Illustration: The Verge OpenAI has struck a deal with News Corp, the media company that owns The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, The Daily Telegraph, and others. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI’s deal with News Corp could be worth over $250 million in the next five years “in the form of cash and credits for use of OpenAI technology.”The multi-year agreement gives OpenAI access to current and archived articles from News Corp publications for AI training and to answer user questions.This is the latest in a string of licensing deals OpenAI has inked with major media companies and outlets, including The Associated Press, the Financial Times, People publisher Dotdash Meredith, and Politico owner Axel Springer. Some outlets have filed... Continue reading…

The iRobot Select subscription plan that launched with the Roomba j7 Plus has been suspended. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge iRobot has ended its robot vacuum subscription service iRobot Select, which got you a high-end Roomba for less money upfront. But along with free replacement parts and accessories and the option to upgrade every three years, the program also enabled iRobot to shut down the vacuum remotely if you stopped paying.iRobot Select launched in 2021 along with the j7 Plus Roomba, offering that robot with its sleek auto-empty station to subscribers. According to a statement from iRobot provided to TechHive, the company suspended new subscriptions as part of its organizational restructuring. While you can no longer sign up for the service, existing subscribers will keep their benefits for now. With Roombas frequently on sale, the value of the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nvidia just made $14 billion worth of profit in a single quarter thanks to AI chips, and it’s hitting the gas from here on out: Nvidia will now design new chips every year instead of once every two years, according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.“I can announce that after Blackwell, there’s another chip. We’re on a one-year rhythm,” Huang just said on the company’s Q1 2025 earnings call. Until now, Nvidia’s produced a new architecture roughly once every two years — revealing Ampere in 2020, Hopper in 2022, and Blackwell in 2024, for example. (The industry darling H100 AI chip was Hopper, and the B200 is Blackwell, though those same architectures are used in gaming and creator GPUs as well.)But analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported earlier this... Continue reading…

Image: Bluesky Bluesky will now let you send a direct message to other users. For now, you can only send messages containing text, but Bluesky is working on adding support for images and videos.To send a DM, select the chat icon at the bottom of your screen on mobile or hit the chat bubble in your sidebar on desktop. Once you create a new chat, search for the user you want to talk to, write your message, and hit send. Just keep in mind that DMs on Bluesky aren’t end-to-end encrypted just yet, but the platform plans on supporting it in the future.Now available: DMs! Start a private conversation with a friend directly on Bluesky within the Chat tab. Update to the latest version of the app (1.83) or refresh on desktop to start chatting!— Bluesky... Continue reading…

We're on the cusp of a big change for Windows laptops. Microsoft, Qualcomm, and hardware partners have just introduced the first wave of Qualcomm Snapdragon X PCs, with a whopping 14 laptops from seven manufacturers, and there are more to come in the future.

Walmart’s Onn Google TV 4K Pro streaming box (pictured) already supports the feature. | Image: Walmart A useful perk has been included in the latest Android update for Google TV that should make it easier to find missing remotes. Android Authority reports that the beta release for Android 14 for TV — announced during last week’s Google I/O conference — contains references to a new “find my remote” feature.One text string found within the update reads as follows:There is a button on your Google TV that you can push to play a sound on your remote for 30 seconds. This only works with supported Google TV remote controls. To stop the sound, press any button on your remote.AFTVNews found the same message is displayed on the Onn Google TV 4K Pro streaming box that Walmart released earlier this month with support for the new find my remote... Continue reading…

Photo by Taylor Hill / WireImage OpenAI could face legal consequences for making a ChatGPT voice that sounds a lot like Scarlett Johansson — whether the company did so intentionally or not. And the fact that OpenAI’s CEO referenced those similarities? That only makes matters worse, intellectual property lawyers tell The Verge.“There are a few courses of actions she can take, but case law supports her position,” says Purvi Patel Albers, partner at the law firm Haynes Boone with a focus on trademarks and copyright.After demoing updates to ChatGPT last week, OpenAI spurred commentary and headlines noting that the voice of its AI assistant — named Sky — sounded a lot like Johansson, especially her performance as an AI assistant in the movie Her.Past celebrity likeness... Continue reading…

After automatically switching on the adaptive audio mode, Google will group participants in the same room together in the people panel under “merged audio.” | Image: Google Google has introduced “adaptive audio,” a new Google Meet feature that offers Google Workspace users an alternative to dedicated videoconferencing equipment — if their package includes access to new AI features. Once it’s rolled out, Google Meet will be able to automatically detect multiple laptops in the same room and merge together their speakers and microphones. The idea is that it will allow multiple participants to be heard clearly without needing to huddle around a single laptop while also reducing echoes and audio feedback. Image: Google According to Google, this feature should benefit small organizations and other teams who might not have the dedicated equipment available or if the equipment is experiencing... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge After threatening to remove links to California news outlets due to a new bill in the state, Google could cut back its investments in the industry even more. The tech giant has told nonprofit newsrooms that it could halt funding to the Google News Initiative, which provides more than $300 million in funding across thousands of news outlets, according to a report from Axios.Google issued the warning in response to another California bill aimed at helping local news outlets. If passed, the bill would charge a 7.25 percent tax whenever large companies like Google sell user information to advertisers. The money collected from that tax would fund tax credits for news outlets in the state.Although this law would only go into effect in... Continue reading…

If you're looking for a great tablet, but not an Android tablet, there's no world where you shouldn't consider an iPad. But Apple has a variety of tablets for sale, and it can be confusing to decide on one. You may be considering either Apple's all-new mid-range iPad Air or the company's entry-level 10th Gen iPad. Luckily, we're here to help you choose with the ultimate iPad Air vs iPad comparison.

You can get an LG C3 for under $800 right now, along with tablets, earbuds, and a slew of other discounted items. | Image: LG The summer solstice may be when summer officially kicks off, but for many of us, it starts as soon as temperatures begin to rise and the smell of barbecue begins wafting through the air. Memorial Day also serves as the unofficial start to the season, and the deals that are popping up right now are a great indicator that it’s right around the corner. Below, we’ve rounded up the best Memorial Day deals you can get on an array of gadgets and gizmos. This includes wireless headphones like the Beats Solo 4, which are currently receiving their first discount, as well as inexpensive security cameras like the Blink Mini 2. You can also pick up Amazon’s latest Fire TV Cube for its best price to date, along with tablets, Garmin watches, and one... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Caller ID company Truecaller will let users create an AI version of their voice to answer calls.Truecaller is an app that identifies and blocks spam calls that some people prefer over their phone’s default system. Now the service will let users with access to its AI Assistant to record their voice. The company partnered with Microsoft’s Azure AI Speech, which will learn from the recorded clip to generate an AI version of the user’s voice. “This groundbreaking capability not only adds a touch of familiarity and comfort for the users but also showcases the power of AI in transforming the way we interact with our digital assistants,” says Truecaller product director and general manager Raphael Mimoun in the blog post. Truecaller’s AI... Continue reading…