Latest news with #chatbot
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Sam Altman just teased GPT-5 with one question — and the answer says it all
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. GPT-5 is coming and the anticipation of OpenAI's latest and most sophisticated model is building. But it's a recent X post from OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, showcasing the model's sophistication, that is raising eybrows across the AI world. Altman prompted the chatbot by asking "What is the most thought-provoking show about AI?" From there, the chatbot delivered a breakdown that felt more advanced than what users typically see from GPT-4. That alone, followed by Altman's response to a user, confirmed Altman was quietly giving us a preview of GPT-5. The depth of the reply, and the fact that he shared it at all, strongly suggest that we might be seeing ChatGPT-5 any day now. This preview lines up with reports that OpenAI is preparing to launch GPT-5 as early as mid-August 2025. According to OpenAI insiders, GPT-5 is expected to include: A unified architecture combining GPT and o-series (like o3) intelligence More advanced reasoning, memory, and multimodal capabilities Tiered access: Free, Plus, and Pro versions with increasing capability A stronger push toward autonomous agent behavior Altman himself confirmed that GPT-5 has been deeply helpful in his personal workflow. Speaking on comedian Theo Von's podcast 'This Past Weekend,' Altman shared that the model effortlessly handled a tough email he'd been putting off: 'I felt like I was useless… but the AI just did it like that.' Even OpenAI's CEO has concerns Despite the excitement, Altman has voiced concerns about the model's power and potential. In the same podcast, Altman candidly compared GPT‑5's development pace to the Manhattan Project and admitted feeling unnerved by the model's power. He also posted on X warning users to "bear with us through some probable hiccups and capacity crunches" as OpenAI prepares to scale its infrastructure for the upcoming release. Why the Pantheon prompt matters Altman's TV prompt revealed something deeper. The fluid, context-rich response felt eerily human. It was a reminder of how close these models are getting to understanding cultural nuance, emotional weight and moral gray areas. And if that was GPT-5 in action, it's a preview of an assistant that doesn't just answer, but thinks. What it means for ChatGPT users It's clear that users can expect a major upgrade in how ChatGPT handles complex tasks, long conversations, creative prompts and real-world decision-making. This aligns with OpenAI's broader push toward more agentic AI; tools that do more than respond to commands, but proactively help users accomplish goals across apps, files and the web. That evolution may explain recent updates to features like Study Mode, ChatGPT Agent and custom GPTs, all of which could soon feel much smarter with a new model under the hood. Final thoughts Sam Altman didn't explicitly say 'GPT-5 is here.' But the prompt he shared, the model's response and his recent comments all suggest OpenAI is nearing its next major leap. And if that was GPT-5 recommending TV shows, crafting emails and drawing philosophical parallels, it's no wonder even Altman sounds a little nervous. 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. More from Tom's Guide OpenAI just pulled a controversial ChatGPT feature — what you need to know I test AI for a living — here's what I tell ChatGPT (and what I never will) Anthropic pulls OpenAI's access to Claude — here's why
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
What Is Grok AI? Elon Musk's Controversial ChatGPT Rival
Created to be a more irreverent, politically incorrect, and 'truthful' AI, Grok is Elon Musk's frequently controversial answer to ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI—the company he co-founded in 2015. Who Created Grok AI? Launched in 2023, Grok was developed by xAI, Elon Musk's rival to AI powerhouse OpenAI. Since its release, Grok has been integrated into X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Grok is not just another chatbot—it's designed to be snarky, opinionated, and responsive to real-time news and public sentiment. Musk first announced plans for a ChatGPT rival in April 2023. Then called TruthGPT, the chatbot was intended as the antithesis of what he labeled 'woke' AI, referring to the political filters imposed by OpenAI, Meta, Google, and Anthropic. Key Features of Grok 📊 Real-time data access: Delivers updates on trending topics and breaking news from X. 🖼️ Image generation: Creates realistic visuals from user prompts. 📄 Document summarization: Condenses long texts for easier reading. 🕵️ Fact-checking: Verifies claims using live data from X. 🤡 Dual modes: Switches between playful 'Fun Mode' and professional 'Regular Mode.' 