Headlines

Trump administration walks away from anti-weaponization fund

The Trump administration will scrap its nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund amid pushback from GOP members of Congress and a lingering court battle demanding an explanation for the arrangement. The move comes after a federal judge in Florida on Friday reopened Trump’s

Gemini’s new AI agent is about as good as Google’s demo

Google's new "24/7" AI agent, Gemini Spark, can be shockingly good at doing things on your behalf. But I'm not sure it's worth the financial cost and potential privacy tradeoffs. The company gave me access to Spark last week. Google advertises Spark as an AI agent that can take

Tech

Oregon governor halts undercover license plates for ICE

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) has halted Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) ability to acquire undercover license plates. According to a release from her press office, the Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicles Service (DMV) was ordered by Kotek on Saturday to halt the issuance

Julia Jacklin Signs To 4AD, Announces Extensive Tour

Julia Jacklin last released an album in 2022 with Pre Pleasure , and man was it good. It seems the good people at 4AD Records have noticed. They've added Jacklin to their roster, a revelation that comes today along with lots of tour dates on both sides of the Atlantic. It seems

Music

Meta’s own AI was exploited to hijack Instagram accounts

Meta's AI support chatbot helped hackers hijack Instagram accounts, as reported earlier by 404 Media. In a video shared on Telegram, a hacker shows how they could take over an account by asking Meta's chatbot to switch the email associated with someone else's profile and then

Tech

Star Wars Influences: Dam Busters

The original Star Wars movie was a mashup. George Lucas and his collaborators pulled from everywhere: westerns, samurai movies, Flash Gordon, and a 1955 war film called The Dam Busters. This video shows just how closely the attack on the Death Star mirrors a scene from The Dam

Casey Neistat’s guide to posting every day

Some news: The Vergecast is now a daily podcast! Starting today, we'll be posting every weekday, with even more gadgets and rankings and conversations and feelings and podcasts-within-podcasts. We're excited for all the ways this new schedule lets us tell new kinds of stories,

Tech