Policy & Drama
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OpenAI says it slowed Astra model development over security concerns
OpenAI said it has suspended work on some aspects of its upcoming model Astra over concerns about its cybersecurity prowess.
OpenAI puts the brakes on a new model because it’s supposedly too powerful
OpenAI says it is pausing "internal activities" around an in-development AI model, Astra, because it doesn't yet meet new security standards the company is putting in place. The announcement follows its recent disclosure that OpenAI models accidentally hacked Hugging Face. Anthropic and Meta have also since admitted that they had AI models that went rogue and breached other organizations. Recent internal evaluations of an OpenAI model called Astra indicate that it offers "sign
What’s behind the Google AI shake-up
Some of the biggest names on Google's AI team got new jobs this week. In some cases, including for legendary Googler Jeff Dean, those jobs are no longer at Google. Given that Google's models seem to be behind the best of what's coming out of anthropic and OpenAI, is this a sign of Google in turmoil? Is it about Demis Hassabis wanting something more interesting to work on than virtual assistants? Or is there something else entirely happening here? On this episode of The Vergecas
Responding to the next frontier of critical cyber capabilities
OpenAI is sharing preliminary cybersecurity evaluations for Astra and the steps we’re taking to strengthen safeguards and security controls.
AI chatbots have failed people in crisis. Can that be fixed?
This year alone, there have been numerous known instances—often via lawsuits—of AI chatbots (most often, OpenAI’s ChatGPT) that have gone horrifically wrong. A January lawsuit described the story of a man who took his own life after being allegedly “coached” into suicide. A college student in Georgia sued OpenAI, claiming that ChatGPT “pushed him into psychosis.” In June, a Canadian family also sued OpenAI and argued that ChatGPT agreed with the young woman’s dismissiveness when it first gave he
One of China’s Most Powerful AI Models Has Also Escaped Containment
Security researchers say that Kimi K3, an open-weight model from China, wandered off to the internet in an attempt to cheat on a test it was given.
Hinton, Fei-Fei Li, and Andrew Ng Clash Over AI Risks and Regulation at Ai4
AI pioneers Geoffrey Hinton, Fei-Fei Li, and Andrew Ng sparred over jobs, regulation, and AI’s future as infrastructure spending continues to surge.
Large genome models used to design new viruses
A lot of the AI work in biology has been focused on designing proteins. That's partly because proteins do most of the business of life, catalyzing the interesting chemistry and structuring cells. So, figuring out how to make a new protein can mean directly tinkering with biochemistry, providing new and potentially useful functions. Since the genetic code provides a layer of abstraction between DNA and proteins, it wasn't obvious what a model trained on DNA could do. Yet people went ahead and mad
OpenAI says Apple’s own security practices undermine its trade secrets case
Newly filed court exhibits show OpenAI’s legal strategy in Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit: argue that Apple’s own security and offboarding practices — including allowing an Apple manager to access a former engineer’s iCloud account after he left the company —undermine its claims that the allegedly stolen information was properly protected.
Working with the American Psychological Association on youth mental health and AI
OpenAI and the APA are launching a three-year partnership to develop guidance, resources, and safeguards for responsible AI use supporting youth mental health.
The left and right agree on one thing: no data centers
Today, I’m talking with Gaby Del Valle, a policy reporter here at The Verge, about the growing backlash against AI data centers. Gaby recently reported a fantastic piece about Hernando County, Florida, where last month the county commission unanimously approved a yearlong moratorium on data center construction. She attended a protest there organized by a group called Humans First, a conservative grassroots movement focused on combating AI data center build-outs.
The messy politics behind Google’s big AI shakeup
Google CEO Sundar Pichai at Google I/O. | Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images In the AI industry, Google prides itself on seeming like the adult in the room: quiet, stable, time-tested. On Wednesday, even as the company announced its largest AI org shakeup yet, Google and its leaders presented a unified front, keeping their messaging focused on how the changes tee up future success. But the reality is that the laundry list of executive changes likely signal deeper issues withi
Amid legal battles, Suno says it will start watermarking songs
Suno's watermarking feature comes as the company is fighting legal battles on several fronts.