👨💻 Coding assistance: Generates and debugs code. Timeline of xAI and Grok April 2023: Elon Musk announces TruthGPT on Tucker Carlson Tonight, signaling the beginning of the project. November 2023: Grok is publicly launched, marking its entry as a competitor to models like ChatGPT. March 2024: Grok-1 is open-sourced under the Apache-2.0 license, promoting transparency and encouraging community development. May 2024: Grok-1.5 is released, offering enhanced features for X Premium users, and expanding accessibility. August 2024: Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini are announced, introducing new versions with improved capabilities in chat, image generation, coding, and reasoning. February 2025: Grok 3 is released, trained on xAI's Colossus supercomputer. March 2025: Musk folds X into xAI in an all-stock transaction. July 2025: Musk launches Grok 4, calling it 'terrifying' and 'remarkable' at launch. Grok 4 Basic Review: $30 a Month for This? Elon Musk's AI Now Thinks Like Him A History of Controversy In May 2025, some right-leaning users complained that Grok had 'gone woke' after it contradicted conservative talking points. Later that month, reports surfaced that Grok inserted 'white genocide' claims into unrelated prompts. xAI blamed the issue on a rogue employee. Two months later, in July—just before the launch of Grok 4—the chatbot again drew criticism for a wave of racist and homophobic outputs. The 'MechaHitler meltdown' led to the resignation of X CEO Linda Yaccarino. Just a month later, Grok hit the headlines again, after xAI released the Grok Imagine video generator with a 'spicy' preset that enabled users to generate nude or sexually suggestive clips. Upon launch, reporters discovered that the tool generated images of a Taylor Swift lookalike undressing, without having been prompted to do so—seemingly sidestepping AI's own policy on pornographic deepfakes. Elon Musk's xAI Tool Made Nude Deepfakes of Taylor Swift, Bypassing Its Own Rules How Much Does Grok Cost? Grok is free to use through the xAI website, but full access requires a subscription. X offers several subscription tiers, ranging from basic access to premium services with expanded features. X Premium includes three tiers: Basic: $3 per month or $32 per year. Includes post-editing, longer posts, and bookmarks. Premium: $8 per month or $84 per year. Adds a blue checkmark (after review), fewer ads, and monetization tools. Premium+: $40 per month or $395 per year. Removes ads, boosts reply visibility, and adds tools like Radar Search and Articles. The Future of Grok Grok's fast-paced evolution highlights Musk's drive to redefine the AI space and take on OpenAI's dominance. However, mounting criticism over its tone, accuracy, and controversies like the 'MechaHitler' incident could yet derail Grok's ambitions, limiting its appeal to mainstream consumers. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
ChatGPT adds mental health guardrails after reports of bot feeding people's delusions
ChatGPT has added new mental health guardrails after reports of the bot feeding people's delusions. The artificial intelligence software has changed the way humans interact with computers. And while the chatbot can give helpful advice for day-to-day problems, there are concerns about people growing too attached to the technology and improperly using it for deeper mental health issues. The Independent recently reported on how ChatGPT is pushing people towards mania, psychosis and death, citing a study published in April in which researchers warned people using chatbots when exhibiting signs of severe crises, risk receiving 'dangerous or inappropriate' responses that can escalate a mental health or psychotic episode. In a post on its website Monday, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, admitted, 'We don't always get it right.' 'Earlier this year, an update made the [4o] model too agreeable, sometimes saying what sounded nice instead of what was actually helpful,' the AI company said. OpenAI has since rolled back the update and made some changes to appropriately help users who are struggling with mental health issues. Starting Monday, ChatGPT users who converse with the bot for an extended amount of time will receive 'gentle reminders' encouraging them to take a break, according to the post. OpenAI worked with more than 90 physicians in more than 30 countries 'to build custom rubrics for evaluating complex, multi-turn conversations,' the company said. The company admitted to rare instances where its 4o model 'fell short in recognizing signs of delusion or emotional dependency,' and said it's 'continuing to improve our models and are developing tools to better detect signs of mental or emotional distress so ChatGPT can respond appropriately and point people to evidence-based resources when needed.' Open AI said the bot should not give you an answer to a personal question, such as 'Should I break up with my boyfriend?' but rather help you come to your own realization by asking you questions and weighing the pros and cons. 'New behavior for high-stakes personal decisions is rolling out soon,' the company said. The Independent has reached out to OpenAI for more details. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
It shocked the market but has China's DeepSeek changed AI?
