Lead Hacker

An interactive map tracking data center construction and AI policy, built by Isabelle Reksopuro. When Oregon resident Isabelle Reksopuro heard Google was gobbling up public land to fuel its data centers in her home state, she didn't initially know what to believe. "There's a lot of misinformation about data centers," she said. "Google has denied taking that land." Technically, she explains, The Dalles, a city near the Washington state border, sought to reclaim that land, "and Google is just a big, unnamed power user." The city had in fact asked for ownership of a 150-acre portion of Mount Hood National Forest, claiming it needs access to Mount Hood's watershed to meet municipal needs as its population - 16,010 as of the 2020 census - … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/policy/930629/data-center-policy-map-interactive

Subnautica 2 , the new underwater survival game from Unknown Worlds, took less than an hour to rocket up Steam's charts. The game has already sold more than 1 million copies, according to a press release , and as of this writing, Steam's charts show that Subnautica 2 is currently the fourth-most played game on the platform with more than 460,000 concurrent players. The only titles with more concurrent players right now are perennial heavy hitters Counter-Strike 2 , Dota 2 , and PUBG: Battlegrounds . It's also worth noting that Steam's Subnautica 2 player count doesn't include players on the Epic Games Store or on Xbox, where the game is also now … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/games/930562/subnautica-2-early-access-launch-steam-pc-epic-games-store-xbox

Instagram is once again cribbing from competitors like Snapchat and BeReal with a new photo-sharing format it calls "Instants," which are ephemeral photos that you can't edit and that you can only share with your close friends or followers that follow you back. Instants are available globally beginning on Wednesday as a feature in the inbox in the Instagram app and as a separate app that's now in testing in select countries. To access Instants from the Instagram app, go to your DM inbox and look in the bottom-right corner for an icon or a stack of photos. After you post a photo, your friends can emoji react to it and send a reply to your DM … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/929958/instagram-instants-photos-disappearing-app

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says its new Incognito Chat is "the first major AI product where there is no log of your conversations stored on servers." Messages in Incognito Chat aren't saved or stored in users' chat history, similar to incognito modes on other AI chatbots, but Meta says its version is different because it also uses end-to-end encryption, which Meta recently removed from Instagram DMs : "Other apps have introduced incognito-style modes, but they can still see the questions coming in and the answers going out. Incognito Chat with Meta AI is truly private, meaning no one - not even Meta - can read your conversations." Google … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/929791/meta-ai-incognito-chats

The family of a 19-year-old college student is suing OpenAI over claims that his conversations with ChatGPT led to an accidental overdose. In the lawsuit filed on Tuesday , Sam Nelson's parents allege ChatGPT "encouraged" the teen to "consume a combination of substances that any licensed medical professional would have recognized as deadly," resulting in his death. Though ChatGPT initially pushed back on conversations about drug and alcohol use, the launch of GPT-4o in April 2024 changed the chatbot's behavior, according to the lawsuit. Following the update, ChatGPT "began to engage and advise Sam on safe drug use, even providing specific do … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/928691/openai-chatgpt-wrongful-death-overdose

Google I/O is just a week away, and that means it’s time for another Android Show event to unpack all the Android ecosystem highlights Google has in store.  Android Show: I/O Edition is set to kick off on YouTube and the Android website at 10AM PT / 1PM ET on Tuesday, May 12th.  Based on last year’s Android Show , we’re expecting this event to be fairly short, around half an hour or less, and include some key features of Android 17 along with a release window for it. The Android Show will also likely show off some updates to Gemini, particularly any features baked into Android, and may also include looks at Android XR and Aluminium OS, Google’s rumored PC version of Android .  Follow along here for all of the news and updates on Android Show: I/O Edition 2026. How to watch Google’s Android Show: I/O Edition today source https://www.theverge.com/tech/928624/android-show-2026-all-the-news-and-anno...