NVIDIA has revealed that its revenue for the second quarter ending on July 27 rose 56 percent compared to the same period last year, and that's without shipping any H20 chips to China. It reported a revenue of $46.7 billion and a net income of $26.4 billion. As CNBC has noted, the company previously said that H20 shipments to China could have added $8 billion in sales to its second quarter figures. Instead, the company was only able to release $180 million worth of the chips to a customer outside of China. NVIDIA clearly still did very well in the second quarter, however, just like in the previous ones. This is the ninth straight quarter, ever since AI skyrocketed in popularity back in 2023, wherein the company's year-on-year revenue increase has exceeded 50 percent. 

The company designed the H20 specifically for the Chinese market, but the US government blocked its shipment earlier this year over concerns it could aid the nation's military. In mid-July, the government told NVIDIA that it will be able to ship the H20 to China again, but Chinese authorities discouraged local tech firms from using the chips. Now, the company is believed to be developing a new chip for China that's more advanced than the H20 and is based on the company's Blackwell architecture. Both the H20 and this upcoming more advanced chip could lead to another big leap in revenue and sales for the company. 

Speaking of Blackwell, NVIDIA has also announced that sales for its Blackwell-based chips rose 17 percent from the first quarter. The new product line, which is designed for advanced AI, reached $27 billion in sales and represented 50 percent of the company's data center revenue. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/nvidia-is-really-profiting-from-the-ai-boom-133044352.html?src=rss

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Typepad, a blogging service that launched in the same year as WordPress, has announced that it's shutting down on September 30. "We have made the difficult decision to discontinue Typepad," its team said in a post. Several major publications used it as a backend for their websites in its early years, and it even released an app in 2008, but it soon fell behind WordPress in popularity. The service stopped accepting new signups sometime in 2020 but continued supporting its old customers. One user contacted Typepad back in March this year and was told that Typepad still supports its "existing customers and there are no plans for that to change," so shutting it down was a recent decision. 

After September 30, users will no longer be able to access their account management settings, their blogs and all associated content. Everything will be deactivated permanently. They will, however, be able to export their content before September 30 in Movable Type Import Format, which they can then upload to WordPress. Typepad will stop charging users for subscription starting on August 31, and if a user has recently made a payment, it "will attempt to issue a prorated refund to the payment method on file." There are probably only a few people still using Typepad these days, but let's pour one out for the old blogging service.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/early-blogging-service-typepad-is-shutting-down-for-good-130033731.html?src=rss

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Waymo can now test its self-driving cars in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams has announced. Local authorities have granted the company the permit needed to be able to test autonomous vehicles in parts of Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. It's the first-ever permit for the "testing deployment" of AVs the city has granted. Waymo will be able to deploy a fleet with up to eight vehicles in the city until late September 2025. For now, though, the permit only allows Waymo to test its AVs with drivers behind the wheel. 

The company announced earlier this year that it was going to test its driverless system in 10 new cities in 2025. In June, it filed a request for permission to test its AVs in New York City in hopes that it can someday bring its autonomous ride-hailing service to the Big Apple. To note, while Adams said the city granted Waymo the first permit of its kind, the company deployed its vehicles to map some parts of NYC back in 2021. 

Under the permit, Waymo will be required to regularly report the data gathered from its testing to the Department of Transportation to certify that it's "adhering to the industry’s best practices related to cybersecurity." Waymo will be given the opportunity to apply for an extension after its pilot testing period ends in September. It may have to continue testing them with human operators for a while, though: New York state law prohibits the operation of vehicles without a driver behind the wheel, but Waymo told Forbes that it's lobbying to change the regulation. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-can-now-test-its-self-driving-vehicles-in-new-york-city-150015938.html?src=rss

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Users with Mississippi IP addresses can no longer access the Bluesky app. The decentralized social media network has explained in a post that Mississippi's new age verification law for social networks "would fundamentally change" how it operates, and it wouldn't be possible to comply with its small team and limited resources. 

Bluesky says that while it does follow the UK's Online Safety Act, it works very differently from Mississippi's approach to age verification. In the UK, it's only required to check for a user's age if they're accessing certain content and features. In Mississippi, however, it cannot allow anyone to access its service at all, unless they hand over sensitive data proving how old they are. Further, the platform will be required to keep track of which users are children under 18, and it will be responsible for making sure those users won't be able to access "harmful materials." Earlier this month, the Supreme Court decided not to intervene with the legislation, allowing it to go into effect. 

