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Image: shiftBacktick

The space adventure is a glimpse into unsighted play. Space is a soundless vacuum home to countless wonders. Aphotic black holes and the dazzling plasma they stir, starling nebulae, and the pulsars that infuse our physics books with color — the universe is full of sights. Periphery Synthetic asks, what if, rather than a visual cacophony, ours were a universe of sublime noise? Or rather, what if, in this silent universe, sound was all we had by which to navigate?
Periphery Synthetic tasks the player with exploring the stellar system Alpha Periphery. You do this by traversing and scanning planets to assess their viability for colonization. The minerals you find along the way can be used to upgrade your gear to more efficiently carry out your task, and, as you go, you’ll slowly unravel the mysteries of Alpha Periphery in a chill, undemanding, and meditative sound-driven experience.

“There are over 100 unique synths covering the user interface, music, and environmental sounds for each world and other sound effects like footsteps and collisions,” the game’s solo developer, who goes by the handle shiftBacktick, tells The Verge. “Dozens of them are playing at once to make the overall soundscape.”

These sounds are your primary method of navigation. Warbling tones surround collectibles, the crunching roll of synths shifts on different surfaces, and the terrain pulses. All can be momentarily silenced by your scanner, which audibly pings nearby objects and recenters the player in the search for more materials. It’s not a smorgasbord of disparate noise, however. Periphery Synthetic employs two chords — along with harmonics and inversions of those chords — to create a persistent, almost naturalized soundboard by which to communicate everything in its environment.
“Cozy low-stimulus environments that are perfect for your mind’s eye to wander”
The immediate comparison one could make is to Proteus, Ed Key and David Kanaga’s sound-motivated dreamscape. This common ground isn’t entirely accidental. Proteus was the game shiftBacktick played, they said, when first experimenting with acid — an experience they describe as profound. This, however, is as far as the connection goes. “It’s more about packaging that ineffable ephemerality of the psychedelic experience into cozy low-stimulus environments that are perfect for your mind’s eye to wander,” shiftBacktick says.
Wander it will. Playing Periphery Synthetic, whether by sight or sound, is to court a trance-like sensation. What visual world it provides is communicated through a succession of squares of different sizes, concentrations, and orientations. They represent the sun, the stars, collectibles, and the barren landscapes that scroll to the horizon. It brings to mind the synthesized imagery of Windows XP’s Media Player as I listened to David Byrne’s “Like Humans Do” for the umpteenth time because I was too young to understand how to put music on the computer.
The simplicity is beguiling, especially in concert with the reverberating echoes pumping through the speakers. Indeed, though I usually write to a combination of colorful noise, for this feature, I simply booted up the game in the background and let its pulsing tones lull my mind into focus for a similar effect.

Image: shiftBacktick

For all of this, though, Periphery Synthetic is a game designed to be played without seeing the screen. This manifests in a settings menu where a host of sliders control the highly parameterized soundboard. Elsewhere, control settings include dead zone adjustment and sensitivity — though no rebinding. In another menu, an extensive “how to play” guide offers context to a game that can be experienced, within the loop it lays down, mostly as the player desires.
Whether you engage in a blistering hunt for minerals or a relaxing drive across Periphery Synthetic’s worlds, meandering into progression when you feel like it, it is a game that is at once both inherently welcoming and customizable. For a solo developer, it’s an admirable level of accessibility in a game designed to be played by sound alone (and which I had no problem playing with one hand, on keyboard).
This is, of course, excellent news for blind and visually impaired gamers as Periphery Synthetic joins a short list of video games that should be playable without assistance. Though it does not include a dedicated text-to-speech function, it does fully support screen readers to make sure its text-heavy lore and menus are as navigable as the rest of the game.
“As a sighted game developer, it’s my moral responsibility to help reduce these barriers for as many folks as I can.”
This, according to shiftBacktick — who has a background in web development and the accessibility that is standard there — is owed in large part to the community that has formed around their development process and our long tradition of audio games. “Learning about the history of these sorts of games and shedding my ego were important steps along my accessibility journey,” shiftBacktick says. “As a sighted game developer, it’s my moral responsibility to help reduce these barriers for as many folks as I can.”
Though the gameplay loop of Periphery Synthetic can be achieved through sight, I would argue the best way to experience it as a sighted player is to turn off its graphics (another menu option), even if only temporarily. The game doesn’t demand much, but even so, I found myself defaulting to the visual as I started. It was only after I switched them off and embraced the avenues its warbling pulses and harmonics led me down that I truly appreciated the meditative, almost hyperfocused quality Periphery Synthetic inspires.

Image: shiftBacktick

That feeling carries over to whenever you revisit the game’s graphics, but I would urge sighted players to spend at least a little time in the depths of a black screen being guided by the game’s remarkably broad soundscape. There’s no danger in it — no fail states — but there’s a lot to be discovered by doing so, both about other gamers’ experiences but also about one’s self.
“Periphery Synthetic doesn’t hold your hand or demand much to reach the end,” shiftBacktick says. “I hope it recaptures your childhood sense of exploration and discovery and brings you joy along the way.”
Though gaming has a reputation as a visual medium, Periphery Synthetic proves there is more potential in video games beyond visual acuity. The result is a sympathetic, almost equitable experience in which the features that make it so approachable to so many are less an additive than an invisible vehicle to common ground between varying abilities. It’s blissful to hop across its sprawling worlds, to slide down its mountains, and to let go in its pulsing soundscape.
Periphery Synthetic is a rare game that grants players permission to exist within its loose bounds as they like and unites them in gameplay that is powerfully similar from one player to another, regardless of how they are able to approach the experience.
Periphery Synthetic is out today on PC.

