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YouTube is expecting to launch new AI tools later this year that are trained off the back of these deals. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

After debuting a generative AI feature last year that produces music in the style of famous artists like Charli XCX, John Legend, and T-Pain, YouTube is now asking major record labels to allow it to clone more musicians. According to the Financial Times, the Google-owned video platform is offering to pay Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Records “lump sums of cash” in exchange for licensing their songs to legally train its AI music tools.
YouTube told the Financial Times that it’s not looking to expand Dream Track — which was supported by just ten artists during its test phase — but confirmed it was “in conversations with labels about other experiments.” The platform is aiming to license music from “dozens” of artists according to the report, which will instead be used to train new AI tools that YouTube is planning to launch later this year. The fee that YouTube is willing to pay for these licenses hasn’t been disclosed, but the report says these will likely be one-off payments rather than royalty-based arrangements.

Regardless, both artists and the labels that represent them will likely take some convincing. Sony Music has extensively warned AI companies against “unauthorized use” of its content, and UMG was willing to temporarily pull its entire music catalog from TikTok after inadequate protections against AI-generated music caused licensing negotiations to fall apart. Back in January, over 200 artists — including Billie Eilish, Pearl Jam, and Katy Perry — also called for tech companies to cease using AI to “infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.”
News of these discussions comes just days after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing record labels like Sony, Warner, and Universal, filed separate copyright infringement lawsuits against two of the top companies in generative AI music. The labels allege that outputs from Suno and Udio were produced using “unlicensed copying of sound recordings on a massive scale,” with the RIAA seeking damages of up to $150,000 per infringement.

YouTube is expecting to launch new AI tools later this year that are trained off the back of these deals. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

After debuting a generative AI feature last year that produces music in the style of famous artists like Charli XCX, John Legend, and T-Pain, YouTube is now asking major record labels to allow it to clone more musicians. According to the Financial Times, the Google-owned video platform is offering to pay Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Records “lump sums of cash” in exchange for licensing their songs to legally train its AI music tools.

YouTube told the Financial Times that it’s not looking to expand Dream Track — which was supported by just ten artists during its test phase — but confirmed it was “in conversations with labels about other experiments.” The platform is aiming to license music from “dozens” of artists according to the report, which will instead be used to train new AI tools that YouTube is planning to launch later this year. The fee that YouTube is willing to pay for these licenses hasn’t been disclosed, but the report says these will likely be one-off payments rather than royalty-based arrangements.

Regardless, both artists and the labels that represent them will likely take some convincing. Sony Music has extensively warned AI companies against “unauthorized use” of its content, and UMG was willing to temporarily pull its entire music catalog from TikTok after inadequate protections against AI-generated music caused licensing negotiations to fall apart. Back in January, over 200 artists — including Billie Eilish, Pearl Jam, and Katy Perry — also called for tech companies to cease using AI to “infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.”

News of these discussions comes just days after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing record labels like Sony, Warner, and Universal, filed separate copyright infringement lawsuits against two of the top companies in generative AI music. The labels allege that outputs from Suno and Udio were produced using “unlicensed copying of sound recordings on a massive scale,” with the RIAA seeking damages of up to $150,000 per infringement.

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Traffic got you down? If the idea of locking your car keys in a drawer and using alternate means of transportation sounds intriguing, Uber has the challenge for you. Today, the ridehailing company announced the One Less Car trial, in which 175 people in the US and Canada will be selected to ditch their cars for five weeks in exchange for cash and credits to be put toward other travel modes.
Call it a gimmick or a PR stunt, Uber says the aim is to highlight the high costs of personal car ownership, as well as all the external effects on our health and the cities where we live. Uber has long advocated for fewer cars on the road — even as studies have shown that the app-based ridehailing industry has intensified traffic congestion in cities.
The trial is modeled on a similar experiment conducted by Uber and the Behavioral Insights Team in Australia in 2023, in which dozens of residents were challenged to give up their cars for four weeks.
Uber says the aim is to highlight the high costs of personal car ownership
Now, Uber is bringing its experiment to North America. Car owners in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, Miami, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver interested in participating can sign up online for the five-week trial, which will take place July 22nd–August 25th. Uber will then select 30 people from each city to give up their cars during those five weeks.
Each participant will receive $1,000 — based on the average monthly cost for vehicle ownership in the US — to use on (what else) Uber rides, bike- and scooter-share, car rental and carshare, and public transportation. Here’s how the stipend actually breaks down:

$500 in “Uber Cash” redeemable in the Uber app for car trips, or Lime bike and scooter share.
$200 voucher redeemable for car rental or carshare.
$300 across other transportation modes, such as public transit.