The service says that it doesn't have the significant resources needed to be able to build the required "verification systems, parental consent workflows and compliance infrastructure." In addition, it could be penalized with up $10,000 per user if the government finds it to be non-compliant. Because only big tech companies can afford the costs associated with those requirements, Bluesky says the "dynamic entrenches existing big tech platforms while stifling the innovation and competition that benefits users."

Bluesky will now show a note to any user accessing the service from Mississippi, telling them why it's no longer available in the state. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-blocks-mississippi-due-to-its-new-age-verification-law-133049512.html?src=rss

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Meta has signed a partnership with Midjourney, an AI service that can generate images and videos from text prompts. According to Alexandr Wang, Meta's Chief AI Officer, Meta is licensing Midjourney's "aesthetic technology" for its future models and products. "To ensure Meta is able to deliver the best possible products for people it will require taking an all-of-the-above approach. This means world-class talent, ambitious compute roadmap, and working with the best players across the industry," Wang added. 

The company previously launched its own AI image generator and AI video editor, but Midjourney's technology could help Meta offer services that can actually compete with rivals', such as OpenAI's Sora and Google's Veo. Midjourney made V7 its default model for image generation back in June. It described V7 as an "entirely new" AI image generation model that's much smarter at processing text prompts than its predecessors. It also released its V1 video model, which allows users to turn the images they generate into a short animated video, at the same time. "We are incredibly impressed by Midjourney. They have accomplished true feats of technical and aesthetic excellence, and we are thrilled to be working more closely with them," Wang said on X. 

This partnership is but Meta's latest move in its quest to form a Superintelligence laboratory and become a major player in the AI sphere. Mark Zuckerberg went on a hiring spreed and managed to convince several key players from rivals to join his company instead by offering them massive salaries and signing bonuses. Wang himself became the company's Chief AI office after Meta invested $14.8 billion in Scale AI, the company he founded.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-is-licensing-midjourneys-ai-image-and-video-tech-120012178.html?src=rss

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The Trump administration is forming a "National Design Studio," with the aim of improving government websites and the efficiency of digital services at federal agencies. Trump has already signed an executive order to create the studio. According to Reuters, the president will appoint Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia as the head of the new organization, which one of its sources described as a stripped-down version of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

DOGE, which was once led by Elon Musk, aimed to cut wasteful government spending and modernize its IT systems. It facilitated mass layoffs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers and even dismantled whole agencies. As Reuters has noted, though, its activities have greatly slowed down after Musk left the organization and his role as Trump's advisor altogether. The White House did not respond to Reuters' request for comment, and it's unclear if DOGE will continue operating once the studio has been formed.

Gebbia will be apparently be named as the studio's the Chief Design Officer and will lead its efforts to upgrade the "usability and aesthetics" of federal digital services. The news organization says the studio will standardize design for websites meant to allow people to interact with the government and will advise agencies on how to reduce costs on duplicative designs. Based on Trump's executive order, the studio will shut down in three years before he steps down from office. While Gebbia will be the Chief Design Officer, an administrator will run the studio and will be in charge of reporting to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trump-is-forming-a-national-design-studio-to-spruce-up-government-websites-140053273.html?src=rss

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NVIDIA has reportedly asked its suppliers to halt production related to its H20 AI chips for the Chinese market. According to The Information, the company told Arizona-based Amkor Technology and Samsung Electronics to put a pause on their work for the H20. Amkor produces advanced packaging for the H20 chips, while Samsung supplies memory for NVIDIA. Reuters has also reported that NVIDIA asked Foxconn, which is in charge of backend processing for the chip, to suspend its work. "We constantly manage our supply chain to address market condition," the company told CNBC in a statement when asked to comment about the supposed production pause. 

The US government had blocked NVIDIA from selling the H20 in China back in April, out of concerns that the country could use it to develop AI tech for its military. It allowed the company to resume selling the chip in China by July, reportedly after closing a deal that would give it 15 percent of the sales. But China didn't welcome the H20 with open arms. Local regulators instructed the biggest Chinese tech companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba to stop new orders for H20 chips, citing security concerns. The Cyberspace Administration of China talked to NVIDIA, claiming that AI experts had revealed that the chips could be tracked and controlled remotely. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang had admitted that Chinese regulators asked him about the supposed "backdoor" and said that he made it clear it didn't exist. "Hopefully the response that we've given to the Chinese government will be sufficient," Huang said. 