Image: shiftBacktick

The space adventure is a glimpse into unsighted play.

Space is a soundless vacuum home to countless wonders. Aphotic black holes and the dazzling plasma they stir, starling nebulae, and the pulsars that infuse our physics books with color — the universe is full of sights. Periphery Synthetic asks, what if, rather than a visual cacophony, ours were a universe of sublime noise? Or rather, what if, in this silent universe, sound was all we had by which to navigate?

Periphery Synthetic tasks the player with exploring the stellar system Alpha Periphery. You do this by traversing and scanning planets to assess their viability for colonization. The minerals you find along the way can be used to upgrade your gear to more efficiently carry out your task, and, as you go, you’ll slowly unravel the mysteries of Alpha Periphery in a chill, undemanding, and meditative sound-driven experience.

“There are over 100 unique synths covering the user interface, music, and environmental sounds for each world and other sound effects like footsteps and collisions,” the game’s solo developer, who goes by the handle shiftBacktick, tells The Verge. “Dozens of them are playing at once to make the overall soundscape.”

These sounds are your primary method of navigation. Warbling tones surround collectibles, the crunching roll of synths shifts on different surfaces, and the terrain pulses. All can be momentarily silenced by your scanner, which audibly pings nearby objects and recenters the player in the search for more materials. It’s not a smorgasbord of disparate noise, however. Periphery Synthetic employs two chords — along with harmonics and inversions of those chords — to create a persistent, almost naturalized soundboard by which to communicate everything in its environment.

The immediate comparison one could make is to Proteus, Ed Key and David Kanaga’s sound-motivated dreamscape. This common ground isn’t entirely accidental. Proteus was the game shiftBacktick played, they said, when first experimenting with acid — an experience they describe as profound. This, however, is as far as the connection goes. “It’s more about packaging that ineffable ephemerality of the psychedelic experience into cozy low-stimulus environments that are perfect for your mind’s eye to wander,” shiftBacktick says.

Wander it will. Playing Periphery Synthetic, whether by sight or sound, is to court a trance-like sensation. What visual world it provides is communicated through a succession of squares of different sizes, concentrations, and orientations. They represent the sun, the stars, collectibles, and the barren landscapes that scroll to the horizon. It brings to mind the synthesized imagery of Windows XP’s Media Player as I listened to David Byrne’s “Like Humans Do” for the umpteenth time because I was too young to understand how to put music on the computer.

The simplicity is beguiling, especially in concert with the reverberating echoes pumping through the speakers. Indeed, though I usually write to a combination of colorful noise, for this feature, I simply booted up the game in the background and let its pulsing tones lull my mind into focus for a similar effect.

For all of this, though, Periphery Synthetic is a game designed to be played without seeing the screen. This manifests in a settings menu where a host of sliders control the highly parameterized soundboard. Elsewhere, control settings include dead zone adjustment and sensitivity — though no rebinding. In another menu, an extensive “how to play” guide offers context to a game that can be experienced, within the loop it lays down, mostly as the player desires.

Whether you engage in a blistering hunt for minerals or a relaxing drive across Periphery Synthetic’s worlds, meandering into progression when you feel like it, it is a game that is at once both inherently welcoming and customizable. For a solo developer, it’s an admirable level of accessibility in a game designed to be played by sound alone (and which I had no problem playing with one hand, on keyboard).

This is, of course, excellent news for blind and visually impaired gamers as Periphery Synthetic joins a short list of video games that should be playable without assistance. Though it does not include a dedicated text-to-speech function, it does fully support screen readers to make sure its text-heavy lore and menus are as navigable as the rest of the game.

This, according to shiftBacktick — who has a background in web development and the accessibility that is standard there — is owed in large part to the community that has formed around their development process and our long tradition of audio games. “Learning about the history of these sorts of games and shedding my ego were important steps along my accessibility journey,” shiftBacktick says. “As a sighted game developer, it’s my moral responsibility to help reduce these barriers for as many folks as I can.”

Though the gameplay loop of Periphery Synthetic can be achieved through sight, I would argue the best way to experience it as a sighted player is to turn off its graphics (another menu option), even if only temporarily. The game doesn’t demand much, but even so, I found myself defaulting to the visual as I started. It was only after I switched them off and embraced the avenues its warbling pulses and harmonics led me down that I truly appreciated the meditative, almost hyperfocused quality Periphery Synthetic inspires.

That feeling carries over to whenever you revisit the game’s graphics, but I would urge sighted players to spend at least a little time in the depths of a black screen being guided by the game’s remarkably broad soundscape. There’s no danger in it — no fail states — but there’s a lot to be discovered by doing so, both about other gamers’ experiences but also about one’s self.

“Periphery Synthetic doesn’t hold your hand or demand much to reach the end,” shiftBacktick says. “I hope it recaptures your childhood sense of exploration and discovery and brings you joy along the way.”

Though gaming has a reputation as a visual medium, Periphery Synthetic proves there is more potential in video games beyond visual acuity. The result is a sympathetic, almost equitable experience in which the features that make it so approachable to so many are less an additive than an invisible vehicle to common ground between varying abilities. It’s blissful to hop across its sprawling worlds, to slide down its mountains, and to let go in its pulsing soundscape.

Periphery Synthetic is a rare game that grants players permission to exist within its loose bounds as they like and unites them in gameplay that is powerfully similar from one player to another, regardless of how they are able to approach the experience.

Periphery Synthetic is out today on PC.

