Illustration: The Verge Google has fired an employee who publicly protested the company’s work for the Israeli military. During a presentation by an executive with Google’s Israel branch on Monday, the now-former Google Cloud engineer stood up and shouted, “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide or surveillance.”Google confirmed the firing, which was first reported by CNBC, in an email to The Verge. “Earlier this week, an employee disrupted a coworker who was giving a presentation — interfering with an official company-sponsored event,” Google spokesperson Bailey Tomson says in an emailed statement. “This behavior is not okay, regardless of the issue, and the employee was terminated for violating our policies.”BREAKING—PRO-PALESTINE @googlecloud ... Continue reading…

As our favorite smartphones have grown over the years, they have allowed us to become more immersed in our content with larger screens. But they have also become more challenging to hold. If you're having trouble holding onto your device, whether an iPhone or Android device, try getting a grip. There are standard grips, as well as those that add a bit of extra functionality, including kickstands, MagSafe compatibility, rechargeable batteries, and wallets. We've rounded up the best ones you can buy below, and you can't go wrong with any one of them.

As much as we'd like them to, computers don't always work as they should, and while it's uncommon, they can sometimes stop working altogether and crash. This is what's often called a Blue Screen of Death (formerly a Black Screen of Death), or BSOD, which is actually a mechanism in Windows 11 to help you diagnose problems with your system. A BSOD can also be referred to as a stop error or a bug check, which is when a critical process to the normal operation of Windows runs into a problem and forces the computer to restart.

Microsoft just recently released the latest update for Windows 11, called Moment 5. As per usual, it's rolling out in a gradual process that's somewhat confusing, but at the end of the day, it's a nice update with some welcome improvements to Copilot and more. But who really cares about Moment 5 when we have Windows 11 version 24H2 (also known as the 2024 Update) coming out later this year?

Sam Altman. An independent investigation commissioned by OpenAI’s nonprofit board has found that CEO Sam Altman’s conduct “did not mandate removal.” After surviving an attempted boardroom coup in November, he will now rejoin the board.In a press release, board chair Bret Taylor said the law firm WilmerHale interviewed board members, employees, and reviewed “more than 30,000 documents” to reach the conclusion that Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman “are the right leaders for OpenAI.”In addition to Altman, Taylor also announced three more OpenAI board members: Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, a former legal executive at Sony; and Fidji Simo, the CEO of Instacart. They will join Taylor,... Continue reading…

Good browser hygiene, believe it or not, is crucial for online safety. I say that because things like your browsing history — which is essentially a window into who you are — can cause a lot of problems for you when it gets in the wrong hands. That's why clearing your browser history frequently is just as important as, say, using a password manager. Consider this as a reminder to clear your browser history if you haven't done it in a while.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are powerful tools, and ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini consistently manage to blow me away. Their capabilities are extensive, but they're not without their faults. Hallucinations are a big problem with LLMs like these, though companies are aware of them and try to stamp them out whereveer possible. However, I don't think these models are the future of LLMs. I think the future of AI are the smaller, specialized models, rather than the general purpose tools that these are.

AMD finally has a response to Nvidia's Video Super Resolution (VSR) capability, launched last year to enhance online videos. With the latest Adrenaline driver 24.1.1, AMD has introduced a new advanced video algorithm for RX 7000 GPUs and DirectX 11 apps to elevate the overall visual experience.

Microsoft has a rather controversial history of inserting "advertisements" for its other services in Windows 11, with these promotions sometimes causing issues in the operating system too. Now, the Redmond tech giant has been caught embedding content regarding Copilot in the Windows 11 lock screen in a rather unsolicited manner.

Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 2: Myths & Mortals | Image: Epic Games The launch of Fortnite’s Greek mythology-themed Chapter 5: Season 2 has been on hold since early this morning after the usual downtime for maintenance didn’t end on schedule. Epic usually takes the servers down at 3AM ET to prepare for a big update, but then the battle royale game never came back online, with messages saying the work would take a few hours longer than usual. The most recent message from the Fortnite Status account on X came just after 4PM ET, telling players they could preload the new update “in approximately five hours.” How long will it take until everyone is able to log in and actually play? We don’t know yet, but we’ll update you on the issue as more information comes in. A message sent at around 6PM ET warned... Continue reading…

Illustration by Haein Jeong / The Verge Two Florida middle schoolers were arrested in December and charged with third-degree felonies for allegedly creating deepfake nudes of their classmates. A report by Wired cites police reports saying two boys, aged 13 and 14, are accused of using an unnamed “artificial intelligence application” to generate the explicit images of other students “between the ages of 12 and 13.” The incident may be the first US instance of criminal charges related to AI-generated nude images.They were charged with third-degree felonies under a 2022 Florida law that criminalizes the dissemination of deepfake sexually explicit images without the victim’s consent. Both the arrests and the charges appear to be the first of their kind in the nation related to... Continue reading…

Sony’s latest bundle nets you either the standard or disc-less PS5, along with one of its best exclusives to date. | Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment Happy Saturday, dear readers! Just over a week ago, we saw a bundle containing the disc-based PlayStation 5 “slim” and a digital copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 drop to $449 ($50 off) — a deal that’s still readily available at Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop. What’s changed over the past week, however, is that Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop are all now selling the disc-less PS5 Digital Edition with the same Spider-Man sequel for $399.99 ($50 off), an all-time low.If you’ve been thinking about picking up Sony’s latest console, there’s never been a better time to do so. Sony’s new midcycle refresh isn’t drastically slimmer than the original model that launched in 2020, though it does feature two front-facing USB-C ports — instead of one... Continue reading…