AI isn’t enough to protect social media communities from AI
Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. But when it comes to AI slop and hateful content threatening the safety and value of social media platforms, adding more fire—in this case, more AI—can make the problem worse. At its best, social media can be a haven for people who want to share their experiences and knowledge. It gets closest to this ideal when users contribute authentic, valuable content, whether that’s a uniquely thoughtful blog post or a helpful video on how to build a PC. Relying
OpenAI says Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit is ‘rotten to its core’
OpenAI has asked a federal judge to toss out Apple's landmark lawsuit accusing the ChatGPT maker of stealing trade secrets, describing the allegations as "meritless." In a motion filed yesterday to dismiss the complaint, OpenAI says that Apple is mischaracterizing both the actions of the AI startup's employees as theft, and "generic" product development information as "trade secrets," adding that Apple made no reasonable efforts to maintain such secrecy. The dismissal request i
OpenAI’s Browser Could Be Hijacked to Spam Your WhatsApp Contacts
Researchers at security firm Zenity found more than a dozen flaws in AI browsers—and managed to get OpenAI’s Atlas to make an unauthorized Amazon purchase.
The Most Dangerous AI Hacking Techniques Still Have Humans in the Loop
Security researcher James Kettle tried to push the limit of AI’s hacking abilities—and discovered how effective it can be when combined with human expertise.
AI Hacks Are Bad. AI Worms and Viruses Will Be Worse
Chinese researchers have shown that AI models have the capacity to act like aggressive and adaptive computer viruses.
Anthropic’s AI used fake identities, malware in rogue attack on GitHub project
Routine cybersecurity testing of frontier AI models sparked a series of unexpected security incidents—the most serious case arising when Anthropic’s Mythos 5 model attempted to insert malicious code into an open source software application and created fake identities to deceive the human developers maintaining the project. The security incidents occurred during a cyber evaluation of seven leading AI models’ capabilities by the AI Security Institute (AISI), a research organization within the UK g
Hank Green found the AI problem that YouTube labels can’t catch
YouTube currently requires that content creators let viewers know "when they use AI to meaningfully alter or generate photorealistic content." The policy draws some strange boundaries. It applies to "AI-generated music" (not photorealistic) but not to "riding a unicorn through a fantastical world" (this could be photorealistic, though it is not plausible). YouTube then summarizes the policy in a different way: "Realistic AI content and meaningful changes require disclosure, while non-realistic o
Europe Has Built Sovereign AI Infrastructure. It Didn’t Build the Ability to Govern It.
Converging EU and US regulations now demand demonstrated operational control and individual accountability over AI systems in production – not just compliant paperwork or infrastructure ownership.
Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery
More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week.
Rogue AI agents created fake online identities in another hacking attempt
Yet more rogue AI agents from OpenAI and Anthropic have been caught attempting to hack real targets online without permission. The discoveries add to a growing list of previously unknown incidents that have alarmed AI safety experts and intensified pressure for greater oversight of frontier systems. According to a report from the UK's AI Security Institute, which evaluates frontier models from top AI labs before they are released, agents powered by OpenAI's GPT-5.6-Sol and Ant
Google just announced a major shakeup of its top AI leadership
Google is making some significant AI leadership changes, including a major shift for Google DeepMind leader Demis Hassabis. Hassabis will become the chair of Google DeepMind and the chief scientist at Alphabet, CEO Sundar Pichai announced on Wednesday. Hassabis will continue to lead Alphabet's Isomorphic Labs, which aims to use AI to develop drugs. Koray Kavukcuoglu, formerly DeepMind's CTO, is stepping up to become Google's SVP of DeepMind and will report to Pichai. Kavukcuogl
AI Influencers Are Heading Into Uncharted Territory
Some creators fear the EU AI Act’s regulatory chaos will upend their lucrative businesses. Others are owning it by incorporating AI transparency into their creative process.
Trump’s AI testing plan is limited and vague
The Trump administration's framework for assessing potential cybersecurity risks posed by advanced AI reportedly has no interest in testing open models. Axios reports that not only do the voluntary guidelines outright exclude open models - meaning anyone can download them and inspect their core components - but the framework explicitly says it can't be used to restrict open models after they've been released. The AI testing framework was created after President Trump signed an
OK, Well, Rogue AI Agents Are Hacking Again
Rogue AI agents from OpenAI and Anthropic have again been caught trying to disrupt servers and software—and leaving instructions for future bad behavior.