Read More 

Senior reviews editor Nathan Edwards uses a simple spring clamp to store his headphones. | Photo: Nathan Edwards / The Verge

Every year, I ask The Verge’s staff what kind of audio gear they like to use. And they are the perfect set of people to ask: besides working on videos and podcasts, our Slack channels are filled with discussions of the podcasts and music we listen to while working, walking, exercising, or just hanging out.
So here are the headphones, earbuds, and other devices that some of the folks here like to use, both on a professional and personal level.
Headphones and earbuds
RØDE NTH-100 headphones
Andrew Marino, senior audio producer

The RØDE NTH-100 headphones are the comfiest headphones I’ve used. The memory foam cushions let me wear these all day at work without fatigue. The sound is great for the price, too, and the optional headset microphone is one of the best-quality mics I’ve heard on consumer headsets.

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
Victoria Song, senior reviewer

On sunny walks and runs, I’m not interested in getting flattened by wayward SUVs in my neighborhood — I need that situational awareness. Many open-ear headphones wrap around the top of the ear, and since I often wear glasses, that’s a lot to put on my poor ears. The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses kill two birds with one stone; they’re my go-to headphones these days. The audio quality is great, they protect my eyes from UV rays, and once in a while, I use them to snap a photo of a random bunny or stray cat. There’s a mic right by your nose bridge, so you sound pretty great on calls, too. Who doesn’t love a multitasking gadget?

Sony LinkBuds
Andrew Liszewski, senior reporter

They’re not the wireless earbuds I reach for all the time, but when I’m relaxing on a bike ride at the end of the day, the open design of Sony’s LinkBuds helps keep me aware of my surroundings — whether it’s approaching vehicles or other cyclists who are in more of a hurry. Even with some compromises to sound quality, the LinkBuds still sound very good, and because they sit in my ears, they’re easier to wear with a helmet. My favorite feature is the ability to tap on the side of my head to control playback or adjust the volume while riding. The earbuds detect the nearby vibrations as inputs so I don’t have to precisely target buttons or touchpads.

Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro
Emma Roth, news writer

I love my Galaxy Buds 2 Pro; they’re the first wireless earbuds I’ve ever used, and they made the most sense for me, as I’m knee-deep in Samsung’s ecosystem. They fit comfortably inside my ears and their active noise cancellation works well — almost too well — at the gym or on an airplane.

Miscellaneous and accessories
Shure MV7 USB microphone
Andrew Marino, senior audio producer

The Shure MV7 USB has been our go-to microphone to send to remote guests for Verge podcasts. It’s a very flexible dynamic microphone for podcast interviews because of its sonic similarity to typical radio mics like Shure’s SM7b and has both a USB and XLR output for virtually any recording setup.

Apple’s Lightning and USB-C headphone adapters
Nathan Edwards, senior reviews editor

Taking away the headphone jack was and is user-hostile and stupid. It is stupid that I need an adapter to connect wired headphones to my tablet, and it is stupid that I need a different adapter to use them with my phone.
At least Apple’s Lightning and USB-C headphone adapters are small and cheap. And the USB-C one is a surprisingly good DAC. I keep one of each in a little pouch in my backpack, along with some cheap wired earbuds. If only there were some universal wired audio connector! Maybe someday.

3D-printed rack mounts
Andrew Marino, senior audio producer

If you have a lot of audio gear on your workspace, I’d recommend making some room by mounting some of that stuff under your desk. I bought a 3D-printed mounting bracket for my Motu audio interface from an Etsy store, which makes my setup look a lot more professional and keeps the tech away from any spilled drinks.

Teenage Engineering PO-33 K.O.!
Andrew Liszewski, senior reporter

I am by no stretch of the imagination a musician, but I do enjoy living out my Daft Punk fantasies with the Teenage Engineering PO-33 K.O.! It’s part of the company’s Pocket Operators lineup of calculator-sized drum machines, but what sets the PO-33 apart is a built-in microphone that can be used to record sounds that can be turned into beats. I won’t be releasing an album anytime soon, but the PO-33 is an endlessly fun distraction — easy to learn but with enough functionality that it feels like it will take years to master.

Audio-Technica AT-HPH300 headphone hanger
Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editor

My partner spends a lot of time wearing headphones — among other things, he has a radio show and a YouTube channel — but occasionally he does have to put them aside. When he does, he uses the Audio-Technica AT-HPH300 headphone hanger that he bought a few years ago. It fastens securely to the edge of his desk and has an adjustable padded hook. The hook rotates so he can also move the headphones out of the way and under the desk if he needs to.

A spring clamp
Nathan Edwards, senior reviews editor

I hang my headphones from a spring clamp I found in the garage.

Senior reviews editor Nathan Edwards uses a simple spring clamp to store his headphones. | Photo: Nathan Edwards / The Verge

Every year, I ask The Verge’s staff what kind of audio gear they like to use. And they are the perfect set of people to ask: besides working on videos and podcasts, our Slack channels are filled with discussions of the podcasts and music we listen to while working, walking, exercising, or just hanging out.

So here are the headphones, earbuds, and other devices that some of the folks here like to use, both on a professional and personal level.

Headphones and earbuds

RØDE NTH-100 headphones

Andrew Marino, senior audio producer

The RØDE NTH-100 headphones are the comfiest headphones I’ve used. The memory foam cushions let me wear these all day at work without fatigue. The sound is great for the price, too, and the optional headset microphone is one of the best-quality mics I’ve heard on consumer headsets.

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Victoria Song, senior reviewer

On sunny walks and runs, I’m not interested in getting flattened by wayward SUVs in my neighborhood — I need that situational awareness. Many open-ear headphones wrap around the top of the ear, and since I often wear glasses, that’s a lot to put on my poor ears. The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses kill two birds with one stone; they’re my go-to headphones these days. The audio quality is great, they protect my eyes from UV rays, and once in a while, I use them to snap a photo of a random bunny or stray cat. There’s a mic right by your nose bridge, so you sound pretty great on calls, too. Who doesn’t love a multitasking gadget?

