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Pedro Pascal, Sam Altman and Jerry Brown: A California Gubernatorial Field of Dreams

Pedro Pascal, Sam Altman and Jerry Brown: A California Gubernatorial Field of Dreams

Politico18 hours ago
California is about to start an overdue building boom by making it easier for developers to erect homes that can address the state's persistent housing shortage. The boldest thinking about this transformative political moment has thus far come from policy analysts — including those associated with the so-called Abundance movement — who argue California's progressive aims have been undermined by its restrictive zoning rules, labor standards and environmental reviews. But they have little to say about what this means for how California should look. It's time to push aside the technocrats and make room for architects in Sacramento. There is no one better for the job than Koolhaas, whose wide-ranging 1978 book Delirious New York introduced a 'retroactive manifesto' for a 'factory of man-made experience, where the real and the natural ceased to exist.' Koolhaas' 'Manhattanism,' which exalted the grid that forced the borough to grow upward and inward, offered the keenest interpretation of what made New York's built environment special. Now he can define a new vernacular — both visual and verbal — for the Golden State's density era. — Sasha Issenberg, POLITICO California ballot measures editor
Sam Altman
CEO of OpenAI
Candidates will be trying over the coming months to get inside the minds of a divided California electorate — but Sam Altman is already there. From his ChatGPT AI bot studying humans to become more life-like each day to his crypto project Worldcoin scanning eyeballs across the world, his companies likely have a much deeper perspective on how voters tick than even the most veteran pollsters. The tech billionaire also has similar skills as Newsom that may come in handy: Like the current governor, he survived a rare ouster attempt, making a swift comeback after a brief boardroom removal.
And it would help notch another win in his rivalry with former business partner Elon Musk. Temporary role in the White House? How about a four-year term running the world's fourth largest economy? Plus there's no other surefire way to ensure your AI model secures more government contracts and widespread use. And lest you think this is some kind of pipedream: Altman flirted with a run for governor in 2018, before backing away and pledging to back a slate of candidates for office. — Emma Anderson, POLITICO California tech editor
Steve Kerr
Gold State Warriors coach
There's one potential chief executive far from the Hollywood glitterati who embodies many if not most of the qualities essential to the job: Steve Kerr, coach of the Golden State Warriors for the last 12 years. He comes with a long history of winning: five rings as an NBA player, a record as the most proficient three-point shooter of his generation, four championships with the Warriors and an Olympic gold medal. But what makes Kerr a worthy candidate extends far beyond the basketball court.
Public service is in his blood. His grandfather volunteered to aid victims of the Armenian genocide. His father and mother were both middle eastern specialists, and he spent years living in Lebanon, Egypt and other countries in the region. His father served as president of the American University in Beirut, where he was assassinated in 1984 by members of the Islamic Jihad. Kerr himself does not shy away from confronting the realities of the world: After the horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Kerr devoted a post-game press conference to a wrenching plea for action. Plus, his ability to deal with the confounding mix of talent and combustive temper that is Draymond Green alone suggests the capacity to handle Nobel Peace Prize-winning negotiations. If Democrats want a candidate who is far from the stultified world of party politics, who is comfortable with newer forms of communication and who brings a sense of calm, patient leadership to his work, they would be hard-pressed to find a better choice. And before you scoff at his work credentials remember: Tommy Tuberville, former head football coach at Auburn University, is a U.S. Senator. — Jeff Greenfield, television journalist and author
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I tested ChatGPT-5 Study mode vs Claude Learning mode with 7 prompts — and there's a clear winner
I tested ChatGPT-5 Study mode vs Claude Learning mode with 7 prompts — and there's a clear winner

Tom's Guide

timea minute ago

  • Tom's Guide

I tested ChatGPT-5 Study mode vs Claude Learning mode with 7 prompts — and there's a clear winner

