Latest news with #Pollak
Hindustan Times
13-08-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
OpenAI's Rocky GPT-5 Rollout Shows Struggle to Remain Undisputed AI Leader
OpenAI's newest AI model , GPT-5, was supposed to cement the startup's status as the undisputed leader in the AI race. Instead, it has had a tumultuous public launch, frustrating users and prompting Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman to respond. Users have flooded social media with embarrassing examples of how the chatbot failed to answer simple math questions or accurately draw a map of North America. Others have criticized its colder tone, reminiscing about older models that OpenAI initially killed off. A new limit of 200 questions a week rankled devotees. Altman on Tuesday promised to imbue GPT-5 with a 'warmer personality,' restored a popular model after OpenAI declared it to be obsolete and introduced the capability for users to decide which kind of query they want to make. The company has learned how much users expect customization, he said in a post on X. Computing capacity has been a concern during the rollout, prompting the company to re-evaluate which users are priorities. The turbulence shows the challenge OpenAI has in selling 700 million active weekly users on new models while being constantly short on computing power, which is expensive and scarce. The rollout comes at a delicate moment for OpenAI, which is struggling to keep its lead among rivals who are aggressively going after its talent and pouring billions of dollars into AI research. Competitors such as Anthropic's Claude have surged in popularity among coders and business users. Whether GPT-5 will enable OpenAI to win over such customers remains to be seen. 'We expected some bumpiness as we roll out so many things at once,' he said earlier on X. 'But it was a little more bumpy than we hoped for!' When GPT-5 was released last week, Jason Pollak, a digital-marketing specialist based in Atlanta, was excited and thought it would be a perfect expansion from GPT-4. Instead, the model feels 'bland, generic' and less like a creative thinking partner, Pollak said. Pollak pays for ChatGPT and uses it regularly to work on copy, analyze data or create custom tools. The transition from GPT-4 to GPT-5 has been frustrating, he said. 'It feels like they took the Ph.D. thing a little too seriously to prove how smart it would be,' he said. GPT-5's release came after a two-year wait in which it experienced a series of delays and setbacks, leading to speculation that either the AI startup had lost its edge or that AI development was more broadly hitting a wall. Altman dismissed those concerns on a call with reporters last week, saying the startup had found new breakthroughs. Juliette Haas, an account-strategy coordinator at a communications and crisis-management agency, primarily uses the paid version of ChatGPT for brainstorming and to complete administrative tasks such as creating a to-do list. With the release of GPT-5, she decided to revisit a business-development prompt to figure out which companies or individuals at her firm would require her support. With GPT-4, the response suggested that she build strong industry connections and emphasized the importance of relationship building. GPT-5 delivered a checklist. 'The AI treated finding distressed companies more like a data-science problem rather than understanding the fundamental considerations of relationships and timing,' said Haas. She finds that GPT-5 doesn't understand context and subtext as much as GPT-4 did, and GPT-5 delivers more 'data-driven solutions.' Jim Marsh, founder of JMC Strategic Intelligence, a consulting firm, uses the premium version of ChatGPT and has been a user since 2022. He said he is impressed with the results of GPT-5, finding that it was able to build a database of his contacts without many errors. The industry has reached a point in AI innovation where 'every release isn't going to be a magic trick,' which is perhaps why there is so much criticism about the newest model, he said. 'There's still this expectation that AI is going to quickly do more for us without us needing to be involved, and that's generally a false belief,' he said. Write to Ann-Marie Alcántara at and Berber Jin at
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Court orders police officers to compensate demonstrators for use of excessive force
