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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Authorities in Canada have arrested a man suspected of stealing information from around 165 companies using Snowflake’s cloud storage services, according to reports from Bloomberg and 404 Media.
The Canadian Department of Justice confirmed to 404 Media that it arrested Alexander “Connor” Moucka on October 30th following a request from the US government. “He appeared in court later that afternoon and his case was adjourned to Tuesday November 5, 2024,” a spokesperson told 404 Media. Canada’s Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for more information.
In May, Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation revealed that it had suffered a massive data breach after alleged customer information was posted for sale on hacking forums. However, that was only the first of many breaches to come to light, with other companies with ties to Snowflake, including AT&T, Santander Bank, Advanced Auto Parts, and Lending Tree subsidiary Quote Wizard later disclosing security incidents affecting millions of customers.

Following an investigation, the Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant found that a “financially motivated threat actor” had stolen a “significant volume of data” from about 165 Snowflake customers using compromised login credentials. It didn’t find any evidence that Snowflake itself was breached.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Authorities in Canada have arrested a man suspected of stealing information from around 165 companies using Snowflake’s cloud storage services, according to reports from Bloomberg and 404 Media.

The Canadian Department of Justice confirmed to 404 Media that it arrested Alexander “Connor” Moucka on October 30th following a request from the US government. “He appeared in court later that afternoon and his case was adjourned to Tuesday November 5, 2024,” a spokesperson told 404 Media. Canada’s Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for more information.

In May, Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation revealed that it had suffered a massive data breach after alleged customer information was posted for sale on hacking forums. However, that was only the first of many breaches to come to light, with other companies with ties to Snowflake, including AT&T, Santander Bank, Advanced Auto Parts, and Lending Tree subsidiary Quote Wizard later disclosing security incidents affecting millions of customers.

Following an investigation, the Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant found that a “financially motivated threat actor” had stolen a “significant volume of data” from about 165 Snowflake customers using compromised login credentials. It didn’t find any evidence that Snowflake itself was breached.

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Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

Alexa didn’t get a big splashy launch event, or come with a bunch of grand proclamations about being the future of anything. Instead, like a phone charger with a made-up name or a knockoff version of your favorite blush, it just kind of appeared on Amazon one day.
Ten years ago this week, on November 6th, 2014, Amazon launched the Echo and the smart speaker era. The device quickly spawned countless more, from Amazon and others. It became the emblem of a voice-first way of using technology, the “ambient computing” revolution Amazon and others came to believe would change how we do everything. Now there are Alexa devices in millions of homes, just listening and chirping away all day.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we wrestle with what all that really adds up to. The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins the show to talk about the reasons for that surprise 2014 launch, the explosive growth of the Alexa ecosystem, and the challenges Amazon and everyone else faced in trying to figure out what these smart speakers could really do. By some measures, Alexa is an undeniable hit, an utterly mainstream part of our technological lives. But for all that success, Alexa has never lived up to Amazon’s lofty goals. It’s not the ultra-powerful and ultra-versatile Star Trek computer; it’s not even a better way to shop. After all this time, it’s for music and timers. Alexa has always been for music and timers.
There’s a big change coming for Alexa, though. We talk a lot about what the so-called “Remarkable Alexa” upgrade might mean for the virtual assistant, as Amazon shifts its underlying technology to be based on large language models and generative AI. It’s pretty clear now that Amazon’s big idea was something like the right one. Is the tech finally ready to make it real? And will Amazon ever ship the thing so we can find out? The Echo was a surprise a decade ago — maybe we’re due for another one.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:

From 2014: Amazon just surprised everyone with a crazy speaker that talks to you

From 2015: Amazon Echo review: listen up

Alexa, where’s my Star Trek Computer?
Alexa, thank you for the music
The Alexa Skills revolution that wasn’t
The Amazon Echo graveyard
How Amazon runs Alexa, with Dave Limp
Amazon’s supercharged Alexa won’t arrive this year

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

Alexa didn’t get a big splashy launch event, or come with a bunch of grand proclamations about being the future of anything. Instead, like a phone charger with a made-up name or a knockoff version of your favorite blush, it just kind of appeared on Amazon one day.

Ten years ago this week, on November 6th, 2014, Amazon launched the Echo and the smart speaker era. The device quickly spawned countless more, from Amazon and others. It became the emblem of a voice-first way of using technology, the “ambient computing” revolution Amazon and others came to believe would change how we do everything. Now there are Alexa devices in millions of homes, just listening and chirping away all day.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we wrestle with what all that really adds up to. The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins the show to talk about the reasons for that surprise 2014 launch, the explosive growth of the Alexa ecosystem, and the challenges Amazon and everyone else faced in trying to figure out what these smart speakers could really do. By some measures, Alexa is an undeniable hit, an utterly mainstream part of our technological lives. But for all that success, Alexa has never lived up to Amazon’s lofty goals. It’s not the ultra-powerful and ultra-versatile Star Trek computer; it’s not even a better way to shop. After all this time, it’s for music and timers. Alexa has always been for music and timers.

