‘Clinical-grade AI’: a new buzzy AI word that means absolutely nothing

Earlier this month, Lyra Health announced a “clinical-grade” AI chatbot to help users with “challenges” like burnout, sleep disruptions, and stress. There are eighteen mentions of “clinical” in its press release, including “clinically designed,” “clinically rigorous,” and “clinical training.” For most people, myself included, “clinical” suggests “medical.” The problem is, it doesn’t mean medical. In … Read more

How Guitar Hero made everybody a rock star

“Sharp Dressed Man,” by ZZ Top. Hard on a good day, Medium when my friends were over, Expert once and then never ever again. That was my Guitar Hero sweet spot. And for years, it seemed like everybody had one. The plastic guitar controllers became a staple of living rooms everywhere, and the songs – … Read more

The next legal frontier is your face and AI

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the legal morass of AI, follow Adi Robertson. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started The song was called “Heart on My Sleeve,” and … Read more

My favorite e-reader just got a big update

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 103, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, sorry everything’s so expensive this week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about gooning and Costco and protein bars and … Read more

What does nearly $6,000 of gaming laptop get you?

MSI’s flagship is indeed titanic in stature, and certainly price. It’s easy to get into the weeds on a hobby, especially if you’re into PC gaming and dreaming of the highest levels of graphical performance. But how much is too much for hardware? Spending top dollar on graphics power, processing, RAM, storage, etc. – like … Read more

ICE is building a social media panopticon

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement carries out raids across the country, the agency is working rapidly to expand an online surveillance system that could potentially track millions of users on the web. Federal records uncovered by The Lever reveal that ICE is paying $5.7 million to use an AI-powered social media monitoring platform called Zignal … Read more

Is Waymo ready for winter?

During a recent all-hands meeting, Waymo’s chief winter weather expert laid it out for all the company’s engineers and product managers: if Waymo wants to expand to new cities and new markets, it’s robotaxis will need to be able to confidently and safely handle the snow. In its first few years of operation, Waymo has … Read more

Sam Altman’s next startup eyes using sound waves to read your brain

This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. Sam Altman has tapped Mikhail Shapiro, an award-winning biomolecular engineer, to join the Merge Labs brain-computer interface startup he’s set to announce soon with co-founder Alex Blania. While Shapiro’s … Read more

Wordle has achievements now

Want to flex your Wordle habit beyond just keeping your streak? The New York Times has added badges to recognize certain achievements in Wordle, Spelling Bee, and Connections. “Have you achieved the infamous Wordle in 1? What about the Perfect Connections Puzzle? How many Pangrams are under your Spelling Bee belt? Badges are rewards you … Read more

Halo: Campaign Evolved is a gorgeous remake that debuts on PS5 and Xbox in 2026

Halo Studios has created something special for the 25th anniversary of Halo next year. Halo: Campaign Evolved is a full remake of the original Combat Evolved that launched alongside Microsoft’s first Xbox console in 2001. It has a fully rebuilt campaign with 4K visuals, new weapons and vehicles, a four-player online co-op mode, and brand-new … Read more

Neato’s cloud is shutting down, leaving its robovacs stuck in manual mode

Two years after US-based Neato Robotics closed up shop in 2023, its robot vacuum cleaners have reached the end of the road (or rather, hallway). Users are receiving emails notifying them that their Neato robovacs will no longer have access to cloud services, meaning they can’t be controlled through the robots’ MyNeato app anymore.  In … Read more

Netflix shuts down its Squid Game mobile studio

Netflix has shut down Boss Fight Entertainment, the studio behind the mobile game Squid Game: Unleashed, according to posts from staffers on LinkedIn. Netflix acquired Boss Fight in March 2022, with an executive saying at the time that the studio’s “extensive experience building hit games across genres will help accelerate our ability to provide Netflix … Read more