, Stefan Ortega, and Rico Lewis first used the Puma AI Creator to design a goalkeeper kit “creatively inspired by the net of a football goal.” It will be the first AI-generated soccer uniform to be worn on the pitch, according to the club.

The announcement comes at an awkward time for City, which is mired in a poor run of form and awaiting the verdict of an investigation into breaching Premier League financial rules.

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The best Android phones for everyone

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Whether you want everything but the kitchen sink or top-tier performance for a midrange price, you’ve got options.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple Pay’s first competitor on the iPhone has arrived in Norway

iPhone owners in Norway can now select Vipps as their default mobile payment app. | Image: Vipps

A Norwegian payment app called Vipps is the first service to take advantage of a new, more open iOS ecosystem thanks to EU regulations. Starting today, Norwegians can use Vipps for tap-to-pay transactions and online payments, and they can even set the app as the default payment option on their iPhones, as reported by MacRumors.

It’s all thanks to commitments Apple made in response to scrutiny from EU regulators.

Since its launch a decade ago, Apple Pay has been the only way to use tap to pay on an iPhone. That’s changing with iOS 18.1, which makes tap-to-pay via NFC available to third-party developers for the first time. Apple committed earlier this year to open up the API after EU regulators ruled Apple Pay anti-competitive.

This pressure from the EU has recently forced Apple to open up the famously locked-down iPhone in unprecedented ways, from adding RCS support to letting you delete pretty much any app you want from your phone. But unlocking the NFC chip is a particularly interesting test case since it could usher in a whole bunch of new and helpful ways to use your phone — or create a mess of competing payment and ID storage platforms that don’t cooperate with each other.

Either way, it’s going to be a big deal, and the first step forward into that new era comes from a small financial organization in Scandinavia.

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It sure sounds like Trump would be okay with a TikTok sale

Donald Trump speaks with Kristen Welker on Meet the Press. | Photo: Peter Kramer / NBC via Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump gave a murky answer when NBC’s Kristen Welker asked whether he would protect TikTok from its impending ban during a Meet the Press interview on Sunday. He didn’t say he would save the app from its ban but did seem to imply that ByteDance should sell it.

After its argument that the ban is unconstitutional came up short in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals last week, ByteDance is requesting an injunction to stop the ban from taking effect until the Supreme Court can hear its appeal, and it now faces an uphill legal battle. If ByteDance’s motion isn’t granted, it has to sell TikTok by January 19th or face its expulsion from the US.

Welker asked Trump what he would do after ByteDance’s failed appeal of the ban:

This week a federal court upheld a law that could result in TikTok being banned. You said you’re going to rescue TikTok when you get into office. Are you going to take steps to protect it?

Trump’s response praised his campaign’s use of the platform before deflecting the question:

I used TikTok very successfully in my campaign. I have a man named TikTok Jack, he was very effective, obviously, because I won youth by 30 percent. All Republicans lose youth. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s changing. And last time we were down 30 percent with youth. This time we were up 35 percent with youth.

And I used TikTok, so I can’t really, you know, I can’t totally hate it. It was very effective. But I will say this, if you do do that, something else is going to come along and take its place. And maybe that’s not fair. And really, what the judge actually said was that you can’t have Chinese companies. In other words, they have the right to ban it if you can prove that Chinese companies own it. That’s what the judge actually said.

@nbcnews

President-elect Donald #Trump weighs in on a potential ban on TikTok that could take effect one day before he assumes the White House if the app’s Chinese parent company does not divest.

♬ original sound - nbcnews

Pressed again on if he would “protect TikTok” once he’s in office, Trump responded:

I’m going to try and make it so that other companies don’t become an even bigger monopoly.

A TikTok sale to an American company would be one way to achieve that.

Trump’s position has been murky since he started positioning himself opposite of the Biden administration’s support of a ban — something Trump pushed for during his last term. Over the last several months, that’s included his Truth Social video urging people who “want to save TikTok” to vote for him and told CNBC in March that getting rid of the platform would only benefit Facebook, which he called an “enemy of the people.”