There’s a big change coming for Alexa, though. We talk a lot about what the so-called “Remarkable Alexa” upgrade might mean for the virtual assistant, as Amazon shifts its underlying technology to be based on large language models and generative AI. It’s pretty clear now that Amazon’s big idea was something like the right one. Is the tech finally ready to make it real? And will Amazon ever ship the thing so we can find out? The Echo was a surprise a decade ago — maybe we’re due for another one.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:

From 2014: Amazon just surprised everyone with a crazy speaker that talks to you

From 2015: Amazon Echo review: listen up

Alexa, where’s my Star Trek Computer?
Alexa, thank you for the music
The Alexa Skills revolution that wasn’t
The Amazon Echo graveyard
How Amazon runs Alexa, with Dave Limp
Amazon’s supercharged Alexa won’t arrive this year

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Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk’s America PAC can move forward with its $1 million giveaways to voters after a Philadelphia judge declined an emergency petition from District Attorney Larry Krasner to block them.
During a hearing earlier on Monday, a representative for the political action committee said prize winners are not randomly selected and are actually chosen to be paid spokespeople for the PAC, which supports former President Donald Trump, The Associated Press reported. Musk previously advertised the selection as random, but the fine print of the petition that applicants need to sign to enter the giveaway doesn’t mention it.
Krasner accused the PAC of running an illegal lottery and deceptively marketing the prize selections as random, even though “multiple winners that have been selected are individuals who have shown up at Trump rallies in Pennsylvania.” While the PAC’s admission at the hearing seemed to confirm that suspicion, it also undermined the idea that the giveaway is a lottery at all.
The PAC lists two additional giveaways on its site to take place on Monday and Tuesday. Those prizes are slated to go to voters in Arizona and Michigan, respectively.
It’s not yet clear what Judge Angelo Foglietta’s reasoning was behind denying the emergency injunction, but he said in a court filing that his findings would be forthcoming.

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk’s America PAC can move forward with its $1 million giveaways to voters after a Philadelphia judge declined an emergency petition from District Attorney Larry Krasner to block them.

During a hearing earlier on Monday, a representative for the political action committee said prize winners are not randomly selected and are actually chosen to be paid spokespeople for the PAC, which supports former President Donald Trump, The Associated Press reported. Musk previously advertised the selection as random, but the fine print of the petition that applicants need to sign to enter the giveaway doesn’t mention it.

Krasner accused the PAC of running an illegal lottery and deceptively marketing the prize selections as random, even though “multiple winners that have been selected are individuals who have shown up at Trump rallies in Pennsylvania.” While the PAC’s admission at the hearing seemed to confirm that suspicion, it also undermined the idea that the giveaway is a lottery at all.

The PAC lists two additional giveaways on its site to take place on Monday and Tuesday. Those prizes are slated to go to voters in Arizona and Michigan, respectively.

It’s not yet clear what Judge Angelo Foglietta’s reasoning was behind denying the emergency injunction, but he said in a court filing that his findings would be forthcoming.

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Image: GM

GM is claiming the number two spot in EV sales in the US for the third quarter of this year, selling 32,000 electric vehicles. The automaker produces EVs across multiple brands running on the same platform, like Chevy’s Silverado, Blazer, and Equinox EVs, as well as the GMC Hummer EV and the Cadillac Lyriq.
GM says it has sold a total of 370,000 EVs in North America since 2016, including 300,000 in the US specifically. Tesla is still the undisputed leader, with more than 5 million vehicles sold since 2008.
In an email with The Verge, GM’s executive director of finance and sales communications James Cain wrote that sales have accelerated since the company built a dedicated EV platform (formerly known as Ultium) and began producing battery cells through its joint ventures with LG and Samsung SDI. GM’s third-quarter EV sales beat out rival Ford by about 8,600 units, according to Kelley Blue Book, as reported by The New York Times.
Meanwhile, Ford spokesperson Dan Barbossa claims the Blue Oval remains “America’s No. 2 best-selling EV brand behind Tesla.” In an email with The Verge, Barbossa wrote:
We remain the No. 2 brand. GM is adding every brand EV (Chevy, GMC, Cadillac, etc) they sell and making a different claim.
Still, GM has a ways to go before it achieves the goal of producing 1 million EVs, which it previously projected it would accomplish by 2025. The company later distanced itself from that target when it became clear that production troubles, charging difficulties, and high interest rates would slow down the rate of growth in EV sales in the US.
GM expects to start turning a profit on EVs by the end of the year. Sales for all EVs in the US continue to grow, but consumer demand has cooled since early adopters are already in, making manufacturers adjust their EV rollout plans.
Ford had a strong early start with solid sales of its all-electric Mustang Mach-E, launched in 2019, and the F-150 Lightning electric truck in 2022. During that timeframe, GM only had the Chevy Bolt, built on an older battery platform. The Hummer EV truck launched in 2020, but overall EV sales were slow amid production troubles.
Ford also hit some snags along the way, including parts shortages. The company has lost billions of dollars in its Model e division, where revenues have not kept up with spending. Ford recently canceled a planned three-row SUV and has paused production of the F-150 Lightning until next year. Ford is placing a lot of its hopes on its skunkworks team in Silicon Valley, developing its next-gen platform for cheaper EVs.

