OpenAI has a Studio Ghibli problem

In this episode, we do a Studio Ghibli-like rendition of The Vergecast. First, Nilay and David discuss some big news in the gadget world, from the mysteriously viral midrange Canon camera to the upgrades we're expecting out of Apple in the next few months. Plus, is it over for Amazon's Echo brand? After all that, The Verge's Kylie Robison joins the show to discuss everything happening at OpenAI: the company launched a new image generator inside of ChatGPT, and it immediately became both a huge hit and a big mess. (Par for the course with OpenAI, really.) Kylie also explains why Perplexity is probably not buying TikTok, no matter how much it might want to. Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for everyone's favorite segment, Brendan Carr Is a Dummy, followed by the latest on the Signal attack-planning chaos in the government, some news about Elon Musk pressuring Reddit CEO Steve Huffmann, and what's next for the car industry with huge tariffs looming. Oh, and a little bit of exciting e-bike news

Further reading:

From Meta: Bringing the Magic of Friends Back to Facebook

Apple’s AirPods Max with USB-C will soon support lossless audio

The Apple Watch may get cameras and Apple Intelligence

Apple’s WWDC 2025 event starts June 9th

Don’t expect an overhauled Messages app in iOS 19.

Amazon tests renaming Echo smart speakers and smart displays to just ‘Alexa’

OpenAI reshuffles leadership as Sam Altman pivots to technical focus

OpenAI upgrades image generation and rolls it out in ChatGPT and Sora

ChatGPT’s new image generator is delayed for free users

ChatGPT is turning everything into Studio Ghibli art

OpenAI says ‘our GPUs are melting’ as it limits ChatGPT image generation requests

OpenAI expects to earn $12.7 billion in revenue this year.

Nvidia Infinite Creative

Microsoft adds ‘deep reasoning’ Copilot AI for research and data analysis

Google says its new ‘reasoning’ Gemini AI models are the best ones yet

Google is rolling out Gemini’s real-time AI video features

Perplexity’s bid for TikTok continues

Trump's FCC says it will start investigating Disney, too

From Status: Sounding the Carr Alarm

Trump officials leaked a military strike in a Signal group chat

The Atlantic releases strike group chat messages

And the Most Tortured Signal-Gate Backronym Award goes to… | The Verge

Elon Musk pressured Reddit’s CEO on content moderation | The Verge

Trump’s plans to save TikTok may fail to keep it online, Democrats warn

Rivian spins out secret e-bike lab into a new company called Also

BYD beats Tesla.

Trump says he will impose a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles

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