The Vergecast

A new tranche of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails makes one thing painfully clear: Epstein was a central figure in the lives of a lot of big names in tech, and had influence on a surprising number of companies and executives. David and Nilay talk through what we’ve learned from the new emails so far. Then they turn to Anthropic’s spicy new Super Bowl ads about... ads, which caused a big reaction from OpenAI (which is betting big on ads). They also discuss this week’s antitrust hearing about Netflix’s purchase of Warner Bros., the latest in Brendan Carr is a Dummy, Google Home’s big buttons upgrade, and much more. Further reading: Here's how Epstein broke the internet Former Windows 8 boss recruited Epstein to help negotiate his messy Microsoft exit Jeffrey Epstein arranged a meeting with Tim Cook for the former head of Windows The Epstein files  Google co-founder Sergey Brin visited Epstein’s private island and traded emails with Ghislaine Maxwell. It turns out Elon Musk didn’t exactly ‘refuse’ the invite to Jeffrey Epstein’s island.  Will Elon Musk’s emails with Jeffrey Epstein derail his very important year?  Bill Gates says accusations contained in Epstein files are ‘absolutely absurd' Jeffrey Epstein was permanently banned from Xbox Live  ‘We’ve basically funded an elite global pedophile ring since 2015.’  Anthropic says ‘Claude will remain ad-free,’ unlike an unnamed rival Anthropic’s blog post: Claude is a space to think Sam Altman responds to Anthropic’s ‘funny’ Super Bowl ads  OpenAI’s CMO on X Nvidia CEO denies he’s ‘unhappy’ with OpenAI Netflix lands in the middle of a culture war during Senate hearing Everyone is stealing TV  Disney says Josh D’Amaro will replace Bob Iger as CEO  FCC aims to ensure “only living and lawful Americans” get Lifeline benefits Elon Musk is merging SpaceX and xAI to build data centers in space — or so he says  Peloton’s gamble on expensive new hardware has yet to pay off Google Home finally adds support for buttons  Raspberry Pi is raising prices again as memory shortages continue  Valve’s Steam Machine has been delayed, and the RAM crisis will impact pricing  Aluminium: Why Google’s Android for PC launch may be messy and controversial 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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI companies want all the data, everywhere, to make their models bigger and better. That means a lot of questions about piracy and copyright, and at least in one case it means Anthropic systematically destroying countless books just to feed them to the model. The Washington Post's Will Oremus joins the show to explain how that worked, why Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI and others are doing it, and what the law has to say. Then, Puck's Julia Alexander helps David figure out whether Netflix is serious about showing movies in theaters, and what theaters need to do to survive in the entertainment business going forward. Further reading: From The Washington Post: Anthropic ‘destructively’ scanned millions of books to build Claude Anthropic wins a major fair use victory for AI — but it’s still in trouble for stealing books Meta’s AI copyright win comes with a warning about fair use Did AI companies win a fight with authors? Technically From Puck: Why Netflix Needs Warner Bros. Welcome to the big leagues, Netflix 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We've been covering what's happening in Minnesota, and the killing of Alex Pretti, all week on The Verge. To begin this episode, Nilay explains why — and why so many others seem to feel the same way right now. After that, the hosts talk about the CEO-studded screening of Melania Trump's documentary last weekend, the disastrous public appearance from Tim Cook, and whether Cook and other CEOs have any other option but to capitulate to the Trump administration. Then it's time for some gadgets: we talk about the super-foldy, super-expensive Samsung Galaxy  Z Trifold, the Clawdbot / Moltbot phenomenon, and whether Google can finally put Chrome OS and Android together the right way. Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for Brendan Carr is a dummy, Tesla's anti-car pivot, Apple's design hires, and more. Further reading: On the ground in Minneapolis after the killing of Alex Pretti  I grew up with Alex Pretti  Creators and communities everywhere take a stand against ICE  It doesn’t matter if Alex Pretti had a gun  Why won’t anyone stop ICE from masking?  Tim Cook, Andy Jassy, and AMD CEO Lisa Su are at the White House for a VIP screening of the Melania doc. Tim Cook had ‘a good conversation’ with Trump about deescalation  Cook in 2020: Speaking up on racism From The New York Times: Amazon’s $35 Million ‘Melania’ Promotion Has Critics Questioning Its Motives From The Hollywood Reporter: ‘Melania’ Set for a $3 Million Opening Despite Amazon’s $35 Million Marketing Push Here’s Tim Cook hanging out with accused rapist Brett Ratner at the Melania screening What TikTok’s new owners mean for your feed  TikTok USA is broken  TikTok is still down, here are all the latest updates  TikTok is still struggling in the US due to a “cascading systems failure.”  