A recent report by the Financial Times, however, claimed that Chinese authorities didn't issue warnings against using NVIDIA chips just because of security concerns. Apparently, they found certain remarks by US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick "insulting." When the US allowed shipments of the H20 to China again, Lutnick said during an interview: "We don't sell them our best stuff, not our second best stuff, not even our third best. The fourth one down, we want to keep China using it... You want to sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack."

The H20 is currently the most advanced AI chip NVIDIA can sell in the Chinese market, but the company is reportedly developing a more powerful product. It will be based on the company's Blackwell architecture, Reuters previously reported, and will be capable of half the computing power of NVIDIA's Blackwell Ultra GPUs.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/nvidia-reportedly-stops-production-of-h20-ai-chips-133020132.html?src=rss

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Masimo, the medical technology company whose lawsuit led to the temporary sales pause of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, has sued the US Customs and Border Protection days after Apple released its redesigned blood oxygen monitoring feature. This is just the latest update in the lengthy legal saga between Masimo and Apple, which started when the former sued the iPhonemaker in 2021, accusing it of infringing on several of its light-based blood oxygen monitoring patents. After a court sided with Masimo in 2023, Apple was forced to stop selling the Watch Series 9 and the Ultra 2 in the US for a few weeks. 

In order to circumvent the import ban for the devices, Apple removed the Blood Oxygen app for the watch models sold in the US. Just a few days ago, however, the company introduced a "redesigned Blood Oxygen feature" for the Watch Series 9, Series 10 and Watch Ultra 2 models. The feature works by measuring and calculating data from the watches' sensors on their paired iPhones instead. Users will then be able to view their blood oxygen data in the Respiratory section of the Health app. 

Apple said the update was "enabled by a recent US Customs ruling." But Masimo said in its complaint (via Bloomberg Law) that it only heard about the ruling, which was handed down on August 1, when Apple made the announcement. It argued that the agency typically requires both sides to be heard before making such decisions and that Customs "exceeded its authority." Masimo is now asking the court to put an injunction on UCBP's decision and, ultimately, to only allow imports of the devices if their blood oxygen-tracking function is disabled.

"Each passing day that this unlawful ruling remains in effect irreparably deprives Masimo of its right to be free from unfair trade practices and to preserve its competitive standing in the US marketplace," Masimo said.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/masimo-files-lawsuit-over-apples-redesigned-blood-oxygen-monitoring-feature-130054895.html?src=rss

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Chinese regulators reportedly dissuaded local companies from purchasing NVIDIA's H20 chips, because they found certain statements by US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick "insulting." According to the Financial Times, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) teamed up to intensify their efforts to push the use of homegrown chips following Lutnick's remarks in an interview with CNBC. 

The US, if you'll recall, blocked NVIDIA from selling its H20 chips to China back in April out of concern that the Chinese military would use them to develop AI technology. When the US government reversed its decision in July and allowed the company to start shipping its chips to China, Lutnick told CNBC: "We don't sell them our best stuff, not our second best stuff, not even our third best. The fourth one down, we want to keep China using it... The idea is the Chinese are more than capable of building their own. You want to keep one step ahead of what they can build, so they keep buying our chips. You want to sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack. That's the thinking." To note, a previous Times report stated that the government allowed NVIDIA to ship its products to China again after agreeing to hand over 15 percent of its profits.

As a response to Lutnick's remarks, the Times says Chinese authorities sought ways to prevent local companies from buying H20 chips. CAC issued an informal notice instructing China's biggest tech firms, such as ByteDance and Alibaba, to stop new orders for H20 chips until the government is done conducting a national security review. The companies are compelled to comply, because they could face substantial fines from the CAC if they don't. Meanwhile, NDRC also issued an informal notice, asking local tech companies not to purchase any NVIDIA chip. 

