Illustration: The Verge You can now follow fediverse accounts on Threads, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced. Threads rolled out fediverse users’ likes and replies in a very limited way at first, and it’s the same here — fediverse posts won’t appear in your feeds, and you can only follow those accounts if they’ve interacted with a post on Threads. While fediverse posts won’t show in feeds, Instagram head Adam Mosseri says their profile and posts do appear on Threads, and you have the option to get notifications when they publish. That’s something, at least. Mosseri posted a video of what the process looks like: Zuckerberg says you can follow fediverse accounts when you see they’ve “liked, followed, or replied” to a federated Threads profile, but there’s one other way you might find them. “On web and android today (and iOS soon), we’ll start linkifying Fediverse usernames in posts,” wrote Threads developer Peter Cottle among a series of posts about the new integration. Cottle added that your account will need to be federated and that the fediverse account must be “eligible to be followed.” Cottle also demonstrated that you can tag fediverse accounts, linking to Star Trek actor and activist George Takei’s Mastodon account: Meta’s Seine Kim tells The Verge in an email that the platform’s “goal remains to grow the fediverse responsibly, prioritizing the success of a safe, diverse, content-rich, and interoperable community.” Kim added that the change is another step in Threads’ plan to become fully interoperable with the fediverse in time. Notably though, new Threads features have picked up the pace in recent weeks. Maybe that’s got something to do with all the attention Bluesky’s been getting lately?

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Nearly two years ago, OpenAI said that artificial general intelligence — the thing the company was created to build — could “elevate humanity” and “give everyone incredible new capabilities.” Now, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is trying to lower expectations. “My guess is we will hit AGI sooner than most people in the world think and it matter much less,” he said during an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at The New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday. “And a lot of the safety concerns that we and others expressed actually don’t come at the AGI moment. AGI can get built, the world mostly goes on in mostly the same way, things grow faster, but then there is a long continuation from what we call AGI to what we call super intelligence.” This isn’t the first time Altman has downplayed the now seemingly imminent arrival of AGI, which OpenAI’s charter once said will be able to “automate the great majority of intellectual labor.” He has recently teased that it could arrive as soon as 2025 and will be achievable on existing hardware. We at The Verge have heard that OpenAI intends to weave together its large language models and declare that to be AGI. At the DealBook Summit, Altman made... Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge President-elect Donald Trump made two nominations Wednesday that will shape significant parts of his administration’s tech enforcement, if confirmed by the Senate. Former Republican Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul Atkins is Trump’s pick to lead the agency, replacing Biden-appointed chair and crypto foil Gary Gensler. The selection of Atkins, who co-chairs the Token Alliance at the Digital Chamber, a group dedicated to the use of digital assets, suggests a sharp divergence from Biden-era crypto policy. In his announcement, Trump says Atkins “recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.” Trump also selected Gail Slater to lead the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, which is currently litigating two anti-monopoly suits against Google, and a third against Apple, as well as reportedly probing AI-chipmaker Nvidia. Slater has previously worked at the Federal Trade Commission, in Trump’s National Economic Counsel, and most recently as Vice President-elect JD Vance’s economic policy advisor in his Senate office. She’s also worked at Fox, Roku, and the now-defunct Internet Association, whose member included several Big Tech companies. Trump is borrowing a favorite term of Marc Andreessen’s in with his reference to “Little Tech” In his announcement on Truth Social, Trump writes that, “Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech!” Trump is borrowing a favorite term of Marc Andreessen’s in with his reference to “Little Tech.” Andreessen — a venture capitalist and crypto supporter who publicly backed Trump in the election — has pushed for the recognition of a contrast between policies that benefit startups versus the largest tech players. Slater has historically worked across the aisle, having served as an attorney advisor to former Democratic FTC Commissioner Julie Brill (who now works as Microsoft’s chief privacy officer). Her history working for Vance — who has publicly praised Biden’s FTC Chair Lina Khan for her aggressive approach toward tech — suggests Big Tech is likely to remain a key target of antitrust scrutiny in the years to come.

While I haven't bought the Apple Vision Pro, I'm still a fan of what Apple is doing here because I think the spatial computer debuted key technologies that will lead to the actual head-worn wearable I want: A pair of AR Apple Glasses that might eventually replace the iPhone. Rumors say that we have a long wait ahead of us before true Apple Glasses become a reality. Apple needs tons of progress with the tech involved before it can create the product it wants. Meta recently showcased the bulky Orion concept of AR glasses that cost $10,000 to make. That's another clear hint that Apple Glasses will take a while to get here. We need a pair of AR glasses that look much more like regular glasses before consumers will actually adopt them. Other rumors say that Apple is studying the possibility of developing smart glasses that look like Meta's Ray-Ban. Those aren't AR glasses, however. Intead, they just have a camera and Meta AI support. Samsung is expected to unveil a similar gadget in the coming months. Apple will never confirm work on future products, though it might tease that's where we're heading. That's what Tim Cook did in a recent interview when asked whether Apple Glasses are coming after the Vision Pro. Continue reading... The post This is the closest we’ve come to Tim Cook confirming Apple Glasses appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Early Black Friday deals: $154 AirPods Pro 2, $250 iPad 10, $150 Lenovo Chromebook, $10 LifeStraw, more Best Black Friday deals 2024: Ultimate roundup Cyber Monday blowout: Free AirPods 4, $374 PlayStation 5, Apple sale, $297 Nectar mattress, $60 Keurig, more Cyber Monday iPad deals start at $199 in 2024

The Ladies Professional Golf Association updated its gender policy on Wednesday, and players assigned male at birth and who have gone through male puberty will not be eligible to compete.

High-end donors for Donald Trump's second inauguration reportedly will receive perks, including separate dinners with the president-elect and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, as well as tickets to other exclusive events.

Israel said on Wednesday it had retrieved the body of Itay Svirsky, who was taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, and then killed in Hamas captivity, according to a statement from the Israeli military.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supreme Court of the United States is bringing its many decades of collective legal experience to bear as it carefully considers whether a guy slicing body parts off of children with a giant knife is bad.

NEW YORK, NY — In addition to exploring the use of a "golden at-bat" in which teams could send their best hitter to the plate regardless of who was due up in the lineup, Major League Baseball is considering other ways to increase excitement during games, including allowing each team to call in one tactical air strike on their opponent's outfield per game.

Asteroid C0WEPC5 entered Earth's atmosphere at 1:15 a.m. local time on Dec. 4 over northeastern Siberia.