The ruling followed a civil lawsuit filed by the two demonstrators, who alleged they were assaulted during a protest in Caesarea. The commander of the Hadera police station, Chief-Superintendent Amit Pollak, and the commander of the Special Patrol Unit, Senior-Staff-Sergeant Major Eran Keslassi, have been ordered to compensate two demonstrators in a sum totaling NIS 30,000, the Hadera Magistrate's Court ruled on Wednesday. The ruling followed a civil lawsuit filed by the demonstrators, who alleged they were assaulted during aprotest in Caesarea. The lawsuit proceeded after the State Attorney's Office waived the officers' immunity following a recommendation by Judge Yaakov Goldberg. According to the ruling, Pollak, Keslassi, and the Israel Police are to pay NIS 30,000 to the demonstrators and to attorney Adam Seri, who represented them through the protest detainees' support network. The claim also noted that the police and the Interior Ministry failed to cooperate with Seri and withheld the officers' details, complicating the filing of the lawsuit. Last week, the Police Investigation Department (PID) filed an indictment against Pollak for allegedly assaulting another citizen during a separate event in Caesarea and for obstruction of justice. The indictment states that Pollak ordered the forced removal of a truck carrying a political display, allegedly assaulted one of the demonstrators by grabbing his neck, and ordered the officers to arrest him. The incident occurred in December 2023 near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence inCaesarea. The demonstrators — Dganit Schatz, 62, of Hadera, and David Masad, 73, of Kibbutz Ma'ayan Zvi — claimed they were arrested without justification and held in custody for many hours, in violation of their constitutional rights. Schatz alleged that Pollak pushed her forcefully and yelled, 'You won't tell me 'shame,'' before instructing officers to arrest her. According to Schatz, Pollak ordered the officers to arrest her without explanation. They allegedly forced her to the ground, grabbed her by all four limbs, and carried her into the patrol car 'like an object' in front of other demonstrators, humiliating her. The claim also states that when defense attorney Orit Shalev tried to consult with Schatz privately, the officers refused and threatened to arrest the lawyer. Schatz was later questioned over offenses she claimed she did not commit, and she alleged that false accusations were made against her. She subsequently filed a complaint with the PID. Masad, who was standing on the sidewalk and witnessed Schatz's arrest, claimed he was pushed by Keslassi after he protested the incident. He was later arrested, held at the station for about an hour and a half, and questioned on what he called false suspicions. The officers argued that they acted lawfully and arrested thedemonstrators after they themselves allegedly acted violently. Schatz and Masad denied the allegations. During a pretrial hearing, Goldberg reviewed video footage of the incident before ruling that Pollak, Keslassi, and the Israel Police must pay compensation. A statement from the protest detainees' support network said: 'For the sake of clarity, the legal fees will be donated to the detainees' support network. It's delightful that the Israel Police and its officers are contributing to our donations.'
Business Mayor
26-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Decoding Base's upgrade plan: Is it ready to take on Ethereum?
Base's TVL surged to $4 billion with upgrades for faster transactions, lower fees, and decentralization. Base challenges Ethereum's scalability with ambitious performance upgrades and decentralization plans, eyeing L2 dominance. Base is stepping up. With its TVL climbing back to late-2024 highs, the Coinbase-backed Layer 2 is launching key upgrades to reduce fees, speed up transactions, and decentralize its infrastructure on Ethereum's mainnet. However, with Ethereum still facing scalability challenges, the real question is—can Base transition from a fast follower to a dominant Layer 2 player? Base's bold vision for the future Jesse Pollak's latest X post sketched a performance roadmap for Base: sub-200 millisecond confirmation times, fees under a cent, and output at 200 transactions per second. Source: X But it's not just about speed, seems like. Pollak emphasized neutrality – eliminating sandwich attacks and giving builders fair execution – alongside plans to decentralize core infrastructure in two stages. When asked if Base could ever hit 1 million TPS, his one-word reply – yes – wasn't framed as a joke. TVL rebounds – but can momentum stick? Base's rapid ascent As of May 2025, Base has emerged as a formidable player in the Layer 2 landscape. This growth positions Base ahead of competitors like Arbitrum [ARB] and Optimism [OP] in terms of TVL and daily transaction volumes. Ethereumm[ETH] isn't standing still. The recent Pectra upgrade brought moderate gains in scalability – boosting blob output and nudging smart contract wallet usability forward. Read More PEPE prices up 12% from this support level – Is it all good news? Further down the roadmap, the Fusaka upgrade promises more technical muscle through PeerDAS and Verkle Trees, targeting data availability and state size concerns. Base, on the other hand, is moving faster. With shorter confirmation times, cheaper fees, and a push toward decentralizing core operations, it's making a case for near-term dominance in the L2 arena. READ SOURCE
Forbes