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AI is booming on the App Store, and developers are taking advantage of it

This meat-handed mess was generated using DaVinci AI with the prompt “a photorealistic person looking at their phone with a disgusted expression.” | Image: DaVinci AI / The Verge

Many high-ranking AI apps feel like an attempted cash grab, and it’s not easy to spot the trash from the treasure.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Software developer arrested in connection with UnitedHealthcare CEO killing

The NYPD released this photo of the person of interest in the case. | Image: NYPD

Police have arrested Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old software developer, in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione, of Maryland, was detained at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday morning.

Mangione was taken into custody on local firearm charges, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters. He has not been charged in connection with the shooting but is “believed to be our person of interest,” Tisch said.

Police have been searching for Thompson’s killer for nearly a week, despite the shooting taking place in public outside a Manhattan hotel. The manhunt has thus far relied on just a few grainy images of a man whose face is largely obscured by a mask and hoodie. Investigators have reportedly been looking for more surveillance images of the suspect to load into facial recognition software.

Police were led to Mangione via a “combination of old-school detective work and new age technology,” Tisch said.

Despite scant visual evidence, a McDonald’s employee recognized Mangione on Monday morning and called police, the New York Times reports. “He was just sitting there eating,” Joseph Kenny, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives, said at a press briefing Monday.

Mangione reportedly had a gun, a silencer, and four fake IDs in his possession. The gun appeared to be a 3D-printed “ghost gun,” Kenny told reporters. After being apprehended, Mangione showed police a fake New Jersey ID, Kenny said. The ID was the same one used to check into a hostel in Manhattan on November 24th, eight days before the shooting. Sources also tell the New York Post that he was carrying a “manifesto” criticizing the US healthcare industry.

Developing...

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Rivian’s new Joshua Tree outpost is what EV charging should be

Image: Rivian

When I first started testing electric vehicles, finding a charging station was the means to an end. I didn’t care what it looked like or what neighborhood it was in — it was a minor miracle that I found a charger, any charger, to juice up. But now consumers want more. Heck, I want more, and I don’t even own an EV. After all, this is a place where you’ll spend at least 20 minutes to shove some electrons into your vehicle. Is a bathroom too much to ask for?

Rivian has heard the call and has answered with its own chain of outpost charging stations. The first one opened up in Yosemite, California, this past summer, and now one is right in my own backyard in Joshua Tree, just six miles away from the town’s national park entrance.

Charge up

First, let’s talk about charging. There are 12 900-volt 300kW CCS chargers, and the outpost is open to any EV, although Teslas will need an adapter. There is one pullthrough spot for folks with a trailer, but if others are charging across the lot from that space, it might be a tight turn for longer rigs. Rivian owners can pay through the app or tap their credit cards at the charger at 46 cents per kWh, while non-Rivian cars can tap...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Monument Valley 3 comes to Netflix with an iconoclastic edge

Image: Netflix

Ustwo returns with a sequel that looks to evolve the puzzle franchise, all while continuing to offer a sanctuary in your pocket.

Read the full story at The Verge.

OpenAI has finally released Sora

Free users can still browse a feed of AI-generated videos created by the community. | Screenshot: OpenAI

OpenAI launched Sora, its text-to-video AI model, on Monday as part of its 12-day “ship-mas” product release series, as The Verge previously reported it would. It’s available today on Sora.com for ChatGPT subscribers in the US and “most other countries,” and a new model, Sora Turbo. This updated model adds features like generating video from text, animating images, and remixing videos.

With a ChatGPT Plus subscription, OpenAI says you can generate up to 50 priority videos (1,000 credits) at resolutions up to 720p with 5-second durations. The $200 per month ChatGPT Pro subscription that launched last week comes with “unlimited generations” and up to 500 priority videos while bumping the resolution to 1080p and the duration to 20 seconds. The more expensive plan also allows subscribers to download videos without a watermark and perform up to five generations simultaneously.

OpenAI first teased its text-to-video AI model, Sora, in February, and earlier today, Marques Brownlee, aka MKBHD, confirmed the launch with a preview based on his experiences testing Sora so far.

During the livestream, OpenAI showed off Sora’s new explore page with a feed of AI-generated videos created by other community members. The company highlighted a feature called “storyboards” that let you generate videos based on a sequence of prompts, as well as the ability to turn photos into videos. OpenAI also demonstrated a “remix” tool that lets you tweak Sora’s output with a text prompt, along with a way to “blend” two scenes together with AI.

