The new and huger Paramount has a new co-CEO
Paramount is appointing a new co-CEO ahead of the close of its $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Ynon Kreiz, previously Mattel's chairman and CEO, will be joining Paramount to lead alongside chairman and CEO David Ellison.
According to Paramount, "Ellison will focus on the company's long-term strategy, creative vision and direction, including its talent relationships, strategic partnerships, technology and capital allocation. Kreiz will focus on the company's day-to-day management and integration of the combined businesses." The combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will "report jointly" to Ellison and Kreiz.
Kreiz …
Neon sticks it to A24 by announcing a Creative Commons SCP Foundation movie
A24 pissed off one of the internet's largest horror communities when it announced it was working on an SCP Foundation film, but apparently hadn't bothered to contact the SCP Wiki team, nor did it commit to releasing it under a Creative Commons license as required. Seeing an easy PR win, Neon is cashing in by announcing it's making its own SCP movie. But unlike A24, it proactively reached out to the SCP Foundation Wiki team and has pledged to release it under the Creative Commons ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license.
This is not an "official" SCP film. None of the wiki's staff is involved in the writing or production, it is not receiving compensati …
Google announces Gemini 4 and says it’s so capable that only ‘trusted cyber defenders’ can have it right now
Google today revealed its next AI frontier model, which it's calling Gemini 4 Argon. The new model delivers "frontier performance in complex workflows across real-world software engineering, enterprise knowledge work like legal and finance, and cybersecurity defense," according to chief AI architect and Google DeepMind SVP Koray Kavukcuoglu. But the company is limiting access at first to a "set of trusted cyber defenders," and Kavukcuoglu says that Google is "actively engaged in the U.S. government's voluntary process for pre-release model access while we gradually expand access."
Kavukcuoglu says Gemini 4 Argon is already powering Google's …
The AI Tamagotchis are coming
While AI has made plenty of inroads on people's phones and computers, it's largely failed in dedicated devices. But over the next year, two major AI companies, Meta and OpenAI, will attempt to change that. And they're apparently betting on a similar path: testing appetites for physical hardware with their cutesy software agents.
"Hardware is hard" is a tech industry mantra. Dedicated AI devices like the Friend and Humane AI Pin have inspired mainly frustration and backlash, which may only worsen as public anger toward AI grows. Meta and OpenAI, however, are both pushing ahead. OpenAI is working with famed ex-Apple designer Jony Ive and pla …
Reddit says it has to cut back access to ‘Old Reddit’ because of AI bots
Reddit is further limiting who can use the "Old Reddit" experience as part of its efforts to combat scraping and automated traffic. Reddit recently started forcing users to log in to be able to use Old Reddit, but in the "next few months," the company says that you'll have to be logged in and have used Old Reddit within the last six months from when the change rolls out to be able to continue browsing the platform with the classic experience.
Reddit says the six-month window covers "the vast majority of all Old Reddit users." The announcement didn't go into detail, but it's clearly aimed at blocking not just new account creation for bots, …
Amazon’s delivery driver smart glasses will reportedly take photos ‘almost constantly’
Amazon deliveries could soon come with a new catch: the delivery driver's smart glasses will be snapping photos of anything they see while they're in use, including people and private property. Bloomberg reports that the glasses could take "several thousand captures in a single driver's typical shift," which Amazon plans to upload to its AI Wellspring platform. When asked if customers will be able to opt-out of this, Amazon's Viraj Chatterjee told Bloomberg, "We haven't thought about that."
Chatterjee claimed Amazon's only using the data from the glasses to "enhance the delivery process," adding, "The intent has never been stuff like surve …
Here’s what AI leaders are saying about Trump’s new safety plan
After hosting a meal with Big Tech leaders on Tuesday, President Donald Trump responded to journalist questions about his artificial intelligence announcements in typical fashion. He said his previous claims regarding fears around AI safety being a "hoax" cooked up by Democrats no longer apply now that he's renamed the technology to "Super Intelligence." He brushed off concerns that the government wasn't enforcing enough AI guardrails because US companies are "dominating China."
And instead of ushering in federal AI regulations, Trump now has "the smartest people in the world watching over each other."
The people in question here are Goog …
This blog could help you poop better
This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here.
"I will explode your butthole with this poopmaxxer pesto," a calm Gen Z voice announced from my phone's speakers. "And don't worry, it doesn't taste like poop, unless that's what you're into … I don't know if Italians will approve of this, but it's for my … a-butt-a-hole-a!"
What followed in that video was actually a pretty good recipe. Two cups of blanched peas mixed into a fairly standard pesto recipe for a yield of 18 grams …
Asus won’t say how it escaped the US router ban
This spring, the United States banned all future foreign-made consumer routers - effectively all future routers - unless their makers could 1) convince the US government that they weren't a national security threat, and 2) submit "a detailed, time-bound plan to establish or expand manufacturing in the United States."
As of September 9th, Asus now has an exemption from the ban, just in time to bring its first early Wi-Fi 8 routers here. But Asus has not publicly announced any plan to bring manufacturing to the US. It would not even confirm to The Verge whether it had submitted a US manufacturing plan.
Initially, Asus spokesperson JJ Guerre …
‘Xbox is not for sale’ says Microsoft’s gaming chief
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has denied reports that Microsoft is considering selling off its Xbox business. The Information reported in June that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood had been considering spinning out Xbox entirely, and then reported earlier this month that both execs have "more recently supported Sharma's plans to overhaul the unit."
"Xbox is not for sale," says Sharma in an interview with The New York Times. "We will do whatever it takes to set the company up for success, and we will look at the right partnerships, the right operating model and everything needed to achieve that."
It appears that Nadella and Hood have fav …