Reuters recently reported that NVIDIA is developing a new chip for the Chinese market that's more powerful than the H20, perhaps driven in part by China's move to discourage its purchase. It will be based on the company's Blackwell architecture, but will only be capable of half the computing power of NVIDIA's Blackwell Ultra GPUs. Their regulatory and export approval aren't guaranteed, but the president previously implied that he was aware of the project and said he expects NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang to talk to him about it. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/china-reportedly-discouraged-purchase-of-nvidia-ai-chips-due-to-insulting-lutnick-statements-123055120.html?src=rss

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NVIDIA is working on a new AI chip meant for the Chinese market that's more powerful than the H20, according to Reuters. It will reportedly be based on the company's latest Blackwell architecture, which can produce chips between seven and 30 times faster than its previous AI platform. Reuters says the product is tentatively named B30A and will have a single-die design, putting all its main components on a single piece of silicon. It will apparently be capable of half the computing power of NVIDIA's Blackwell Ultra GPUs, which have dual-die configuration. The product will also come with high-bandwidth memory and the company's NVLink technology for speedier data transmission between processors. 

It's possible that NVIDIA is developing the chip after the Chinese government discouraged local companies from using the H20, especially for government and national security purposes. Chinese regulators even reportedly ordered big tech corporations, including Alibaba, Bytedance and Tencent, to suspend their purchases from NVIDIA until the government is done with a national security review. China's warning to local companies came after the US government lifted its export restriction on the company's H20 chips. 

If you'll recall, the US blocked the company from selling its H20 chips to China back in April over concerns that the Chinese military could use the chips to develop AI technology. In July, NVIDIA announced that the government has assured the company that it will approve licenses to ship and export H20 chips to China. The Financial Times then reported in August that the government had agreed to grant NVIDIA (and AMP) export licenses in exchange for 15 percent of their profits. 

Reuters says NVIDIA is still finalizing the specs of B30A, but it's hoping to deliver samples to Chinese clients for testing as soon as September this year. Trump seems to already be aware that NVIDIA is working on a chip based on Blackwell for the Chinese market, but whether it gets regulatory and export approval remains to be seen: The president told reporters that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huan is "coming to see [him] again about that."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/nvidia-is-reportedly-developing-an-ai-chip-for-china-more-powerful-than-the-h20-130057520.html?src=rss

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UK officials will no longer compel Apple to create backdoor access to its users' data, according to US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. She wrote on X that she, President Trump and Vice President Vance worked closely with their "partners in the UK" over the past months. "As a result," she continued, "the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a 'back door' that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties."

As The New York Times notes, the UK government issued the secret order earlier this year after amending the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016. The law gives the UK government the right to compel companies to turn over data to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Reports about the mandate started to come out in February, however, and Apple pretty much confirmed it when it disabled iCloud's Advanced Data Protection feature in the UK. ADP gives users the power to to add optional end-to-end encryption to a variety of iCloud data, which means the information can't be accessed by authorities unless they have the user's device in their hands. "As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will," Apple said at the time. 

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers asked Gabbard to take measures to prevent what they called "a foreign cyberattack waged through political means" after the information about the mandate went public. Meanwhile, Apple filed a complained with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which "investigates complaints about the alleged conduct of public bodies in relation to members of the public," to get the order reversed. The company has yet to issue an official statement about the reversal of the UK mandate. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-uk-will-no-longer-require-apple-to-create-backdoor-access-to-users-data-110014398.html?src=rss

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The court has blocked the Federal Trade Commission's investigation into Media Matters, the media nonprofit that previously published research showing that ads appeared on X alongside neo-Nazi and other antisemitic content. In 2023, Elon Musk's X filed a lawsuit against the media watchdog following an advertiser exodus. It accused Media Matters of "knowingly and maliciously manufactur[ing] side-by-side images depicting advertisers' posts on X Corp.'s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white national fringe content." Just this May, the FTC started looking into whether the nonprofit violated antitrust laws by allegedly colluding with advertising and advocacy groups to boycott X. 

In June, Media Matters sued the FTC, accusing it of unfairly targeting the group in retaliation for past criticisms of X. "The Federal Trade Commission seeks to punish Media Matters for its journalism and speech in exposing matters of substantial public concern — including how X.com has enabled and profited from extremist content that proliferated after Elon Musk took over the platform formerly known as Twitter," the group said at the time. Now, Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan has granted a preliminary injunction in the nonprofit's favor. 

