Richard lawler – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
Skip to main content

Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Senior News Editor

Richard Lawler joined The Verge as Senior News Editor in 2021 after several years covering news at Engadget. He’s been a tech blogger since before the word was invented, and will never log off.

More From Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
OpenAI didn’t notice its AI bots trying to hack the Education Department’s website.

On Friday, OpenAI said its “misaligned models” review after the Hugging Face hack would take months, but has mostly found mundane research activity. Then it mentioned 53 incidents of the bots uploading “user-provided” images (anonymized content from personal accounts that haven’t opted out or organizations that opt in) to image-hosting sites.

Now the New York Times confirms that other unusual behavior found includes pulling public data from the Census Bureau and the SEC, while with the Education Department, it “tried to hack the website to gather data from the department’s civil rights office but failed.”

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
The White House wants you to know it was the #1 News app in the App Store.

That revamped Trump admin app (now offering access to Trump TV) apparently bounced up to the top of the News list this week.

You might think that securing access to the Strait of Hormuz or really anything else would be the federal government’s focus, but hey, it had the number one app in a category, and as David Pierce wrote in February, the very best thing about that is “being able to tell people you were number one.” The app has since slipped to #2 in news behind X, and to #96 overall.

White House App Hits No. 1 in News and Cracks App Store Top 20 as Americans Tune Out Fake News
Screenshot: The White House
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Bill Gates says regulate AI, because it’s powerful enough to cause a billion deaths.

NBC News released this clip from a Meet the Press interview with Gates that will air on Sunday, where he said, “No one thinks self-regulation is enough” around AI.

Saying that AI is “certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths,” he suggested, “You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like… And that has to be a required thing. And it will be a little bit of overhead for the industry, but not a dramatic slowing of what they’re doing.” Everyone agrees someone should do it, but who, and how?

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Another tech worker has resigned over concerns that “AI is already progressing too fast.”

Robert O’Callahan is quitting his work on AI chips for Google Deepmind, saying “…my team’s goal is ultimately to make AI much cheaper and lower-latency, and I don’t think that’s good for people right now.”

While he says it’s not related to recent AI warnings and resignations, he listed some concerns:

However, I am not convinced the chance of ASI doom is 100%. Rather, I think the risk is real but uncertain… I’m also very concerned about other AI-related issues: cognitive surrender, AI-induced psychosis and loneliness, power concentration, economic disruption, cybersecurity, lack of accountability, and so on

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Rockstar’s GTA VI collectible box packs a “swizzle stick,” mirror, hat, and more for $399.99, but no game.

Not only is the price higher than the $90 GTA IV and $150 GTA V collectible sets, but this time around Rockstar says “Grand Theft Auto VI game sold separately,” for $79.99 or $99.99, respectively.

What you do get in that $400 box is a 6-inch figurine of Macca the Gator with a stash compartment, a matching spoon and magnetic mirror that are definitely not made to snort stuff stored in said stash compartment, plus GTA-branded Oakley sunglasses, hat, a crossbody bag, a shot glass, stickers, pins, and a souvenir poster.

Small figurine of a pink alligator in a hawaiian shirt holding a drink and smoking a joint
a box with GTA VI logos
GTA VI swizzle stick aka coke spoon
GTA VI magnetic mirror with a “macca” alligator on the front
promo image of a printed GTA VI Vice City map
GTA VI Oakley sunglasses on a pink background
GTA VI promo stickers
two GTA VI pins with logos from the game on them
a keychain with with vice city printed on the side
a shot glass with a vice city logo on it
a snapback hat with vice city and macca the gator
GTA VI branded crossbody bag
1/12Image: Rockstar Games
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Pluto TV’s new look is here, so what do you think of it?

Your free streaming reruns app may look different now, with Pluto TV’s recently rolled-out update that shares tech with Paramount Plus and has a David Duchovny-starring “Escape to Pluto TV” ad campaign.

The new Home screen now blends live and on-demand content, but some users say it’s slower, makes channel surfing harder, and pushed the channel guide under Live TV. Paramount is already promising more tweaks, like bringing back Kids Mode and adding an in-player live channel changer.

Screenshot of the new Pluto TV interface with art and information for the TV show Arrow
Screenshot of Jane the Virgin in the new Pluto TV app
Pluto TV’s new channel guide
1/4
The new Pluto TV look has been rolling out over the last few weeks.
Image: Paramount Skydance
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
YouTube’s Coachella broadcast deal extended through 2030.

Along with a bunch of AI news today, YouTube music exec Lyor Cohen announced a renewed agreement with concert promoter Goldenvoice to keep streaming both weekends of the Coachella music festival for the next four years.

This continues an arrangement that will hit 15 years next April, despite Bloomberg’s report of competing bids from the likes of Netflix and Amazon. It also says that in the future we’ll see more pre-event programming, as well as mini-documentaries and other videos about artists between sets.

promotional image with the Coachella logo over people watching TV
Image: YouTube
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
State of Decay developer Undead Labs announces layoffs as it goes independent.

While Undead Labs is avoiding closing as Xbox’s assortment of developers continues to shrink, the studio announced on LinkedIn that “Unfortunately, today we are also saying goodbye to a significant number of our colleagues. It’s difficult to reach this moment knowing that not everyone who helped get us here gets to make the rest of the journey with us.”

Its blog post earlier said that State of Decay 3 development “remains actively underway,” targeting a 2027 release on Xbox, Game Pass, PC, and PlayStation.

Xbox is barely Xbox anymore

Andrew Webster