The White House Is Keeping Its AI Cybersecurity Framework Secret
The Trump administration shared the details of its plan with OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI labs on Tuesday. For now, the public remains in the dark.
Third-party cyber evaluations involving OpenAI models
OpenAI explains recent third-party cybersecurity evaluation incidents and outlines new safeguards to strengthen AI model testing and evaluation.
Nvidia doesn’t mess around: A week after open AI industry group formed, it’s already showing progress
The week-old Open Secure AI Alliance, spearheaded by Nvidia and grown to over 120 companies, already has proposals out for defending against AI agents.
‘Not healthy’ LLM use is more common than you think
Hank Green, a popular YouTuber and science communicator, said he is stepping back from production amid intense criticism over his use of AI. Green described his AI usage as "not healthy," but stressed that he used it for finding research sources and not to write scripts. Much of the ensuing firestorm in this corner of the internet has centered on how a creator can square a brand built on authenticity and credibility with a technology trained on the (often uncompensated) works o
Apple says more ex-employees may have taken confidential data to OpenAI
Apple says its trade secrets investigation into OpenAI has widened. In a new court filing, Apple claims additional former staff may have retained or accessed confidential information.
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
Can Reddit fend off a new wave of AI SEO spam?
Earlier this year, a Reddit user had asked members of a skincare-focused subreddit if anyone had tried a specific hypochlorous acid spray, a product often used for acne. There were dozens of responses; one from a user named Primary-Taro4254 seemed innocuous enough, at least at first. "I haven't personally tried [that brand] so I can't fully compare, sorry," they commented. "But I have been using a similar hypochlorous acid spray from Honeydew Labs and I've honestly really liked
OpenAI drags Apple’s lawsuit into the court of public opinion
OpenAI says Apple’s lawsuit is “careless, aggressive, and oddly personal.” | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Apple's legal battle against OpenAI just got messier now that the ChatGPT-maker has publicly aired receipts to counter Apple's version of events. In a blog post published overnight titled "Apple is getting this wrong," OpenAI said that Apple's lawsuit accusing it of stealing trade secrets is "careless, aggressive, and oddly personal," sharing iMessage and e
Apple is getting this wrong
OpenAI addresses Apple’s baseless lawsuit, corrects claims about its employees, and shares messages documenting what happened.
Did an AI Music App Just Snitch on the Song of the Summer?
Fenix Flexin’s hit song “Rubberz” has hip-hop fans arguing over whether it was generated by AI. Some say they have proof it’s machine-made, but will anyone care?
After killer quarter, Palantir CEO Alex Karp calls AI industry ‘Marxist’
After a quarter that delivered $1 billion in profit, Palantir CEO Alex Karp on Monday once again warned that AI frontier labs are too untrustworthy for enterprises.
An AI-supervised remote exam went so badly that 58,000 students must retake it
Earlier this summer, nearly 160,000 applicants took the entrance exam for UNAM, Mexico's largest university. For the first time, they did it completely remotely, using a "lockdown" browser and AI-powered webcam proctoring software, over several weeks from late May through early June. It was a disaster. When exam results came in, they bore little resemblance to past results, especially at the top. Between 2021 and 2025, 3.5 percent of test takers scored 100 or more on the 120-question UNAM test.
Influencers draw backlash for attending OpenAI’s first luxury trip
OpenAI’s first-ever influencer brand trip is sparking online backlash as tensions over the use of AI continue.
Europe’s AI labeling and transparency rules are now in effect
The EU made some AI labels that companies can use instead of designing their own. | Image: The European Commission / The Verge The European Union has ushered in some additional rules that aim to make it easier for people to identify chatbots and AI deepfakes online. The new transparency obligations under the bloc's landmark AI Act came into effect on August 2nd, requiring companies to disclose when people are interacting with AI models, and if content has been generated or alter
Sam Altman and AI’s decel debate
On the latest episode of Equity, we discuss why Sam Altman has calling on the industry to "pace the rate of AI development."
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