Sooknanan has agreed with the group that the FTC's investigation is "a retaliatory act" and has noted that it is "likely to succeed on its First Amendment retaliation claim." She wrote in her decision that such probes would deter other reporters from speaking again. "Indeed, the FTC's [investigation] has had its intended effect." Apparently, because of the probe, Media Matters has "decided against pursuing certain stories about the FTC, Chairman Ferguson, and Mr. Musk."

"The court’s ruling demonstrates the importance of fighting over folding, which far too many are doing when confronted with intimidation from the Trump administration," Angelo Carusone, the president of Media Matters, told The New York Times. "We will continue to stand up and fight for the First Amendment rights that protect every American." As the publication notes, courts had also blocked investigations into the group by the attorneys general in Texas and Missouri. Musk's lawsuits against the nonprofit, however, are still ongoing.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/court-blocks-ftc-investigation-into-media-matters-alleged-scheme-against-x-160021473.html?src=rss

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Google has started rolling out customizable calling cards for the beta versions of its Android Contacts and Phone apps. Android Authority found clues that the company was working on the feature back in July when it did an APK teardown. Now, you can give it a try if you decide to install the beta versions of the apps. As the publication notes, Google's implementation is the direct opposite of Apple's. On iOS, your set your own photo and name that you want to show up on other people's phones when you call them. You cannot alter other people's Contact Posters, as Apple calls the feature. Meanwhile, on Android, you can't make your own calling card. The feature instead gives you a way to set a photo and a name for your contacts that show up on your screen when they call you. 

If you do have access to the beta Contacts app for Android, you'll now see a note that says "Try adding a calling card" when you view a contact's details. From there, you can choose a photo you have of that contact from your gallery or take a new one of them with your camera. You can also adjust the font type and color for their name. Whenever they call, that calling card will take over your phone screen. If this sounds nothing new to you, it may be because Samsung has had a profile card feature for a while now that works just like Google's implementation. It's already widely available and accessible from your contacts' profile pages. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/google-is-testing-customizable-calling-cards-for-android-that-show-up-when-your-friends-call-123038875.html?src=rss

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It's safe to say nobody likes it when a company locks the full potential of a vehicle they already bought behind a monthly subscription, which is what Volkswagen is doing in the UK. As Electrek and Auto Express have reported, the automaker now lists the Volkswagen ID.3 Pro and Pro S on its UK website with lesser horsepower that what they're capable of. In a footnote for the ID.3 Pro S Essential page, the company notes that for new orders, 150 kW or 201 horsepower is now the new standard for engine power. Customers can only enjoy the electric vehicle's 228 hp (170 kW) capability if they activate an "optional power upgrade for a fee."

They can pay $22 (£16.50) a month to unlock the EV's full horsepower, pay for the whole year at once or pay a one-time lifetime fee of $880 (£649). Based on Volkswagen's wording, the one-time fee is good for the lifetime of the car, not the owner's. If the customer sells their EV, the new owner also gets the upgrade. They'd then have to pay for it again if they buy a new EV that had also been paywalled. Owners will at least get a free month-long trial in case they want to figure out if they truly needed that extra muscle. 

Back in 2022, BMW also locked its cars' heated seat feature in some countries behind an $18-per-month subscription fee. It offered to unlock automatic high beams for roughly $12 and steering wheel heating for another $12, as well. Like in Volkswagen's case, the EV's hardware were already capable of all those features, and customers didn't need to have anything installed. It was all just a matter of paying to unlock their availability. Well, as one would expect, users didn't like that. A year later, BMW scrapped its hardware subscription service and said that it will no longer make customers pay extra for hardware functions going forward. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/volkswagen-is-making-uk-owners-pay-extra-to-unlock-id3-evs-full-potential-120011898.html?src=rss

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E-bike company Cowboy has secured short-term financing that would allow its operations to go back to normal after a period it describes as the "most challenging in [its] history." The company has revealed that it has signed a term sheet with a new partner, Rebirth, which it believes would pave the way for long-term stability. As The Verge notes, Rebirth is the parent of ReCycles, the prominent French manufacturer that took over bike assembly for Cowboy back in February.  

