Illustration: The Verge Sarah Bird, Microsoft’s chief product officer of responsible AI, tells The Verge in an interview that her team has designed several new safety features that will be easy to use for Azure customers who aren’t hiring groups of red teamers to test the AI services they built. Microsoft says these LLM-powered tools can detect potential vulnerabilities, monitor for hallucinations “that are plausible yet unsupported,” and block malicious prompts in real time for Azure AI customers working with any model hosted on the platform. “We know that customers don’t all have deep expertise in prompt injection attacks or hateful content, so the evaluation system generates the prompts needed to simulate these types of attacks. Customers can then get a... Continue reading…

Photo by Brian Rothmuller / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Hulu’s subscription TV service has added MLB Network to its core channel lineup in the nick of time for the league’s Opening Day 2024. This will provide customers with access to “over 100 MLB games nationally broadcast over the course of the season,” along with the network’s original programming and studio shows. YouTube TV, one of Hulu with Live TV’s primary competitors, abruptly dropped MLB Network early last year after it was unable to reach a new carriage agreement with Major League Baseball. And with no announcement of a return ahead of today’s opening games, it appears that YTTV subscribers will go without it for another year. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising after the company shelled out $2 billion for the rights to NFL... Continue reading…

Microsoft OneNote is one of the best note-taking apps out there, especially for Windows users. It integrates seamlessly with Microsoft OneDrive and other Microsoft products like Word, Excel, and Teams. This integration opens the door to easy file sharing and collaboration, but it offers much more even if you’re not a part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Image: Amazon Amazon now lets you sign up for its palm recognition service directly from your phone. It’s launching a new Amazon One app on iOS and Android you can use to take a photo of your palm and set up your account, allowing you to start scanning your palm at locations that support the verification tech.Previously, Amazon required users to visit physical locations to enroll in Amazon One, which lets you make a purchase or verify your age based on the palm print linked to your Amazon account. The service is available at all Whole Foods stores across the US and some Panera Bread locations, as well as more than 150 stadiums, airports, fitness centers, and convenience stores.Amazon One uses generative AI to analyze your palm vein structure to... Continue reading…

There are few PS5-compatible gaming headsets that do everything as well as the Nova Pro Wireless. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales When I can’t crank up the volume and bass on my Dolby Atmos system while gaming, I rely on the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless to inject immersive, crisp, and well-balanced audio directly into my eardrums. I own the Xbox version and would still happily buy it for $350 if I needed a replacement. Lucky for you, the version designed to work with the PS5 and PC is nearly matching its all-time low at Amazon and Best Buy, where you can grab it for about $281 ($70 off). The Xbox version is also on sale for $299.99 ($50 off) at Best Buy.I’ve found the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless to be well worth the money. In addition to a comfortable ski band design and satisfying 40mm drivers, the headset connects to a base station with line-in and two USB... Continue reading…

Two in-development Borderlands projects will continue to be led by Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford under Take-Two’s 2K division. | Image: 2K Swedish gaming conglomerate Embracer Group has entered an agreement to sell Gearbox Interactive to Rockstar parent company Take-Two for $460 million. In a press release published on Thursday, Embracer announced that Take-Two will acquire full ownership over the Borderlands (including Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands), Homeworld, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukem franchises in the deal, which is expected to be finalized by June 2024.Take-Two Entertainment will also acquire the Gearbox studios based in Quebec, Montréal, and Frisco, Texas. Embracer will, however, retain several Gearbox assets, including Gearbox Publishing San Francisco (which will be renamed), Cryptic Studios, Lost Boys Interactive, the Remnant franchise, Hyper Light... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge After Windows and Surface chief Panos Panay departed Microsoft last year, the software giant quickly split his two divisions into two different teams. It was a move designed to push Windows engineers to focus on more web and AI features under Mikhail Parakhin, who was previously responsible for Bing and ads. It didn’t work out.Six months after that shake-up, Windows and Surface are back together under a new leader, following frustrations from the very top of Microsoft. The shuffling comes just as Microsoft gets ready for a big “AI PC” push.Pavan Davuluri, who’s currently in charge of Surface hardware, will now lead both Windows and Surface. Mustafa Suleyman, the DeepMind co-founder who Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella just hired, will now... Continue reading…

Getty Algorithms might help hotels illegally collude on prices, even if no humans from those businesses actually talk to each other about them, according to US antitrust enforcers.The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission jointly submitted a statement of interest in Cornish-Adebiyi v. Caesars Entertainment, a case brought before the US District Court of New Jersey. The class action case was brought by New Jersey residents who rented rooms in Atlantic City hotels and alleged that several of those hotels engaged in an illegal price-fixing conspiracy through the use of a common pricing algorithm.The plaintiffs are trying to show that the hotels violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits “conspiracy in restraint of... Continue reading…

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images New York City will soon start testing out technology that uses AI to detect guns at subway turnstiles, Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday. Adams’ announcement comes one week after an altercation at a subway station in Brooklyn in which a man was shot with his own gun after pulling it on another passenger.Adams said the city is partnering with Evolv, a Massachusetts-based weapons detection company whose detectors are used in schools and venues across the country. Evolv, however, has faced scrutiny over the accuracy of its machines, as well as two government probes and a class action lawsuit by shareholders.The pilot will start in 90 days, in accordance with the POST Act, which requires the New York City Police Department to disclose the... Continue reading…

A wind turbine at the South Fork Wind Farm in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Long Island, New York, on December 7th, 2023. | Photo by Steve Pfost / Newsday RM via Getty Images Labor groups inked a first-of-its-kind deal to support local hiring and union jobs with the developer of New York’s first offshore wind port. It’s an agreement for the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, envisioned as a crucial onshore staging area for some of America’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farms. The US gets very little electricity from offshore wind today, even though the resource has the potential to meet up to a quarter of the nation’s power needs by 2050. The very first set of offshore wind farms are being built off the east coast, a key part of the Biden administration’s efforts to transition the country to clean energy. Policymakers say good jobs are another pillar of that transition. And they hope this new agreement... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Apple plans to release a new lineup of iPad Pros with OLED displays in early May, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The company is also reportedly planning to launch an iPad Air with a larger 12.9-inch display for the first time.According to Gurman’s sources, the new iPad Pro models will feature Apple’s in-house M3 chip, along with a revamped Magic Keyboard with a bigger trackpad. The iPad Air, on the other hand, is rumored to come with the last-generation M2 chip and two display sizes: the standard 10.9-inch option and a larger 12.9-inch one. The current iPad Pro models use M2 chips, while the Air has an M1.It’s been nearly two years since Apple released an updated iPad. Bloomberg says that, though the company... Continue reading…

When you're on the hunt for the best laptop, there are tons of different computers to consider. The latest MacBook Pro 16 is one of the best Macs, while Razer's newest Blade 16 is one of the best gaming laptops, making it tough to decide between the two.