30-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Controversies Around Zora And Base, Explained
Tokenized content concept Jesse Pollak, the CEO of Base, has been saying for weeks: 'coin everything." And it couldn't get away without facing a mixed response, especially after the incident involving a screenshot of a conversation on Hinge. What started as a joke referring to Pollak's viral video 'Do you want to go onchain?', opened a Pandora's box of comments protecting the woman's image of a person. While the X post has been deleted, the bad aftertaste will be left onchain. At the epicenter of this controversy is Zora–a decentralized platform for publishing and monetizing digital content, which emerged as a central part of Base's strategy to build a vibrant onchain creator ecosystem. That vision was quickly tested on April 16, 2025, when the 'Base is for everyone' meme token launched through Zora collapsed by 95% shortly after its release, wiping out millions of dollars in value. As reported by insider wallets were heavily involved, raising concerns regarding transparency. Although Base later attempted to distance itself from the project, the damage to public perception had already been done. Zora's reputation continued to face pressure with the rollout of content coins, intended to offer a fungible, creator-driven alternative to NFTs. The example of tokenization of a Hinge conversation trivialized the concept, reinforcing public doubts. Many users failed to see a distinction between content coins and traditional NFTs; Zora's communication strategy did little to clarify this confusion, leaving the platform vulnerable to criticism that it was simply repackaging speculative assets. Since then, Zora has managed to regain activity, largely driven by an airdrop program that has quickly become a meme in its own right. Most memes depict the high hopes users had for their $ZORA airdrop and the disappointment they felt once the actual rewards arrived. While the tone is light, the meme reflects a real tension: users are engaging, but not always because they believe in the long-term vision. Furthermore, airdrops often serve as a quick fix, which can also be related to the concept of token burn, driving short-term attention rather than durable, sustained growth. Of course, that is one strong perspective; others might see these early incentives as necessary experiments to bootstrap new forms of creator economies. Still, the challenge of content coins leaning heavily on airdrop farming is valid, although people are now getting paid. There is limited evidence of sustained demand rooted in the actual value of tokenized content. While creator payouts have increased, they may reflect a temporary reward loop rather than long-term viability. From a durability perspective, Zora must demonstrate that these tokens can carry cultural or utility-based weight and survive in the competitive attention economy. Especially if what people are dealing with are content coins being called 'rebranded NFTs'. Even though the sentiment has greatly improved and crypto feeds are now filled with people being paid for their posts, the time will verify Zora, similarly to how we could observe the coming and going trends around Mirror or Lens Protocol.
Business Mayor
28-04-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Base Network Expands Access for SVM Builders: New Opportunities for Crypto Traders in 2025
The recent statement from Jesse Pollak, a prominent figure in the Base ecosystem, on April 28, 2025, at 10:15 AM UTC, has sparked significant interest in the cryptocurrency community. Pollak's tweet, stating 'Base is for everyone — including SVM builders, love seeing this kind of experimentation,' highlights the inclusive nature of Base, a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, and its openness to innovative technologies like Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) builders (Source: Twitter, @jessepollak, April 28, 2025). This development signals potential cross-chain collaboration and experimentation, which could impact trading dynamics for Base-related tokens and broader layer-2 solutions. As of April 28, 2025, at 12:00 PM UTC, the price of Ethereum (ETH), closely tied to layer-2 solutions like Base, saw a modest increase of 1.2% within 24 hours, reaching $3,250 on Binance (Source: Binance Market Data, April 28, 2025). Trading volume for ETH spiked by 8.5% during the same period, with over $12.3 billion in transactions recorded across major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase (Source: CoinGecko, April 28, 2025). This uptick suggests growing market interest in Ethereum-related projects following Pollak's statement. Additionally, on-chain data from Dune Analytics shows a 15% increase in Base network transactions, reaching 1.2 million daily transactions as of April 28, 2025, at 1:00 PM UTC (Source: Dune Analytics, April 28, 2025). This surge indicates heightened user activity, potentially driven by the buzz around Base's inclusive approach to developers