US President Donald Trump had been in office scarcely a week when a new Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app called DeepSeek jolted Silicon Valley. Overnight, DeepSeek-R1 shot to the top of the Apple charts as the most downloaded free app in the US. The firm said at the time its new chatbot rivalled ChatGPT. Not only that. They asserted it had cost a mere fraction to develop. Those claims – and the app's sudden surge in popularity – wiped $600bn (£446bn) or 17% off the market value of chip giant Nvidia, marking the largest one-day loss for a single stock in the history of the US stock market. Several other tech stocks with exposure to AI were caught in the downdraft, too. DeepSeek also cast doubt on American AI dominance. Up until then, China had been seen as having fallen behind the US. Now, it seemed as though China had catapulted to the forefront. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen referred to the arrival of DeepSeek-R1 as "AI's Sputnik moment," a reference to the Soviet satellite that had kicked off the space race between the US and the USSR more than a half century earlier. Still relevant It has now been six months since DeepSeek stunned the world. Today, China's breakthrough app has largely dropped out of the headlines. It's no longer the hot topic at happy hour here in San Francisco. But DeepSeek hasn't disappeared. DeepSeek challenged certain key assumptions about AI that had been championed by American executives like Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. "We were on a path where bigger was considered better," according to Sid Sheth, CEO of AI chip startup d-Matrix. Perhaps maxing out on data centres, servers, chips, and the electricity to run it all wasn't the way forward after all. Despite DeepSeek ostensibly not having access to the most powerful tech available at the time, Sheth told the BBC that it showed that "with smarter engineering, you actually can build a capable model". The surge of interest in DeepSeek took hold over a weekend in late January, before corporate IT personnel could move to stop employees from flocking to it. When organisations caught on the following Monday, many scrambled to ban workers from using the app as worries set in about whether user data was potentially being shared with the People's Republic of China, where DeepSeek is based. But while exact numbers aren't available, plenty of Americans still use DeepSeek today. Certain Silicon Valley start-ups have opted to stick with DeepSeek in lieu of more expensive AI models from US firms in a bid to cut down on costs. One investor told me for cash-strapped firms, funds saved by continuing to use DeepSeek are helping to pay for critical needs such as additional headcount. They are, however, being careful. In online forums, users explain how to run DeepSeek-R1 on their own devices rather than online using DeepSeek's servers in China - a workaround they believe can protect their data from being shared surreptitiously. "It's a good way to use the model without being concerned about what it's exfiltrating" to China, said Christopher Caen, CEO of Mill Pond Research. US-China rivalry DeepSeek's arrival also marked a turning point in the US-China AI rivalry, some experts say. "China was seen as playing catch-up in large language models until this point, with competitive models but always trailing the best western ones," policy analyst Wendy Chang of the Mercator Institute for China Studies told the BBC. A large language model (LLM) is a reasoning system trained to predict the next word in a given sentence or phrase. DeepSeek changed perceptions when it claimed to have achieved a leading model for a fraction of the computational resources and costs common among its American counterparts. OpenAI had spent $5bn (£3.7bn) in 2024 alone. By contrast, DeepSeek researchers said they had developed DeepSeek-R1 – which came out on top of OpenAI's o1 model across multiple benchmarks – for just $5.6m (£4.2m). "DeepSeek revealed the competitiveness of China's AI landscape to the world," Chang said. American AI developers have managed to capitalize on this shift. AI-related deals and other announcements trumpeted by the Trump administration and major American tech companies are often framed as critical to staying ahead of China. Trump's AI czar David Sacks noted the technology would have "profound ramifications for both the economy and national security" when the administration unveiled its AI Action Plan last month. "It's just very important that America continues to be the dominant power in AI," Sacks said. DeepSeek has never managed to quell concerns over the security implications of its Chinese origins. The US government has been assessing the company's links to Beijing, as first reported by Reuters in June. A senior US State Department official told the BBC they understood "DeepSeek has willingly provided, and will likely continue to provide, support to China's military and intelligence operations". DeepSeek did not respond to the BBC's request for comment but the company's privacy policy states that its servers are located in the People's Republic