OpenAI says videos generated with Sora will have visible watermarks and C2PA metadata to indicate they’re made with AI. Before uploading an image or video to Sora, OpenAI prompts you to check off an agreement that says what you’re uploading doesn’t contain people under 18, explicit or violent content, and copyrighted material. It says the “misuse of media uploads” could result in an account ban or suspension.

“We obviously have a big target on our back as OpenAI,” OpenAI vice president of research Aditya Ramesh said during the livestream. “We want to prevent illegal activity of Sora, but we also want to balance that with creative expression. We know that... will be an ongoing challenge, we might not get it perfect on day one. We’re starting a little conservative, and so if our moderation doesn’t quite get it right, just give us that feedback.”

If you don’t have a ChatGPT subscription, you’ll still be able to browse through the feed of AI-generated videos created by other people using Sora. While the model will become available in the US and many other countries today, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that it may “be a while” for a launch in “most of Europe and the UK.”

The release of Sora comes just a week after a group of artists, who claimed to be part of the company’s alpha testing program, leaked the product in protest of being used by OpenAI for what they claim was “unpaid R&D and PR.”

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The best Bluetooth trackers for finding your stuff

Bluetooth trackers come in all shapes and sizes. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

For those of us who don’t ever seem to know where our keys, wallets, and remote controls have gone.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google’s Pixel Tablet has returned to its Black Friday all-time low price

Google’s Pixel Tablet uniquely turns into a smart display of sorts when you buy the charging speaker dock. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Google might soon stop selling tablets altogether, which is a shame, because we were fans of the Google Pixel Tablet when it was released last year. Yet while we may never see aPixel Tablet 2, luckily the original slate is still around and receiving a steep discount. Normally $399, right now the base Google Pixel Tablet with 128GB of storage has returned to its Black Friday price of $279 at Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from Google. You can buy it with a charging speaker dock starting at $459 ($140 off) from the Best Buy and Google.

If you’re looking for an Android tablet that’s great for watching movies, web browsing, video chatting, and other basic tasks, the Pixel Tablet remains an excellent option. Powered by Google’s Tensor G2 chip, it’s a snappy entertainment device. Its sharp 11-inch LCD display offers wide viewing angles ideal for streaming, while its four speakers provide clear audio.

It’s the optional magnetic charging speaker dock that really makes the Pixel Tablet stand out, though. The dock effectively turns the Pixel Tablet into smart display similar to the Nest Hub Max, allowing it to deliver a full, room-filling sound quality that outperforms the tablet’s built-in speakers. That means you can also enjoy some Nest Hub Max capabilities, using the tablet to control smart home devices with just your voice via Google Assistant, for example.

Read our Google Pixel Tablet review.

A few more deals worth a look

• The UE Wonderboom 4 is on sale at an all-time low price of $59.99 ($40 off) at Amazon and B&H Photo. Unlike its predecessor, the Bluetooth speaker now supports USB-C for faster charging and sports a new megaphone feature that amplifies your voice. It also still sports an IP67 rating, meaning it’s waterproof and dustproof so you can take it outdoors without worrying.
• The new Kindle Paperwhiteis back on sale for $134.99 ($25 off) at Best Buy and Target, which is $5 shy of the all-time low price we saw first set during Black Friday. The latest Paperwhite is faster than its predecessor, with a larger seven-inch display and long battery life. It also retains all the features we loved in the last-gen model, including IPX8 waterproofing and a USB-C port.
• The 1080p Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam is down to $49.99 ($30 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, matching its all-time low. Its mechanically rotating head offers 360-degree panning and is capable of tilting up and down, so you can see every corner of the room it’s in. The camera also supports two-way talk and can even sound a siren, while you can get motion alerts with person detection if you subscribe to the Ring Protect Plan.

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OpenAI’s video generator Sora is launching today

Image: The Verge

OpenAI’s highly-anticipated AI text-to-video generator, Sora, will become available to everyone today. In a post on X, YouTuber Marques Brownlee confirmed its imminent release and uploaded a video detailing his experience using Sora over the past few weeks, calling the results “horrifying and inspiring at the same time.”

OpenAI first revealed Sora in February but only made the tool available to a select number of visual artists, designers, and filmmakers to start.