Sony LinkBuds

Andrew Liszewski, senior reporter

They’re not the wireless earbuds I reach for all the time, but when I’m relaxing on a bike ride at the end of the day, the open design of Sony’s LinkBuds helps keep me aware of my surroundings — whether it’s approaching vehicles or other cyclists who are in more of a hurry. Even with some compromises to sound quality, the LinkBuds still sound very good, and because they sit in my ears, they’re easier to wear with a helmet. My favorite feature is the ability to tap on the side of my head to control playback or adjust the volume while riding. The earbuds detect the nearby vibrations as inputs so I don’t have to precisely target buttons or touchpads.

Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro

Emma Roth, news writer

I love my Galaxy Buds 2 Pro; they’re the first wireless earbuds I’ve ever used, and they made the most sense for me, as I’m knee-deep in Samsung’s ecosystem. They fit comfortably inside my ears and their active noise cancellation works well — almost too well — at the gym or on an airplane.

Miscellaneous and accessories

Shure MV7 USB microphone

Andrew Marino, senior audio producer

The Shure MV7 USB has been our go-to microphone to send to remote guests for Verge podcasts. It’s a very flexible dynamic microphone for podcast interviews because of its sonic similarity to typical radio mics like Shure’s SM7b and has both a USB and XLR output for virtually any recording setup.

Apple’s Lightning and USB-C headphone adapters

Nathan Edwards, senior reviews editor

Taking away the headphone jack was and is user-hostile and stupid. It is stupid that I need an adapter to connect wired headphones to my tablet, and it is stupid that I need a different adapter to use them with my phone.

At least Apple’s Lightning and USB-C headphone adapters are small and cheap. And the USB-C one is a surprisingly good DAC. I keep one of each in a little pouch in my backpack, along with some cheap wired earbuds. If only there were some universal wired audio connector! Maybe someday.

3D-printed rack mounts

Andrew Marino, senior audio producer

If you have a lot of audio gear on your workspace, I’d recommend making some room by mounting some of that stuff under your desk. I bought a 3D-printed mounting bracket for my Motu audio interface from an Etsy store, which makes my setup look a lot more professional and keeps the tech away from any spilled drinks.

Teenage Engineering PO-33 K.O.!

Andrew Liszewski, senior reporter

I am by no stretch of the imagination a musician, but I do enjoy living out my Daft Punk fantasies with the Teenage Engineering PO-33 K.O.! It’s part of the company’s Pocket Operators lineup of calculator-sized drum machines, but what sets the PO-33 apart is a built-in microphone that can be used to record sounds that can be turned into beats. I won’t be releasing an album anytime soon, but the PO-33 is an endlessly fun distraction — easy to learn but with enough functionality that it feels like it will take years to master.

Audio-Technica AT-HPH300 headphone hanger

Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editor

My partner spends a lot of time wearing headphones — among other things, he has a radio show and a YouTube channel — but occasionally he does have to put them aside. When he does, he uses the Audio-Technica AT-HPH300 headphone hanger that he bought a few years ago. It fastens securely to the edge of his desk and has an adjustable padded hook. The hook rotates so he can also move the headphones out of the way and under the desk if he needs to.

A spring clamp

Nathan Edwards, senior reviews editor

I hang my headphones from a spring clamp I found in the garage.

Read More 

Image: AMD

AMD says Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 11 version 24H2 update will improve performance for its new Zen 5 CPUs. The Ryzen 9000 series launched earlier this month, and failed to live up to AMD’s performance promises in most reviews. After rumors of a Windows bug, AMD has revealed that AMD-specific branch prediction code will be optimized in Windows 11 version 24H2, which is expected to ship next month.
“Zen 5 will see the biggest boost, but this Windows update will improve performance for Zen 4 and Zen 3 as well,” admits AMD. While the chip maker hasn’t revealed how much better its older CPUs will perform, it’s predicting a 13 percent performance improvement for its 9950X CPU in Far Cry 6 running 24H2 instead of 23H2, and a seven percent jump for Cyberpunk 2077. Both are fairly significant increases for a single Windows update. AMD says it’s “collaborating with Microsoft to roll out this optional update to all Windows 11 users soon.”
Reviewers found that in some cases the previous generation Ryzen 9 7950X looked like better value than AMD’s new flagship Ryzen 9 9950X. Over a 13-game average running at 1080p with an RTX 4090, Hardware Unboxed found that the 9950X was just a single percent faster than the existing 7950X. In productivity tasks, that gap was just 3 percent.
We’ll now have to wait for reviewers to test 24H2 with these latest Ryzen chips to see if AMD’s claims of a bigger boost to these chips are accurate, particularly as Zen 4 and Zen 3 processors will be improved too. Despite the poor initial gaming benchmark results for the 9950X, AMD insists the Ryzen 9000 series “delivers leadership performance across content creation, productivity and AI applications.”

Image: AMD

AMD says Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 11 version 24H2 update will improve performance for its new Zen 5 CPUs. The Ryzen 9000 series launched earlier this month, and failed to live up to AMD’s performance promises in most reviews. After rumors of a Windows bug, AMD has revealed that AMD-specific branch prediction code will be optimized in Windows 11 version 24H2, which is expected to ship next month.