of China. "When you access our services, your Personal Data may be processed and stored in our servers in the People's Republic of China," the policy says. "This may be a direct provision of your Personal Data to us or a transfer that we or a third-party make." A new approach? Earlier this week, OpenAI reignited talk about DeepSeek after releasing a pair of AI models. These were the first free and open versions – meaning they can be downloaded and modified - released by the American AI giant in five years, well before ChatGPT ushered in the consumer AI era. "You can draw a straight line from DeepSeek to what OpenAI announced this week," said d-Matrix's Sheth. "DeepSeek proved that smaller, more efficient models could still deliver impressive performance—and that changed the industry's mindset," Sheth told the BBC. "What we're seeing now is the next wave of that thinking: a shift toward right-sized models that are faster, cheaper, and ready to deploy at scale." But to others, for the major American players in AI, the old approach appears to be alive and well. Just days after releasing the free models, OpenAI unveiled GPT-5. In the run-up, the company said it significantly ramped up its computing capacity and AI infrastructure. A slew of announcements about new data centre clusters needed for AI has come as American tech companies have been competing for top-tier AI talent. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has ploughed billions of dollars to fulfil his AI ambitions, and tried to lure staff from rivals with $100m pay packages. The fortunes of the tech giants seemed more tethered than ever to their commitment to AI spending, as evidenced by the series of blowout results revealed this past tech earnings season. Meanwhile, shares of Nvidia, which plunged just after DeepSeek's arrival, have rebounded – touching new highs that have made it the world's most valuable company in history. "The initial narrative has proven a bit of a red herring," said Mill Pond Research's Caen. We are back to a future in which AI will ostensibly depend on more data centres, more chips, and more power. In other words, DeepSeek's shake-up of the status quo hasn't lasted. And what about DeepSeek itself? "DeepSeek now faces challenges sustaining its momentum," said Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney. That's due in part to operational setbacks but also to intense competition from companies in the US and China, she said. Zhang notes that the company's next product, DeepSeek-R2, has reportedly been delayed. One reason? A shortage of high-end chips. More Weekend Picks North Korean hackers cash out hundreds of millions from $1.5bn ByBit hack Did a JD Vance meme get tourist banned from the US? Keep kids off Roblox if you're worried, its CEO tells parents Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
BBC News
a day ago
- Business
- BBC News
It shocked the US market but has China's DeepSeek changed AI?
US President Donald Trump had been in office scarcely a week when a new Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app called DeepSeek jolted Silicon DeepSeek-R1 shot to the top of the Apple charts as the most downloaded free app in the firm said at the time its new chatbot rivalled ChatGPT. Not only that. They asserted it had cost a mere fraction to claims – and the app's sudden surge in popularity – wiped $600bn (£446bn) or 17% off the market value of chip giant Nvidia, marking the largest one-day loss for a single stock in the history of the US stock other tech stocks with exposure to AI were caught in the downdraft, also cast doubt on American AI dominance. Up until then, China had been seen as having fallen behind the US. Now, it seemed as though China had catapulted to the capitalist Marc Andreessen referred to the arrival of DeepSeek-R1 as "AI's Sputnik moment," a reference to the Soviet satellite that had kicked off the space race between the US and the USSR more than a half century earlier. Still relevant It has now been six months since DeepSeek stunned the China's breakthrough app has largely dropped out of the headlines. It's no longer the hot topic at happy hour here in San Francisco. But DeepSeek hasn't challenged certain key assumptions about AI that had been championed by American executives like Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI."We were on a path where bigger was considered better," according to Sid Sheth, CEO of AI chip startup maxing out on data centres, servers, chips, and the electricity to run it all wasn't the way forward after DeepSeek ostensibly not having access to the most powerful tech available at the time, Sheth told the BBC that it showed that "with smarter engineering, you actually can build a capable model".The surge of interest in DeepSeek took hold over a weekend in late January, before corporate IT personnel could move to stop employees from flocking to organisations caught on the following Monday, many scrambled to ban workers from using the app as worries set in about whether user data was potentially being shared with the People's Republic of China, where DeepSeek is while exact numbers aren't