For quite some time, the company's fate was up in the air. Cowboy explained that over the past couple of years, it has been hit by several problems that are plaguing the whole industry, including the post-COVID shifts in the demand for e-bikes and massive supply chain problems. On top of those, it had to launch a recall for some of its Cruiser ST bikes when their frames started to crack after 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles), which Cowboy said "added strain to an already difficult time." It explained that the issue was caused by one of its suppliers making an unauthorized change to the bikes. 

Cowboy has admitted that due to the issues it faced, customers experienced a lot of delays and that it wasn't able to communicate things with them clearly. Now that it has secured financing, the first replacement frames for the recalled bikes have finally arrived from its supplier and it was able to start operating its first recall center, with more to follow in the summer. "We are not yet where we want to be, but we are here," the company said in the email it has sent its customers. "Still standing. Still fighting. And more determined than ever."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/cowboy-e-bikes-rescued-from-collapse-thanks-to-rescue-deal-123012537.html?src=rss

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You'll soon be able to watch KPop Demon Hunters on the big screen. The Netflix animated film has become a global hit since it launched on the platform and has reportedly become the second most-watched movie on the service's history after Red Notice. Now, Netflix is holding a limited theatrical event, wherein fans can watch a sing-along version of the film. Aside from the movie itself being a hit, its songs have gained massive popularity, with the track Golden recently taking the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. 

KPop Demon Hunters is a musical that revolves around the girl group Huntr/x, which as you might have guessed, are demon hunters. The group is the latest trio of women who uses the power of their singing voices to maintain the Honmoon, or the magical barrier that prevents demons from entering our world established generations ago by the first trio of singing demon hunters. In the film, they're in constant competition with a boy band called Saja Boys, who are made up of demons that look like pretty boys. The main antagonist, however, is Gwi-Ma, ruler of the demons. He was voiced by Lee Byung-hun, whom a lot of people might know as the Front Man in Squid Game. 

The film's limited theatrical release will only last for one weekend, from August 23 to 24, in select screens across the US and Canada. You can buy tickets starting today, August 13, at 9AM Eastern time, from the even't official website, where you can also view the full list of theaters and showtimes in your area.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflixs-kpop-demon-hunters-is-headed-to-theaters-for-two-days-124552307.html?src=rss

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ChatGPT will now allow you to choose between several GPT-5 variants and previous OpenAI models. In a post on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has revealed that the chatbot's model picker now comes with three GPT-5 choices: Auto, Fast and Thinking. He said most "will want Auto," which is most likely the standard version that's already a reasoning model. But users will be able to choose the fast-responding version or the Thinking version that implies it delivers longer, more comprehensive answers if they want to. GPT-4o is now also back in the model picker for all paying users by default. 

OpenAI removed GPT-4o with the launch of GPT-5: The company significantly simplified ChatGPT because GPT-5 was supposed to offer a unified experience for users. However, its decision was met by criticism from people who preferred GPT-4o's personality better, especially since it didn't give them notice that it was deprecating older models. In his post, Altman promised users that if the company ever does deprecate GPT-4o, OpenAI "will give plenty of notice." In addition to the GPT-5 and GPT-4o models, users can toggle to "Show additional models" in ChatGPT web settings if they want to access o3, 4.1, and GPT-5 Thinking mini. GPT-4.5 is only available to subscribers paying for the $200-a-month Pro tier, though, because it "costs a lot of GPUs."

Altman said that GPT-5 Thinking now has rate limits of 3,000 messages a week, after which users will only be able to use GPT-5 Thinking mini. He has also revealed that OpenAI is working to update GPT-5's personality to make it warmer, but "not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/you-can-pick-chatgpts-older-ai-models-again-121549264.html?src=rss

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Apple has denied Elon Musk's accusation that it's favoring OpenAI in its App Store rankings and making it impossible for other AI companies to reach the top. In a statement sent to Bloomberg, Apple said the App Store is "designed to be fair and free of bias." The company's spokesperson explained that the App Store features "thousands of apps through charts, algorithmic recommendations and curated lists selected by experts using objective criteria." They added: "Our goal is to offer safe discovery for users and valuable opportunities for developers, collaborating with many to increase app visibility in rapidly evolving categories."

xAI founder Elon Musk accused Apple of "unequivocal antitrust violation" by favoring OpenAI in a post on X, warning that his company "will take immediate legal action." In a separate post from his threat, he asked Apple why it "[refuses] to put either X or Grok in [its] 'Must Have' section." X, he said, is "the #1 news app in the world," while Grok is ranked number five among all apps. "Are you playing politics? What gives?" he continued. 