Image: GM

GM is claiming the number two spot in EV sales in the US for the third quarter of this year, selling 32,000 electric vehicles. The automaker produces EVs across multiple brands running on the same platform, like Chevy’s Silverado, Blazer, and Equinox EVs, as well as the GMC Hummer EV and the Cadillac Lyriq.

GM says it has sold a total of 370,000 EVs in North America since 2016, including 300,000 in the US specifically. Tesla is still the undisputed leader, with more than 5 million vehicles sold since 2008.

In an email with The Verge, GM’s executive director of finance and sales communications James Cain wrote that sales have accelerated since the company built a dedicated EV platform (formerly known as Ultium) and began producing battery cells through its joint ventures with LG and Samsung SDI. GM’s third-quarter EV sales beat out rival Ford by about 8,600 units, according to Kelley Blue Book, as reported by The New York Times.

Meanwhile, Ford spokesperson Dan Barbossa claims the Blue Oval remains “America’s No. 2 best-selling EV brand behind Tesla.” In an email with The Verge, Barbossa wrote:

We remain the No. 2 brand. GM is adding every brand EV (Chevy, GMC, Cadillac, etc) they sell and making a different claim.

Still, GM has a ways to go before it achieves the goal of producing 1 million EVs, which it previously projected it would accomplish by 2025. The company later distanced itself from that target when it became clear that production troubles, charging difficulties, and high interest rates would slow down the rate of growth in EV sales in the US.

GM expects to start turning a profit on EVs by the end of the year. Sales for all EVs in the US continue to grow, but consumer demand has cooled since early adopters are already in, making manufacturers adjust their EV rollout plans.

Ford had a strong early start with solid sales of its all-electric Mustang Mach-E, launched in 2019, and the F-150 Lightning electric truck in 2022. During that timeframe, GM only had the Chevy Bolt, built on an older battery platform. The Hummer EV truck launched in 2020, but overall EV sales were slow amid production troubles.

Ford also hit some snags along the way, including parts shortages. The company has lost billions of dollars in its Model e division, where revenues have not kept up with spending. Ford recently canceled a planned three-row SUV and has paused production of the F-150 Lightning until next year. Ford is placing a lot of its hopes on its skunkworks team in Silicon Valley, developing its next-gen platform for cheaper EVs.

Read More 

Image: Epic Games

Epic Games is trying to make music collaborations a larger part of its always-changing virtual world. In front of thousands of fans in Times Square, with most of the sprawling screens displaying his face, Snoop Dogg provided a twist on one of hip-hop’s iconic lines. “It ain’t nothin’ but a gangsta party,” he chanted. “It ain’t nothin’ but a Fortnite gangsta party.” The moment was part of a concert that also featured Ice Spice, all performed live in New York while being broadcast as an in-game event for anyone logged in to the game. The battle royale has had plenty of concerts and events in recent years, but the Snoop collaboration is part of a plan to more deeply integrate music into the budding metaverse.
“This is a partnership,” Snoop said during an interview after the show. “Most games just want one song and you don’t even see the artist. So for them to let us be a part of the game, and that community, it’s deep.”
In the past, Fortnite’s big musical moments have largely been singular virtual concerts from the likes of Ariana Grande and Metallica. But over the years, music has steadily permeated the game to the point that Snoop’s Times Square performance was just a kickoff point for a monthlong event.

Image: Epic Games

Fortnite’s current season, dubbed Chapter 2 Remix, debuted this weekend, rewinding the clock with a version of the battle royale map from several years ago. But there’s a twist — hence the “remix” in the title. Each week, the game will change slightly, themed around a different artist. Snoop is up first. You can enlist him as a companion, visit a heavily guarded Dogg Pound compound, or rock out as his tracks play on the radio as you drive around the island.
If you boot up Fortnite Festival, the rhythm game developed by Rock Band studio Harmonix, he’s the new headlining act, which means you can buy his songs to play along to, unlock Snoop-themed guitars and drum sets, and buy a crip walk emote that plays “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” Snoop will be followed by Eminem, Ice Spice, and the late Juice WRLD, with future updates introducing elements like a gun that spits Eminem lyrics.
According to Nate Nanzer, head of global partnerships at Fortnite developer Epic, there have been two key points in the evolution of music in the game that led to this point. The first was Travis Scott’s “Astronomical” concert, which showed the scale possible with these kinds of virtual events, with an audience topping 12 million. “After we did Travis Scott we had everybody coming to us saying ‘Hey, I want to do that,’” says Nanzer.