Brownlee shows how Sora can convert your text prompt into a video, which you can then customize with additional text prompts as part of its “remix” tool. You can also use Sora to transform a photo into a video, as well as use its storyboard feature to “string together” several text prompts that Sora will attempt to blend into cohesive scenes.

The rumors are true - SORA, OpenAI's AI video generator, is launching for the public today...

I've been using it for about a week now, and have reviewed it: https://t.co/jII49vkuHN

THE BELOW VIDEO IS 100% AI GENERATED

I've learned a lot testing this, here are some new… pic.twitter.com/uA1EhRuK7B

— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) December 9, 2024

During his video, Brownlee points out that Sora currently struggles with generating realistic physics and often shows objects that disappear or pass through each other. He also found that Sora often rejects prompts that include public figures and copyrighted characters.

Sora will launch today, and will most likely be announced during the 12 days of “ship-mas” video OpenAI plans on releasing at 1PM ET. Last Thursday, OpenAI announced a $200 / month ChatGPT Pro subscription and the full release of its o1 reasoning model.

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China opens an antitrust investigation into Nvidia

Cath Virginia / The Verge

China is investigating Nvidia over antitrust violations, reportedly over claims the chipmaker failed to follow conditions set during China’s approval for its $6.9 billion acquisition of Israeli network hardware company Mellanox in 2020.

While announcing the DGX A100 GPU after acquiring Mellanox, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said this while explaining its importance to his company:

“If you take a look at the way modern data centers are architected, the workloads they have to do are more diverse than ever,” explains Huang. “Our approach going forward is not to just focus on the server itself but to think about the entire data center as a computing unit. Going forward I believe the world is going to think about data centers as a computing unit and we’re going to be thinking about data center-scale computing. No longer just personal computers or servers, but we’re going to be operating on the data center scale.”

Since then, the boom in demand for AI chips and servers has driven Nvidia’s value from under $200 billion to over $3 trillion in 2024, surpassing Microsoft, Apple, and Google.

According to Bloomberg, Chinese regulators say Nvidia failed to follow agreements to provide new Mellanox product information within 90 days to other chipmaking firms in the country to avoid a monopoly. At the same time, the US Justice Department is also investigating the company for monopolistic behavior.

The Biden administration also placed new sanctions on China last week to make it more difficult to produce advanced AI chips there, as it also restricts the capabilities of exports by companies like Nvidia. China retaliated with new limitations on key mineral exports to the US.

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Friend’s AI chatbots have issues — and they want your help

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Friend just raised another $5.4 million to bring AI friends into the real world.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Xiaomi’s next EV will be the YU7, coming summer 2025

Image: Xiaomi

Xiaomi is continuing to dive deeper into China’s competitive EV market with the reveal of a new model, the YU7 SUV, coming in the summer of 2025.

The YU7 is an all-electric SUV with a similar design to the SU7 sedan, the electronics giant’s first electric model released earlier this year. That vehicle has received a lot of press and praise, including from Ford CEO Jim Farley, who personally drove one after having it flown into the US from Shanghai. Farley loved it so much that he said he didn’t want to give it back.

We don’t have much detail about the YU7 beyond the name and a few images shared on Weibo by Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun. While the SU7 competes with the Tesla Model 3 and other electric sedans in China, the YU7 is expected to land in the growing electric SUV market, currently dominated by the Model Y and others.

Screenshot: Weibo

Jun said he expects an official launch for the YU7 in “June or July” next year. “We hope that the YU7 test car can remove its heavy camouflage as soon as possible, which will help us conduct more comprehensive, detailed, long-term and large-scale testing to ensure product quality and make better products,” he added.

Xiaomi beat Sony, Apple, and others in making the jump from electronics to cars. While Apple bailed on its own car project with nothing to show for it, Sony is gearing up to launch the Afeela EV it's making in collaboration with Honda. Indeed, Xiaomi also isn’t going alone, working alongside China’s CATL on batteries and a division of BAIC to build its cars.

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TikTok tried to save itself with the First Amendment — and failed

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images

A court rejected arguments against forcing a sale of the massive Chinese-owned social network.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft’s AI boss and Sam Altman disagree on what it takes to get to AGI

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman at the UK AI Safety Summit in November 2023. | Photo by Leon Neal / Getty Images

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman disagrees with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s recent claim in a Reddit AMA that artificial general intelligence, or AGI, is possible on today’s hardware. While AGI is “plausible,” he tells The Verge’s Nilay Patel in the latest Decoder episode that it could take as long as 10 years to achieve.

