In part three of our AI mini series, David Pierce dives into the decades-long endeavor to build a virtual assistant. What can a virtual assistant do? What do we want it to do?

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The 50-year quest for AI virtual assistants

The Vergecast is the flagship podcast from The Verge about small gadgets, Big Tech, and everything in between. Every Friday, hosts Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz hang out and make sense of the week’s most important technology news. And every Tuesday, David leads a selection of The Verge’s expert staffers in an exploration of how gadgets and software affect our lives – and which ones you should bring into yours.

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Today on the flagship podcast of open smart home standards: 

03:25 - Microsoft’s Pavan Devaluri, leader for Windows and Devices, joins the show to discuss the future of the AI PC and what’s next for Microsoft’s hardware

Microsoft’s new Windows chief on the future of the OS, Surface, and those annoying ads

Microsoft’s big bet on building a new type of AI computer 

Microsoft Build 2024: everything announced


30:25 - The Verge’s Jen Tuohy and David Pierce discuss the latest updates in the smart home world in a segment called “Does Matter matter yet?”

The Dyson WashG1 is the company’s first dedicated mop

Amazon’s Matter Casting is shaping up so nicely, I want to use it everywhere

Matter 1.3 arrives with new device type and features

Smart lighting company Brilliant is looking for a buyer

Google launches new Home APIs and turns Google TVs into smart home hubs 


01:13:20 - David answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline about AI-powered search engines. 


Google is redesigning its search engine — and it's AI all the way down 

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on AI-powered search and the future of the web


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Why Microsoft bet on Surface

On this episode of The Vergecast, the fourth and final installment of our series on the five senses of video games, we asked Polygon’s Charlie Hall to help us make sense of the current state of the art in flight simulation. Hall, who once spent more than four months in VR mapping the edge of the Milky Way galaxy in Elite: Dangerous, has more experience in a virtual cockpit than most. We wanted to know how the pros set up their simulators to get the most realistic experience and why it’s so complicated to make a virtual world look like the real one.
Further reading:

It’s time to build the cockpit of your dreams

Microsoft Flight Simulator’s most-needed feature is co-op

My first kill as a Star Citizen

If Microsoft Flight Simulator has you craving air combat, try this flight sim next


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Seeing the real world inside a virtual one

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce discuss announcements from Microsoft Build, the OpenAI's trouble with Scarlett Johansson, new Sonos headphones, and more.
Further reading:

Microsoft’s big bet on building a new type of AI computer 

Recall is Microsoft’s key to unlocking the future of PCs 

https://www.theverge.com › microsoft-surface-pro-pric...

Here’s the eight-inch Snapdragon PC for your Windows on Arm experiments 


How does the Microsoft Surface Laptop stack up to the MacBook Air? 

Microsoft Build 2024: everything announced

Windows now has AI-powered copy and paste

Microsoft is making File Explorer more powerful with version control and 7z compression

Here’s the eight-inch Snapdragon PC for your Windows on Arm experiments

Microsoft Edge will translate and dub YouTube videos as you’re watching them

Microsoft brings out a small language model that can look at pictures 

Microsoft’s new Copilot AI agents act like virtual employees to automate tasks 

Microsoft outage took down Copilot, DuckDuckGo, and ChatGPT search features

OpenAI is ‘in conversations’ with Scarlett Johansson over the ChatGPT voice that sounds just like her

OpenAI pulls its Scarlett Johansson-like voice for ChatGPT

Lawyers say OpenAI could be in real trouble with Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson told OpenAI not to use her voice — and she’s not happy they might have anyway

OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show

OpenAI Just Gave Away the Entire Game

OpenAI’s News Corp deal licenses content from WSJ, New York Post, and more

OpenAI strikes Reddit deal to train its AI on your posts

The US government is trying to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster

The Sonos Ace headphones are here, and they’re damn impressive

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence addresses the company’s divisive app redesign

here’s an electric salt spoon that adds umami flavor 

Apple needs to explain that bug that resurfaced deleted photos 

Humane is looking for a buyer after the AI Pin’s underwhelming debut 


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ChatGPT has a Scarlett Johansson problem

Today on the flagship podcast of Arm-based chipsets:
03:08 - The Verge’s Tom Warren and David Pierce discuss the announcements from Microsoft’s Surface event, including the new Arm-powered Surface Laptop, and Copilot Plus PCs.

Microsoft’s Surface AI event: news, rumors, and lots of Qualcomm laptops 

Microsoft announces an Arm-powered Surface Laptop

Microsoft’s new Surface Pro gets an OLED display for the first time

Microsoft announces Copilot Plus PCs with built-in AI hardware


The new, faster Surface Pro is Microsoft's all-purpose AI PC 

Recall is Microsoft’s key to unlocking the future of PCs


27:29 -Verge senior AI reporter Kylie Robison joins the show to chat about OpenAI’s GPT-4o demo and where we’re headed in the next few years of AI. 

ChatGPT is getting a Mac app

OpenAI’s custom GPT Store is now open to all for free

OpenAI releases GPT-4o, a faster model that’s free for all ChatGPT users 

ChatGPT will be able to talk to you like Scarlett Johansson in Her 

OpenAI pulls its Scarlett Johansson-like voice for ChatGPT 

OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is officially leaving

OpenAI researcher resigns, claiming safety has taken ‘a backseat to shiny products’


We tried out the Project Astra demo at Google I/O which worked well un... | tech | TikTok 


57:40 - Nilay Patel answers a question about iPads for this week’s Vergecast Hotline.
Apple iPad Pro (2024) review: the best tablet money can buy

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Microsoft is in its AI PC era

Today on the flagship podcast of refillable scent cartridges: 
Producer Andru Marino tries out a gadget called the Gamescent, an AI-powered scent machine that syncs with your gaming and movie watching experience. He walks David Pierce through the experience and whether integrating olfaction could be the future of gaming. 
We also hear from Nimesha Ranasinghe, an assistant professor at the University of Maine working on taste sensations and taste simulation in virtual reality experiences, which can lead to adding another sense into the world of gaming. 
Further reading:

A Brief History of Smell-O-Vision

“Scent of Mystery”, the First and Only Use of Smell-O-Vision

The sights, smells, and sprays of ‘Iron Man 3’ in 4DX

The iSmell story

Smell-O-Vision is REAL: Linus Tech Tips

VR pioneer Jaron Lanier on dystopia, empathy, and the future of the internet

The sense of taste in virtual reality

Virtual lemonade sends colour and taste to a glass of water


Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
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The 50-year quest for AI virtual assistants

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