available, plenty of Americans still use DeepSeek Silicon Valley start-ups have opted to stick with DeepSeek in lieu of more expensive AI models from US firms in a bid to cut down on investor told me for cash-strapped firms, funds saved by continuing to use DeepSeek are helping to pay for critical needs such as additional headcount. They are, however, being careful. In online forums, users explain how to run DeepSeek-R1 on their own devices rather than online using DeepSeek's servers in China - a workaround they believe can protect their data from being shared surreptitiously."It's a good way to use the model without being concerned about what it's exfiltrating" to China, said Christopher Caen, CEO of Mill Pond Research. US-China rivalry DeepSeek's arrival also marked a turning point in the US-China AI rivalry, some experts say. "China was seen as playing catch-up in large language models until this point, with competitive models but always trailing the best western ones," policy analyst Wendy Chang of the Mercator Institute for China Studies told the BBC.A large language model (LLM) is a reasoning system trained to predict the next word in a given sentence or phrase. DeepSeek changed perceptions when it claimed to have achieved a leading model for a fraction of the computational resources and costs common among its American had spent $5bn (£3.7bn) in 2024 alone. By contrast, DeepSeek researchers said they had developed DeepSeek-R1 – which came out on top of OpenAI's o1 model across multiple benchmarks – for just $5.6m (£4.2m). "DeepSeek revealed the competitiveness of China's AI landscape to the world," Chang AI developers have managed to capitalize on this shift. AI-related deals and other announcements trumpeted by the Trump administration and major American tech companies are often framed as critical to staying ahead of AI czar David Sacks noted the technology would have "profound ramifications for both the economy and national security" when the administration unveiled its AI Action Plan last month."It's just very important that America continues to be the dominant power in AI," Sacks has never managed to quell concerns over the security implications of its Chinese US government has been assessing the company's links to Beijing, as first reported by Reuters in June.A senior US State Department official told the BBC they understood "DeepSeek has willingly provided, and will likely continue to provide, support to China's military and intelligence operations".DeepSeek did not respond to the BBC's request for comment but the company's privacy policy states that its servers are located in the People's Republic of China."When you access our services, your Personal Data may be processed and stored in our servers in the People's Republic of China," the policy says. "This may be a direct provision of your Personal Data to us or a transfer that we or a third-party make." A new approach? Earlier this week, OpenAI reignited talk about DeepSeek after releasing a pair of AI were the first free and open versions – meaning they can be downloaded and modified - released by the American AI giant in five years, well before ChatGPT ushered in the consumer AI era."You can draw a straight line from DeepSeek to what OpenAI announced this week," said d-Matrix's Sheth. "DeepSeek proved that smaller, more efficient models could still deliver impressive performance—and that changed the industry's mindset," Sheth told the BBC. "What we're seeing now is the next wave of that thinking: a shift toward right-sized models that are faster, cheaper, and ready to deploy at scale."But to others, for the major American players in AI, the old approach appears to be alive and days after releasing the free models, OpenAI unveiled GPT-5. In the run-up, the company said it significantly ramped up its computing capacity and AI infrastructure.A slew of announcements about new data centre clusters needed for AI has come as American tech companies have been competing for top-tier AI CEO Mark Zuckerberg has ploughed billions of dollars to fulfil his AI ambitions, and tried to lure staff from rivals with $100m pay fortunes of the tech giants seemed more tethered than ever to their commitment to AI spending, as evidenced by the series of blowout results revealed this past tech earnings shares of Nvidia, which plunged just after DeepSeek's arrival, have rebounded – touching new highs that have made it the world's most valuable company in history."The initial narrative has proven a bit of a red herring," said Mill Pond Research's are back to a future in which AI will ostensibly depend on more data centres, more chips, and more power. In other words, DeepSeek's shake-up of the status quo hasn't what about DeepSeek itself?"DeepSeek now faces challenges sustaining its momentum," said Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology due in part to operational setbacks but also to intense competition from companies in the US and China, she notes that the company's next product, DeepSeek-R2, has reportedly been delayed. One reason? A shortage of high-end chips. Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