Uber will also throw in a one-month free Uber One membership, in which subscribers can earn 6 percent Uber Cash on eligible rides and $0 delivery fees on eligible food, groceries, and more.
There are a few requirements before signing up. You must be 18 or older, have a driver’s license, a vehicle that you use more than three times per week, a bank card, and be comfortable documenting your experience. The first week will be considered the “control period,” where each participant will be expected to document their mobility habits.
Each participant will receive $1,000
“Many Uber riders tell us they want to live a more car-light lifestyle with a variety of ways to ride, including public transit, shared bikes and scooters, walking, and rideshare,” Adam Gromis, global head of sustainability policy at Uber, said in a statement. “This research is critical to help us figure out how to make car-light living possible for more people who want to save money, emissions and time in traffic.”
Uber isn’t the first company to come up with this idea for a car-free trial. It’s not even the first ridehail company to try it. In 2018, Lyft launched its “Ditch with Lyft” trial, in which hundreds of participants in dozens of cities were given $550 in Lyft credits, bikeshare, and other tender to give up their cars for a month. The challenge then morphed into an offer of free Lyft trips to people who sold their cars on Carvana.
Uber says it was inspired to tackle its own trial after seeing encouraging results in Australia, in which participants reported increased walking, biking, and public transit usage during the challenge. Uber concluded that people need access to at least four other modes of transportation in order to successfully ditch their cars. Still, few of the participants said they’d be willing to go so far as to sell their cars and rely only on alternative modes — only three of the 58 said they planned to do this “in the near future.”
It will be interesting to track the response to the challenge in these various cities, with various levels of transit, bike infrastructure, and density, to see how well Uber’s theory about personal car ownership plays out. And it will be equally interesting to see if Uber takes any lessons away about its own contributions to car traffic.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Traffic got you down? If the idea of locking your car keys in a drawer and using alternate means of transportation sounds intriguing, Uber has the challenge for you. Today, the ridehailing company announced the One Less Car trial, in which 175 people in the US and Canada will be selected to ditch their cars for five weeks in exchange for cash and credits to be put toward other travel modes.

Call it a gimmick or a PR stunt, Uber says the aim is to highlight the high costs of personal car ownership, as well as all the external effects on our health and the cities where we live. Uber has long advocated for fewer cars on the road — even as studies have shown that the app-based ridehailing industry has intensified traffic congestion in cities.

The trial is modeled on a similar experiment conducted by Uber and the Behavioral Insights Team in Australia in 2023, in which dozens of residents were challenged to give up their cars for four weeks.

Now, Uber is bringing its experiment to North America. Car owners in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, Miami, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver interested in participating can sign up online for the five-week trial, which will take place July 22nd–August 25th. Uber will then select 30 people from each city to give up their cars during those five weeks.

Each participant will receive $1,000 — based on the average monthly cost for vehicle ownership in the US — to use on (what else) Uber rides, bike- and scooter-share, car rental and carshare, and public transportation. Here’s how the stipend actually breaks down:

$500 in “Uber Cash” redeemable in the Uber app for car trips, or Lime bike and scooter share.
$200 voucher redeemable for car rental or carshare.
$300 across other transportation modes, such as public transit.

Uber will also throw in a one-month free Uber One membership, in which subscribers can earn 6 percent Uber Cash on eligible rides and $0 delivery fees on eligible food, groceries, and more.

There are a few requirements before signing up. You must be 18 or older, have a driver’s license, a vehicle that you use more than three times per week, a bank card, and be comfortable documenting your experience. The first week will be considered the “control period,” where each participant will be expected to document their mobility habits.

“Many Uber riders tell us they want to live a more car-light lifestyle with a variety of ways to ride, including public transit, shared bikes and scooters, walking, and rideshare,” Adam Gromis, global head of sustainability policy at Uber, said in a statement. “This research is critical to help us figure out how to make car-light living possible for more people who want to save money, emissions and time in traffic.”

Uber isn’t the first company to come up with this idea for a car-free trial. It’s not even the first ridehail company to try it. In 2018, Lyft launched its “Ditch with Lyft” trial, in which hundreds of participants in dozens of cities were given $550 in Lyft credits, bikeshare, and other tender to give up their cars for a month. The challenge then morphed into an offer of free Lyft trips to people who sold their cars on Carvana.

Uber says it was inspired to tackle its own trial after seeing encouraging results in Australia, in which participants reported increased walking, biking, and public transit usage during the challenge. Uber concluded that people need access to at least four other modes of transportation in order to successfully ditch their cars. Still, few of the participants said they’d be willing to go so far as to sell their cars and rely only on alternative modes — only three of the 58 said they planned to do this “in the near future.”

It will be interesting to track the response to the challenge in these various cities, with various levels of transit, bike infrastructure, and density, to see how well Uber’s theory about personal car ownership plays out. And it will be equally interesting to see if Uber takes any lessons away about its own contributions to car traffic.

Read More 

Illustration: The Verge

Google is adding support for 110 new languages to Google Translate, the company announced on Thursday. Before now, Google Translate supported 133 languages, so this expansion — which the company says is its biggest ever — marks a significant jump.
Google’s PaLM 2 AI language model helped Translate learn these new languages. It was especially good at learning ones that were related to one another, such as languages “close to Hindi, like Awadhi and Marwadi, and French creoles like Seychellois Creole and Mauritian Creole,” Google’s Isaac Caswell says in a blog post.
The list of newly-supported languages in Translate includes Cantonese, which “has long been one of the most requested languages for Google Translate,” Caswell says. “Because Cantonese often overlaps with Mandarin in writing, it is tricky to find data and train models.” Caswell also says that “about a quarter of the new languages come from Africa.”
Most of the new languages are spoken by at least one million people, Caswell tells The Verge in an interview, while “several” are spoken by hundreds of millions of people.

Illustration: The Verge

Google is adding support for 110 new languages to Google Translate, the company announced on Thursday. Before now, Google Translate supported 133 languages, so this expansion — which the company says is its biggest ever — marks a significant jump.