With current hardware defined by Nilay as “within one or two generations of what we have now, I would say,” Suleyman replied, explaining why he thinks that’s unlikely:

I don’t think it can be done on [Nvidia] GB200s. I do think it is going to be plausible at some point in the next two to five generations. I don’t want to say I think it’s a high probability that it’s two years away, but I think within the next five to seven years since each generation takes 18 to 24 months now. So, five generations could be up to 10 years away depending on how things go.

“The uncertainty around this is so high,” Suleyman said, “that any categorical declarations just feel sort of ungrounded to me and over the top.”

He’s also drawing a line between AGI and the “singularity”:

It depends on your definition of AGI, right? AGI isn’t the singularity. The singularity is an exponentially recursive self-improving system that very rapidly accelerates far beyond anything that might look like human intelligence.

To me, AGI is a general-purpose learning system that can perform well across all human-level training environments. So, knowledge work, by the way, that includes physical labor. A lot of my skepticism has to do with the progress and the complexity of getting things done in robotics. But yes, I can well imagine that we have a system that can learn — without a great deal of handcrafted prior prompting — to perform well in a very wide range of environments. I think that is not necessarily going to be AGI, nor does that lead to the singularity, but it means that most human knowledge work in the next five to 10 years could likely be performed by one of the AI systems that we develop. And I think the reason why I shy away from the language around singularity or artificial superintelligence is because I think they’re very different things.

The challenge with AGI is that it’s become so dramatized that we sort of end up not focusing on the specific capabilities of what the system can do. And that’s what I care about with respect to building AI companions, getting them to be useful to you as a human, work for you as a human, be on your side, in your corner, and on your team. That’s my motivation and that’s what I have control and influence over to try and create systems that are accountable and useful to humans rather than pursuing the theoretical super intelligence quest.

Last week, during The New York Times DealBook Summit, Altman set out a lower set of goalposts for AGI than the superintelligence-style phenomenon he’s described in the past.

Now, Altman says AGI will arrive “sooner than most people in the world think and it will matter much less.” And when it comes to superintelligence, “a lot of the safety concerns that we and others expressed actually don’t come at the AGI moment. AGI can get built, the world mostly goes on in mostly the same way, things grow faster, but then there is a long continuation from what we call AGI to what we call superintelligence.”

This is a relationship that appears strained only one year after Microsoft helped reseat Altman as OpenAI’s CEO. After confirming that Microsoft is working on its own frontier AI model capable of competing at the “GPT-4, GPT-4o scale,” Suleyman also commented on the tension between Microsoft and OpenAI:

Every partnership has tension. It’s healthy and natural. I mean, they’re a completely different business to us. They operate independently and partnerships evolve over time... partnerships evolve and they have to adapt to what works at the time, so we’ll see how that changes over the next few years.

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Searching for color at Pantone’s all-brown party

Are we here to celebrate the color of the year or the luxury goods produced in its hue?

Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman says conversational AI is the next web browser

Photo illustration by The Verge / Photo: Microsoft

The company’s new AI chief on working for Microsoft, the OpenAI relationship, and when superintelligence might actually arrive.

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Lego Fortnite is getting a big expansion with a GTA-style roleplaying city

Image: Epic Games

Lego is building something new in Fortnite. A year after Lego Fortnite launched a new era inside of the game — one based on the idea that Fortnite is a collection of many game experiences, rather than just a battle royale — Lego is expanding its presence with a new title that sounds reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto V roleplaying as well as a rebrand of its core survival game.

First up is a game called Brick Life, which is billed as “an all-new social roleplay experience.” Players explore a Lego-ified city location with 31 other people and can take on specific jobs like courier, security guard, or sushi chef. Players can design their own homes and explore locations like a magical school and rooftop club, and there are missions to take on as well. From the sounds of it, Brick Life is a more family-friendly take on the enduring popularity of roleplaying servers in GTA V, and Epic isn’t being all that subtle about the connection:

Ah bricks here we go again... pic.twitter.com/1HiNMIbUKX

— LEGO Fortnite (@LEGOFortnite) December 8, 2024

Brick Life is launching inside of Fortnite on December 12th, though it won’t be available for players in South Korea.