As a lifelong learner who is constantly challenging myself, I have found ChatGPT's Study mode and Claude's learning modes are perfect companions for students of all levels and abilities. Current students and those who want to continue their education can benefit from these features because they help grow skills by leaning on AI as a what happened when I put the latest study features from OpenAI and Anthropic to the test with 7 prompts. I kept them fairly easy (high school level) to keep from dusting off the old textbooks in the attic. One thing is clear, these learning modes are very different. Prompt: 'I'm learning how to calculate the standard deviation of a dataset. Teach me step-by-step, ask me questions along the way, and only reveal the final answer when I'm ready.'GPT-5 understood the prompt fully and the model immediately engaged me in the first calculation step (finding the mean) with a specific question and using a provided dataset. This perfectly set up the sequential, interactive learning experience demonstrated the ability to teach by building conceptual understanding first and focused on preliminary discussion and abstract questions before starting any GPT-5 wins for an overall better answer for this specific prompt. It started teaching the calculation method step-by-step immediately, asking a relevant question during that step, and withheld the final answer (standard deviation) as required. Claude's approach, though instructionally sound in a broader sense, didn't prioritize the step-by-step calculation process the user requested. Prompt: "Walk me through the key causes of the Great Depression, asking me to connect each cause to its economic impact before moving to the next step.' GPT-5 dove right into the first cause and forced me to connect it to its impact, just as the prompt requested. Claude acknowledged right away that we were switching subjects, but the follow up questions might be better used in a broader tutoring context. They ignored the prompt's specific directive to walk through causes immediately and demand connections before proceeding. For me, this felt like it interrupted flow compared to GPT's action oriented and structured GPT-5 wins for an action-oriented and structured response that executed the prompt's instructions precisely. Prompt: 'I have an idea for a science fair project testing if music affects plant growth. Guide me through designing the experiment, asking me questions about controls, variables, and how I'd collect data.' GPT-5 broke down the prompt by asking just one primary question. It let me know that we would be working together building the project piece by asked several questions to help move the idea along. However, all the questions at once felt a little GPT-5 wins for directly addressing the prompt, starting the experimental design process immediately and asking a precise, necessary question one at a time. Claude's response, while friendly, focused on preliminaries and didn't effectively guide me through the core experimental design and overwhelmed with way too many questions out of the gate. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Prompt: "Help me learn 10 essential travel phrases in French. Introduce them one by one, ask me to repeat them, quiz me, and correct my pronunciation.'GPT-5 assumed I was a beginner and told me that we were going was overly verbose, praising me for learning practical and rewarding skills. It then asked several questions before getting started. I appreciated the initial setup as the AI wanted to target my skills (or lack thereof) before beginning. Winner: GPT-5 wins for diving into the task without excess comment. It understood the context, assuming that because I was asking for 10 essential travel phrases that I was a beginner. Claude didn't assume and instead overloaded me with questions. For me, GPT-5's approach was better because I just wanted to get started. Others may prefer extra hand-holding when learning a language, and prefer Claude's approach. Prompt:'Here's a short JavaScript function that isn't returning the correct output. Teach me how to debug it step-by-step without giving me the fix right away.'GPT-5 treated me like a developer needing action. As someone who learns by doing, I prefer this assumed I was a student who needed theory. Basically asking me to tell me about myself before beginning to debug. Winner: GPT-5 wins for delivering a focused, actionable first step that launches the debugging process. Claude's response would be ideal for "Explain debugging concepts," but fails this prompt's call to immediate action. Prompt: 'I'm studying for a high school physics exam. Give me one question on Newton's Second Law, let me attempt an answer, then guide me through the correct solution.'GPT-5 understood the assignment, acting like a practice test and starting to drill me acted like a first-day tutor: Prioritizes diagnostics over GPT-5 wins for following the prompt. The prompt demands practice, not customization. Claude's approach would be ideal for: "Help me understand Newton's Second Law from scratch." But for exam prep, GPT's structure is objectively superior. Prompt:'Coach me through creating a monthly household budget. Ask me about my expenses, income, and goals, then guide me in building a spreadsheet without just handing me a finished template.'GPT-5 started gathering essential budget data in less than 15 consumed 150+ words without collecting a single budget GPT-5 wins for delivering actionable, prompt-aligned coaching. Claude's approach suits "Discuss budgeting mindsets," but fails this prompt's call for immediate, concrete budget construction. After testing the same seven prompts with the two chatbots, one thing is clear: these tutors are not the same. And that's okay. No two teachers are the same and students learn in different ways. While I can declare a winner based on which one followed the prompts closest, it's ultimately up to the usesr/student to try the free chatbots to determine which teaching style they prefer. As I mentioned, I prefer active learning. The hands-on approach has always worked better for me, which is why I prefer GPT-5's teaching style. For someone who likes to spend more time on theory and learning through concepts, Claude might be recommendation is to give both of these capable bots a try and experience them for yourself interactively. The right study partner for you truly comes down to learning style and how you prefer to Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.

