Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube has announced a new AI assistant feature to help users recover accounts that have been targeted by hackers. Described as a “troubleshooting tool” on Google’s support page, the chatbot can be accessed via the YouTube Help Center, and should ask hacked creators a series of questions to guide them through the process of securing their impacted Google logins and reversing any changes that have been made to their YouTube channels.The support assistant is currently only available in English, and access to “certain troubleshooting features” is limited to a select group of “certain creators,” but Google says it plans to eventually make the feature available to all YouTube creators.We’ve managed to access the tool and the results seem…... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge In a new letter, OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon insists that AI regulations should be left to the federal government. As reported previously by Bloomberg, Kwon says that a new AI safety bill under consideration in California could slow progress and cause companies to leave the state.A federally-driven set of AI policies, rather than a patchwork of state laws, will foster innovation and position the U.S. to lead the development of global standards. As a result, we join other AI labs, developers, experts and members of California’s Congressional delegation in respectfully opposing SB 1047 and welcome the opportunity to outline some of our key concerns.The letter is addressed to California State Senator Scott Wiener, who... Continue reading…

Summer's coming to a close and that means schools are going to start back up and folks are going to need to come back from their vacations. Of course, we're also seeing plenty of great deals on a variety of tech and gadgets, with laptops from every brand seeing sharp discounts ahead of the new school year. Of course, it's not every day we get to see some of the best laptops of 2024 on sale, especially our top-choice for this year, the HP Spectre X360 14.

Image: AMD AMD says Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 11 version 24H2 update will improve performance for its new Zen 5 CPUs. The Ryzen 9000 series launched earlier this month, and failed to live up to AMD’s performance promises in most reviews. After rumors of a Windows bug, AMD has revealed that AMD-specific branch prediction code will be optimized in Windows 11 version 24H2, which is expected to ship next month.“Zen 5 will see the biggest boost, but this Windows update will improve performance for Zen 4 and Zen 3 as well,” admits AMD. While the chip maker hasn’t revealed how much better its older CPUs will perform, it’s predicting a 13 percent performance improvement for its 9950X CPU in Far Cry 6 running 24H2 instead of 23H2, and a seven percent... Continue reading…

Most beginners may identify the high-speed PCI Express sockets on motherboards as the interface to attach discrete graphics cards to PCs. However, these slots can also be used for a handful of expansion cards. If youre unfamiliar with the term, these are optional accessories that can be plugged into the PCIe sockets to add new ports or integrate additional functions into your PC.

Image: Chick-fil-A The streaming space has become so crowded that it’s hard to imagine why any company would want to break in now, but that is apparently what Chick-fil-A (yes, the fast food chain) is planning to do.Deadline reports that Chick-fil-A is working with a number of production companies and traditional studios to create multiple original shows for a streaming platform debuting sometime later this year. Initially, the restaurant is said to be focused on family-friendly unscripted programming, including a game show produced by Glassman Media and Sugar23. But down the line, the currently unnamed service could also feature original scripted series, animation, and content that’s either licensed or acquired from other entertainment outfits.C... Continue reading…

Senior reviews editor Nathan Edwards uses a simple spring clamp to store his headphones. | Photo: Nathan Edwards / The Verge Every year, I ask The Verge’s staff what kind of audio gear they like to use. And they are the perfect set of people to ask: besides working on videos and podcasts, our Slack channels are filled with discussions of the podcasts and music we listen to while working, walking, exercising, or just hanging out. So here are the headphones, earbuds, and other devices that some of the folks here like to use, both on a professional and personal level. Headphones and earbudsRØDE NTH-100 headphones Andrew Marino, senior audio producerThe RØDE NTH-100 headphones are the comfiest headphones I’ve used. The memory foam cushions let me wear these all day at work without fatigue. The sound is great for the price, too, and the optional headset... Continue reading…

Microsoft first introduced the Settings app with the release of Windows 8, way back in 2012. Since then, the software giant has made slow progress in migrating settings from the Control Panel to the Settings app, raising serious doubts over whether Microsoft intends to fully replace the Control Panel with the Settings app. Putting all the skepticism to the rest, Microsoft has finally shared its official word on the final fate of the Control Panel.

Lil Jon joins the Georgia delegation at the DNC roll call to raucous applause. | Photo by Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images Compare clips from the Democratic National Convention, which kicked off on Monday in Chicago, to the Republican National Convention in July. They feel like different universes.At the RNC, during the roll call of votes nominating Donald Trump, states were called out to scattered applause along with the number of votes. The room was mostly quiet, and it sounded more like a jury delivering bad news than it did a political party affirming its future.The DNC roll call, meanwhile, included a playlist of music related to each state, like “Sweet Home Alabama” for Alabama and “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar for his home state of California. Delegates huddled around microphones, screaming and cheering as they announced their support for Vice... Continue reading…

A screenshot from the Megalopolis trailer. | Image: Lionsgate Hours after it was released, Lionsgate pulled a trailer for Megalopolis that was clearly “gunning for the haters” with a selection of negative quotes about director Francis Ford Coppola’s previous works. That’s because reports like this one from Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri showed that critic quotes in the trailer lambasting films like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now were fabricated.“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.”That all led some people to immediately wonder whether... Continue reading…

Image: GMC GMC says its limited “Denali Edition 1” launch versions of the new Sierra EV pickup truck are now being delivered to their first customers and are available for purchase at dealerships nationwide.GMC’s 2024 Sierra EV is parent company GM’s third electric pickup truck built on the Ultium EV platform after the just-launched Chevy Silverado EV. It’s also GM’s second GMC-branded EV after the beastly Hummer EV pickup (which now also comes in SUV format).The Denali’s main claims to fame are the same diagonal-driving CrabWalk mode party trick featured in the Hummer EV (see video above) and its promised range estimate of 440 miles on a single charge, matching the Silverado EV and besting the Rivian R1T’s Max battery range of 420 miles. (... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is splitting its App Store division in half, according to a report from Bloomberg. While one group of employees will run the App Store, the other will manage its approach to alternative marketplaces that have started opening up in the European Union.As part of the change, App Store vice president Matt Fischer will leave the company after more than a decade in the role. “This has been on my mind for some time, and as we are also reorganizing the team to better manage new challenges and opportunities, now is the right moment to pass the baton to two outstanding leaders on my team,” Fischer writes in an email to employees seen by Bloomberg. Fischer has also posted the email on LinkedIn.Now, Apple senior director Carson Oliver will... Continue reading…