The second was the launch of Fortnite Festival last year. Like the battle royale mode, Festival has seasons, each “headlined” by a different artist, which, to date, has included stars like Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga. “If you look at all of the things we did prior, they tended to be more one-off,” says Nanzer. “We’d do an event, and then months or even years would go by before we did something else. What Festival did was give us this venue to be able to celebrate music more regularly.
For Snoop’s son Cordell Broadus, there was one particular moment that convinced him Snoop should be in Fortnite. In 2022, a collaboration with the Wu-Tang Clan featured an in-game glider that would play the chorus to “C.R.E.A.M” as players flew down to the battle royale island. “I kept saying: ‘I gotta put his music in there,’” he explains. “Because every time I play Fortnite that’s what I hear. So a lot of the inspiration came from seeing them doing it, and seeing that Fortnite’s not afraid to really deal with hardcore hip-hop.”
That feeling grew stronger as the more ambitious virtual concerts continued to make waves. “We’re real competitive,” says Broadus. “So we’re competing with Travis Scott. What he did with Fortnite was huge, and I feel like we topped that tonight. But we’ll let the people decide.” (Snoop was quick to clarify that “I didn’t say that, he said that.”)

Image: Epic Games

The Fortnite collaborations that get headlines — and a prime Friday night spot in Times Square — feature huge artists. But part of turning the game into a viable venue for music, according to Nanzer, is integrating it in multiple ways so that all kinds of artists can be featured. In addition to virtual concerts and headlining Festival, there are the emotes, in-game radio stations, and individual tracks you can buy to play in Festival.
Not all of these ideas have worked out. Epic tried to create a virtual tour stop for artists in 2020, going so far as to build out a studio space in Los Angeles, and the effort has largely fizzled out. But as the company continues to try to push Fortnite beyond its battle royale roots, with games like Lego Fortnite, a concentrated focus on community-made games and experiences, and a still-mysterious virtual world built with Disney, music is another important tool to make the game more than just another live-service shooter, an increasingly difficult space to compete in. That’s true at various scales, from Snoop in New York to an indie band getting its first airtime on a Fortnite radio station.
“We want to work with the biggest artists in the world,” says Nanzer, “but we also want to figure out if we can break artists in Fortnite.”

Image: Epic Games

Epic Games is trying to make music collaborations a larger part of its always-changing virtual world.

In front of thousands of fans in Times Square, with most of the sprawling screens displaying his face, Snoop Dogg provided a twist on one of hip-hop’s iconic lines. “It ain’t nothin’ but a gangsta party,” he chanted. “It ain’t nothin’ but a Fortnite gangsta party.” The moment was part of a concert that also featured Ice Spice, all performed live in New York while being broadcast as an in-game event for anyone logged in to the game. The battle royale has had plenty of concerts and events in recent years, but the Snoop collaboration is part of a plan to more deeply integrate music into the budding metaverse.

“This is a partnership,” Snoop said during an interview after the show. “Most games just want one song and you don’t even see the artist. So for them to let us be a part of the game, and that community, it’s deep.”

In the past, Fortnite’s big musical moments have largely been singular virtual concerts from the likes of Ariana Grande and Metallica. But over the years, music has steadily permeated the game to the point that Snoop’s Times Square performance was just a kickoff point for a monthlong event.

Fortnite’s current season, dubbed Chapter 2 Remix, debuted this weekend, rewinding the clock with a version of the battle royale map from several years ago. But there’s a twist — hence the “remix” in the title. Each week, the game will change slightly, themed around a different artist. Snoop is up first. You can enlist him as a companion, visit a heavily guarded Dogg Pound compound, or rock out as his tracks play on the radio as you drive around the island.

If you boot up Fortnite Festival, the rhythm game developed by Rock Band studio Harmonix, he’s the new headlining act, which means you can buy his songs to play along to, unlock Snoop-themed guitars and drum sets, and buy a crip walk emote that plays “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” Snoop will be followed by Eminem, Ice Spice, and the late Juice WRLD, with future updates introducing elements like a gun that spits Eminem lyrics.

According to Nate Nanzer, head of global partnerships at Fortnite developer Epic, there have been two key points in the evolution of music in the game that led to this point. The first was Travis Scott’s “Astronomical” concert, which showed the scale possible with these kinds of virtual events, with an audience topping 12 million. “After we did Travis Scott we had everybody coming to us saying ‘Hey, I want to do that,’” says Nanzer.

The second was the launch of Fortnite Festival last year. Like the battle royale mode, Festival has seasons, each “headlined” by a different artist, which, to date, has included stars like Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga. “If you look at all of the things we did prior, they tended to be more one-off,” says Nanzer. “We’d do an event, and then months or even years would go by before we did something else. What Festival did was give us this venue to be able to celebrate music more regularly.

For Snoop’s son Cordell Broadus, there was one particular moment that convinced him Snoop should be in Fortnite. In 2022, a collaboration with the Wu-Tang Clan featured an in-game glider that would play the chorus to “C.R.E.A.M” as players flew down to the battle royale island. “I kept saying: ‘I gotta put his music in there,’” he explains. “Because every time I play Fortnite that’s what I hear. So a lot of the inspiration came from seeing them doing it, and seeing that Fortnite’s not afraid to really deal with hardcore hip-hop.”

That feeling grew stronger as the more ambitious virtual concerts continued to make waves. “We’re real competitive,” says Broadus. “So we’re competing with Travis Scott. What he did with Fortnite was huge, and I feel like we topped that tonight. But we’ll let the people decide.” (Snoop was quick to clarify that “I didn’t say that, he said that.”)

The Fortnite collaborations that get headlines — and a prime Friday night spot in Times Square — feature huge artists. But part of turning the game into a viable venue for music, according to Nanzer, is integrating it in multiple ways so that all kinds of artists can be featured. In addition to virtual concerts and headlining Festival, there are the emotes, in-game radio stations, and individual tracks you can buy to play in Festival.

Not all of these ideas have worked out. Epic tried to create a virtual tour stop for artists in 2020, going so far as to build out a studio space in Los Angeles, and the effort has largely fizzled out. But as the company continues to try to push Fortnite beyond its battle royale roots, with games like Lego Fortnite, a concentrated focus on community-made games and experiences, and a still-mysterious virtual world built with Disney, music is another important tool to make the game more than just another live-service shooter, an increasingly difficult space to compete in. That’s true at various scales, from Snoop in New York to an indie band getting its first airtime on a Fortnite radio station.

“We want to work with the biggest artists in the world,” says Nanzer, “but we also want to figure out if we can break artists in Fortnite.”

Read More 

Finding lost luggage might soon be a little easier. | Image: Apple

Apple will be introducing a new feature to its Find My app that allows you to temporarily share the location of a lost AirTag with “an airline or a trusted person,” according to MacRumors, which is testing the second developer beta release of iOS 18.2. The feature could make it easier for airport staff to locate a missing piece of luggage if Find My indicates it’s nearby.
In iOS 18.2 the Find My app now has a “Share Item Location” option that creates a link that can be sent to anyone, not just your trusted contacts. On Apple devices, the link will open the Find My app, allowing someone else to see the location of the AirTagged item. On non-Apple devices, the link will instead open a web page with a map showing the item’s last known location.

Huge update to Find My in iOS 18.2 beta 2Get help finding a lost item by sharing its location with an airline or trusted person. They will be able to see the location of your item on a map. pic.twitter.com/lHckNRfZbj— Aaron (@aaronp613) November 4, 2024

The link automatically expires after a week, or when your missing item has been returned to you. You can also see how many people have visited the link you created, while an additional “Show Contact Info” option lets you share your phone number and email address so that the person who finds your missing item can contact you.
Apple introduced the option to continually share the location of an AirTag with up to five additional people in September 2023, so that an entire family can keep tabs on the locations of pets, vehicles, or other shared items. This latest feature expands that functionality, letting you temporarily enlist more people to help you find something, without requiring you to remember to later revoke their access to the AirTag’s location.

Finding lost luggage might soon be a little easier. | Image: Apple

Apple will be introducing a new feature to its Find My app that allows you to temporarily share the location of a lost AirTag with “an airline or a trusted person,” according to MacRumors, which is testing the second developer beta release of iOS 18.2. The feature could make it easier for airport staff to locate a missing piece of luggage if Find My indicates it’s nearby.

In iOS 18.2 the Find My app now has a “Share Item Location” option that creates a link that can be sent to anyone, not just your trusted contacts. On Apple devices, the link will open the Find My app, allowing someone else to see the location of the AirTagged item. On non-Apple devices, the link will instead open a web page with a map showing the item’s last known location.

The link automatically expires after a week, or when your missing item has been returned to you. You can also see how many people have visited the link you created, while an additional “Show Contact Info” option lets you share your phone number and email address so that the person who finds your missing item can contact you.

Apple introduced the option to continually share the location of an AirTag with up to five additional people in September 2023, so that an entire family can keep tabs on the locations of pets, vehicles, or other shared items. This latest feature expands that functionality, letting you temporarily enlist more people to help you find something, without requiring you to remember to later revoke their access to the AirTag’s location.

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Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr loves the idea of government speech regulations, and he especially loves the idea that he will be the one to impose them in a future Trump administration.
That’s the short version.
Here’s the slightly longer, dumber version: Kamala Harris made a cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live over the weekend, triggering an FCC broadcast TV policy known as the “equal time rule”. NBC, no stranger to FCC rules, did the legally required thing and offered Trump his own appearance on the network later in the weekend. Everything should be settled… but here’s Carr, calling for the government to punish NBC.
Seriously! Here’s Carr appearing on Fox Business this morning, threatening to revoke NBC’s broadcast license in retribution for speech he doesn’t like:

“We need to keep every single remedy on the table,” Carr said to host Maria Bartiromo when asked how the government should handle Harris’ SNL spot. “One of the remedies ultimately would be license revocation if we find that it’s egregious, and we’ll see what they have to say about this. But it needs to deter this type of conduct, because when you’re 50 hours before the opening of election day, the whole purpose of this rule is to give people a fair shot.”
The equal time rule, which Carr is referencing, says broadcasters using the public airwaves have to provide legally qualified candidates for office “comparable time and placement to opposing candidates.” It is a pretty archaic rule — it was formulated back when people got their most of their content over the air using TV and radio antennas, which gave those networks a huge amount of power over what voters might have seen and heard. This historical media dominance is how the government justified imposing speech regulations like the equal time rule on broadcasters over the obvious First Amendment issues.
FCC commissioners aren’t supposed to run around threatening to punish broadcasters for their speech
The way the equal time rule generally works is that big broadcasters like NBC tell the campaigns that a candidate is appearing on air, and the campaigns are allowed to request equal time. Notably, the FCC says the equal time rule “does not require a station to provide opposing candidates with programs identical to the initiating candidate,” so there’s a lot of ways to satisfy the rule. If the campaigns think this process isn’t being followed, they can complain to the FCC, but the government isn’t meant to sit in the middle negotiating all this, and FCC commissioners certainly aren’t supposed to run around threatening to punish broadcasters for their speech just because they want to.
I will disclose here that NBCUniversal is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company, but Trump has threatened ABC and CBS with similar FCC penalties and filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS, so the specific network isn’t really an issue here. In fact, we just did an entire Decoder episode about the increasing number of threats against broadcast TV networks from Trump and the GOP because it’s getting so weird.
“No program is more familiar with the equal time rule than SNL.”
Here, the system worked exactly as designed. Harris appeared on SNL, NBC told the Trump campaign, and then Trump appeared in a short video broadcast during a NASCAR race on NBC and again during Sunday Night Football, satisfying the equal time rule. “No program is more familiar with the equal time rule than SNL,” an FCC source intimately familiar with this process tells me, noting that John McCain, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and other candidates have appeared on the show during presidential campaigns without similar eruptions.

The funniest thing about all these Trump threats to revoke licenses is that the days of broadcast TV dominance are obviously long gone. They were already gone 20 years ago, when Republican FCC Chair Michael Powell started arguing that consumers don’t make a distinction between regulated broadcast channels and unregulated cable channels and TV networks should all just compete for audience free of government interference.
Here in 2024, broadcast viewership is at all-time lows and there are more ways than ever for candidates to reach voters, making speech regulations like the equal time rule even more irrelevant. Trump can call into Fox News whenever he wants, and when they cut him off he can just call into the next conservative cable news network that will take him. Trump also owns a social network! His pal Elon Musk also famously owns a social network! Trump’s rallies are all livestreamed on multiple platforms, and he’s recently appeared on as many interchangeable bro podcasts as is possible, including the ur-bro podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, which is among the most popular podcasts in the world. No one needs the government messing with speech to ensure access to Donald Trump.
No one needs the government messing with speech to ensure access to Donald Trump
So why this particular tempest in a teapot now? Well, Brendan Carr really wants to be chair of the FCC in a second Trump administration, and saying he will punish companies for their speech on cable news is the best way to get Trump’s attention. We wrote an entire profile of Carr in 2020, when he was making the same censorious noises in favor of a particularly bad Trump executive order imposing moderation rules on social platforms — an order that Carr’s fellow FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel warned would turn the agency into “the President’s speech police,” and which faced immediate First Amendment lawsuits before President Biden rescinded it.
That all happened the last time Trump was in office, when he was still hemmed in by a functional legal system and a staff of career bureaucrats with a basic understanding of American democracy. It’ll be worse the next time — and Brendan Carr will be there to punish you for speaking your mind about it.

Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr loves the idea of government speech regulations, and he especially loves the idea that he will be the one to impose them in a future Trump administration.

That’s the short version.

Here’s the slightly longer, dumber version: Kamala Harris made a cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live over the weekend, triggering an FCC broadcast TV policy known as the “equal time rule”. NBC, no stranger to FCC rules, did the legally required thing and offered Trump his own appearance on the network later in the weekend. Everything should be settled… but here’s Carr, calling for the government to punish NBC.

Seriously! Here’s Carr appearing on Fox Business this morning, threatening to revoke NBC’s broadcast license in retribution for speech he doesn’t like:

“We need to keep every single remedy on the table,” Carr said to host Maria Bartiromo when asked how the government should handle Harris’ SNL spot. “One of the remedies ultimately would be license revocation if we find that it’s egregious, and we’ll see what they have to say about this. But it needs to deter this type of conduct, because when you’re 50 hours before the opening of election day, the whole purpose of this rule is to give people a fair shot.”

The equal time rule, which Carr is referencing, says broadcasters using the public airwaves have to provide legally qualified candidates for office “comparable time and placement to opposing candidates.” It is a pretty archaic rule — it was formulated back when people got their most of their content over the air using TV and radio antennas, which gave those networks a huge amount of power over what voters might have seen and heard. This historical media dominance is how the government justified imposing speech regulations like the equal time rule on broadcasters over the obvious First Amendment issues.

The way the equal time rule generally works is that big broadcasters like NBC tell the campaigns that a candidate is appearing on air, and the campaigns are allowed to request equal time. Notably, the FCC says the equal time rule “does not require a station to provide opposing candidates with programs identical to the initiating candidate,” so there’s a lot of ways to satisfy the rule. If the campaigns think this process isn’t being followed, they can complain to the FCC, but the government isn’t meant to sit in the middle negotiating all this, and FCC commissioners certainly aren’t supposed to run around threatening to punish broadcasters for their speech just because they want to.