TikTok US is mostly back up and running  TikTok blames its US problems on a power outage  Oracle admits it broke TikTok. Congress doesn’t seem to know if the TikTok deal complies with its law  Is New TikTok banning the word “Epstein” in DMs? Not really.  TikTokers are heading to UpScrolled following US takeover  Mark Zuckerberg is all in on AI as the new social media  Meta is stopping teens from chatting with its AI characters  Bluesky is testing ‘live’ features to take on X  Best gas masks The Samsung Trifold will cost nearly three grand  Google just leaked a first look at Android for PC in action  Chromebooks train schoolkids to be loyal customers, internal Google document suggests  Moltbot, the AI agent that ‘actually does things,’ is tech’s new obsession Clawdbot’s bad day  I used Claude to vibe-code my wildly overcomplicated smart home The FCC’s Late Night Comedy Show Tesla discontinuing Model S and Model X to make room for robots  Tesla says production-ready Optimus robot is coming soon  Tesla hits a grim milestone: its second straight year of decline Elon Musk invests $2 billion in Elon Musk Hang on, there’s a Trump Phone Ultra coming too?  Halide co-founder Sebastiaan de With is joining Apple’s design team  The Stream Deck-packed gaming keyboard is a monster of good ideas 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Like so many others, we’re still reeling from the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. To open the show, we talk with Adi Robertson about how videos of the incident moved around social platforms, how even well-intentioned people got confused by AI imagery, and what we’ve learned about the state of misinformation. Then Adi explains the new TikTok, which is both the same and very different from the old TikTok. The newly US-centric version of the app has had some switching pains so far, and the changes may only be just beginning. After that, it’s time for a hard pivot, as Vulture’s Nick Quah joins the show to talk about Netflix’s entry into podcasts — and whether what Netflix is doing can even be called “podcasts” anymore. Finally, David answers an old Vergecast Hotline question that got him thinking about all the ways we hold our phones to make calls, and which one is the best.  Further reading: It doesn’t matter if Alex Pretti had a gun The day of the second killing TikTok USA is broken Everything (Including Netflix) Will Become YouTube This Year It’s finally time to retire the word ‘podcast’ 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay owns a Sony TV. He loves his Sony TV, and he's a little sad that it appears this era of Sony TVs is ending. He and David talk through the news of a new joint venture between Sony and TCL, before digging into OpenAI's new-fangled plan to make money (spoiler alert: it's ads!), and some new news about an AI gadget Apple may or may not be working on. Then it's time for the lightning round: Brendan Carr, Netflix, the Trump Phone, and much more. Further reading: The TikTok deal could finally close this week. Epic and Google have a secret $800 million Unreal Engine and services deal Sony’s TV business is being taken over by TCL  What a Sony and TCL partnership means for the future of TVs OpenAI’s 2026 ‘focus’ is ‘practical adoption’  OpenAI releases a cheaper ChatGPT subscription  Ads are coming soon to ChatGPT, starting with shopping links  Opinion | A.I. Is Real. But OpenAI Might Still Fail.Apple is reportedly working on an AirTag-sized AI wearable  Apple is turning Siri into an AI bot that’s more like ChatGPT  FCC Targets Colbert and Kimmel in New Crackdown on Late-Night TV - The New York Times Bureau Provides Guidance on Political Equal Opportunities Requirement | Federal Communications Commission Free TV startup Telly only had 35,000 units in people’s homes last fall Microsoft wants to build 15 data centers in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin  OpenAI says its data centers will pay for their own energy and limit water usage Netflix will revamp its mobile UI this year  600,000 Trump Mobile phones sold? There’s no proof. YouTubers will be able to make Shorts with their own AI likenesses  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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There’s a new biggest name in EVs, and if you live in the US, you pretty much can’t buy one. But before we get to that, we have some stuff to catch up on: The Verge's Hayden Field joins us for a round of “Big Deal Medium Deal Small Deal” with some AI news, from the launch of