Google’s PaLM 2 AI language model helped Translate learn these new languages. It was especially good at learning ones that were related to one another, such as languages “close to Hindi, like Awadhi and Marwadi, and French creoles like Seychellois Creole and Mauritian Creole,” Google’s Isaac Caswell says in a blog post.

The list of newly-supported languages in Translate includes Cantonese, which “has long been one of the most requested languages for Google Translate,” Caswell says. “Because Cantonese often overlaps with Mandarin in writing, it is tricky to find data and train models.” Caswell also says that “about a quarter of the new languages come from Africa.”

Most of the new languages are spoken by at least one million people, Caswell tells The Verge in an interview, while “several” are spoken by hundreds of millions of people.

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BMW’s 2025 BMW M5, which is coming as a plug-in electric hybrid (PHEV) for the first time, will be a husky vehicle. With an electric motor to go along with its 4.4-liter V8 engine, the sedan will weigh in at a hefty 5,390 pounds when it launches during the fourth quarter of 2024.
That makes the new M5 about 1,000 pounds heavier than the 2023 model that preceded it. It also weighs more than trucks like the 2022 Chevrolet Tahoe (5,356 pounds), the 2024 Lucid Air Sapphire (5,336 pounds), and the 2024 Range Rover Sport (5,090 pounds), Motor1 noted today. Unlike Lucid’s EV, though, the M5 can’t blame as much of its heft on the battery, which is only big enough to go 25 miles without using gas.
The M5 isn’t the heaviest electrified BMW — the all-electric 2024 i7 M70, for instance, sits at a beefy 6,191 pounds. Meanwhile, the 2024 750e xDrive Sedan PHEV has a 5,635-pound gross curb weight.

The new M5 PHEV can go from 0–60mph in 3.4 seconds and tops out at 190mph under gas power if you get BMW’s M Driver’s Package. Using just the electric motor, it can go as fast as about 87mph. By default, the car runs in hybrid mode, using both internal combustion and electric power, with the output ratio of each determined by how the driver configures the car in the M Setup menu. And when the battery gets low, BMW says the engine will start outputting more power to charge it.

The company makes other pure EVs, including the i4 M50, the i5 M60, and the i7 M70. But BMW has grander plans to produce a properly electrified M model (that is, not an i-series M Performance car) a couple of years after its Neue Klasse EV architecture launches in 2025.

Image: BMW
BMW Vision Neue Klasse X on the road

Future BMW M model EVs will use the company’s own internally developed batteries and EV motors, M program boss Franciscus Van Meel recently told Road & Track.
That platform includes new systems to detect and relay sensor data to the car’s central computer, which the M division has been involved in developing. Van Meel said BMW’s EVs equipped with this system, dubbed Heart of Joy, would “react ten times faster than before” to things like wheelspin or locked-up brakes, along with enhancements to stability control, traction control, and overall performance.

BMW’s 2025 BMW M5, which is coming as a plug-in electric hybrid (PHEV) for the first time, will be a husky vehicle. With an electric motor to go along with its 4.4-liter V8 engine, the sedan will weigh in at a hefty 5,390 pounds when it launches during the fourth quarter of 2024.

That makes the new M5 about 1,000 pounds heavier than the 2023 model that preceded it. It also weighs more than trucks like the 2022 Chevrolet Tahoe (5,356 pounds), the 2024 Lucid Air Sapphire (5,336 pounds), and the 2024 Range Rover Sport (5,090 pounds), Motor1 noted today. Unlike Lucid’s EV, though, the M5 can’t blame as much of its heft on the battery, which is only big enough to go 25 miles without using gas.

The M5 isn’t the heaviest electrified BMW — the all-electric 2024 i7 M70, for instance, sits at a beefy 6,191 pounds. Meanwhile, the 2024 750e xDrive Sedan PHEV has a 5,635-pound gross curb weight.

The new M5 PHEV can go from 0–60mph in 3.4 seconds and tops out at 190mph under gas power if you get BMW’s M Driver’s Package. Using just the electric motor, it can go as fast as about 87mph. By default, the car runs in hybrid mode, using both internal combustion and electric power, with the output ratio of each determined by how the driver configures the car in the M Setup menu. And when the battery gets low, BMW says the engine will start outputting more power to charge it.

The company makes other pure EVs, including the i4 M50, the i5 M60, and the i7 M70. But BMW has grander plans to produce a properly electrified M model (that is, not an i-series M Performance car) a couple of years after its Neue Klasse EV architecture launches in 2025.

Image: BMW
BMW Vision Neue Klasse X on the road

Future BMW M model EVs will use the company’s own internally developed batteries and EV motors, M program boss Franciscus Van Meel recently told Road & Track.

That platform includes new systems to detect and relay sensor data to the car’s central computer, which the M division has been involved in developing. Van Meel said BMW’s EVs equipped with this system, dubbed Heart of Joy, would “react ten times faster than before” to things like wheelspin or locked-up brakes, along with enhancements to stability control, traction control, and overall performance.