Musk didn't provide evidence to back his accusations. It's also worth noting that Chinese AI app DeepSeek reached the top of Apple's free app rankings back in January, overtaking even ChatGPT. As X's own Community Notes also mentioned in Musk's post, added hours after it went up, Perplexity reached the top of overall rankings in India's App Store back in July. Both apps were able to reach the top of their respective lists way after Apple and OpenAI announced their partnership last year. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to Musk's accusation, as well. He said it's a "remarkable claim," given that he has heard allegations that Musk manipulates "X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn't like." In response, Musk posted: "Scam Altman lies as easily as he breathes."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-says-the-app-store-is-fair-and-free-of-bias-in-response-to-musks-legal-threats-235555807.html?src=rss

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Elon Musk has accused Apple of committing an "unequivocal antitrust violation" by favoring OpenAI in the App Store rankings. In a post on X, he claimed that Apple has made it impossible for other AI companies to reach number one in those rankings and that xAI "will take immediate legal action." Musk didn't clarify what he meant by that, and he also didn't provide evidence that would prove Apple's supposed antitrust violation. 

In an earlier post on X that's currently pinned to the top of his profile, however, he tagged Apple, asking the company why it "[refuses] to put either X or Grok in [its] "Must Have" section. He said X is "the #1 news app in the world," while Grok is ranked number five among all apps. "Are you playing politics? What gives?" he continued. In a statement sent to Bloomberg, Apple denied any wrongdoing and said that the App Store "is designed to be fair and free of bias." The spokesperson added: "We feature thousands of apps through charts, algorithmic recommendations and curated lists selected by experts using objective criteria. Our goal is to offer safe discovery for users and valuable opportunities for developers, collaborating with many to increase app visibility in rapidly evolving categories."

Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted a response to Musk's accusation on X, calling it a "remarkable claim," given that he has heard allegations that Musk manipulates "X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn't like." To note, Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek became the top-rated free app on Apple's App Store back in January, overtaking even ChatGPT. 

While Musk didn't mention it, Apple has an ongoing partnership with OpenAI. The company has integrated ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence to power cloud-based queries for its platforms. More recently, the company said that Apple Intelligence will leverage the capabilities of OpenAI's GPT-5 in iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS Tahoe 26, which are set to arrive sometime in September. 

Update, August 12, 2025, 8PM ET: This story has been updated to add Microsoft's statement.

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It sounds like President Trump no longer thinks Intel's CEO should resign. Trump has revealed on Truth Social that he met with Lip-Bu Tan, Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce, and Scott Bessent, the Secretary of the Treasury. He didn't discuss the details of their meeting, but he described it as "a very interesting one." Trump added: "His success and rise is an amazing story." If you'll recall, Trump alleged that Tan was "highly conflicted" due to his investments in hundreds of Chinese firms and should resign. Reuters had previously reported that some of those companies had links to the Chinese military. "Mr. Tan and my Cabinet members are going to spend time together, and bring suggestions to me during the next week," Trump said in his post.

According to a report by the Financial Times, Tan wrote a letter to Intel employees about the issue, telling that there had been a lot of misinformation about the roles he'd held. "I wanted to be absolutely clear... I have always operated within the highest legal and ethical standards," he reportedly wrote in the letter. He also said that Intel was communicating with the White House "to address the matters that have been raised and ensure they have the facts."

Trump's call for Tan to resign reportedly came about due a letter from Tom Cotton, the Republican head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to the Intel CEO. Cotton apparently expressed concerns aout the "security and integrity of Intel's operations" due to Tan's ties with China. Tan was named the CEO of Intel in March, taking over a company that was losing money due to its foundry business being unable to secure big customers and lagging behind rivals like Taiwan Semiconductor. Since taking over, Tan has enforced several cost-cutting measures, including cutting jobs with the goal of reducing its workforce by 22 percent by the end of the year. He also recently told investors that Intel could abandon the development of its next-gen manufacturing technology if it fails to secure a large client. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/intels-ceo-has-successfully-wooed-president-trump-035339132.html?src=rss

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