ChatGPT Health to the recent viral moment for Claude Code. After that, The Verge’s Andy Hawkins joins the show to explain how BYD recently eclipsed Tesla as the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles, what makes its cars so desirable, and when you, too, might be able to buy a Dolphin Surf. Finally, David tackles a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about giving your kids iPads instead of iPhones, and whether all screen time is created equal. Further reading: Car influencers love Chinese EVs — and China loves them back Tesla’s fourth quarter sales fell a lot more than expected From Inside EVs: A Guide To BYD, The Chinese Automaker That Just Surpassed Tesla Anthropic wants you to use Claude to ‘Cowork’ in latest AI agent push Anthropic shakes up C-suite to expand its internal incubator OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health, encouraging users to connect their medical records Google brings buy buttons to Gemini and AI search Grok is undressing children — can the law stop it? Google is taking over your Gmail inbox with AI 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nearly two years ago, Apple showed off what an AI-powered Siri might do. That Siri never materialized, but thanks to a deal with Google for its Gemini tech, it might finally have a chance to work. David and Nilay discuss the ins and outs of the deal, and what it might mean for both Apple's and Google's ambitions in AI. (They also talk about the onslaught of new lawsuits from publishers related to Google's adtech antitrust case, including from our parent company Vox Media. Disclosure is our brand.) After that, they talk about Grok's horrific deepfake problem on X, and why everyone involved deserves the blame. Then it's time to pour one out for VR and the metaverse, which is losing steam as Meta loses interest and continues to pivot to AI. RIP Supernatural, a surprise hit of an exercise app! Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for Brendan Carr is a Dummy, the latest Paramount / Warner / Netflix drama, the Trump Phone, and the Digg reboot. Further reading: The Atlantic, Penske, and Vox Media have all sued Google for antitrust violations Apple picks Google’s Gemini AI for its big Siri upgrade What Apple and Google’s Gemini deal means for both companies Google’s Gemini AI will use what it knows about you from Gmail, Search, and YouTube  Why Google Gemini looks poised to win the AI race over OpenAI  A “conscious decision” from OpenAI.  X hasn’t really stopped Grok AI from undressing women in the UK  Advocacy groups demand Apple and Google block X from app stores  UK pushes up a law criminalizing deepfake nudes in response to Grok X claims it has stopped Grok from undressing people, but of course it hasn’t   Meta plans to lay off hundreds of metaverse employees this week  Meta confirms Reality Labs layoffs and shifts to invest more in wearables  Meta is closing down three VR studios as part of its metaverse cuts  Meta’s layoffs hit the studio that made Batman: Arkham Shadow, too.   Supernatural Will No Longer Get New Content Or Features  FTC won’t appeal court decision permitting Meta to buy Within The best thing to do in VR is work out FCC chair Brendan Carr is pressed on removing ‘independent’ from its website.  Verizon gets FCC permission to end 60-day phone unlocking rule  Anthropic wants you to use Claude to ‘Cowork’ in latest AI agent push  Paramount sues after Warner Bros. Discovery rejects its latest deal Netflix is reportedly considering an all-cash offer for Warner Bros.  The new Digg is launching an open beta.  Elon Musk Cannot Get Away With This 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

January brings two things in Vergecast-land: CES, and New Years' Resolutions. We start this episode with a dive into the story of this year's biggest tech show, the Lego Smart Brick, which is either a clever way of thinking about creativity or the end of creativity as we know it. Sean Hollister explains how the Smart Brick works, and how Lego can make sure it ends the right way. Then, Platformer's Casey Newton discusses his productivity system, his adventures in Claude Code, and how you too can make yourself a little more productive this year — with or without AI. Further reading: Lego announces Smart Brick, the ‘most significant evolution’ in 50 years Lego’s Smart Bricks aren’t just an experiment I played with the Lego Smart Brick From Platformer: The project that turned me into a Claude Code believer From Platformer: What I learned about productivity this year 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The theme of CES 2026 is gadgets. It's always gadgets. This year more than most, though, the world's biggest tech show is about how fast the hardware world is moving — and how much work the software, and the AI, have to do to catch up. On stage live at the Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas, David and Nilay talk through some of the biggest news of the week, from robots to laptops to AI cuddle buddies, to see what's really going to matter in tech this year. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2026 is just beginning, and it's already time for the biggest gadget event of the year. As the Verge team heads to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, David and Nilay run through as many of the newly announced products as they can. There are robots, art TVs, phones, more robots, smart Legos, smart home gizmos, and still more robots. Some of this stuff will ship, and might even be a big hit. Some of it, well, won't. But it's all an interesting look into what's happening in tech right now.Also: if you're in Vegas for CES, come see us live! We'll be at the Brooklyn Bowl on Wednesday, January 7th, for live recordings of Decoder and The Vergecast, and we'd love to see you there. Further reading: ⁠This robot companion is a cameraman for your pet ⁠ ⁠LG says its CLOiD home robot will be folding laundry and making breakfast at CES ⁠ ⁠SwitchBot brings a humanoid home robot to CES ⁠ ⁠You can’t buy Zeroth’s WALL-E robot in the US, but you can get its cousin ⁠ ⁠This startup brought WALL-E to life and will also sell you WALL-E’s weird cousin⁠ ⁠Kicking Robots, by James Vincent⁠ ⁠The Clicks Power Keyboard is also a backup battery for your phone ⁠ ⁠The Clicks Communicator is a BlackBerry for your phone ⁠ ⁠I just want to keep unfolding the Samsung Z TriFold ⁠ ⁠The Aliro smart lock standard for NFC and UWB unlocking will launch this year ⁠ ⁠Lutron adds smart wood blinds to its Caséta line. ⁠ ⁠Bosch’s fancy coffee machine is getting Alexa Plus ⁠ ⁠The new Ultraloq smart lock uses both your face and your palm to let you in ⁠ ⁠Lockin’s new vein-scanning smart lock has a video doorbell and recharges wirelessly ⁠ ⁠Hands-on with the Mui Board: a wooden smart home controller ⁠ ⁠The Mui Board will support mmWave sleep tracking and gesture control ⁠ ⁠You can unlock SwitchBot’s first deadbolt smart lock with your face ⁠ ⁠Lifx launches a smart mirror and a $30 dimmer switch that can control smart bulbs ⁠ ⁠Lockly’s new smart locks will support Matter and NFC ⁠ ⁠GE Lighting’s new Matter-compatible smart shades start at just $300 ⁠ ⁠The LG OLED evo W6 Wallpaper TV makes its return at CES ⁠ ⁠RGB is the next big thing in OLED gaming monitors ⁠ ⁠Belkin’s new HDMI adapter wirelessly connects to screens from 130 feet ⁠ ⁠LG’s new Gallery TV, designed for displaying art, will be at CES 2026 ⁠ ⁠Samsung brings back the Timeless Frame with its biggest Micro RGB TV at CES. ⁠ ⁠TCL debuts a new quantum dot and color filter technology with the X11L ⁠ ⁠Gemini on Google TV is getting Nano Banana and voice-controlled settings ⁠ ⁠Amazon announces a Samsung Frame competitor with the Ember Artline TV ⁠ ⁠Amazon Fire TV OS gets a revamp that’s more modern and pleasing ⁠ ⁠LG’s new karaoke-ready party speaker uses AI to remove song vocals ⁠ ⁠Would you let AI cut your hair? ⁠ ⁠A developer for a ‘major food delivery app’ says the ‘algorithms are rigged against you⁠ ⁠Lego announces Smart Brick, the ‘most significant evolution’ in 50 years | The Verge⁠ ⁠Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is now blogging about AI slop ⁠ ⁠“Feed is dead.” ⁠ ⁠Adam Mosseri on how Instagram exists in the age of AI-generated images⁠ ⁠The Trump phone just missed another release date ⁠ 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The iPhone 4 was one of the best iPhones ever — and definitely the most dramatic iPhone ever. It was lost in a bar in California, sold to Gizmodo, and published for the world to see months before its launch. The phone itself had a bunch of important new features, and one that spawned Antennagate. In this episode, David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and longtime tech columnist Walt Mossberg tell the whole story of the phone, its legacy, and its place in tech blog history. If you like the show, ⁠⁠subscribe to the Version History feed⁠⁠ to make sure you get every new episode. ⁠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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The world runs on RAM, and RAM is harder than ever to get your hands on. What’s happening here? Every year, the Vergecast team spends the holiday season going deep on a single spec or technology, and this year it’s all about Random Access Memory. (No, that’s not a Daft Punk album.) Nilay, David, and Sean Hollister explain what RAM is, why it matters, how it became a precious commodity, and what it means for the future of chips around the world. We also play some games. We do… okay at the games. Happy Holidays! 