As part of the announcement, Lego Fortnite — the Minecraft-style survival experience that launched last December — is being renamed Lego Fortnite Odyssey. From now on, “Lego Fortnite” will be the name of the hub inside of Fortnite that houses all of the Lego experiences. Epic and Lego have been steadily expanding their partnership over the last year, launching new games and also letting Fortnite players build their own Lego games.

The ongoing collaboration between Lego and Fortnite could provide a hint at what to expect from the upcoming “persistent universe” that Epic and Disney are making together, following a $1.5 billion investment from Disney in February. Since then, we’ve heard very little specifics about what the virtual world might look like.

Meanwhile, Epic has also announced that Fortnite is getting support for a revamped version of text chat, which will be available as an option across all of its experiences starting on December 10th. There will be three kinds of text chat available: party channel for talking with your squad; game channel for a public conversation with people on the same island; and DMs with people on your friends list.

Epic says there will be two kinds of chat filters — one that removes personal information, and another that filters out “various kinds of mature language and toxicity” — which will be on by default for any players under the age of 13. The feature will also include a reporting system similar to the voice reporting tool Epic launched last year. Here’s an example of what text chats look like in the game:

Image: Epic Games

All of these announcements come at a particularly busy time for Fortnite. The battle royale game is currently in the midst of a brand-new chapter that kicked off following an ambitious music-themed season, and Epic also recently brought back the nostalgia-filled Fortnite OG as a permanent mode. Meanwhile, Epic just announced “Ballistic,” a multiplayer first-person shooter mode that launches inside of Fortnite on December 11th.

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Raspberry Pi’s new keyboard computer can power an optional $100 display

The Raspberry Pi 500 computer keyboard starts at $90, but you’ll need to add your own mouse, power supply, and screen for that price. | Image: Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi has announced an upgraded version of its compact computer-in-a-keyboard, adding the new features and performance improvements of the Raspberry Pi 5 microcomputer it introduced last September.

The Raspberry Pi 500, which is available now starting for $90, is $20 more expensive than the Raspberry Pi 400 that debuted in late 2020. That extra cost gets you a 2.4GHz 64-bit quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 processor and 8GB of RAM. If you want more than just the computer keyboard, a $120 Desktop Kit includes it plus a matching mouse, a 27W USB-C power supply, a single micro HDMI cable, and a printed copy of the Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide book.

Image: Raspbery Pi

The Raspberry Pi Monitor features a 15.6-inch full HD IPS panel and built-in speakers.

The company is also introducing a display for those looking to buy a $220 all-in-one desktop solution. The $100 Raspberry Pi Monitor features a 15.6-inch full HD IPS panel with a built-in pair of 1.2W speakers and a folding stand. The display can be powered directly from a Raspberry Pi microcomputer with a USB port that outputs 1.5A at 5V, which includes the new Raspberry Pi 500 computer and its predecessor. But brightness will be limited to 60 percent while volume maxes out at 50 percent. With its own power supply —which you’ll need to buy separately — you’ll get full volume and brightness.

Image: Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi 500’s keyboard features a compact tenkeyless design with its various ports accessible on the back.

Other features of the Raspberry Pi 500 computer keyboard include an 800MHz VideoCore VII GPU, a 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO connector for attaching peripherals, support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0, two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, a gigabit ethernet port, and a single USB-C port that’s only used for power. There are also a pair of micro HDMI ports that can drive two 4K displays at 60Hz each, and a microSD card slot that comes with a 32GB card preloaded with the Debian-based Raspberry Pi operating system.

The new Raspberry Pi 500 won’t entirely replace the older Raspberry Pi 400, which is being kept around with a price drop from $70 to $60. The Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer Kit, which includes additional accessories like a mouse and power supply, is also getting a price cut from $100 to $80.

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Reddit’s new AI search tool helps you find Reddit answers without Google

Illustration: The Verge

Reddit is launching a new AI-powered search tool called Reddit Answers to help you more easily find information on the platform. The tool, similar to other AI search products, responds to queries by generating well-formatted responses and showing links to its sources.

