Hello and welcome to Regulator, the newsletter for Verge subscribers that goes into tech shenanigans that take place in the backrooms of Washington. Really, it sometimes does feel like the online series The Backrooms: a parallel universe with no internal logic, evil corporations lurking in the background, and mind-rending eldritch horrors around every corner. (Not […]
A week ago, newly appointed Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro was busy regaling investors with plans to turn Disney Plus into the company’s “digital centerpiece.” By last Friday, though, his attention had presumably shifted to a fight with the Trump administration over free speech. Disney-owned ABC has now accused the administration of violating its First Amendment […]
No one paid attention to the gunshots that echoed through the convention center. They were real enough, and so were the screams that accompanied them, in the sense that they were recordings of real people who, like guest stars on Law and Order, reenacted scenarios that had clearly been plucked from the headlines: a kidnapping, […]
The Trump phone may finally be here: Trump Mobile’s CEO told USA Today that the phone will begin shipping to buyers this week. The announcement comes as reports have gone viral this week alleging that preorders for the phone have been canceled. Trump Mobile CEO Pat O’Brien confirmed the release plans to USA Today over […]
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says Elon Musk did “huge damage” to the culture of the AI startup. During testimony as part of Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman said Musk required OpenAI president Greg Brockman and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to rank researchers by their accomplishments and “take a chainsaw through a bunch.” Altman conceded […]
The family of a 19-year-old college student is suing OpenAI over claims that his conversations with ChatGPT led to an accidental overdose. In the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Sam Nelson’s parents allege ChatGPT “encouraged” the teen to “consume a combination of substances that any licensed medical professional would have recognized as deadly,” resulting in his […]
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has begun his testimony against Elon Musk in a high-profile jury trial in a California federal courtroom. Altman, alongside OpenAI president Greg Brockman, is a primary defendant in the trial brought by Musk. Altman, Brockman, and Musk were all part of the initial founding team at OpenAI, with Musk investing up […]
This week’s Current Climate newsletter also looks at what’s driving the clean energy transition and Trek’s CEO on the booming e-bike market
The Department of Government Efficiency’s cancellation of over $100 million in grants was unconstitutional, according to a ruling on Thursday. In the 143-page decision, US District Judge Colleen McMahon cites DOGE’s process for eliminating grants, which involved using ChatGPT to determine if something is related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The ruling, which stems […]
ABC is accusing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of violating its First Amendment rights by making “major shifts in policy and practice” that the network claims will chill free speech. The network is asking the FCC to “affirm its long-standing approach to the bona fide news interview exemption” for daytime talk show The View and […]