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google didn't invent the concept of smart glasses, but it was one of the first companies to actually put them on people's faces. It was a revolution, and also a problem: Google made face computers extremely uncool, and its early user base was so off-putting they became collectively known as “Glassholes.” The Verge’s Victoria Song and Waveform’s David Imel break down why Glass failed — despite being shockingly right about the future of technology. If you like the show, ⁠⁠follow the Version History feed⁠⁠ to make sure you get every new episode as soon as it drops. ⁠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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Åhead of our last Friday episode of 2025, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr did The Vergecast an enormous favor: he went in front of Congress and said a bunch of wild things about regulation. So, of course, Nilay and David have to talk about them. For a really long time. After that, the hosts look at all the ways YouTube and Netflix are becoming more like one another, and then update the Go90 Scale of Doomed Streaming Services to round out the year. Finally, in the lightning round, there's talk of web apps, EVs, Bluesky, and the metaverse. Further reading: The Vergecast live at CES Brendan Carr doesn’t regret his threats to broadcasters  Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell: ‘Cable companies are at the mercy of content companies’ The Oscars will stream on YouTube in 2029  Netflix’s next big TV game is FIFA soccer  My Favorite Murder and The Breakfast Club podcasts are ditching YouTube for Netflix  Warner Bros. wants its shareholders to reject Paramount’s latest offer  Netflix is “100% committed” to releasing WB films in theaters.  Even Jared Kushner thinks the Paramount WB bid sucks. Peacock will bombard you with ads as soon as you open the app  HBO Max’s new channels keep Friends and Game of Thrones playing 24/7  Instagram is putting Reels on your TV  LG forced a Copilot web app onto its TVs but will let you delete it Mercedes-Benz discontinues feature that syncs music to driving Ford’s big bet on EVs didn’t pan out — now it’s pivoting to hybrids and energy storage Bluesky claims its new contact import feature is ‘privacy-first’  Gemini 3 Flash is here, bringing a ‘huge’ upgrade to the Gemini app  The ChatGPT app store is here Alexa Plus’ website is live for some users  Meta pauses third-party Horizon VR headsets program  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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who's going to win the Super Bowl? What about the latest season of Survivor? Or the race to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve? Who will be Portugal's next president? How many times will Elon Musk tweet in the next week? On Polymarket, and other prediction markets, you can bet on all these things and more. Are we entering a world in which everything is gambling and gambling is everything? Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal joins the show to explain the rise of prediction markets, what's betting and what's investing, and more. Then, The Verge's Hayden Field teaches us about Model Context Protocol, a wonky bit of AI infrastructure that might be key to making AI agents work. MCP is barely a year old, and practically all of tech is ready to embrace it. Finally, Hayden helps David answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about why every AI company seems to want you to go shopping. Further reading: Are prediction markets gambling? Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is betting not Election night at Kalshi HQ Joe Weisenthal at Bloomberg From Bloomberg: My Biggest Question About Prediction Markets Anthropic launches tool to connect AI systems directly to datasets AI companies want a new internet — and they think they’ve found the key 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A year ago, David and Nilay sat down with Wall Street Journal senior tech columnist Joanna Stern to make a bunch of confident predictions about 2025. We got them... you know what, never mind. Let's look ahead to 2026! This year, we gather again to make increasingly bold bets about the year to come, including the future of a few of the world's biggest companies and whether we're finally going to get a foldable iPhone. Last year's predictions may not have been our best, but we're feeling good about these. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Technically, the Netflix / Warner Bros. news is almost a week old, but what a week it has been! And so, after some follow-up on smart shades and CES, Nilay and David talk through all that’s at stake in the fight between Paramount and Netflix — and whether it’s even possible for someone to win this deal. After that, Charlie Harding, co-host of Switched on Pop and honorary Vergecast intern, explains how AI is taking over the country music scene in Nashville. He also makes us a song, and it’s a jam. Lastly, the hosts talk about font news (with a special guest), Brendan Carr, smart rings, garage wars, and more. Further reading: The Verge subscription turns one  Netflix is buying Warner Bros. for $83 billion  Paramount launches a hostile $108 billion bid to snatch Warner from Netflix  David Ellison pitches Paramount’s $108 billion hostile bid for WBD as “pro consumer.”  