Geoffrey Hinton, widely considered one of the “Godfathers of AI,” just resigned from Google after more than a decade so he can speak freely about the technology's risks. Hinton admitted he partially regrets his life's work, warning that escalating corporate race could flood the world with fake media—and eventually pose an existential threat to humanity.
OpenAI just won back Italy after adding new data privacy safeguards and age verification to ChatGPT. Users across Europe can now opt out of letting their chats train future models, and visitors from Italy must verify they are at least 13. It marks a key regulatory win after Italy became the first Western nation to block the chatbot.
OpenAI just added privacy controls to ChatGPT that let users turn off chat history. When disabled, conversations aren't used to train models and are permanently wiped after 30 days. You can also export your data with one click, and a dedicated ChatGPT Business tier is on the way.
OpenAI is trying to lock down "GPT" as a registered trademark to fend off copycats, but the USPTO just dismissed its fast-track petition over unpaid fees and missing paperwork. IP lawyers say a final decision could take five more months, with OpenAI facing the tough challenge of proving the acronym is a distinctive brand rather than a generic industry term.
The UK government just pledged an initial £100 million to establish a Foundation Model Taskforce to develop its own "sovereign" AI. Modeled after the COVID-19 vaccine taskforce, the team aims to build globally competitive systems focused on safety and reliability. Why it matters: The UK wants to keep pace with US tech giants rather than relying solely on foreign models.
OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman took the TED stage to break down the design principles behind ChatGPT, demoing several unreleased plug-ins in the process. He also sat down with TED head Chris Anderson to address the timeline of its creation and the risks of putting such powerful tech into the wild.
Elon Musk just revealed plans to develop TruthGPT, pitched as a maximum truth-seeking AI designed to understand the nature of the universe. Musk argues that an AI curious about reality is less likely to wipe out humanity, framing it as an antidote to OpenAI's commercial turn. While he quietly formed X.AI in March, it remains unclear how far along the actual project is.
Google is scrambling to roll out new AI-powered search features next month under the codename Magi, aiming to reach up to one million US users first. With ChatGPT surging and Samsung reportedly weighing a switch to Microsoft's Bing, Google is on high alert to defend its search kingdom.
Italy's data regulator just gave OpenAI a roadmap to lift its ChatGPT ban, demanding age verification, transparent data handling policies, and opt-out tools for non-users by the end of April. OpenAI has only about 18 days to get compliant before facing additional regulatory heat.
Stanford researchers just introduced Generative Agents, computer programs powered by ChatGPT that simulate believable human behavior through memory, reflection, and planning. In a two-day sandbox simulation akin to The Sims, 25 agents autonomously planned parties, ran for mayor, and were rated as more human-like than actual humans. Why it matters: It points to a future of emergent behaviors in gaming NPCs and virtual worlds, while raising new questions about parasocial attachment.
Italy's privacy watchdog just ordered an immediate block on ChatGPT, making it the first Western country to take the chatbot offline. Regulators claim OpenAI has no legal basis to harvest personal data for training and fails to verify user ages. OpenAI disabled access in Italy and has 20 days to address GDPR violations or risk massive fines.
Google just fired back against reports claiming it scraped ChatGPT data to train its Bard chatbot. A report from The Information alleged an engineer quit for OpenAI after warning against using ShareGPT data, but Google firmly denies Bard used any rival data—though it dodged whether it ever tried in the past.
Goldman Sachs just released a report warning that generative AI could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs. The technology could automate a quarter of work tasks in the US and Europe, hitting administrative and legal professions hardest. Why it matters: While the transition could squeeze white-collar wages in the near term, the bank argues a resulting productivity boom could lift global annual output by 7%.
Microsoft is threatening to cut off search engine rivals from Bing’s index if they keep using the data to power their own AI chatbots, according to Bloomberg. The tech giant reportedly warned partners that feeding Bing data into competing chat tools breaches their contracts, effectively walling off its search moat as the generative AI race heats up.
OpenAI just published a technical post-mortem detailing the March 20 ChatGPT outage. A bug in the open-source redis-py library corrupted cache connections, accidentally exposing chat titles and payment info—including names, emails, and credit card last four digits—for about 1.2% of active Plus subscribers. OpenAI has patched the issue alongside Redis maintainers and restored service.
OpenAI just launched plugins for ChatGPT, allowing the AI to browse the web, run Python code, and connect with third-party services like Expedia and Zapier. Acting as "eyes and ears" for the model, plugins solve knowledge cutoff and hallucination limits. Access is currently rolling out to waitlisted developers and ChatGPT Plus subscribers.
Opera just added a suite of generative AI tools to both Opera Browser and Opera GX. Users can highlight text for instant summaries or explanations with "AI Prompts," while ChatGPT and ChatSonic are now baked right into the sidebar. Early access is available across desktop platforms, though you'll still need your own accounts to chat.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and CTO Mira Murati sat down with ABC News to discuss GPT-4 and the societal shifts ahead. While calling AI humanity's greatest technological leap, Altman admitted he is genuinely worried about large-scale disinformation and automated cyberattacks. Altman stressed that society has limited time to figure out safety and regulation before less cautious players enter the race.
OpenAI just launched GPT-4, a multimodal model that accepts text and image inputs while showing human-level benchmark performance. It scored in the top 10% of a simulated bar exam—trouncing GPT-3.5's bottom 10% showing—and cuts disallowed responses by 82%. Text capabilities are live for ChatGPT Plus and API waitlists, while image features remain in research preview.
General Motors is developing a virtual in-car assistant powered by OpenAI tech via Microsoft's Azure cloud. Moving beyond basic voice controls, the assistant is designed to diagnose dashboard warning lights, play step-by-step videos for changing a flat tire, and schedule repair appointments directly from your vehicle.