“Zen 5 will see the biggest boost, but this Windows update will improve performance for Zen 4 and Zen 3 as well,” admits AMD. While the chip maker hasn’t revealed how much better its older CPUs will perform, it’s predicting a 13 percent performance improvement for its 9950X CPU in Far Cry 6 running 24H2 instead of 23H2, and a seven percent jump for Cyberpunk 2077. Both are fairly significant increases for a single Windows update. AMD says it’s “collaborating with Microsoft to roll out this optional update to all Windows 11 users soon.”

Reviewers found that in some cases the previous generation Ryzen 9 7950X looked like better value than AMD’s new flagship Ryzen 9 9950X. Over a 13-game average running at 1080p with an RTX 4090, Hardware Unboxed found that the 9950X was just a single percent faster than the existing 7950X. In productivity tasks, that gap was just 3 percent.

We’ll now have to wait for reviewers to test 24H2 with these latest Ryzen chips to see if AMD’s claims of a bigger boost to these chips are accurate, particularly as Zen 4 and Zen 3 processors will be improved too. Despite the poor initial gaming benchmark results for the 9950X, AMD insists the Ryzen 9000 series “delivers leadership performance across content creation, productivity and AI applications.”

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube has announced a new AI assistant feature to help users recover accounts that have been targeted by hackers. Described as a “troubleshooting tool” on Google’s support page, the chatbot can be accessed via the YouTube Help Center, and should ask hacked creators a series of questions to guide them through the process of securing their impacted Google logins and reversing any changes that have been made to their YouTube channels.
The support assistant is currently only available in English, and access to “certain troubleshooting features” is limited to a select group of “certain creators,” but Google says it plans to eventually make the feature available to all YouTube creators.
We’ve managed to access the tool and the results seem… fine. It’s a fairly standard support chatbot with no generative AI weirdness detected so far, and some guardrails appear to be in place. It doesn’t really solve one of the major complaints that creators have voiced, however: that YouTube is nigh impossible to contact when issues arise. Speaking to a YouTube rep directly is typically limited to only the largest creators in the platform’s partner program, leaving smaller accounts left to resolve their own situations via help pages or seemingly automated responses from YouTube support.
Adding an AI-powered chatbot to the mix may upset any creators hoping for YouTube to improve how it communicates with its users. Especially when issues like account hacking have targeted even massive creators like Linus Tech Tips, and have previously taken smaller partnered accounts extensive time to resolve.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube has announced a new AI assistant feature to help users recover accounts that have been targeted by hackers. Described as a “troubleshooting tool” on Google’s support page, the chatbot can be accessed via the YouTube Help Center, and should ask hacked creators a series of questions to guide them through the process of securing their impacted Google logins and reversing any changes that have been made to their YouTube channels.

The support assistant is currently only available in English, and access to “certain troubleshooting features” is limited to a select group of “certain creators,” but Google says it plans to eventually make the feature available to all YouTube creators.

We’ve managed to access the tool and the results seem… fine. It’s a fairly standard support chatbot with no generative AI weirdness detected so far, and some guardrails appear to be in place. It doesn’t really solve one of the major complaints that creators have voiced, however: that YouTube is nigh impossible to contact when issues arise. Speaking to a YouTube rep directly is typically limited to only the largest creators in the platform’s partner program, leaving smaller accounts left to resolve their own situations via help pages or seemingly automated responses from YouTube support.

Adding an AI-powered chatbot to the mix may upset any creators hoping for YouTube to improve how it communicates with its users. Especially when issues like account hacking have targeted even massive creators like Linus Tech Tips, and have previously taken smaller partnered accounts extensive time to resolve.

Read More 

Image: The Verge

In a new letter, OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon insists that AI regulations should be left to the federal government. As reported previously by Bloomberg, Kwon says that a new AI safety bill under consideration in California could slow progress and cause companies to leave the state.
A federally-driven set of AI policies, rather than a patchwork of state laws, will foster innovation and position the U.S. to lead the development of global standards. As a result, we join other AI labs, developers, experts and members of California’s Congressional delegation in respectfully opposing SB 1047 and welcome the opportunity to outline some of our key concerns.
The letter is addressed to California State Senator Scott Wiener, who originally introduced SB 1047, also known as the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act.
According to proponents like Wiener, it establishes standards ahead of the development of more powerful AI models, requires precautions like pre-deployment safety testing and other safeguards, adds whistleblower protections for employees of AI labs, gives California’s Attorney General power to take legal action if AI models cause harm, and calls for establishing a “public cloud computer cluster” called CalCompute.
In a response to the letter published Wednesday evening, Wiener points out that the proposed requirements apply to any company doing business in California, whether they are headquartered in the state or not, so the argument “makes no sense.” He also writes that OpenAI “…doesn’t criticize a single provision of the bill” and closes by saying, “SB 1047 is a highly reasonable bill that asks large AI labs to do what they’ve already committed to doing, namely, test their large models for catastrophic safety risk.”
Following concerns from politicians like Zoe Lofgren and Nancy Pelosi, companies like Anthropic, and organizations such as California’s Chamber of Commerce, the bill passed out of committee with a number of amendments that included tweaks like replacing criminal penalties for perjury with civil penalties and narrowing pre-harm enforcement abilities for the Attorney General.
The bill is currently awaiting its final vote before going to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk.
Here is OpenAI’s letter in full:

Image: The Verge

In a new letter, OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon insists that AI regulations should be left to the federal government. As reported previously by Bloomberg, Kwon says that a new AI safety bill under consideration in California could slow progress and cause companies to leave the state.

A federally-driven set of AI policies, rather than a patchwork of state laws, will foster innovation and position the U.S. to lead the development of global standards. As a result, we join other AI labs, developers, experts and members of California’s Congressional delegation in respectfully opposing SB 1047 and welcome the opportunity to outline some of our key concerns.

