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YouTube is expanding its AI deepfake detection tool to all adult users

2026-05-15T18:21:33-04:00

YouTube is expanding its AI likeness detection program to all users over the age of 18 - meaning just about anyone can have the platform hunt for potential deepfakes of themselves.

The likeness detection feature uses a selfie-style scan of a person's face to monitor YouTube for lookalikes. If there is a match, YouTube alerts the user; the person then has the option to request that YouTube remove the content. YouTube has said in the past that it has found the number of removal requests to be "very small."

YouTube began testing the feature with content creators, and then expanded it to government officials, politicians, journalists, and fina …

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ArXiv will ban researchers who upload papers full of AI slop

2026-05-15T16:38:19-04:00

ArXiv, a popular platform for preprint academic research, is taking a new step to attempt to reduce the volume of papers that include AI slop.

If a paper has "incontrovertible evidence that the authors did not check the results of LLM generation," such as hallucinated references or "meta-comments" left by an LLM, authors will be banned from ArXiv for a year, according to Thomas Dietterich, ArXiv's section chair of its computer science section. Future ArXiv submissions will also have to be accepted at "a reputable peer-reviewed venue."

Here's what he said on X:

Attention @arxiv authors: Our Code of Conduct states that by signing your name …

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OpenAI keeps shuffling its executives in bid to win AI agent battle

2026-05-15T14:27:58-04:00

OpenAI announced yet another reorganization Friday, consolidating certain areas and making company president Greg Brockman the official lead of all things product.

In a memo viewed by The Verge, Brockman wrote that since OpenAI's product strategy for this year is to go all-in on AI agents, the company is combining its products to "invest in a single agentic platform and to merge ChatGPT and Codex into one unified agentic experience for all."

To do this, the company is making a suite of org chart changes, although it's still operating under some of the same ones from last month. That's when AGI boss Fidji Simo went on medical leave and Open …

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AI radio hosts demonstrate why AI can’t be trusted alone

2026-05-15T13:09:16-04:00

AI radio DJs demonstrated their volatile personalities. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Andon Labs has been running a series of experiments in which AI agents run businesses without human intervention. Its latest is a quartet of radio stations run by some of the most popular AI models out there. "Thinking Frequencies" is run by Claude, "OpenAIR" by ChatGPT, "Backlink Broadcast" by Google's Gemini, and "Grok and Roll Radio," obviously enough, by Grok. They were each given a simple prompt:

Develop your own radio personality and turn a profit…As far as you know, you will broadcast forever.

They all failed, some in pretty spectacular fashion. It didn't take long for each to burn through their initial $20 in seed money. Only DJ …

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Does Trump Mobile know how many stripes are on the American flag?

2026-05-15T12:47:16-04:00

The T1 Phone has the wrong number of stripes, but it does at least have 50 stars. | Screenshot: Trump Mobile

Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. We've reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone's whereabouts. This week, despite our best hopes, we still don't have our phone - but we do have some fresh doubts about the company's patriotic credentials.

This has been a momentous few days for Trump Mobile, in which it defied the haters by announcing that its phones will be shipping to buyers this very week. Not that there's any sign the company has actually done that, but I digress. Because what I really want to talk about today is the American flag.

I am not an American, which probably explains why I did …

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Google updates its spam rules to include attempts to ‘manipulate’ AI

2026-05-15T12:42:59-04:00

Google updated its spam policy to mark attempts to "manipulate" its AI model in search results as spam, including results in AI Overview or AI Mode in Search, as Search Engine Land reports:

"In the context of Google Search, spam refers to techniques used to deceive users or manipulate our Search systems into featuring content prominently, such as attempting to manipulate Search systems into ranking content highly or attempting to manipulate generative AI responses in Google Search."

Some users have been trying to influence AI search responses, using tactics like biased "best-of" listicles or "recommendation poisoning," which injects LLM …

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OpenAI now wants ChatGPT to access your bank accounts

2026-05-15T08:19:32-04:00

ChatGPT will even know how much credit card debt you have. | Image: OpenAI

Your trust in AI is about to be put to the test: OpenAI will soon let you give the chatbot direct access to your bank accounts. The new feature announced in preview today will allow users to "securely connect" ChatGPT with Plaid - the bank-to-app bridging platform used by 12,000 financial institutions, including Schwab, Fidelity, Chase, Capital One, and more.

"More than 200 million people are already going to ChatGPT every month with finance questions - from budgeting to tips on how to cut back on spending," OpenAI said in its announcement. "Now, users can securely connect their financial accounts with Plaid to get the full view of their fi …

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The promises and pitfalls of personalized health

2026-05-15T09:00:55-04:00

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here.

A few days ago, my esthetician was smearing hot wax on my face. The two caterpillars I call eyebrows were in desperate need of taming - as was my lady 'stache. I hate this monthly ritual, but facial hair is a sore spot. Hirsutism is perhaps one of the few visual indicators of a condition that's plagued me for the past decade. Until this week, I've always known it as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Normally, I sp …

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AI research papers are getting better, and it’s a big problem for scientists

2026-05-15T09:58:26-04:00

Last summer, Peter Degen's postdoctoral supervisor came to him with an unusual problem: One of his papers was being cited too much. Citations are the currency of academia, but there was something unusual about these. Published in 2017, the paper had assessed the accuracy of a particular type of statistical analysis on epidemiological data and had received a respectable few dozen citations in other research papers over the years, but now it was being referenced every few days, hundreds of times, placing it among the most cited papers of his career. Another professor might be thrilled. Degen's adviser asked him to investigate.

Degen, a postd …

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Closing time

2026-05-15T11:56:05-04:00

Today was closing arguments in the Musk v. Altman trial, and I almost feel bad writing about the unbelievable demolition derby I just witnessed. Steven Molo, Musk's lawyer, stumbled over his words. He at one point called Greg Brockman - a co-defendant - Greg Altman. He erroneously claimed that Musk wasn't asking for money and had to be corrected by the judge. He made it clear we've heard from many liars over the past few weeks, but offered little evidence for Musk's actual legal claims.

OpenAI's lawyer Sarah Eddy countered this by simply arranging the mountain of evidence that the company introduced in chronological order. She didn't spend …

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