The Verge – Tech News

Getty Images is going private after failed Shutterstock merger

Getty Images intends to file for bankruptcy and go private as part of a restructuring agreement after its plans to merge with rival stock platform Shutterstock fell through earlier this year. On Monday, Getty announced it had secured $533 million from the Getty family and Charles Koch’s investment firm to cut its debt and take the company private, outlining plans to undergo a prepackaged Chapter 11 process “in the coming weeks.”
https://www.theverge.com/business/1009893/getty-images-bankruptcy-private-plans-agreement

OpenAI is sticking more ads in ChatGPT

The company first brought ads to ChatGPT in February. Until now, ChatGPT’s ads only showed a company’s name, logo, and a link to its product in a “sponsored” section beneath your chat. OpenAI’s visual ad format will similarly remain separate from the image you generate and will “not influence the answers ChatGPT provides.” Ads won’t appear if you subscribe to ChatGPT’s Plus, Pro, or Enterprise plans.
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1004655/openai-chatgpt-visual-ads

Firefox just got a redesign with round tabs, new themes, and Compact Mode

Firefox will look a little different the next time you launch it — more bubbly, with some new pops of color. The browser’s latest update brings a design overhaul to all desktop and mobile users, aimed at modernizing Firefox with bubble-like tabs, a rounded address bar, and refreshed colors, icons, and themes. The desktop and mobile versions of the browser will also now share the same design language. According to Mozilla, the design changes will have “no cost to your browser performance.”
https://www.theverge.com/tech/1001867/mozilla-firefox-157-redesign-compact-mode

Cricut’s new compact crafter prints, cuts, and laminates stickers

Cricut announced its first crafting machines with printing capabilities that are primarily designed as all-in-one solutions for turning photos and other images into precut stickers. The Cricut StickerPix Print plus Cut and Cricut StickerPix Print are also two of the smallest machines in the company’s current lineup and seem ideal for those whose crafting aspirations may be limited by their available storage space.
https://www.theverge.com/tech/1000655/cricut-sticker-pix-print-cut-crafting-printer-machines-stickers

Valve’s virtual reality plans hit actual reality

The Steam Frame headset is here, and it may not surprise you: it was supposed to cost less than $1,059. “We set out to come out with a device that would have been far more affordable, but the global RAM market, the global storage market have impacted us the same way they’ve impacted everybody,” Valve developer Jeremy Selan told the BBC. “We fought hard to get it even to this price.”
https://www.theverge.com/tech/995055/valve-steam-frame-price-ram-impact

LG TVs caught spying even when offline or on standby

LG smart TVs are almost constantly logging and uploading data about owners and their homes, even when offline or on standby mode, according to a new report from YouTube channel Gamers Nexus. The company’s TV sets scan Wi-Fi networks for nearby devices, record audio logs through their microphones, and use audio and video sampling to recognize exactly what you’re watching from across the TV inputs.
https://www.theverge.com/tech/991190/lg-tv-spying-standby-recording-wi-fi-scanning-gamers-nexus

Instagram cracks down on AI accounts pretending to be human

image via theverge.com

Instagram is finally taking steps to address the rise of fake AI-influencer accounts that have gotten harder to spot. It’s also renaming the “AI creator” label to “AI-generated profile” to make it clear when a profile features an AI-generated person that’s not a real human being. “We’ve heard that people don’t like seeing a profile that seems human, only to find out later that the person featured is AI-generated,” said Instagram in a blog post. “They want to know when a profile features an AI-generated person.”
https://www.theverge.com/tech/986593/instagram-addresses-fake-ai-profile-slop