The letter is addressed to California State Senator Scott Wiener, who originally introduced SB 1047, also known as the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act.

According to proponents like Wiener, it establishes standards ahead of the development of more powerful AI models, requires precautions like pre-deployment safety testing and other safeguards, adds whistleblower protections for employees of AI labs, gives California’s Attorney General power to take legal action if AI models cause harm, and calls for establishing a “public cloud computer cluster” called CalCompute.

In a response to the letter published Wednesday evening, Wiener points out that the proposed requirements apply to any company doing business in California, whether they are headquartered in the state or not, so the argument “makes no sense.” He also writes that OpenAI “…doesn’t criticize a single provision of the bill” and closes by saying, “SB 1047 is a highly reasonable bill that asks large AI labs to do what they’ve already committed to doing, namely, test their large models for catastrophic safety risk.”

Following concerns from politicians like Zoe Lofgren and Nancy Pelosi, companies like Anthropic, and organizations such as California’s Chamber of Commerce, the bill passed out of committee with a number of amendments that included tweaks like replacing criminal penalties for perjury with civil penalties and narrowing pre-harm enforcement abilities for the Attorney General.

The bill is currently awaiting its final vote before going to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk.

Here is OpenAI’s letter in full:

Read More 

A screenshot from the Megalopolis trailer. | Image: Lionsgate

Hours after it was released, Lionsgate pulled a trailer for Megalopolis that was clearly “gunning for the haters” with a selection of negative quotes about director Francis Ford Coppola’s previous works. That’s because reports like this one from Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri showed that critic quotes in the trailer lambasting films like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now were fabricated.
“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.”
That all led some people to immediately wonder whether the quotes may have been generated by a tool like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Chatbots, and ChatGPT specifically, will create quotes in responses to queries complete with citations and even fake URLs for content that never existed. A famous example is a case earlier this year where a lawyer cited judicial decisions that did not exist. The lawyer admitted using ChatGPT for his research and said he was “unaware of the possibility that its content could be false.”
We’ve asked Lionsgate if it used a generative AI tool as part of the creation of the trailer but haven’t heard back.
Variety also reports that one of its staffers was falsely quoted in the trailer over their review of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and that a Roger Ebert quote attributed to his Dracula review was actually from a review of the 1989 Batman.

A screenshot from the Megalopolis trailer. | Image: Lionsgate

Hours after it was released, Lionsgate pulled a trailer for Megalopolis that was clearly “gunning for the haters” with a selection of negative quotes about director Francis Ford Coppola’s previous works. That’s because reports like this one from Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri showed that critic quotes in the trailer lambasting films like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now were fabricated.

“Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.”

That all led some people to immediately wonder whether the quotes may have been generated by a tool like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Chatbots, and ChatGPT specifically, will create quotes in responses to queries complete with citations and even fake URLs for content that never existed. A famous example is a case earlier this year where a lawyer cited judicial decisions that did not exist. The lawyer admitted using ChatGPT for his research and said he was “unaware of the possibility that its content could be false.”

We’ve asked Lionsgate if it used a generative AI tool as part of the creation of the trailer but haven’t heard back.

Variety also reports that one of its staffers was falsely quoted in the trailer over their review of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and that a Roger Ebert quote attributed to his Dracula review was actually from a review of the 1989 Batman.

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple is splitting its App Store division in half, according to a report from Bloomberg. While one group of employees will run the App Store, the other will manage its approach to alternative marketplaces that have started opening up in the European Union.
As part of the change, App Store vice president Matt Fischer will leave the company after more than a decade in the role. “This has been on my mind for some time, and as we are also reorganizing the team to better manage new challenges and opportunities, now is the right moment to pass the baton to two outstanding leaders on my team,” Fischer writes in an email to employees seen by Bloomberg.

Now, Apple senior director Carson Oliver will reportedly oversee the App Store division, while Ann Thai, a product director at the company, will head up the group that tackles alternative distribution. App Store chief Phil Schiller will oversee both divisions. The Verge reached out to Apple with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
Apple decided to break up the division after European regulators started requiring Apple to allow third-party payment methods and alternative app stores, Bloomberg reports. Last week, Fortnite returned to the iPhone through the launch of the Epic Games Store on iOS. Other alternative app stores, such as the AltStore PAL, Mobivention, and Aptoid, have also popped up on iPhones in the region.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple is splitting its App Store division in half, according to a report from Bloomberg. While one group of employees will run the App Store, the other will manage its approach to alternative marketplaces that have started opening up in the European Union.

As part of the change, App Store vice president Matt Fischer will leave the company after more than a decade in the role. “This has been on my mind for some time, and as we are also reorganizing the team to better manage new challenges and opportunities, now is the right moment to pass the baton to two outstanding leaders on my team,” Fischer writes in an email to employees seen by Bloomberg.

Now, Apple senior director Carson Oliver will reportedly oversee the App Store division, while Ann Thai, a product director at the company, will head up the group that tackles alternative distribution. App Store chief Phil Schiller will oversee both divisions. The Verge reached out to Apple with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

Apple decided to break up the division after European regulators started requiring Apple to allow third-party payment methods and alternative app stores, Bloomberg reports. Last week, Fortnite returned to the iPhone through the launch of the Epic Games Store on iOS. Other alternative app stores, such as the AltStore PAL, Mobivention, and Aptoid, have also popped up on iPhones in the region.

