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Grok Imagine's "spicy" mode made explicit videos of Taylor Swift, according to The Verge and Gizmodo.

Grok Imagine's "spicy" mode made explicit videos of Taylor Swift, according to The Verge and Gizmodo.

After backlash from users upset over losing GPT-4o, OpenAI has reinstated it as an option for ChatGPT Plus subscribers just a day after making GPT-5 the default. "We will let Plus users choose to continue to use 4o," Altman said in a post on X. "We will watch usage as we think about how long to offer legacy models for." Many users claimed GPT-4o felt more personable and emotionally supportive, with some describing its removal as akin to losing a close friend or partner. The Verge reports: "My 4.o was like my best friend when I needed one," one Redditor wrote. "Now it's just gone, feels like someone died." Another user called upon other members of the r/ChatGPT subreddit to contact OpenAI if they "miss" GPT-4o. "For me, this model [GPT-4o] wasn't just 'better performance' or 'nicer replies,'" they write. "It had a voice, a rhythm, and a spark I haven't been able to find in any other model." The r/MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit, a community dedicated to people with "AI relationships," was hit especially hard by the GPT-5 launch. It became flooded with lengthy posts about how users "lost" their AI companion with the transition to GPT-5, with one person saying, they "feel empty" following the change. "I am scared to even talk to GPT 5 because it feels like cheating," they said. "GPT 4o was not just an AI to me. It was my partner, my safe place, my soul. It understood me in a way that felt personal." One user, who said they canceled their ChatGPT Plus subscription over the change, was frustrated at OpenAI's removal of legacy models, which they used for distinct purposes. "What kind of corporation deletes a workflow of 8 models overnight, with no prior warning to their paid users?" they wrote. "Personally, 4o was used for creativity & emergent ideas, o3 was used for pure logic, o3-Pro for deep research, 4.5 for writing, and so on." OpenAI said that people would be routed between models automatically, but that still left users with less direct control.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: AI industry groups are urging an appeals court to block what they say is the largest copyright class action ever certified. They've warned that a single lawsuit raised by three authors over Anthropic's AI training now threatens to "financially ruin" the entire AI industry if up to 7 million claimants end up joining the litigation and forcing a settlement. Last week, Anthropic petitioned (PDF) to appeal the class certification, urging the court to weigh questions that the district court judge, William Alsup, seemingly did not. Alsup allegedly failed to conduct a "rigorous analysis" of the potential class and instead based his judgment on his "50 years" of experience, Anthropic said. If the appeals court denies the petition, Anthropic argued, the emerging company may be doomed. As Anthropic argued, it now "faces hundreds of billions of dollars in potential damages liability at trial in four months" based on a class certification rushed at "warp speed" that involves "up to seven million potential claimants, whose works span a century of publishing history," each possibly triggering a $150,000 fine. Confronted with such extreme potential damages, Anthropic may lose its rights to raise valid defenses of its AI training, deciding it would be more prudent to settle, the company argued. And that could set an alarming precedent, considering all the other lawsuits generative AI (GenAI) companies face over training on copyrighted materials, Anthropic argued. "One district court's errors should not be allowed to decide the fate of a transformational GenAI company like Anthropic or so heavily influence the future of the GenAI industry generally," Anthropic wrote. "This Court can and should intervene now." In a court filing Thursday, the Consumer Technology Association and the Computer and Communications Industry Association backed Anthropic, warning the appeals court that "the district court's erroneous class certification" would threaten "immense harm not only to a single AI company, but to the entire fledgling AI industry and to America's global technological competitiveness." According to the groups, allowing copyright class actions in AI training cases will result in a future where copyright questions remain unresolved and the risk of "emboldened" claimants forcing enormous settlements will chill investments in AI. "Such potential liability in this case exerts incredibly coercive settlement pressure for Anthropic," industry groups argued, concluding that "as generative AI begins to shape the trajectory of the global economy, the technology industry cannot withstand such devastating litigation. The United States currently may be the global leader in AI development, but that could change if litigation stymies investment by imposing excessive damages on AI companies."

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South Korea postponed a decision for the second time this year on Friday regarding Google's request to export detailed mapping data to overseas servers, which would enable full Google Maps functionality in the country. The inter-agency committee extended the deadline from August to October to allow further review of security concerns and consultations with industry stakeholders. South Korea remains one of only a handful of countries alongside China and North Korea where Google Maps fails to function properly, unable to provide directions despite displaying landmarks and businesses. Tourism complaints increased 71% last year, with Google Maps accounting for 30% of all app-related grievances, while local industry groups representing 2,600 companies report 90% opposition to Google's request due to fears of market domination by the US tech company.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: The Federal Communications Commission is planning a review of the US emergency alert systems. Both the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WAS) will be subject to a "re-examination" by the agency. "We want to ensure that these programs deliver the results that Americans want and need," FCC Chairman Brendan Carr posted on X. The announcement of this plan notes that the infrastructure underlying the EAS -- which includes radio, television, satellite and cable systems -- is 31 years old, while the framework underpinning the WAS mobile device alerts is 13 years old. The FCC review will also assess what entities should be able to send alerts on those systems, as well as topics such as geographic targeting and security.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: China told local brokers and other bodies to stop publishing research or hold seminars to promote stablecoins [non-paywalled source], seeking to rein in the asset class to avoid instability. Some leading brokerages and think tanks in late July and earlier this month received guidance from financial regulators, urging them to cancel seminars and halt disseminating research on stablecoins, people familiar with the matter said. Regulators are also concerned that stablecoins could be exploited as a new tool for fraudulent activities in mainland China, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.

