Latest 25 news items

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

China’s intelligence agency recruited Megaspeed executive Alice Huang to spy on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, according to The New York Times . The Ministry of State Security (MSS) enlisted her to glean information about American AI chips and “potentially influence the company to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China.” Megaspeed is a…

OpenAI has reportedly raised $11 billion so far in a new funding round that values the AI lab at $1.25 trillion. Bloomberg reported on the new funding on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The company said later that day that an investigation two days earlier (on Monday) had revealed that “certain customer information including names, usernames, password hashes and live tokens for all Chainalysis users were exposed to a malicious actor.” It also said it had detected “abnormal activity” and, in response, took down its login page and…

While the Shure Mv7 Plus is popular with streamers and podcasters, it’s equally good at impressing your friends and coworkers on meetings and Discord calls. It’s currently marked down to $255 at various retailers, including Amazon , Guitar Center , and directly from Shure .

Massive new data centers are the physical foundation for tech companies’ hopes and dreams for AI. But the rush to expand warehouses full of energy-hungry servers has also kicked up fights across the world over their impact on power grids, utility bills, nearby communities, and the environment.

Meta recently launched its Muse agents — a new generation of cuddly agentic helpers. Now, the company has launched Spaces, a new way to communicate and collaborate with them.

Security researchers have discovered hundreds of copies of a Chinese-made AI hacking tool publicly exposed to the internet for anyone to access, potentially allowing outsiders to launch cyberattacks against unsuspecting targets. The hacking software, called Artex, is an open source autonomous penetration testing tool, meaning software that automatically…

A massive permitting bill that could help energy projects come online much quicker and potentially lower utility bills for Americans is advancing with bipartisan support. And while it could be a catalyst for lots of clean energy, it could also speed up polluting projects and limit oversight of new data centers.

Democrats’ historic victories in this week’s U.S. midterm elections could also transform the tech industry.

Kobo is launching a new monthly subscription service called Stack that lets you upload your own ebooks and documents to the company’s servers where they’ll be synced across multiple devices and apps, including your reading progress, highlights, and annotations. Kobo Stack is similar to Amazon’s Send to Kindle feature that allows users to upload a wide…

Someone at the White House appears to be running software that could enable outsiders to rent access on the presidential network for just “a few dollars,” as reported by Krebs on Security and The Register . That’s according to findings from the security firms Layer3 Intel and Synthient , which discovered residential proxy activity on the White House network.

I. Family & Trust: Melania Trump sets priorities as she prepares to become America’s First Lady.

Meta will now allow you to build customized, app-like experiences within Muse. The new feature, called “spaces,” allows its AI assistant to build things like a shopping hub, school dashboard, music tracker, trivia game, and more, which you can interact with directly in the Muse app.

Democrats’ historic victories in this week’s U.S. midterm elections could also transform the tech industry.

Apple’s iPhone Duo has been officially on sale for two weeks, and the company said today that the App Store now has over 100,000 apps that are built for the foldable. “It’s been wonderful to see how quickly developers have embraced iPhone Duo, and we’re grateful for their creativity and innovation,” Susan Prescott, Apple’s VP of Worldwide Developer…

If you’re curious about virtual reality, Meta’s Quest 3S is a good entry-level headset for dipping your toes in, especially now it’s on sale in refurbished condition for $255.99 directly from Meta’s eBay storefront through November 8th when you use coupon code SAVE20TECH . For comparison, the headset recently dropped to $300 in new condition as part of…

When Irene moved to San Francisco last year, she started using dating apps as a way to meet new people, get to know her new city, and connect with others who care about the things she does. After the 25-year-old analyst downloaded Hinge and started swiping, she noticed a trend.

inMusic, the parent company of Akai, Moog, Native Instruments, and more, has decided to embrace the modding community. In an interview with The Verge , inMusic CEO Jack O’Donnell said, “We’re going to provide a toolbox to the community, we’re going to provide the inner workings of, say, an MPC or Sample so that people can do what they want.” That “toolbox”…

On Tuesday, millions of American voters went to the polls and voted overwhelmingly for Democrats and against AI. The fight against Big Tech is about to come roaring back , and the fight over data centers is looking even harder for the folks trying to build them.

Companies are using more AI than ever, but they’re not spending more on it. A new report from Ramp shows AI spending flatlined over late summer even as token volumes rose, a sign that price competition and savvier customers may be capping revenue for OpenAI and Anthropic.

Buying the 4K Blu-ray disc version of KPop Demon Hunters was already going to be a wise idea for some people, especially those who primarily keep their $26.99 Netflix Premium subscription just to watch the hit animated flick in 4K. But at just $24.99 from Barnes and Noble and Amazon instead of its original $49.95 price, it’s easier than ever to recommend.

Lutra, a South Korean startup, has debuted a new brand called Humans of Authenticity (HOA) that’s launching another screen-free digital camera that incorporates a large open viewfinder into its design, as spotted by PetaPixel . The camera is reminiscent of the Godox C100 but the HOA A1 positions its lens and sensor close to the center of its large…