Humanoid robot competes in the optional boxing routine event during the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games at National Speed Skating Oval on August 26, 2026 in Beijing, China.…
| Image: Getty Images This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaki…
For more on falling robots and the US-China AI race, follow Robert Hart.
Vicariously hike the Appalachian in the gorgeous A Trail Tale
Inspired by Oregon Trail, but minus the dysentery.| Screenshot: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge I used to be an avid hiker and would try to go backpacking a few times a year.…
I always dreamed of thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, but life kind o…
(Turns out jobs, wives, and children aren't thrilled with the idea of …
Alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported
Alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos was arrested by ICE on Thursday, and today the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Reuters and the Washington Post that he had been deported to the UK.…
Yiannopoulos came to the US legally in 2019, but overstayed his visa.
After he failed to appear in court for an immigration hearing, a final…
Sony Music and Warner Chappell are suing Anthropic
Sony Music and Warner Chappell have filed suit against Anthropic in the US District Court for the Northern District of California seeking damages for "tens of thousands" copyrighted works.…
The companies are asking for up to $150,000 per work, plus up to $25,0…
In total, the damages could amount to several billion dollars if a cou…
Welcome to Night Vale cocreator Joseph Fink learned storytelling from Grim Fandango
10 out of 10 beard.| Photo: Ben Mekler Joseph Fink is the cocreator and cowriter of Welcome to Night Vale, arguably the most important fiction podcast ever.…
He's also the creator of the noir podcast Unlicensed and Alice Isn't D…
There's also a sequel series out now called Don't Tell Alice that take…
The Galaxy Z Flip 8 is at its best when there’s friction
The Z Flip 8 is designed to be used shut more than ever before.| Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge What do you want from a flip phone when it's closed?…
A simple interface, perhaps notifications and a widget or two, for han…
Or a fully fledged Android experience shrunk down for the Flip form fa…
Musicians-turned-detectives are hunting for AI grifters
As audio-focused generative tools and platforms have gotten more sophisticated, the internet has become increasingly filled with AI-generated music whose melodies and vocals are algorithmically derived from the work of human artists.…
While some of the people pumping out this kind of content immediately …
For musicians - especially those creating art in technologically-focus…
Google further buries search results under AI mode
Google is now automatically expanding its AI search summaries at the top of the results page for some searches, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable.…
The change, when it kicks in, pushes the typical list of links from a …
Trump’s EPA wants to let data centers hide their air pollution
Just as new data centers face growing backlash from neighboring communities, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is about to make it harder for people to weigh in on any pollution those centers create.…
The EPA plans to toss out a federal rule requiring public notice and a…
Advocates warn that the move would allow data center developers and ot…
Anthropic was illegally blacklisted by the Trump administration, court rules
On Thursday, a judge ruled that the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic earlier this year was unconstitutional, delivering the AI lab a win in a monthslong rollercoaster of a battle with the Trump administration.…
The lawsuit, filed in March in a California district court, accused th…
"The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to pun…
The biggest video game of all time looks like a movie
I think I know why Rockstar Games debuted its "extended look" of Grand Theft Auto VI on Netflix instead of immediately dropping it for free on YouTube.…
Unlike most video game trailers, the almost 27-minute preview of GTA V…
To make a new game that lasts another decade or more and potentially r…
Google tells Android app developers to cool it on memory use, or else
The memory crisis just won’t quit.| Image: Alex Castro / The Verge Google will start policing memory-hungry Android apps as a direct response to the RAM crisis.…
Spotted by TechCrunch, the company yesterday published a memo addressi…
The post emphasizes the importance of meeting new memory usage limits …
Jensen Huang says Nvidia achieved AGI, again — not that it matters
On Nvidia's earnings call Wednesday, CEO Jensen Huang casually announced the company had "achieved AGI," one of the tech industry's ultimate goals some of its biggest players have spent years chasing.…
Almost immediately, Huang dismissed the coveted milestone as "senseless.