Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas tells The Verge that many people are using chatbots like regular search engines. It makes sense to offer information on things they look for, like restaurants, directly from the source. So it’s integrating Yelp’s maps, reviews, and other details in responses when people ask for restaurant recommendations.“Our underlying motivation is that we started off as this tool that appealed to people doing fact checks and research. But research can be on anything, like what if you’re a coffee addict, you’d want to know where the good coffee shops are,” says Srinivas.As The Verge’s David Pierce recently pointed out, how Perplexity mixes text and links when answering questions was already a selling point compared to... Continue reading…

Image: Bluesky Bluesky will soon let users customize how content is moderated in their feeds. The social platform announced that it’s open-sourcing its moderation tool, called Ozone, to let developers create additional moderation services that can be selected by users.Bluesky already has a team dedicated to content moderation, along with its own set of rules users have to follow. However, the new system will let users expand what’s moderated to their liking, allowing them to subscribe to additional moderation services that label, annotate, or hide certain types of posts. Image: Bluesky Here’s what it will look like to subscribe to a moderation service. As an example, Bluesky says someone could use Ozone to create a... Continue reading…

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images, Nathan Howard Media manipulation meets technological innovation. Continue reading…

If the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gets its way, Congress will grant it more than $107 billion to run its enforcement regime during the 2025 fiscal year. Buried in the lengthy budget request is $101 million to upgrade and maintain the network of surveillance towers scattered throughout the borderlands, first noted by The Intercept. According to its own official publications, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) hopes to fully integrate these systems through AI.Politicians from both parties have long hailed CBP’s vast system, called the Integrated Surveillance Towers, as a sort of virtual wall that allows agents to better patrol the border. Although the surveillance towers comprise a small fraction of DHS’s gargantuan budget,... Continue reading…

Photo by Paul Ellis / AFP via Getty Images Kate Middleton’s botched photo editing job seen around the world is more than just catnip for tabloids and TikTok conspiracy theorists. It’s also the most instructive illustration of the AI-flecked new reality we live in, a maelstrom formed when distrust and established processes converge and create chaos.It’s hard to know what Middleton, aka the Princess of Wales and future Queen of England, was thinking when she allegedly edited her own photo so sloppily that it’s become front-page news in a bunch of countries. Shortly after the image was shared publicly, the world’s biggest wire agencies, like The Associated Press, Getty, and Reuters, issued retraction alerts — called “kill notices” — instructing media outlets to not use the image... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Hello! It’s been a bit since we checked in on the news. Today, I’ve got a look at the ongoing financial troubles at NPR member stations, the shutdown of Rooster Teeth, and the new season of Serial.Woes mounting at NPR member stations: “Sponsorship dollars won’t return to previous levels.”Two more public radio stations are discussing how they plan to get out of the red: Colorado Public Radio, which is adopting the “broadcast-to-podcast” strategy, and WBUR in Boston, which is appealing to listeners for donations before taking any next steps.Colorado Public Radio laid off 15 members of its staff last week and closed its... Continue reading…

Given that Microsoft and OpenAI have close ties, the Redmond giant's AI assistant, Copilot, has had access to some of the most advanced AI models. However, some of these features are locked behind a payment plan, with Microsoft offering Copilot Pro for people who want more from their assistants. Now, Microsoft has confirmed that Copilot's GPT-4 Turbo model is officially free to use, meaning you don't need a Copilot Pro plan to use it.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony is rolling out a new PS5 update that improves the speakers and microphone on DualSense controllers, adds pointers and emoji reactions to the Screen Share feature, and includes the ability to adjust the brightness of your PS5 power indicator. The update was first made available to testers last month and is rolling out globally to all PS5 owners today.Sony is updating the firmware on the DualSense and DualSense Edge wireless controllers as part of this update to improve the output volume of in-game sounds and voice chat. The microphones on both controllers have also been improved thanks to a new machine learning model that cancels out background noise like button presses. Image: Sony The new emoji reactions... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge From Warner Bros. Discovery to Comcast, several companies are courting Paramount with deals. Continue reading…

Low Power Mode was introduced in watchOS 9 with the Apple Watch Ultra in mind. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge The Apple Watch has never been known for having long battery life. Case in point: Apple never budged from the 18-hour battery life estimate until it launched the Apple Watch Ultra. In 2022, the company introduced a new Low Power Mode when it launched the Ultra, and now, it has extended the time between charges for Apple Watches using watchOS 9 and later.Previously, the Apple Watch had a Power Reserve mode, which shut off any functions aside from your ability to tell time and turned your smartwatch into a normal watch until you could get it to a charger. This mode is different — it’s more like the iPhone’s Low Power Mode. When enabled, you’ll still be able to use your Apple Watch, but certain power-hungry features will be turned off or... Continue reading…

Courtesy of Marvel Animation Marvel Studios has fired Beau DeMayo, the creator of the upcoming animated Disney Plus series X-Men ’97, according to The Hollywood Reporter. De Mayo previously produced and wrote for another Marvel show, Moon Knight, and has also worked on The Witcher, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The firing reportedly occurred early last week, and neither Marvel nor DeMayo’s representatives commented on the decision to the outlet. Marvel has also not responded to The Verge’s request for comment. The timing of DeMayo’s departure is unusual, given that X-Men ’97 is set to premiere on Disney Plus roughly a week from now, on March 20th. DeMayo is credited as the creator and executive producer of the show’s entire... Continue reading…

The framed edition of the atomic purple Game Boy Color is nearly $30 off for a limited time. | Image: Grid Of all the tech-centric artwork I’ve seen over the years, few pieces have grabbed me as much as Grid Studio’s framed gadgets and gizmos. The company has been slinging the collage-like pieces for several years now, taking oft-forgotten devices once destined for the landfill and putting them on full display in classy shadowbox-style frames with exploded views. And now, thanks to its annual spring sales event, Grid is offering up to 40 percent off select items through the end of March.There are plenty of retro and contemporary items to choose from, from controllers to smartphones to gaming consoles that once dominated the handheld market in the US. The iPhone 4S and original NES controller — both of which are on sale for $99 ($70 off),... Continue reading…