I will disclose here that NBCUniversal is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company, but Trump has threatened ABC and CBS with similar FCC penalties and filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS, so the specific network isn’t really an issue here. In fact, we just did an entire Decoder episode about the increasing number of threats against broadcast TV networks from Trump and the GOP because it’s getting so weird.

Here, the system worked exactly as designed. Harris appeared on SNL, NBC told the Trump campaign, and then Trump appeared in a short video broadcast during a NASCAR race on NBC and again during Sunday Night Football, satisfying the equal time rule. “No program is more familiar with the equal time rule than SNL,” an FCC source intimately familiar with this process tells me, noting that John McCain, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and other candidates have appeared on the show during presidential campaigns without similar eruptions.

The funniest thing about all these Trump threats to revoke licenses is that the days of broadcast TV dominance are obviously long gone. They were already gone 20 years ago, when Republican FCC Chair Michael Powell started arguing that consumers don’t make a distinction between regulated broadcast channels and unregulated cable channels and TV networks should all just compete for audience free of government interference.

Here in 2024, broadcast viewership is at all-time lows and there are more ways than ever for candidates to reach voters, making speech regulations like the equal time rule even more irrelevant. Trump can call into Fox News whenever he wants, and when they cut him off he can just call into the next conservative cable news network that will take him. Trump also owns a social network! His pal Elon Musk also famously owns a social network! Trump’s rallies are all livestreamed on multiple platforms, and he’s recently appeared on as many interchangeable bro podcasts as is possible, including the ur-bro podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, which is among the most popular podcasts in the world. No one needs the government messing with speech to ensure access to Donald Trump.

So why this particular tempest in a teapot now? Well, Brendan Carr really wants to be chair of the FCC in a second Trump administration, and saying he will punish companies for their speech on cable news is the best way to get Trump’s attention. We wrote an entire profile of Carr in 2020, when he was making the same censorious noises in favor of a particularly bad Trump executive order imposing moderation rules on social platforms — an order that Carr’s fellow FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel warned would turn the agency into “the President’s speech police,” and which faced immediate First Amendment lawsuits before President Biden rescinded it.

That all happened the last time Trump was in office, when he was still hemmed in by a functional legal system and a staff of career bureaucrats with a basic understanding of American democracy. It’ll be worse the next time — and Brendan Carr will be there to punish you for speaking your mind about it.

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Cath Virginia / The Verge

Microsoft has been testing a new AI-powered Xbox chatbot, and now Xbox Insiders can try it out for the first time. I exclusively revealed the existence of this new “Xbox Support Virtual Agent” earlier this year, and Microsoft now says it’s designed “to help Xbox players more efficiently solve their support-related gaming issues.”
Xbox Insiders in the US can start trying out this new Xbox AI chatbot at support.xbox.com, and it will answer questions around Xbox console and game support issues. “We value the feedback from Xbox Insiders for this preview experience and any feedback received will be used to improve the Support Virtual Agent,” says Megha Dudani, senior product manager lead at Xbox.

Image: Microsoft
This is how the Xbox chatbot appears across desktop and mobile.

This Xbox chatbot will appear as an AI character that animates when responding, or as a colorful Xbox orb. It’s part of a larger effort inside Microsoft to apply AI to its Xbox platform and services, ahead of some AI-powered features coming to Xbox consoles soon.
Unlike other parts of Microsoft, Xbox has been cautious in how it approaches AI features — despite a clear mandate from CEO Satya Nadella to focus all of Microsoft’s businesses around AI. Microsoft has largely focused on the developer side of AI tools so far, but that’s clearly changing with the introduction of a support chatbot.
I reported earlier this year that Microsoft is also working on bringing AI features to game content creation, game operations, and its Xbox platform and devices. This includes experimenting with AI-generated art and assets for games, AI game testing, and the generative AI NPCs that Microsoft has already partnered with Inworld to develop.

Cath Virginia / The Verge

Microsoft has been testing a new AI-powered Xbox chatbot, and now Xbox Insiders can try it out for the first time. I exclusively revealed the existence of this new “Xbox Support Virtual Agent” earlier this year, and Microsoft now says it’s designed “to help Xbox players more efficiently solve their support-related gaming issues.”

Xbox Insiders in the US can start trying out this new Xbox AI chatbot at support.xbox.com, and it will answer questions around Xbox console and game support issues. “We value the feedback from Xbox Insiders for this preview experience and any feedback received will be used to improve the Support Virtual Agent,” says Megha Dudani, senior product manager lead at Xbox.

Image: Microsoft
This is how the Xbox chatbot appears across desktop and mobile.

This Xbox chatbot will appear as an AI character that animates when responding, or as a colorful Xbox orb. It’s part of a larger effort inside Microsoft to apply AI to its Xbox platform and services, ahead of some AI-powered features coming to Xbox consoles soon.