and builders, including those from competing ecosystems like Solana. For traders, this event could mark the beginning of a bullish sentiment for layer-2 tokens and Ethereum-based assets, especially as cross-chain interoperability becomes a trending topic in the crypto space. Keywords like 'Base layer-2 solution trading,' 'Ethereum layer-2 price analysis,' and 'cross-chain crypto opportunities' are essential for understanding this market shift. The trading implications of Base's openness to SVM builders are multifaceted and worth close attention. As of April 28, 2025, at 2:00 PM UTC, the ETH/BTC trading pair on Binance reflected a 0.8% gain, with ETH trading at 0.052 BTC, indicating relative strength against Bitcoin during this news cycle (Source: Binance Trading Data, April 28, 2025). For layer-2 specific tokens, such as Optimism (OP) and Arbitrum (ARB), which are often correlated with Base's developments, prices saw gains of 2.3% and 1.9%, respectively, within the same 24-hour period, with OP at $2.15 and ARB at $1.08 (Source: CoinMarketCap, April 28, 2025). Trading volumes for these tokens also rose significantly, with OP recording a 12% increase to $180 million and ARB a 10% increase to $210 million as of April 28, 2025, at 3:00 PM UTC (Source: CoinGecko, April 28, 2025). This suggests that traders are positioning themselves for potential growth in the layer-2 sector, driven by Base's inclusive narrative. On-chain metrics further support this trend, with Base's Total Value Locked (TVL) increasing by 7% to $5.8 billion as of April 28, 2025, at 4:00 PM UTC (Source: DeFiLlama, April 28, 2025). For traders, this presents opportunities in swing trading ETH and layer-2 tokens, particularly as market sentiment shifts toward interoperability and innovation. The correlation between Base's developments and AI-related tokens, such as (FET), is also noteworthy, as AI-driven trading algorithms could capitalize on cross-chain experimentation news. FET saw a 1.5% price increase to $0.75 on April 28, 2025, at 5:00 PM UTC, with a trading volume up by 9% to $95 million (Source: CoinMarketCap, April 28, 2025). This indicates that AI-crypto crossover trading opportunities may emerge as developers leverage AI tools for Base and SVM integrations. From a technical analysis perspective, key indicators provide deeper insights into potential trading setups. As of April 28, 2025, at 6:00 PM UTC, ETH's Relative Strength Index (RSI) on the 4-hour chart stood at 58, signaling a neutral-to-bullish momentum without overbought conditions (Source: TradingView, April 28, 2025). The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) for ETH also showed a bullish crossover, with the signal line crossing above the MACD line at 6:30 PM UTC on the same day (Source: TradingView, April 28, 2025). For Base-related metrics, while direct token data isn't available, the ETH/USDT pair on Binance recorded a 24-hour high of $3,280 at 7:00 PM UTC, with support forming at $3,200 (Source: Binance Chart Data, April 28, 2025). Volume analysis reveals that ETH's trading activity peaked at $1.5 billion in a single hour at 8:00 PM UTC on April 28, 2025, reflecting strong market participation post-news (Source: CoinGlass, April 28, 2025). For AI-related tokens like FET, the RSI hovered at 55 on the daily chart as of 9:00 PM UTC, indicating room for upward movement (Source: TradingView, April 28, 2025). The correlation between AI developments and crypto markets is evident as AI-driven trading bots and analytics platforms may drive volume in layer-2 solutions like Base. Traders should monitor FET/ETH and FET/BTC pairs, which saw volume increases of 6% and 5%, respectively, reaching $10 million and $8 million on April 28, 2025, at 10:00 PM UTC (Source: CoinGecko, April 28, 2025). This detailed analysis underscores the potential for strategic trades in both layer-2 and AI-crypto sectors, leveraging Base's inclusive approach as a catalyst for market sentiment. For those searching 'best layer-2 crypto trading strategies' or 'AI crypto trading opportunities 2025,' these data points offer actionable insights. Read More Layer 1 payments network CrossFi launches EVM-compatible mainnet FAQ Section:What does Base's openness to SVM builders mean for crypto traders? Base's inclusive stance, as announced by Jesse Pollak on April 28, 2025, suggests potential cross-chain collaborations, which could drive price and volume increases for layer-2 tokens and Ethereum. Traders can explore opportunities in ETH, OP, and ARB, with volumes already up by 8.5%, 12%, and 10%, respectively, as of April 28, 2025 (Source: CoinGecko, April 28, 2025). How are AI tokens impacted by Base's developments? AI tokens like (FET) have shown a 1.5% price increase to $0.75 as of April 28, 2025, at 5:00 PM UTC, with a 9% volume spike, indicating potential crossover opportunities as AI tools may enhance Base and SVM integrations (Source: CoinMarketCap, April 28, 2025). READ SOURCE businessmayor April 28, 2025
