Photo by Nathan Congleton / NBC via Getty Images Scarlett Johansson says that OpenAI asked her to be the voice behind ChatGPT — but that when she declined, the company went ahead and created a voice that sounded just like her. In a statement shared to NPR, Johansson says that she has now been “forced to hire legal counsel” and has sent two letters to OpenAI inquiring how the soundalike ChatGPT voice, known as Sky, was made.“Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system,” Johansson writes. She says that Altman contacted her agent as recently as two days before the company first demoed the ChatGPT voice asking for her to reconsider.Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI situation. Wow: p... Continue reading…

If you've been looking for a charging bundle that can really handle it all, then this one from Anker is going to be for you. You get a 65W charger, 25,600mAh power bank, and it even comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable. While all of this normally comes priced at $129.99, it can now be had for much less with a superb discount that takes 54% off for a limited time.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes led a tabletop exercise for journalists to role-play as election officials to understand the speed and scale of AI threats they face. | Photo by Ash Ponders for The Verge The job has never been harder, and the threats have never been stranger. Continue reading…

The new iPad Pro (M4, 2024) brings the powerful M4 Apple silicon chip to creative professionals before it gets a home in the MacBook line later this year. With an all-new display type in the tandem OLED, it's even more suited than ever for sketching, video editing, and other creative tasks. To get the best out of the touch interface on this awesome iPad, you'll want to pick up a good stylus pen that's compatible with the somewhat unique touchscreen technology that Apple uses. We've got you covered with a collection of all our favorite stylus pens to pair with your new iPad Pro.

LG CEO William Cho and home entertainment company president Park Hyoung-sei met with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in February to discuss the collaboration. | Image: LG LG is reportedly pausing its partnership with Meta to develop an extended reality (XR) device that would take on Apple’s Vision Pro headset, just three months after announcing the joint venture.While multiple Korean news outlets are reporting that the Meta partnership has broken down entirely due to a lack of “synergy” between the companies, LG has denied terminating the deal. “LG Electronics continues the XR partnership with Meta forged in February but is controlling its pace,” LG said in a statement to Korea JoongAng Daily. Products from the collaboration, set to combine Meta’s Horizon Worlds mixed reality platform with content and service capabilities from LG’s TV business, were expected to hit the market next year. The potential... Continue reading…

Image: Aurora Volvo revealed its first “production-ready” self-driving truck that it’s making with Aurora, the autonomous driving technology company founded by former executives from Google, Uber, and Tesla. The truck is based on Volvo’s new VNL, which is a Class 8 semi truck built for long-haul transportation. The autonomous version of the truck features an array of sensors and cameras to power Aurora’s Level 4 autonomous driving system, which enables the truck to operate without a human behind the wheel. The companies say the truck is “purpose-designed and purpose-built” for Aurora’s self-driving hardware and software stack. “This truck is the first of our standardized global autonomous technology platform, which will enable us to introduce... Continue reading…

If you want to use Wi-Fi in your home, you'll need a wireless router of some kind. Some ISPs will rent you their one-size-fits-all solution for a monthly fee, but if you want to stay in control of your own hardware and software, it can be a good idea to get your own router. You can keep it simple and grab one of the best Wi-Fi routers or one of the best mesh systems. If you really want to understand what you're buying though, you'll want to look out for these important features.

Usually, when Microsoft adds a new feature to the Windows 11 Beta or Dev branch, it's automatically enabled so people can test it out and find bugs to report. However, sometimes Microsoft hides some features, presumably because it's not quite finished yet. If you have the Windows 11Beta branch installed and you feel like doing a little digging, you can now enable a hidden File Explorer revamp that isn't visible by default.

There's no shortage of awesome Raspberry Pi projects on the internet, with aspiring tinkers and veterans putting their skills to the test to produce some of the most interesting projects using some of the most popular SBCs in 2024.

The Aqara Wall Outlet H2 can trigger scenes based upon real-time power usage. | Image: Aqara Aqara just announced the €39.99 Wall Outlet H2, which offers a one-for-one smart replacement for standard 16A wall sockets used in Europe. Its party trick is the ability to monitor the real-time power usage of connected devices and appliances to initiate automations around the home.For example, if you charge your phone when going to sleep you could automatically activate a nighttime scene — arm motion detectors, lock the door, close blinds, and turn off lights — just as soon as the H2 begins pulling more than 10W of power. Or, it can detect when the laundry cycle ends to shut the machine off and send you a notification — that way you don’t have to listen to it beep incessantly until you finally walk upstairs with heavy regret for having... Continue reading…

The Mac App Store has been with us for nearly 15 years now, and in that time it's been broadly successful as a single location for downloading first-party approved apps. But much like the Microsoft Store, it fails to compete on one key level. Neither gets anywhere near the universal power of package managers on major Linux distros. Need a bit of software, library, or command line tool? MacOS offers no native option to install these things, unlike most Linux distributions.

With its innovative block editor, project management tools, real-time collaboration, calendar integration, reminders, and more, Notion has completely disrupted the productivity space. A rich templates library is another solid reason for Notions soaring popularity and wide adoption. Whether you are a student, professional, marketer, designer, or HR director, check out the top Notion templates to create an ideal workflow on your laptop.