Who owns Trump Mobile?
Who owns Trump Mobile?

Where’s the Trump Phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week, except next week, when we take a break until the new year. We’ve reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump Phone’s whereabouts. As usual, we’re still waiting for a response. In the meantime, we’re wondering who’s actually behind the mobile […]

Brendan Carr is a dummy
Brendan Carr is a dummy

All year on The Vergecast, we’ve been tracking the many bizarre and problematic actions of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. There has been a lot to discuss! Then, this week, ahead of one of our last episodes of the year, Carr appeared in front of the Senate Commerce Committee and spent three hours explaining how he […]

Dark Speculation: A New Way To Assess AI’s Most Dangerous Risks

How policymakers and technologists are debating AI tail risks, using dark speculation, wargaming and insurance-style analysis to guide future AI standards.

TikTok ban: all the news on the app’s shutdown and return in the US
TikTok ban: all the news on the app’s shutdown and return in the US

After briefly going dark in the US to comply with the divest-or-ban law targeting ByteDance that went into effect on January 19th, TikTok quickly came back online. It eventually reappeared in the App Store and Google Play as negotiations between the US and China continued, and Donald Trump continued to sign extensions directing officials not […]

The TikTok US sale is finally happening
The TikTok US sale is finally happening

TikTok has finalized a deal to sell enough of its US business satisfy the divest-or-ban law, as initially reported by Axios, The Hollywood Reporter, and CNBC. According to a memo sent from CEO Shou Zi Chew to employees (included in full below) on Thursday, they are targeting a closing date of January 22nd, 2026. Once […]

OpenAI and Anthropic will start predicting when users are underage
OpenAI and Anthropic will start predicting when users are underage

OpenAI and Anthropic are rolling out new ways to detect underage users. As OpenAI has updated its guidelines on how ChatGPT should interact with users between the ages of 13 and 17, Anthropic is working on a new way to identify and boot users who are under 18. On Thursday, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT’s Model […]