Unlike other parts of Microsoft, Xbox has been cautious in how it approaches AI features — despite a clear mandate from CEO Satya Nadella to focus all of Microsoft’s businesses around AI. Microsoft has largely focused on the developer side of AI tools so far, but that’s clearly changing with the introduction of a support chatbot.

I reported earlier this year that Microsoft is also working on bringing AI features to game content creation, game operations, and its Xbox platform and devices. This includes experimenting with AI-generated art and assets for games, AI game testing, and the generative AI NPCs that Microsoft has already partnered with Inworld to develop.

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Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

Apple’s second iOS 18.2 developer beta includes a new feature for update’s integration with ChatGPT: users will be able to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus from the Settings menu, 9to5Mac reports.
ChatGPT Plus is OpenAI’s paid version of ChatGPT, offering features like more messages with its GPT-4o model, for $19.99 per month. If you end up using ChatGPT a lot within iOS — you’ll be able to track in Settings if you approach the daily free limit of ChatGPT’s more powerful capabilities — the upgrade could be worth it.
It’s unclear if Apple is taking a cut of those subscriptions made from Settings. Apple and OpenAI didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Apple is also reportedly in talks with Google on an integration with Google’s Gemini. If that comes to pass, I would guess that there will be some kind of in-Settings upgrade path to Gemini Advanced, too.
iOS 18.2 adds other new AI features, too, including Visual Intelligence and Genmoji. The update is set to arrive the week of December 2nd, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports.

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

Apple’s second iOS 18.2 developer beta includes a new feature for update’s integration with ChatGPT: users will be able to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus from the Settings menu, 9to5Mac reports.

ChatGPT Plus is OpenAI’s paid version of ChatGPT, offering features like more messages with its GPT-4o model, for $19.99 per month. If you end up using ChatGPT a lot within iOS — you’ll be able to track in Settings if you approach the daily free limit of ChatGPT’s more powerful capabilities — the upgrade could be worth it.

It’s unclear if Apple is taking a cut of those subscriptions made from Settings. Apple and OpenAI didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Apple is also reportedly in talks with Google on an integration with Google’s Gemini. If that comes to pass, I would guess that there will be some kind of in-Settings upgrade path to Gemini Advanced, too.

iOS 18.2 adds other new AI features, too, including Visual Intelligence and Genmoji. The update is set to arrive the week of December 2nd, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports.

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Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta will now allow US government agencies and contractors to use its open-source Llama AI model for “national security applications.” In an announcement on Monday, the company said it’s working with Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Oracle, and others to make Llama available to the government.
Under Meta’s “acceptable use policy,” people can’t use the latest Llama 3 model for “military, warfare, nuclear industries or applications, espionage.” However, as explained by Meta, this update opens the door for the US military to use Llama to do things like “streamline complicated logistics and planning, track terrorist financing or strengthen our cyber defenses.”
Meta says Oracle has already started building on Llama to “synthesize” maintenance documents to help aircraft technicians make repairs, while Lockheed Martin is using the model to generate code and analyze data. The company hinted at making its AI model available to the government during its quarter three earnings call.

Last week, a report from Reuters revealed that Chinese researchers used Meta’s Llama 2 model to build an AI system for the country’s military. At the time, a Meta spokesperson told Reuters that “the alleged role of a single, and outdated, version of an American open-source model is irrelevant when we know China is already investing more than a trillion dollars to surpass the US on AI.”
In its post, Meta described the importance for the US to get ahead in the AI race, saying it’s in “both America and the wider democratic world’s interest for American open source models to excel and succeed over models from China and elsewhere.” Other AI companies are getting involved with the military as well, with a report from The Intercept revealing that the US Africa Command bought cloud computing services from Microsoft, offering access to OpenAI’s tools. Google DeepMind also has a cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.

Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta will now allow US government agencies and contractors to use its open-source Llama AI model for “national security applications.” In an announcement on Monday, the company said it’s working with Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Oracle, and others to make Llama available to the government.

Under Meta’s “acceptable use policy,” people can’t use the latest Llama 3 model for “military, warfare, nuclear industries or applications, espionage.” However, as explained by Meta, this update opens the door for the US military to use Llama to do things like “streamline complicated logistics and planning, track terrorist financing or strengthen our cyber defenses.”

Meta says Oracle has already started building on Llama to “synthesize” maintenance documents to help aircraft technicians make repairs, while Lockheed Martin is using the model to generate code and analyze data. The company hinted at making its AI model available to the government during its quarter three earnings call.

Last week, a report from Reuters revealed that Chinese researchers used Meta’s Llama 2 model to build an AI system for the country’s military. At the time, a Meta spokesperson told Reuters that “the alleged role of a single, and outdated, version of an American open-source model is irrelevant when we know China is already investing more than a trillion dollars to surpass the US on AI.”

In its post, Meta described the importance for the US to get ahead in the AI race, saying it’s in “both America and the wider democratic world’s interest for American open source models to excel and succeed over models from China and elsewhere.” Other AI companies are getting involved with the military as well, with a report from The Intercept revealing that the US Africa Command bought cloud computing services from Microsoft, offering access to OpenAI’s tools. Google DeepMind also has a cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.

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