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Chick-fil-A

The streaming space has become so crowded that it’s hard to imagine why any company would want to break in now, but that is apparently what Chick-fil-A (yes, the fast food chain) is planning to do.
Deadline reports that Chick-fil-A is working with a number of production companies and traditional studios to create multiple original shows for a streaming platform debuting sometime later this year. Initially, the restaurant is said to be focused on family-friendly unscripted programming including a game show produced by Glassman Media and Sugar23. But down the line, the currently-unnamed service could also feature original scripted series, animation, and content that’s either licensed or acquired from other entertainment outfits.
Chick-fil-A has yet to announce or publicly comment on the programming initiative, but a pivot into entertainment production could be part of a bigger advertising or customer data play. Disney does it with Disney Plus and drove Walmart’s interest in streaming which ultimately led to partnering with Paramount Plus.
The idea of the company launching an entire streaming service filled with feel-good stories just to sell chicken is a bit odd on its face. But it feels important to bear in mind that Chick-fil-A is owned by the Cathy family, whose independently-managed trust was instrumental in the foundation of Trilith Studios — the Atlanta studio most well known for its frequent work for Marvel. Chick-fil-A’s corporate ties to the entertainment industry make this kind of move somewhat easy to wrap your mind around to a certain extent, but it’s much harder to imagine people actually wanting to sign up for yet another platform that’s probably going to be filled with commercials.

Chick-fil-A

The streaming space has become so crowded that it’s hard to imagine why any company would want to break in now, but that is apparently what Chick-fil-A (yes, the fast food chain) is planning to do.

Deadline reports that Chick-fil-A is working with a number of production companies and traditional studios to create multiple original shows for a streaming platform debuting sometime later this year. Initially, the restaurant is said to be focused on family-friendly unscripted programming including a game show produced by Glassman Media and Sugar23. But down the line, the currently-unnamed service could also feature original scripted series, animation, and content that’s either licensed or acquired from other entertainment outfits.

Chick-fil-A has yet to announce or publicly comment on the programming initiative, but a pivot into entertainment production could be part of a bigger advertising or customer data play. Disney does it with Disney Plus and drove Walmart’s interest in streaming which ultimately led to partnering with Paramount Plus.

The idea of the company launching an entire streaming service filled with feel-good stories just to sell chicken is a bit odd on its face. But it feels important to bear in mind that Chick-fil-A is owned by the Cathy family, whose independently-managed trust was instrumental in the foundation of Trilith Studios — the Atlanta studio most well known for its frequent work for Marvel. Chick-fil-A’s corporate ties to the entertainment industry make this kind of move somewhat easy to wrap your mind around to a certain extent, but it’s much harder to imagine people actually wanting to sign up for yet another platform that’s probably going to be filled with commercials.

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Image: GMC

GMC says its limited “Denali Edition 1” launch versions of the new Sierra EV pickup truck are now being delivered to their first customers and are available for purchase at dealerships nationwide.
GMC’s 2024 Sierra EV is parent company GM’s third electric pickup truck built on the Ultium EV platform after the just-launched Chevy Silverado EV. It’s also GM’s second GMC-branded EV after the beastly Hummer EV pickup (which now also comes in SUV format).

The Denali’s main claims to fame are the same diagonal-driving CrabWalk mode party trick featured in the Hummer EV (see video above) and its promised range estimate of 440 miles on a single charge, matching the Silverado EV and besting the Rivian R1T’s Max battery range of 420 miles.
(Personally, I think the Sierra EV also has a looks advantage with its uniquely armored front, which might appeal to buyers not sold on the Ford F-150 Lightning’s big light bar brow, Rivian’s arguably cartoony headlights, or Tesla’s plank-faced Cybertruck.)
Regarding cost, the Denali Edition 1’s $97,500 price tag aligns with GM’s apparent strategy that all its electric pickup trucks must cost around $100,000 at launch, including the Silverado EV first-edition RST, which starts at $96,495. (The Hummer EV launched at $110,000, and now starts at $96,000.) At its launch price, the Denali feels like a tough sell compared to a Ford F-150 Lightning that starts under $70,000, and it comes with Apple CarPlay, which the Sierra EV unfortunately lacks.

Image: GMC

GMC says its limited “Denali Edition 1” launch versions of the new Sierra EV pickup truck are now being delivered to their first customers and are available for purchase at dealerships nationwide.

GMC’s 2024 Sierra EV is parent company GM’s third electric pickup truck built on the Ultium EV platform after the just-launched Chevy Silverado EV. It’s also GM’s second GMC-branded EV after the beastly Hummer EV pickup (which now also comes in SUV format).

The Denali’s main claims to fame are the same diagonal-driving CrabWalk mode party trick featured in the Hummer EV (see video above) and its promised range estimate of 440 miles on a single charge, matching the Silverado EV and besting the Rivian R1T’s Max battery range of 420 miles.

(Personally, I think the Sierra EV also has a looks advantage with its uniquely armored front, which might appeal to buyers not sold on the Ford F-150 Lightning’s big light bar brow, Rivian’s arguably cartoony headlights, or Tesla’s plank-faced Cybertruck.)

Regarding cost, the Denali Edition 1’s $97,500 price tag aligns with GM’s apparent strategy that all its electric pickup trucks must cost around $100,000 at launch, including the Silverado EV first-edition RST, which starts at $96,495. (The Hummer EV launched at $110,000, and now starts at $96,000.) At its launch price, the Denali feels like a tough sell compared to a Ford F-150 Lightning that starts under $70,000, and it comes with Apple CarPlay, which the Sierra EV unfortunately lacks.

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Lil Jon joins the Georgia delegation at the DNC roll call to raucous applause. | Photo by Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images

Compare clips from the Democratic National Convention, which kicked off on Monday in Chicago, to the Republican National Convention in July. They feel like different universes.
At the RNC, during the roll call of votes nominating Donald Trump, states were called out to scattered applause along with the number of votes. The room was mostly quiet, and it sounded more like a jury delivering bad news than it did a political party affirming its future.
The DNC roll call, meanwhile, included a playlist of music related to each state — like “Sweet Home Alabama” for Alabama and “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar for his home state of California. Delegates huddled around microphones, screaming and cheering as they announced their support for Vice President Kamala Harris. Lil Jon emerged out of the crowd singing “Turn Down for What” like the Kool-Aid Man breaking through a wall. Compared to the almost somber energy at the RNC, the DNC is a party — and the Democrats are trying to make sure you know about it.

A tale of two roll calls: RNC vs. DNC pic.twitter.com/2oW1F6Ar0f— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 21, 2024

The Democrats are running with a straightforward strategy in the lead-up to November: flood the zone with content. This is happening against a fairly dire backdrop — according to a Democratic press release, night one of the DNC averaged 20 million viewers across 13 networks, down 22 percent from the 2016 convention when Hillary Clinton accepted her party’s nomination. The GOP is not faring much better — the RNC this year averaged even less, with 18 million viewers on its first evening. The gap is being filled by new platforms and new media. The Democrats say that 7 million people streamed the first night of the DNC, and content published by creators received 30 million views.
For the past several weeks, Democrats have successfully maintained a steady stream of viral moments, leaning into pop culture memes and creating hyper-targeted merch like a Chappell Roan-inspired camo hat. And now, there are 200 content creators running around the DNC, hopping from yacht parties and private lounges to filming locations as they document their time at the convention for their audiences.
It’s not just political influencers in attendance, either. Some are lifestyle influencers whose outfit videos are now side by side with footage from the DNC. I read this as a sign of who they want to reach: not just people watching Hasan Piker streams but also the TikTok users who flock to the app to hear their favorite fashion influencer talk about their life. The party is hedging its bets that the message will travel farther — and perhaps penetrate apathy — if it comes from someone viewers trust for other topics.
The 2024 US presidential election until this point has been largely vibes-based: excitement on the left turned a corner literally overnight after Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection. But politics has always been at least partially informed by vibes — before voters were asking about whether Tim Walz is “Midwest Princess,” they were debating which candidate they’d rather have a beer with. What the Harris campaign has done so effectively is to keep her at the top of people’s minds through savvy marketing that co-opts the type of content that people are already consuming online.
And what better way to do that than to somehow license more than 50 ultrapopular songs and use them, essentially, as hype-up music? The move has spawned countless posts on platforms like X and TikTok, creating a social media moment out of something that otherwise might be a boring formality. It’s one thing to have the influencers you invited make mildly cringey videos about your convention — anyone can throw money at paid media. But it’s this wave of organic, unpaid content that is actually notable. Ask anyone in marketing: that earned media is priceless.

Lil Jon joins the Georgia delegation at the DNC roll call to raucous applause. | Photo by Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images

Compare clips from the Democratic National Convention, which kicked off on Monday in Chicago, to the Republican National Convention in July. They feel like different universes.

At the RNC, during the roll call of votes nominating Donald Trump, states were called out to scattered applause along with the number of votes. The room was mostly quiet, and it sounded more like a jury delivering bad news than it did a political party affirming its future.

The DNC roll call, meanwhile, included a playlist of music related to each state — like “Sweet Home Alabama” for Alabama and “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar for his home state of California. Delegates huddled around microphones, screaming and cheering as they announced their support for Vice President Kamala Harris. Lil Jon emerged out of the crowd singing “Turn Down for What” like the Kool-Aid Man breaking through a wall. Compared to the almost somber energy at the RNC, the DNC is a party — and the Democrats are trying to make sure you know about it.

The Democrats are running with a straightforward strategy in the lead-up to November: flood the zone with content. This is happening against a fairly dire backdrop — according to a Democratic press release, night one of the DNC averaged 20 million viewers across 13 networks, down 22 percent from the 2016 convention when Hillary Clinton accepted her party’s nomination. The GOP is not faring much better — the RNC this year averaged even less, with 18 million viewers on its first evening. The gap is being filled by new platforms and new media. The Democrats say that 7 million people streamed the first night of the DNC, and content published by creators received 30 million views.

For the past several weeks, Democrats have successfully maintained a steady stream of viral moments, leaning into pop culture memes and creating hyper-targeted merch like a Chappell Roan-inspired camo hat. And now, there are 200 content creators running around the DNC, hopping from yacht parties and private lounges to filming locations as they document their time at the convention for their audiences.

It’s not just political influencers in attendance, either. Some are lifestyle influencers whose outfit videos are now side by side with footage from the DNC. I read this as a sign of who they want to reach: not just people watching Hasan Piker streams but also the TikTok users who flock to the app to hear their favorite fashion influencer talk about their life. The party is hedging its bets that the message will travel farther — and perhaps penetrate apathy — if it comes from someone viewers trust for other topics.

The 2024 US presidential election until this point has been largely vibes-based: excitement on the left turned a corner literally overnight after Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection. But politics has always been at least partially informed by vibes — before voters were asking about whether Tim Walz is “Midwest Princess,” they were debating which candidate they’d rather have a beer with. What the Harris campaign has done so effectively is to keep her at the top of people’s minds through savvy marketing that co-opts the type of content that people are already consuming online.

And what better way to do that than to somehow license more than 50 ultrapopular songs and use them, essentially, as hype-up music? The move has spawned countless posts on platforms like X and TikTok, creating a social media moment out of something that otherwise might be a boring formality. It’s one thing to have the influencers you invited make mildly cringey videos about your convention — anyone can throw money at paid media. But it’s this wave of organic, unpaid content that is actually notable. Ask anyone in marketing: that earned media is priceless.

Read More