Read More 

“Mr. Bugs Wordy Nugz.” | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Wordle is a pretty clever name for the very good word game created by Josh Wardle. But when he was first working on it in 2013, Wardle had another name in mind that isn’t quite as catchy.
“This is true: I was going to call Wordle, Mr. Bugs’ Wordy Nugz,” Wardle revealed as part of a presentation about Wordle at Figma’s Config conference on Wednesday. He also showed a slide that spelled out the name in big yellow letters. “Had I called the game Mr. Bugs, I like to think it would not have been successful.”
During the presentation, which was about the development decisions that he said “are the opposite of what you’re meant to do” but ultimately contributed to making the game a hit, Wardle also discussed the history of the game and showed off a bunch of early prototypes. Wardle had wanted to make a game for his partner. He liked words and liked the game Mastermind, so in 2013, he mashed the two ideas together and started making what would become Wordle.
His first prototype was for Android, and much of the core game was there: you had six guesses to figure out a five-letter word. But this early version was an endless game, meaning that as soon as you figured out one word, you could try and solve another. It also picked from five-letter words at random, meaning you might have been trying to figure out more obscure words like “zizel” or “yrneh.”

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

In order to whittle down the word list to a set of words that “people could reasonably know,” Wardle then built another game where you could press a button to say if you knew a word, didn’t know it, or maybe knew it. This helped him winnow the list down from 13,000 to about 2,500 words.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
Wardle says his partner categorized all 13,000 five-letter words.

He also kept working on the game’s design. In some older iterations he included with his presentation, the game had things like a score or red X marks to denote “lives.”

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

This all happened in 2013, when he was also considering the Mr. Bugs name. But then, Wardle said he lost interest in the game, “put it on the back burner,” and didn’t touch it for six years.
In early 2020, Wardle and his partner were playing a lot of The New York Times’ crossword and its Spelling Bee game. He noticed that they were both once-a-day kind of games — there is only one Spelling Bee a day, and the day’s crossword must be completed on the same day in order to maintain a streak. He decided to make a similar choice for what would become Wordle.
In 2021, he built a version of what would become Wordle that lived on his personal domain (which is where you might have played Wordle before The New York Times fully took it over).
“This was something else I did that you’re not meant to do. I made a website,” Wardle said. “I think a lot of the thinking around games was that you want apps so you can catch your audience. You can send them push notifications. I didn’t want to do any of that. It was just [my partner] and I playing the game. So making a website seemed so obvious to me.” He thinks being a website helped the game, as you could just share it with someone and they could play it.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Wardle’s version of Wordle on his personal domain.

For about six months, Wardle said it was just the two of them playing the game on his website. Then, he shared it with family, they shared it with friends, and it started to grow from there. After seeing people post their results in emoji form, he formally added emoji results as a feature to the game in late 2021.
On January 31st, The New York Times announced that it had bought Wordle from Wardle. “I think this took a lot of people by surprise,” Wardle said in his presentation. “It was a very clear decision for me to make to sell the game. I didn’t want to run a games business. I’m interested in creating things.
“It was obvious due to the success of Wordle that I could make my life if I wanted to,” Wardle continued. “But there are a bunch of things that I wouldn’t enjoy about running a games business. And it just felt so clear to me that that wasn’t something I wanted any part of.”
He also said that he didn’t want to monetize the game. “All of this comes back to [that] I’m building the game for my partner. I’m not going to show her ads or try and upsell her on a premium subscription. But it’s even though I didn’t want to make money from Wordle, it quickly became apparent to me that there were other people who were going to make money off Wordle, whether I was involved or not.” Wardle said that “selling to The New York Times was a way to just to step away.”
Wardle concluded by saying that, if he had wanted to make a viral word game, he wouldn’t have made Wordle. “I was trying to do something that was authentic to me. I was trying to build something for someone that I loved. It just so happened a bunch of other people loved it.”
His advice for other people trying to make things? “Don’t try to make Wordle. Make the thing that you’re passionate about that is meaningful to you. And then everything else will follow from that.”

“Mr. Bugs Wordy Nugz.” | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Wordle is a pretty clever name for the very good word game created by Josh Wardle. But when he was first working on it in 2013, Wardle had another name in mind that isn’t quite as catchy.

“This is true: I was going to call Wordle, Mr. Bugs’ Wordy Nugz,” Wardle revealed as part of a presentation about Wordle at Figma’s Config conference on Wednesday. He also showed a slide that spelled out the name in big yellow letters. “Had I called the game Mr. Bugs, I like to think it would not have been successful.”

During the presentation, which was about the development decisions that he said “are the opposite of what you’re meant to do” but ultimately contributed to making the game a hit, Wardle also discussed the history of the game and showed off a bunch of early prototypes. Wardle had wanted to make a game for his partner. He liked words and liked the game Mastermind, so in 2013, he mashed the two ideas together and started making what would become Wordle.

His first prototype was for Android, and much of the core game was there: you had six guesses to figure out a five-letter word. But this early version was an endless game, meaning that as soon as you figured out one word, you could try and solve another. It also picked from five-letter words at random, meaning you might have been trying to figure out more obscure words like “zizel” or “yrneh.”

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

In order to whittle down the word list to a set of words that “people could reasonably know,” Wardle then built another game where you could press a button to say if you knew a word, didn’t know it, or maybe knew it. This helped him winnow the list down from 13,000 to about 2,500 words.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
Wardle says his partner categorized all 13,000 five-letter words.

He also kept working on the game’s design. In some older iterations he included with his presentation, the game had things like a score or red X marks to denote “lives.”

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

This all happened in 2013, when he was also considering the Mr. Bugs name. But then, Wardle said he lost interest in the game, “put it on the back burner,” and didn’t touch it for six years.

In early 2020, Wardle and his partner were playing a lot of The New York Times’ crossword and its Spelling Bee game. He noticed that they were both once-a-day kind of games — there is only one Spelling Bee a day, and the day’s crossword must be completed on the same day in order to maintain a streak. He decided to make a similar choice for what would become Wordle.

In 2021, he built a version of what would become Wordle that lived on his personal domain (which is where you might have played Wordle before The New York Times fully took it over).

“This was something else I did that you’re not meant to do. I made a website,” Wardle said. “I think a lot of the thinking around games was that you want apps so you can catch your audience. You can send them push notifications. I didn’t want to do any of that. It was just [my partner] and I playing the game. So making a website seemed so obvious to me.” He thinks being a website helped the game, as you could just share it with someone and they could play it.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Wardle’s version of Wordle on his personal domain.

For about six months, Wardle said it was just the two of them playing the game on his website. Then, he shared it with family, they shared it with friends, and it started to grow from there. After seeing people post their results in emoji form, he formally added emoji results as a feature to the game in late 2021.

On January 31st, The New York Times announced that it had bought Wordle from Wardle. “I think this took a lot of people by surprise,” Wardle said in his presentation. “It was a very clear decision for me to make to sell the game. I didn’t want to run a games business. I’m interested in creating things.

“It was obvious due to the success of Wordle that I could make my life if I wanted to,” Wardle continued. “But there are a bunch of things that I wouldn’t enjoy about running a games business. And it just felt so clear to me that that wasn’t something I wanted any part of.”

He also said that he didn’t want to monetize the game. “All of this comes back to [that] I’m building the game for my partner. I’m not going to show her ads or try and upsell her on a premium subscription. But it’s even though I didn’t want to make money from Wordle, it quickly became apparent to me that there were other people who were going to make money off Wordle, whether I was involved or not.” Wardle said that “selling to The New York Times was a way to just to step away.”

Wardle concluded by saying that, if he had wanted to make a viral word game, he wouldn’t have made Wordle. “I was trying to do something that was authentic to me. I was trying to build something for someone that I loved. It just so happened a bunch of other people loved it.”

His advice for other people trying to make things? “Don’t try to make Wordle. Make the thing that you’re passionate about that is meaningful to you. And then everything else will follow from that.”

Read More 

Image: The Verge

At the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, Le Monde reports that athletes on Japan’s volleyball, track and field, and other teams will be competing in outfits made from a new fabric that can better absorb infrared light. Similar to stealth aircraft that avoid detection by deflecting radar signals away from detectors, the fabric absorbs and prevents infrared light from reaching cameras and infrared sensors.
Some devices have unintentionally demonstrated how the infrared sensing used in night vision goggles and thermal cameras can reveal the unseen, like the OnePlus 8 Pro’s “Photochrom” color filter that worked like X-ray vision on the thin shell of an Apple TV. When used on people, infrared photography can reveal the lines of a person’s body or the undergarments they’re wearing beneath a thin layer of clothing, such as those worn by athletes.
In 2020, athletes complained to the Japanese Olympic Committee after discovering infrared camera “photos of themselves shared on social media with sexually explicit captions,” according to The Japan Times. Since then, Mizuno, Sumitomo Metal Mining, and Kyodo Printing have co-developed the new fabric that’s stretchable enough to be used in athletic uniforms while also protecting athletes.

Image: Mizuno
Mizuno’s newly developed fabric is dramatically more effective at hindering infrared photography.

In experiments shared by Mizuno, a printed black “C” beneath a layer of “Game uniform fabric” and the new infrared-absorbing fabric is nearly entirely obscured when photographed with an infrared camera. Multiple layers of the new light-absorbing fabric would help more, but with athletes already expressing concerns about the extreme heat expected at the upcoming Paris Olympic Games, the uniforms need to strike a balance between protecting against invasive creeps while keeping participants cool and comfortable.

Image: The Verge

At the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, Le Monde reports that athletes on Japan’s volleyball, track and field, and other teams will be competing in outfits made from a new fabric that can better absorb infrared light. Similar to stealth aircraft that avoid detection by deflecting radar signals away from detectors, the fabric absorbs and prevents infrared light from reaching cameras and infrared sensors.

Some devices have unintentionally demonstrated how the infrared sensing used in night vision goggles and thermal cameras can reveal the unseen, like the OnePlus 8 Pro’s “Photochrom” color filter that worked like X-ray vision on the thin shell of an Apple TV. When used on people, infrared photography can reveal the lines of a person’s body or the undergarments they’re wearing beneath a thin layer of clothing, such as those worn by athletes.

In 2020, athletes complained to the Japanese Olympic Committee after discovering infrared camera “photos of themselves shared on social media with sexually explicit captions,” according to The Japan Times. Since then, Mizuno, Sumitomo Metal Mining, and Kyodo Printing have co-developed the new fabric that’s stretchable enough to be used in athletic uniforms while also protecting athletes.

Image: Mizuno
Mizuno’s newly developed fabric is dramatically more effective at hindering infrared photography.

In experiments shared by Mizuno, a printed black “C” beneath a layer of “Game uniform fabric” and the new infrared-absorbing fabric is nearly entirely obscured when photographed with an infrared camera. Multiple layers of the new light-absorbing fabric would help more, but with athletes already expressing concerns about the extreme heat expected at the upcoming Paris Olympic Games, the uniforms need to strike a balance between protecting against invasive creeps while keeping participants cool and comfortable.

Read More 

Image: Baggu

It all started with a nylon purse shaped like a horse.
Baggu, the wildly popular brand of reusable shopping bags, announced earlier this month that it would be releasing a collaborative collection with New York-based brand Collina Strada. In the past, special-edition designer drops have been successful for Baggu: a previous collab sold out within minutes of items hitting the web. This new collection — with its colorful, dreamlike prints and bags shaped like a pony, little legs and all — seemed designed to elicit that same viral hype. The brands teased designs. Influencers posted unboxing videos. Fans were ready to shop.
But on the day the bags and accessories were set to go on sale, fans got more details about the designs: some of the prints were created using AI image generator Midjourney. On product pages, a short disclaimer was added:
Blue Thorns is an AI-conceptualized print from Collina Strada’s SS24 “Soft is Hard” collection. The team used Midjourney as a tool to remix old Collina prints and drive them further. After they used Midjourney to mix two of their prints together, their graphics team transformed the concept into a repeat, inserting logos and adding new elements and layers to complete the print.
Some fans were not happy, to put it lightly. Comments on Instagram called the use of AI “lame,” “so disappointing,” and “unforgivable.” Some customers say they didn’t realize when they placed an order that AI was involved in the design process. On TikTok, some customers vowed never to purchase from Baggu again.

@baggu baggu.com/subscribe @Collina Strada ♬ original sound – BAGGU

The most common complaints were around a “lack of transparency” that AI was used. Shoppers, it seems, wanted more of a heads-up or more prominent disclaimers. Others objected to the collaboration on moral grounds, saying AI tools trained on other artists’ work without consent is theft. And finally, the environmental impact of generative AI is also a common concern, perhaps because Baggu touts its eco-friendly brand ethos. Baggu didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
There’s some gray area in the response to the collection, too: Collina Strada has used generative AI as a design tool before. The designer behind the brand, Hillary Taymour, has previously discussed her process using tools like Midjourney, describing to The Business of Fashion the iterative process of prompting AI systems over and over with her own work to see what the tool spits out. Perhaps this collaboration suffered from a lack of communication to customers leading up to the rollout — the right framing, after all, goes a long way in marketing.
Beyond the short explanation, the Baggu website offers few details about the process of generating the AI prints. In an email to The Verge, Collina Strada spokesperson Lindsey Solomon noted that only two of the prints used AI — others, like the “Sistine Tomato” print are done by “photograph[ing] every element of the print and compos[ing] them together, hand placing each rhinestone and tomato.” The AI prints, meanwhile, are based on outputs generated by feeding Midjourney images of Collina Strada’s past work, essentially remixing the brand’s own designs. Is it still theft if your inputs are your own work? And what kind of freedom should artists have to experiment with these tools before it’s seen as a moral failing?
We’re in a strange transition phase of AI. Tools like ChatGPT have been around for close to two years, and our online — and offline — spaces are flooded with synthetic content. Sometimes, it’s amusing; other times, the potential for harm and abuse is obvious. That’s why I was surprised when I saw the rapid spread of an AI “All Eyes on Rafah” image that is perhaps the most viral piece of AI media yet — are we okay with AI or not? Who gets to use it, and to what end?
This case of AI-designed reusable bags is far from the most pressing example of the tension between the future tech companies want and what everyone else envisions for our world. But it hints at a debate we’re only going to see more of and raises questions about who owns what, who gets credit, and what is fair. It seems the answer at the moment is: it depends.

Image: Baggu

It all started with a nylon purse shaped like a horse.

Baggu, the wildly popular brand of reusable shopping bags, announced earlier this month that it would be releasing a collaborative collection with New York-based brand Collina Strada. In the past, special-edition designer drops have been successful for Baggu: a previous collab sold out within minutes of items hitting the web. This new collection — with its colorful, dreamlike prints and bags shaped like a pony, little legs and all — seemed designed to elicit that same viral hype. The brands teased designs. Influencers posted unboxing videos. Fans were ready to shop.

But on the day the bags and accessories were set to go on sale, fans got more details about the designs: some of the prints were created using AI image generator Midjourney. On product pages, a short disclaimer was added:

Blue Thorns is an AI-conceptualized print from Collina Strada’s SS24 “Soft is Hard” collection. The team used Midjourney as a tool to remix old Collina prints and drive them further. After they used Midjourney to mix two of their prints together, their graphics team transformed the concept into a repeat, inserting logos and adding new elements and layers to complete the print.

Some fans were not happy, to put it lightly. Comments on Instagram called the use of AI “lame,” “so disappointing,” and “unforgivable.” Some customers say they didn’t realize when they placed an order that AI was involved in the design process. On TikTok, some customers vowed never to purchase from Baggu again.

The most common complaints were around a “lack of transparency” that AI was used. Shoppers, it seems, wanted more of a heads-up or more prominent disclaimers. Others objected to the collaboration on moral grounds, saying AI tools trained on other artists’ work without consent is theft. And finally, the environmental impact of generative AI is also a common concern, perhaps because Baggu touts its eco-friendly brand ethos. Baggu didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

There’s some gray area in the response to the collection, too: Collina Strada has used generative AI as a design tool before. The designer behind the brand, Hillary Taymour, has previously discussed her process using tools like Midjourney, describing to The Business of Fashion the iterative process of prompting AI systems over and over with her own work to see what the tool spits out. Perhaps this collaboration suffered from a lack of communication to customers leading up to the rollout — the right framing, after all, goes a long way in marketing.

Beyond the short explanation, the Baggu website offers few details about the process of generating the AI prints. In an email to The Verge, Collina Strada spokesperson Lindsey Solomon noted that only two of the prints used AI — others, like the “Sistine Tomato” print are done by “photograph[ing] every element of the print and compos[ing] them together, hand placing each rhinestone and tomato.” The AI prints, meanwhile, are based on outputs generated by feeding Midjourney images of Collina Strada’s past work, essentially remixing the brand’s own designs. Is it still theft if your inputs are your own work? And what kind of freedom should artists have to experiment with these tools before it’s seen as a moral failing?

We’re in a strange transition phase of AI. Tools like ChatGPT have been around for close to two years, and our online — and offline — spaces are flooded with synthetic content. Sometimes, it’s amusing; other times, the potential for harm and abuse is obvious. That’s why I was surprised when I saw the rapid spread of an AI “All Eyes on Rafah” image that is perhaps the most viral piece of AI media yet — are we okay with AI or not? Who gets to use it, and to what end?

This case of AI-designed reusable bags is far from the most pressing example of the tension between the future tech companies want and what everyone else envisions for our world. But it hints at a debate we’re only going to see more of and raises questions about who owns what, who gets credit, and what is fair. It seems the answer at the moment is: it depends.

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Samsung’s next Unpacked event is right around the corner, taking place on July 10th in Paris, France. Judging by various leaks and the recent invite video, we’ll be seeing new versions of the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip phones (and perhaps a closer look at the Galaxy Ring). Now, in the lead-up to the event, Samsung is offering one of its reservation promotions, allowing early adopters to ”reserve” one of the phones and get a $50 credit to use on an eligible device once a preorder is complete.

The reservation period runs through Wednesday, July 10th, and even if you reserve a preorder, you are not obligated to buy the new phones if you change your mind. Those who do, however, will get a $50 credit to use on Samsung’s site or in the Shop Samsung app (as long as you buy it using the same email address as the one on the reservation).
Although it typically doesn’t take too long for Samsung to discount its new foldables and $50 may not be a huge discount on phones that typically range between $1,000 and $1,800, you might as well save what you can if you think you will opt for a preorder ahead of launch.
If the rumors, leaks, and the FCC are to be trusted, then it seems the yet-to-be-announced Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 6 will offer mostly incremental updates. The pricier Z Fold might be getting a more squared-off design that makes it look a little more boxy, but it’s likely to keep its tall remote-like posture, which unfolds for a small tablet experience. The Flip 6 may be getting a bigger battery, which I’m pretty sure is welcome in just about any device.
We’ll have to see if Samsung surprises us with any curveballs, especially since there’s been even more talk — and hype — about AI software features.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Samsung’s next Unpacked event is right around the corner, taking place on July 10th in Paris, France. Judging by various leaks and the recent invite video, we’ll be seeing new versions of the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip phones (and perhaps a closer look at the Galaxy Ring). Now, in the lead-up to the event, Samsung is offering one of its reservation promotions, allowing early adopters to ”reserve” one of the phones and get a $50 credit to use on an eligible device once a preorder is complete.

The reservation period runs through Wednesday, July 10th, and even if you reserve a preorder, you are not obligated to buy the new phones if you change your mind. Those who do, however, will get a $50 credit to use on Samsung’s site or in the Shop Samsung app (as long as you buy it using the same email address as the one on the reservation).

Although it typically doesn’t take too long for Samsung to discount its new foldables and $50 may not be a huge discount on phones that typically range between $1,000 and $1,800, you might as well save what you can if you think you will opt for a preorder ahead of launch.

If the rumors, leaks, and the FCC are to be trusted, then it seems the yet-to-be-announced Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 6 will offer mostly incremental updates. The pricier Z Fold might be getting a more squared-off design that makes it look a little more boxy, but it’s likely to keep its tall remote-like posture, which unfolds for a small tablet experience. The Flip 6 may be getting a bigger battery, which I’m pretty sure is welcome in just about any device.

We’ll have to see if Samsung surprises us with any curveballs, especially since there’s been even more talk — and hype — about AI software features.

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google has added new Chrome Actions to mobile that will let you call, read reviews for, or get directions to a restaurant or other business — all right from the address bar. The company announced the new feature in a blog on Wednesday.
Android users will see this new feature right away, but iOS users will have to wait until the fall.

Image: Google
A screenshot of the new Chrome Action shortcuts.

First introduced in 2020, Google Actions lets you quickly perform tasks from the address bar by typing in select queries, like “edit passwords,” “delete history,” or “translate this page.” It’s one of a few address bar shortcuts Google offers, like the “@” shortcut that lets you quickly find bookmarks, tabs, and links from your history.

Along with new Chrome Actions, Google also added a few other Chrome updates, including live sports cards in Chrome’s Discover Feed. The feature lets iOS and Android receive automatic updates about their favorite sports teams and can be customized. In addition, iOS users will also now see trending search suggestions in their Chrome address bar when they click on it from the New Tab page.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google has added new Chrome Actions to mobile that will let you call, read reviews for, or get directions to a restaurant or other business — all right from the address bar. The company announced the new feature in a blog on Wednesday.