Behind Paramount’s Relentless Campaign to Woo Warner Discovery and President Trump New Paramount Speaks: Theatrical Films, Streaming Investment and Tech Upgrades Are Top Priorities Netflix CEO made a visit to the White House before buying Warner Bros.  Trump isn’t sold on the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal Netflix’s leadership thinks the Warner Bros. deal won’t be like other big media mergers. Welcome to the big leagues, Netflix  There are no good outcomes for the Warner Bros. sale OpenAI’s billion-dollar Disney deal puts Mickey Mouse and Marvel in Sora Get ready for an AI country music explosion Brendan Carr is a Dummy Chamberlain’s new technology blocks aftermarket controllers from working with its garage door openers The Pebble Index 01 is a smart ring with a built-in microphone Calibri is too woke for the State Department | The Verge Gruber got a copy of the thing 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, friends, it's been a year. And before we turn the page to 2026 and all the stories of 2025 begin to blur together, we decided to take stock of things. Nilay and David are joined by Wall Street Journal senior tech columnist Joanna Stern to debate the best products of the year, the biggest policy moves, the people who broke bad, the good AI things, the bad AI things, and much more. It's been a vibe-everything kind of year, and there's a lot to discuss. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI models are very good at summarizing things, finding other things like those things, and helping you find those things again. But does that mean we should leave all the work of finding and understanding to those models? Sari Azout, the founder of an app called Sublime, doesn't think so. For this episode, the second in our two-part series about how developers are using AI and building models into their products, Azout explains how Sublime tries to balance being a thoroughly human-focused app with the efficiencies that come with new technologies. She has thoughts on curation, taste, and the differences between AI as a creative partner and AI as a creative replacement. Further reading: Sublime From Sari's newsletter: What matters in the age of AI is taste From The Atlantic: Good Taste Is More Important Than Ever AI Is a Lot of Work Making human music in an AI world 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First things first: David and Nilay are both having some TV problems, and they need to talk it out. But then they get to the news of the week, including Samsung's new extra-foldy foldable phone, and a big change in the design departments at both Apple and Meta. What does it all say about the future of smart glasses? After that, the hosts talk through why Sam Altman declared a code red inside of OpenAI in order to redirect focus to ChatGPT — and whether the technology that has made all these products possible is actually the right technology moving forward. Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for Brendan Carr is a Dummy, recap season, "dear algo," and thermostats. Further reading: Samsung’s Z TriFold is official and it looks like a tablet with a phone attached  Huawei tris again.  Huawei’s first trifold is a great phone that you shouldn’t buy  Apple’s head of UI design is leaving for Meta  Apple AI chief steps down following Siri setbacks  Louie Mantia’s blog post about Dye Zuck’s post about the new team Linux usage on Steam hits a record high for the second month in a row  OpenAI declares ‘code red’ as Google catches up in AI race  OpenAI just made another circular deal  Anthropic’s AI bubble ‘YOLO’ warning  Anthropic’s racing OpenAI to go public  Normalizing extraterrestrial data centers I tested five AI browsers and lost my mind in the process The AI boom is based on a fundamental mistake Ilya Sutskever – We're moving from the age of scaling to the age of research FCC boss Brendan Carr claims another victory over DEI as AT&T drops programs First there was nothing, then there was Hoto and Fanttik This new Honeywell Home smart thermostat can answer your Ring doorbell Spotify Wrapped 2025 turns listening into a competition  YouTube introduces its own version of Spotify Wrapped for videos  Amazon Music Delivered puts your top tunes on a festival poster.  Google Photos Recap will tell you how many selfies you took this year “Dear algo.”  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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices