This digest compiles the latest from The Verge.
Today’s The Verge Roundup
This is not a fly uploaded to a computer
16 Mar 2026, 12:49 pm by Robert Hart
Last week, a few posts about a so-called virtual “embodied fly” tore through X, boosted by AI hype accounts and excited commenters who didn’t seem to understand what it was they were excited about.
The videos came from San Francisco-based Eon Systems, which says it’s working toward “digital human intelligence” and claims it wants to build a full digital emulation of a mouse brain within the next two years – a timeline that is, to put it generously, ambitious. Cofounder Alexander Wissner-Gross shared the original clip publicly, calling it the “world’s first embodiment of a whole-brain emulation that produces multiple behaviors” and hinting a …
The classic Apple Macintosh mouse inspired Spigen’s retro AirPods case
16 Mar 2026, 12:00 pm by Andrew Liszewski
If you’ve already given your iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max a retro ’80s facelift with Spigen’s Macintosh 128K and Apple Lisa-inspired Classic LS cases, you might as well make your wireless earbuds match. But instead of making the AirPods Pro 3 look like a decades-old desktop computer, Spigen’s case turns them into a replica of the Macintosh’s iconic single-button mouse.
The $29.99 case is available through Amazon and comes in two parts that attach to the bottom and hinged lid of the AirPods Pro 3’s charging case. Even wrapped in its vintage disguise the case can still open as designed, and its USB-C port and status LED are still accessible. Spi …
OpenAI’s adult mode will reportedly be smutty, not pornographic
16 Mar 2026, 11:18 am by Jess Weatherbed
OpenAI’s delayed “adult mode” for ChatGPT is expected to support saucy text conversations at launch, but not the chatbot’s ability to generate images, voice, or video. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, an unnamed OpenAI spokesperson described content that will be provided by the upcoming feature as smut rather than pornography, allowing ChatGPT users to generate textual chats with adult themes.
The feature was initially announced in October, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claiming that the company had managed to mitigate enough of the “serious mental health issues” with its AI model to relax safety restrictions and introduce “erotica for ver …
My fitness tracker is a secret weapon against my chronic illness
16 Mar 2026, 10:00 am by Arielle Duhaime-Ross
One of the first major crashes I experienced as a chronically ill person happened on an unusually sunny January day in New York City. It was 2023, and I was riding my bike with a friend, flying high from the exercise. We’d covered just over 40 miles on mostly flat ground, a longish ride, but not out of ordinary for me. And that’s when it started. About 15 minutes from my apartment, my body gave out.
At first it was just my head – it grew hot, and within minutes, my brain felt like it was on fire. Pretty soon, the rest of my insides were burning up, too. As the skin on my arms and face turned red, and my limbs grew heavy, I felt bewildered. …
End of today’s The Verge roundup.