Android users will see this new feature right away, but iOS users will have to wait until the fall.

Image: Google
A screenshot of the new Chrome Action shortcuts.

First introduced in 2020, Google Actions lets you quickly perform tasks from the address bar by typing in select queries, like “edit passwords,” “delete history,” or “translate this page.” It’s one of a few address bar shortcuts Google offers, like the “@” shortcut that lets you quickly find bookmarks, tabs, and links from your history.

Along with new Chrome Actions, Google also added a few other Chrome updates, including live sports cards in Chrome’s Discover Feed. The feature lets iOS and Android receive automatic updates about their favorite sports teams and can be customized. In addition, iOS users will also now see trending search suggestions in their Chrome address bar when they click on it from the New Tab page.

Read More 

Image: The Verge

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin made sweeping claims against e-commerce app Temu in a lawsuit on Tuesday, accusing the company of violating state law against deceptive trade practices.
“Temu purports to be an online shopping platform, but it is dangerous malware, surreptitiously granting itself access to virtually all data on a user’s cell phone,” Griffin alleges.

Screenshot: App Store / Google Play
Temu on the App Store.

Temu is the number one free shopping app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store and is owned by PDD Holdings, which also runs a popular app called Pinduoduo. PDD was based in China until last year, when it moved its headquarters to Ireland. The lawsuit tees up its allegations against Temu with a description of those against Pinduoduo, which researchers believed could spy on users, according to CNN, and which the Google Play Store suspended at one point in 2023 due to security concerns with “Off-Play versions of the app.”

Arkansas alleges that Temu, which was heavily marketed in the US, was modeled off of Pinduoduo.
“Temu’s conduct came to light following the removal of the Pinduoduo app from Google’s Play Store due to the presence of malware that exploited vulnerabilities in users’ phone operating systems and allowed the app not only to gain undetected access to virtually all data stored on the phones, but also to recompile itself and potentially change its properties once installed, in a manner designed to avoid detection,” the lawsuit claims, pointing to concerns from Apple about Temu’s compliance with data security transparency standards. Apple told Politico last year the app was available on its app store after resolving the concerns.
The lawsuit alleges that Temu’s app may be even more dangerous than Pinduoduo’s. It cites an article from Grizzly Research, a firm “focused on producing differentiated research insights on publicly traded companies through in-depth due diligence.” The lawsuit cites findings in the report that “the Temu app has the capability to hack users’ phones and override data privacy settings that users have purposely set to prevent their data from being accessed.”
The AG claims that Temu collects far more data than necessary to run a shopping app, including sensitive or personally identifiable information. For example, the suit alleges that Temu misleads users in its requests to access information, such as location, when uploading a photo. “A reasonable consumer would assume that the location permission is confined to the use of photo uploads. The permission, however, extends to any time the user engages with the Temu app,” the suit claims. It also alleges that Temu “sneaks” permissions to access audio and visual recording and storage on a device.
Temu, Google, and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Image: The Verge

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin made sweeping claims against e-commerce app Temu in a lawsuit on Tuesday, accusing the company of violating state law against deceptive trade practices.

“Temu purports to be an online shopping platform, but it is dangerous malware, surreptitiously granting itself access to virtually all data on a user’s cell phone,” Griffin alleges.

Screenshot: App Store / Google Play
Temu on the App Store.

Temu is the number one free shopping app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store and is owned by PDD Holdings, which also runs a popular app called Pinduoduo. PDD was based in China until last year, when it moved its headquarters to Ireland. The lawsuit tees up its allegations against Temu with a description of those against Pinduoduo, which researchers believed could spy on users, according to CNN, and which the Google Play Store suspended at one point in 2023 due to security concerns with “Off-Play versions of the app.”

Arkansas alleges that Temu, which was heavily marketed in the US, was modeled off of Pinduoduo.

“Temu’s conduct came to light following the removal of the Pinduoduo app from Google’s Play Store due to the presence of malware that exploited vulnerabilities in users’ phone operating systems and allowed the app not only to gain undetected access to virtually all data stored on the phones, but also to recompile itself and potentially change its properties once installed, in a manner designed to avoid detection,” the lawsuit claims, pointing to concerns from Apple about Temu’s compliance with data security transparency standards. Apple told Politico last year the app was available on its app store after resolving the concerns.

The lawsuit alleges that Temu’s app may be even more dangerous than Pinduoduo’s. It cites an article from Grizzly Research, a firm “focused on producing differentiated research insights on publicly traded companies through in-depth due diligence.” The lawsuit cites findings in the report that “the Temu app has the capability to hack users’ phones and override data privacy settings that users have purposely set to prevent their data from being accessed.”

The AG claims that Temu collects far more data than necessary to run a shopping app, including sensitive or personally identifiable information. For example, the suit alleges that Temu misleads users in its requests to access information, such as location, when uploading a photo. “A reasonable consumer would assume that the location permission is confined to the use of photo uploads. The permission, however, extends to any time the user engages with the Temu app,” the suit claims. It also alleges that Temu “sneaks” permissions to access audio and visual recording and storage on a device.

Temu, Google, and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Read More