The Vergecast is the flagship podcast from The Verge about small gadgets, Big Tech, and everything in between. Every Friday, hosts Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz hang out and make sense of the week’s most important technology news. And every Tuesday, David leads a selection of The Verge’s expert staffers in an exploration of how gadgets and software affect our lives – and which ones you should bring into yours.

A new study from the Oversight Board found that leading AI systems are less likely to criticize authoritarian governments than democratic ones. It's a wild finding — but wait? Why is the Oversight Board studying systems from OpenAI and Anthropic in the first place? Suzanne Nossel, who sits on the board, joined us to discuss the findings and why the Oversight Board's future might involve looking at more than just Meta.

Further reading:

  Zoox can now charge for rides in its steering-wheel-free robotaxis

  Spotify Running Mode helps match tunes to tempo

  Friend re-launches its AI pendant with a speaker that talks to you, for twice the price

  ⁠How Facebook undercut the Oversight Board⁠

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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The Vergecast

Meta's Oversight Board is coming for ChatGPT and Claude

The wide foldable is here, and it's glorious. The Verge's Dominic Preston has been reviewing Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8, and joins the show to explain what this shorter, wider device gets right, what it's still missing, and why this looks like the right kind of foldable for most people. (Once the price comes down, anyway.) With a similar foldable iPhone likely coming soon, it's shaping up to be a fun year of foldables.

Further reading:

  OpenAI’s rogue AI agent didn’t stop at hacking Hugging Face | The Verge

  The US is banning foreign robots | The Verge

  DoorDash is going airborne with new drone delivery division

  Willie Nelson is pushing back against data centers in his hometown.

  Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 feels like the future

  Huawei beats Samsung and Apple to market with the first wide foldable

  A wide foldable iPhone dummy emerges amid rumors of a delay

  So long, small phones

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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The Z Fold 8 is the new foldable to beat

The team at Light has been working on minimalist phones for more than a decade. Its last device had a lot in common with a smartphone, but the newest model, the Light Flip, is something very different. Light CEO Kaiwei Tang explains why Light made a flip phone, how the world's opinion of smartphones is changing, and whether you can cure your tech problems with more tech.

Further reading:

  ⁠Apple launches ‘Upgrade’ program to lease new devices⁠

  ⁠Apple’s reported ‘HomePad’ may launch as early as October⁠

  ⁠X Money is launching in the US starting today⁠

  ⁠The Light Flip is a minimalist flip phone with a point to prove⁠

  ⁠Light Phone III review: everything in moderation⁠

  ⁠The high hopes of the low-tech phone⁠

  ⁠There’s no perfect minimalist phone — yet⁠

⁠Subscribe to The Verge⁠ for unlimited access to ⁠theverge.com⁠, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ⁠ad-free podcast feed⁠.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to ⁠vergecast@theverge.com⁠ or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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Flip phones are so back

Some of the biggest players in AI — in particular OpenAI, SpaceX, and Amazon — are heavily invested in creating a world after smartphones. They're also all rumored to be building devices that sound a lot like smartphones. Verge contributor David Imel helps us figure out what these companies might actually be building, what an AI smartphone looks like, and whether anyone can unseat Apple and Google.

Links: 

  Elon Musk denies a report about SpaceX’s AI phone prototype

  OpenAI is reportedly launching a phone for ChatGPT

  Amazon is making an Alexa phone

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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Here's what an AI-first phone might look like

Google Zero continues to affect website after website, and publisher after publisher. David and Nilay discuss Google's increased focus on AI, the web companies finally starting to fight back, and whether there's a way forward for Google's pact with the open web. After that, they talk about a big week in AI detection software, which sometimes works and frequently doesn't. Then it's time for the Hype Desk, Brendan Carr is a dummy, the Light Flip, and more.

Further reading:

  Google hit with $1 billion fine for breaking EU antitrust rules

  Reddit might cut ties with Google as traffic drops. 

  From the NYT: How Google’s A.I. Search Is Imperiling the Open Web

  Google says Gemini now has 950 million monthly users. 

  Google earnings

  China delivers a one-two punch to America’s AI dominance  

  OpenAI says it accidentally hacked Hugging Face with a new AI system 

  Substack adds an AI detector to help spot blogs written by no one 

  Anthropic’s $1.5 billion book piracy settlement approved by judge 

  Jeff Bezos is getting involved with centering Amazon’s AI in Prime Video

  Meta made its own AI detection system. It should have just used Google’s 

  Ford picks Apple Maps for its next EV platform and updated BlueCruise

  Apple’s rumored ‘Upgrade’ program brings lease-to-own pricing for iPhones, Macs, and iPads

  iOS code could reportedly let Apple cut off apps when users miss iPhone payments 

  Framework’s premium laptop is shipping with less RAM 

  The higher-end prebuilt Framework Laptop 13 Pro now costs $800 more. 

  The Light Flip is a minimalist flip phone with a point to prove 

  Judge pauses Paramount’s attempt to buy Warner Bros. Discovery 

  Paramount’s Warner deal gets conditional approval in the EU. 

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.

We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:00 Claude Reads the Meters

00:04:00 Google Zero and Reddit Deal

00:15:00 AI Overviews Death Spiral

00:25:00 OpenAI Hacks Hugging Face

00:32:00 Substack AI Detector Debate

00:39:00 Prime Video Goes All In

00:44:00 Meta Content Seal Cynicism

00:53:00 Avengers Doomsday

01:03:00 Comic Con And Feige Reset

01:04:00 Brendan Carr Is a Dummy

01:12:00 Ramageddon Hits Framework

01:17:00 Apple Leasing Lockdown

01:21:00 Light Flip Phone Trend

01:26:00 Ford Picks Apple Maps

01:35:00 Paramount Merger Mess

01:35:00 Wrap Up And Plugs
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You can't ignore Google Zero anymore

TikTok is endless. Netflix is already starting the next episode. Who's making time to read a book? Today we're chatting with The Atlantic's Rose Horowitch to discuss her story "The End of Reading is Here" and the role technology plays in reducing how much time — and attention — people have to read long pieces of writing. In a world where we're inundated with more text than ever from social media feeds, AI, and group chats, is it really possible that we're taking in less than before?

Further reading:

  ⁠The End of Reading Is Here⁠

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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