But the distinction with Reddit Answers is that it sources things directly from Reddit, which means it could be a way to skip Google and get information directly from the source. Reddit has already been cracking down on where you can search for things from Reddit, and Google is the only major search engine that shows recent Reddit results. But Reddit probably would prefer if you did searches right on its platform, and Reddit Answers might prove to be a good way to do so.

Reddit Answers will initially roll out to “a limited number of users” in the US and in English, and it will be available on the web (not on Old Reddit) and iOS. (“We’re working on Android as we speak,” Serkan Piantino, Reddit’s VP of product, said in an interview.) Reddit plans to bring the tool to more languages and locations “in the future,” according to a blog post.

Reddit gave me access to a test version of Reddit Answers, and while I haven’t been able to mess around with it very much, I’ve liked what I’ve seen. There’s a big box to ask a query, but the initial Reddit Answers page also floats a bunch of suggested searches you can click on, like “favorite Nintendo character of all time,” “best mystery novels of 2025,” and “tips for flying with a baby for the first time.”

I clicked that last one, and the tool quickly pulled together a list and some bulleted suggestions with hyperlinks on the text and an arrow to click to see the source of the information. When you click either, a sidebar pops up showing the exact post where the information comes from.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

This is from a test version of Reddit Answers, so things might look a tad different when you try it. But you can get the gist.

A Reddit site search for the same query on Google, on the other hand, just gave me a standard long list of links to evaluate and click through. On its face, Google’s version, which doesn’t have the summaries or bullet points, isn’t as immediately informative as Reddit Answers. But personally, I’m pretty skeptical of AI summaries anyway — they can make some pretty bad errors! — so for me, the Google results are still perfectly fine as a way to explore some potentially useful posts on Reddit.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

My Reddit site search on Google.

Reddit Answers can also pick up on things happening on Reddit within minutes, according to spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt, so there’s also a chance responses to your queries will have timely results. I haven’t had much luck with that; on Friday, for example, I asked “who won yesterday’s NFL game,” and instead of pulling up answers about Thursday’s Packers-Lions game, it included details on the Eagles-Ravens game that happened on December 1st.

That might have just been a quirk of the product not being fully ready yet. In my testing, though, Reddit Answers has been much more useful as a jumping off point to dig into a more general topic on Reddit rather than an up-to-the-minute search tool. And while Reddit Answers is useful, I’m not sure yet if it’s good enough for me to change my habits around using Google to search for things on Reddit.

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Itch.io is currently offline due to a ‘trash AI-powered’ phishing report

Image: Epic Games

Indie game storefront Itch.io is currently offline because of what it describes as a bogus phishing report. While the game store’s servers are still online, the domain for the website is currently pointing towards IP addresses that itch.io doesn’t own — making it inaccessible for most people.

Itch.io blames pop culture collectibles company Funko for the issues in a post on X, “because they use some trash ‘AI-powered’ Brand Protection Software called Brand Shield that created some bogus Phishing report to our registrar.”

I kid you not, @itchio has been taken down by @OriginalFunko because they use some trash "AI Powered" Brand Protection Software called @BrandShieldltd that created some bogus Phishing report to our registrar, @iwantmyname, who ignored our response and just disabled the domain

— itch.io (@itchio) December 9, 2024

While the disputed page has been taken down, itch.io’s domain registrar, iwantmyname, still disabled the domain likely due to automated systems. According to a post on X, the indie game marketplace is now waiting on the domain registrar to respond and re-enable its domain.

If you know how to tweak your hosts file that maps hostnames to IP addresses then you can use the 45.33.107.166 IP address in the meantime, but you’ll need to remove the entry once the domain is restored. Itch.io is hoping the problems will be resolved in a matter of hours so it doesn’t have to deploy a new domain name instead.

The domain issues come just days after itch.io started allowing its users to use its domain name for Bluesky accounts. If you have spent $10 on the platform then you have the option to use your itch.io profile URL on Bluesky, but the current domain issues mean anyone who switched to the custom itch.io URLs has an “invalid handle” error on Bluesky until the main itch.io domain is back online.

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Trailers of the week: Star Trek, Severance, and Gundam

Michelle Yeoh in Star Trek: Section 31. | Image: Paramount Plus

It’s the first week of December, and the end of the year is coming in fast and with a lot to look forward to at theaters this month. That very cool-looking Lord of the Rings anime hits US theaters on the 13th; Sonic the Hedgehog 3 follows on the 20th; and I’m deeply excited to see Nosferatu on December 25th. (If you’re not with me on that last one, give Matt Zoller Seitz’s RogerEbert.com review of it a read and get back to me.)

