OpenAI now lets teams make custom bots that can do work on their own
OpenAI is giving users of its Business, Enterprise, Edu, and Teachers plans access to cloud-based "workspace" agents available in ChatGPT that can perform business tasks. In its blog post, OpenAI gives examples of agents like one that finds product feedback on the web and sends a report in Slack and a sales agent that can draft follow-up emails in Gmail.
These new agents follow increasing interest in agents across the AI landscape, especially after OpenClaw - the AI agent formerly known as Clawdbot and Moltbot that touts itself as the "AI that actually does things" - went viral. OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger now works for OpenAI. OpenA …
Alexis Ohanian shocks Washington with pro-immigration remarks
Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge readers about tech politics, political tech, and how they're muddying the waters of Washington, DC. My birthday is this week, and if you're not a Verge subscriber but would like to wish me a happy birthday, you should subscribe here, because that would be the best gift of all. (Tips sent to tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com would be a very good gift, too.)
Last night, I watched Alexis Ohanian, venture capitalist and cofounder of Reddit, stun a room of Washington insiders by criticizing the Trump administration's immigration policies. This happened in front of at least one senior administrat …
Former MrBeast exec sues over ‘years’ of alleged harassment
A former employee of Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson has filed a lawsuit alleging that she faced "intentional infliction of emotional distress" from harassment at the YouTuber's production company, was asked to work during maternity leave, and was wrongfully fired just a few weeks after returning from leave. According to the lawsuit, plaintiff Lorrayne Mavromatis and other female employees were demeaned by their male colleagues, who perpetuated a toxic, "male-centric workplace."
Mavromatis was one of the few women in the executive suite at Beast Industries before she was fired. The lawsuit claims that she faced unwanted sexual advances and comme …
Ember’s self-heating smart mug is more than $50 off ahead of Mother’s Day
Coffee is what gets many of us through the workday, and a proper smart mug can keep it hot for hours so you can maintain your focus without constantly getting up to reheat your cup. Thankfully, if you don’t own one, the 14-ounce Ember Mug 2 is now available for $97.49 ($52 off) from Amazon, Target, and Ember as part of Ember’s ongoing Mother’s Day sale. You can also buy the smaller 10-ounce model for $84.47 ($46 off) from the same retailers (Amazon, Target, Ember).
Ember Mug 2 (14-ounce)
Where to Buy:
Ember Mug 2 (10-ounce)
Where to Buy:
Using the Ember app, the Mug 2 lets you set an exact drinking temperature between 120 and 145 degrees Fahrenheit, which it can maintain for up to 90 minutes or all day using the included charging coaster. You don’t have to worry about the battery draining unnecessarily, either, thanks to an automatic sleep function, which powers down the smart mug when it’s empty or hasn’t been used for several hours.
The smart mug offers a fair amount of control beyond that, too. Within the Android / iOS app, you can also create and save preset temperatures for different beverages and set up notifications for when your drink reaches your preferred temperature. Meanwhile, a customizable LED indicator on the coaster lets you quickly check heating and battery status at a glance.
As a bonus, the Ember Mug 2 is also relatively easy to care for. It features a scratch-resistant coating to help prevent wear over time and carries an IPX7 water-resistance rating, so it can be safely hand-washed (just don’t put it in the dishwasher).
Watch Sony’s elite ping-pong robot beat top-ranked players
Humans have been building ping-pong playing robots for decades, such as Omron's FORPHEUS that challenged amateur competitors at CES 2017. What sets Ace apart from the rest is that the robot, which was developed by Sony's AI division, is the first that can hold its own against top-ranked human players and occasionally even beat them in matches that follow the official rules of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
AI is already capable of besting humans at games like Chess and Go, but physical games pose a much greater challenge as robots have to be engineered to match the speed and responsiveness of the human mind and body. To b …
Anthropic’s Mythos rollout has missed America’s cybersecurity agency
Several US federal agencies are taking up Anthropic's new cybersecurity model to find vulnerabilities, but one is reportedly not getting in on the action: the nation's central cybersecurity coordinator.
On Tuesday, Axios reported that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) didn't have access to Mythos Preview, which Anthropic has touted as a powerful tool for finding and patching security vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, other agencies like Commerce Department and National Security Agency (NSA) are reportedly using the model, and President Donald Trump's administration has been negotiating broader access, Axios wrote last w …
Microsoft teases mysterious Discord and Xbox Game Pass partnership
Microsoft has started teasing a new Discord and Xbox Game Pass partnership, just a day after lowering prices of its Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscriptions. Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma says the company is partnering with Discord again "as we continue to make Game Pass more flexible for our players."
It's not immediately clear what the latest Discord and Xbox partnership will result in, but given it's a Game Pass one it's likely related to some perks for subscribers of Xbox Game Pass. At the moment Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can get a month of Discord Nitro as part of the subscription, and it's possible that Microsoft and …
Google Meet will take AI notes for in-person meetings too
Google's AI meeting notetaker is no longer limited to Google Meets - Gemini can also generate summaries and transcripts of in-person meetings now, as well as meetings on Zoom and Microsoft Teams, as first reported by 9to5Google.
Support for in-person meetings was previously limited to alpha users and only available on Android. Google's support page for the feature notes that, "If a user who is not in person wants to join the meeting, you can transition the meeting to a normal video call." The feature also works for impromptu meetings - Google says you "don't need to be in a meeting room" or in a previously scheduled meeting to use it.
Us …
Microsoft says the ‘idea’ of an Xbox mobile store ‘is not dead’
Microsoft first revealed it was building an Xbox mobile gaming store to take on Apple and Google all the way back in 2022. Former Xbox president Sarah Bond even went on stage at a Bloomberg event nearly two years ago and promised the store would launch in July, 2024. Now, it looks like Microsoft has put the project on hold.
Better xCloud developer redphx noticed that the store URL Microsoft had been testing for the past couple of years no longer works. It's not clear exactly when it disappeared, but the last time the website was updated was nearly a year ago.
The store was originally supposed to compete with Google and Apple, but strict ap …
Will a new CEO help realize Apple’s smart home potential?
It took Tim Cook years to launch Apple into major new hardware categories, such as the smartwatch. But John Ternus could start his tenure right away with an ambitious new project: smart home hardware.
All signs point to a strong lineup of new smart home devices coming potentially this fall, putting Apple back in the game in a category where it has been painfully slow to ship new devices.
With a hardware man at the helm in Ternus, the chances of Apple fully committing to the smart home feel far higher than under Cook. And while, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Ternus was reluctant to invest deeply in the smart home a decade ago - tak …