I was struggling with GPT-5's new Thinking mode — these 6 tweaks boosted my results
I was struggling with GPT-5's new Thinking mode — these 6 tweaks boosted my results

Tom's Guide

time2 hours ago

  • Tom's Guide

I was struggling with GPT-5's new Thinking mode — these 6 tweaks boosted my results

GPT-5 has brought with it a bunch of changes. But depending on whom you ask, these upgrades are either game-changing or a complete and utter flop. After all, there has been a GPT-5 backlash. Despite the raging war between ChatGPT fans, there is one feature that I think everyone can agree on: deep research is a game changer. GPT-5, according to OpenAI, sees a major boost to research with GPT-5 thinking mode. Not only is it smarter, but it's also more efficient, spending less time researching for just as good, if not better, responses. These days, you can be pretty specific with what you ask a chatbot, and can give it a huge number of tasks all at once. If you're new to ChatGPT, or trying to wrap your head around how best to use GPT-5, here are some tips to get started on the model's thinking Mode. There are two versions of GPT-5 thinking. Which one you choose depends on how much information you need and how long you want to wait. GPT-5 thinking is useful when you want as much information as possible, and you want the model to be absolutely correct in its decision. It takes time to search the internet, look through sources, and, where needed, use other tools to support its response. So why not use this mode every time? Taking the time to think deeply about an answer can be time-consuming. I've had the model take 10-15 minutes plus to work through a prompt to get the correct answer, and if you're asking a fairly simple question, all of that effort isn't needed. This is where GPT-5 thinking mini comes in. OpenAI describes it as a model that 'thinks quickly'. In other words, it will put in some thought, searching sources and contemplating its response, but it is trying to do it on a quicker deadline. It might not be as detailed, but it will be faster. One of the big updates that was brought in with GPT-5 was the new Auto mode. When this is used, ChatGPT will decide on its own which model is best based on your prompt. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. This can be useful day-to-day when you're just asking ChatGPT random questions, but it doesn't always accurately make the switch. If you know you want to do some deep research, make sure to choose on of the thinking modes available. Your initial prompt is the best time to layout of all of your parameters. You need to obviously make your request itself, but here you can help to get a better response by laying out some rules. State the end result that you are hoping to receive and give ChatGPT a clear goal. If you simply ask for a report on the state of AI, it will make its own decisions on what that includes. Expanding on this can be helpful in better hitting your goal. Explaining what the report is for and what you want it to include will drastically improve your end result. You can also ask it to provide you with a step-by-step of its plan before proceeding. This allows you to see what it is about to do and make changes if you're unhappy with its planned route. Sometimes, it can be helpful to include prompts that may seem counterintuitive. For example, asking ChatGPT to include a small 250 word argument attempting to disprove a research project. I have found that, when trying to use the thinking mode to learn a new subject or digest a lot of information, it can be useful to have it provide a short creative writing explanation of the subject. Before prompting, think what you need to know and what the best way to understand that might be. Equally, don't be afraid to take advantage of the model's coding and image generation abilities. These can be used to provide visual explanations for your prompt. Yes, you're using a mode called thinking, but sometimes ChatGPT doesn't think enough. It can be useful to give it small nudges in your initial prompt to help guide its actions. For example, saying, 'Think hard about this' or, 'Once you have come to a conclusion, reflect on your answer before responding." It might feel like weird things to say, but it helps highlight to ChatGPT that you're prioritizing a detailed and accurate response over something quick. It can be a good idea to split your requests into stages that might cause complications. For example, if you want a research report and a coded website that shows the information in the report, ask for the report first, and then for ChatGPT to code a website to display everything it has researched after. Normally, if you take the time with your first prompt, it should be pretty close. This final stage can be to ask follow up questions or correct the model if it has misunderstood something that you asked. Don't be afraid to follow up with ChatGPT. If your first prompt doesn't yield the response you wanted, ask for changes until you're satisfied with the results. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.

OpenAI employees to sell $6B of shares to SoftBank, others, Bloomberg says
OpenAI employees to sell $6B of shares to SoftBank, others, Bloomberg says

Business Insider

time3 hours ago

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OpenAI employees to sell $6B of shares to SoftBank, others, Bloomberg says

Current and former staff of Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI intend to sell roughly $6B worth of stock to an investor group comprised of Thrive Capital, Dragoneer Investment, and SoftBank (SFTBY), in a deal that values OpenAI at $500B, Bloomberg's Kate Clark reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The discussions are early an the size of the sale could potentially change, the author notes. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Published first on TheFly – the ultimate source for real-time, market-moving breaking financial news. Try Now>>

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