While I’m waiting to go be unnerved by Robert Eggers’ new spooky vampire movie, let’s take a look at some good trailers from the last week.

Star Trek: Section 31

I’ll admit that the biggest appeal for me about this straight-to-streaming spy movie spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery is Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Philippa Georgiou. She’s just having so much fun in this trailer. The trailers haven’t revealed yet what threat she’ll be facing, other than being forced to do teamwork, but it seems like it’ll be pretty heavy on the rag-tag team of antiheroes action thing.

The Olatunde Osunsanmi-directed movie also stars Omari Hardwick, Kacey Rohl, Sven Ruygrok, Humberly Gonzalez, Rob Kazinsky, and Sam Richardson. It premieres on Paramount Plus starting January 24th.

Severance

I was late to the Severance party, having finally finished it a few months ago, so I can only imagine how eager people who saw its cliffhanger ending have been to see the story continue. Well, the second season of creator Dan Erickson’s bizarro sci-fi drama is almost here, and it looks like it’s probably going to bring answers, with even more mystery heaped on top of it.

All of the first season’s main characters, including Mark (Adam Scott), Dylan (Zach Cherry), Helly (Britt Lower), and Irving (John Turturro) are returning, and they’ll be joined by characters played by the likes of Alia Shawkat, Gwendoline Christie, and Bob Balaban. Season two of Severance premieres January 17th on Apple TV Plus.

Invincible

The third season of Invincible will see a stronger, older Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) tell off GDA director Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins) and episodes that show creator Robert Kirkman hopes will each feel like a finale. And there’s no season break this time around.

The show debuts with three episodes February 6th on Amazon Prime, with new episodes releasing every Thursday after until March 13th.

The Wheel of Time

The Wheel of Time continues its retelling of the Robert Jordan fantasy epic on March 13th next year. In its third season, the show follows Joshua Stradowski’s Rand al’Thor — the “Dragon Reborn” — and Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) as they go into the Aiel Waste. It’s been more than two decades since I read the book series, so I couldn’t spoil what happens there for you if I wanted to, but I seem to recall this was a fairly dark time in the series.

The Gorge

Who knows what evil is in The Gorge’s, uh, gorge, but it’s apparently contained well enough that humanity only needs two snipers — who aren’t allowed to interact with each other — stationed on either side of it to make sure it stays there. The snipers, Levi (Miles Teller) and Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy), do interact and fall for eachother, then end up in the gorge. Oops!

Scott Derrickson directs the movie, which also stars Sigourney Weaver, Sope Dirisu, and William Houston. It premieres February 14th on Apple TV Plus.

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX

Giant robot anime fans rejoice: there’s a new Mobile Suit Gundam coming next year. It’s called Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, and it’s produced by Khara, the studio behind the Rebuild of Evangelion films.

The weird name references a Gundam called the gMS-Ω GQuuuuuuX. The show will follow a highschooler — named Yuzuriha “Machu” Amate (Tomoyo Kurosawa) — who learns to co-pilot the building-sized, sword-wielding robot with pilot Shuji Ito (Shimba Tsuchiya). Some of its episodes will head to Japanese theaters on January 17th.

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The latest Invincible season 3 trailer shows off Mark’s new duds

Invincible season three is on its way, and Amazon has released a new trailer in which hero Mark Grayson takes on robots, rams a rocket in space, and chastises Oliver. He also gets a new blue suit.

“Mark’s speed has increased 65 percent; his endurance, 70 percent; and his strength, 138 percent,” says GDA agent Donald Ferguson (Chris Diamantopoulos), setting up the action-filled trailer. What follows are a _Mortal Kombat-_style beheading, nuclear explosions, and the promise of drama as Mark (Steven Yeun) tells GDA director Cecis Stedman (Walton Goggins) that he’s quitting.

The action will apparently persist all season long, as Invincible creator Robert Kirkman said earlier this year that he wanted every episode of it to “feel like it’s a finale.” And unlike the last season, this one won’t have a midseason break. Three episodes will start streaming on February 6th, 2025, with a new one following every Thursday through March 13th.

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