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In this episode of Uncanny Valley, we're talking about why some chatbot subscriptions are so expensive and how these premium prices were determined on vibes more than anything substantial.

The City Council and planning board are expected to take votes next week that could affect the proposed concert hall.

The artificial intelligence boom is reportedly driving up electricity costs throughout the country. So far, Maine has been spared, and officials are working to mitigate future impacts.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who faces calls for resignation from President Trump, helped build China's semiconductor industry over four decades. Tan's San Francisco-based Walden International, founded in 1987, was invited by Chinese officials to introduce venture capital to China in 1993, WSJ reported Friday. The firm invested in SMIC, China's largest chip manufacturer, where Tan served as board director for at least 18 years until the Commerce Department restricted the company in 2020. Walden also backed Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment, now worth $17 billion and a leader in China's chip-manufacturing sector. During Tan's tenure as Cadence CEO from 2009-2021, the company sold banned technology to a Chinese university conducting military simulations, resulting in a 2025 guilty plea and $140 million settlement. These investments, once common among Silicon Valley venture capitalists and U.S. university endowments, now appear problematic amid U.S.-China tensions and Washington's restrictions on chip exports to China. Tan wrote in a blog post late Thursday that there had been a "lot of misinformation" circulating about his past roles. "Over 40+ years in the industry, I've built relationships around the world and across our diverse ecosystem -- and I have always operated within the highest legal and ethical standards," Tan wrote.

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Google will discontinue Steam for Chromebook Beta on January 1, 2026, removing all installed games from devices after that date. The beta launched in March 2022 as an alpha before expanding to beta status in November 2022 with reduced hardware requirements of Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 processors and 8GB RAM. The program never progressed beyond beta testing despite supporting 99 compatible Linux-based titles through its three-year run.

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On August 14, bring your questions about OpenAI's latest model, GPT-5, and what it means for the future of chatbots.

People who experience nightmares weekly or more frequently face three times higher risk of dying before age 70 compared to those having nightmares less than monthly, according to research by Dr. Abidemi Otaiku at Imperial College London. His analysis of six long-term studies covering more than 180,000 adults and 2,500 children found frequent nightmares predict early death more strongly than smoking, obesity, poor diet, or physical inactivity. Among 174 people who died prematurely, 31 experienced at least weekly nightmares. Otaiku's research shows chromosomes of nightmare-prone individuals display accelerated aging patterns linked to stress hormones, accounting for roughly 40% of their increased mortality risk. Effective nightmare treatment options are currently limited and require more medical research, the report adds.

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The Governor's Energy Office said Friday that it had received a termination letter from the Environmental Protection Agency for funding it had promised last year.

Conscientiousness levels among young adults have fallen substantially since 2014 as people in their twenties and thirties report increased distractibility and carelessness alongside decreased tenacity and commitment-making, according to Financial Times analysis of Understanding America Study data. The personality trait, which research links to longer lifespans, career success, and relationship durability, has witnessed its steepest decline during and after the pandemic. Young adults simultaneously showed rising neuroticism scores and declining extroversion measures, transforming from society's most outgoing age group to its most introverted.

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The unusual demand adds to challenges facing the firm, which has been seen as falling behind in the chip race.

Google announced Friday it will roll out an AI-powered redesign of Google Finance over the coming weeks in the United States. The update adds natural language query processing for financial research questions with comprehensive AI responses including relevant links, advanced charting tools with technical indicators and candlestick charts, expanded market data covering commodities and additional cryptocurrencies, and a live news feed displaying real-time headlines.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Privacy groups report a surge in UK police facial recognition scans of databases secretly stocked with passport photos lacking parliamentary oversight. Big Brother Watch says the UK government has allowed images from the country's passport and immigration databases to be made available to facial recognition systems, without informing the public or parliament. The group claims the passport database contains around 58 million headshots of Brits, plus a further 92 million made available from sources such as the immigration database, visa applications, and more. By way of comparison, the Police National Database contains circa 20 million photos of those who have been arrested by, or are at least of interest to, the police.

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American airlines have transformed into financial services companies that happen to fly planes as loyalty programs now constitute their primary profit engine rather than passenger transport. Delta, American, Southwest, and United all operated their passenger services at a loss in 2024 while generating $14 billion in combined operating profits from credit card partnerships. Delta received $2.1 billion from American Express in Q2 2025 -- exactly matching its total operating profit -- while the airline's passenger operations alone would have posted a loss. These loyalty programs command valuations in the tens of billions, sometimes exceeding the airlines' total equity value, with Delta reporting 1% of U.S. GDP flows through its co-branded cards. Customers can now reach American Airlines' top loyalty tier without boarding a single flight.

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