After many rumors, OpenAI's formally announced its first AI Agent: Operator is here as a research preview for ChatGPT Pro users in the US to browse the web and complete tasks for you.

Saudi Arabias crown prince said Thursday the kingdom wants to invest $600 billion in the United States over the next four years, comments that came after President Donald Trump earlier put a price tag on returning to the kingdom as his first foreign trip.Trumps 2017 trip to Saudi Arabiaupended a tradition of U.S. presidents first heading to the United Kingdom as their first trip abroad. It also underscored his administrations close ties to the rulers of the oil-rich Gulf states as his eponymous real estate company haspursued deals across the region as well.The comments from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, reported early Thursday by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, came in a phone call with Trump. It marked Trumps first call with a foreign leader since his inauguration Monday.The crown prince affirmed the kingdoms intention to broaden its investments and trade with the United States over the next four years, in the amount of $600 billion, and potentially beyond that, the report said.The readout did not elaborate on where those investments and trade could be placed. The U.S. in recent years has increasingly pulled away from relying on Saudi oil exports, which once was the bedrock of their relationship for decades. Saudi sovereign wealth funds have taken large stakes in American businesses while also looking at sports as well.Saudi Arabia does, however, rely predominantly on U.S.-made weapons and defense systems, which could be a part of the investment.The White House on Thursday issued a statement acknowledging the call, saying the two leaders discussed efforts to bring stability to the Middle East, bolster regional security and combat terrorism.Additionally, they discussed the kingdom of Saudi Arabias international economic ambitions over the next four years as well as trade and other opportunities to increase the mutual prosperity of the United State and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the statement said, without elaborating.The crown prince, the de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom, also spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio early Thursday.On Monday after his inauguration, Trump talked about possibly heading to the kingdom again as his first foreign trip, as he did in 2017.The first foreign trip typically has been with the U.K. but . . . I did it with Saudi Arabia last time because they agreed to buy $450 billion worth of our products, Trump told journalists in the Oval Office. If Saudi Arabia wanted to buy another $450 billion or $500well up it for all the inflationI think Id probably go.Trump offered no breakdown on the sales, though in 2018 in the White House, he famously showed Prince Mohammed a poster declaring $12.5 billion in finalized sales to the kingdom of military weaponry.Thats peanuts for you, Trump told the smiling prince, who chuckled.On a potential trip to Saudi Arabia in Trumps new term, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists Thursday: Im not aware of any plans at this time.Trumps 2017 visit to the kingdom set in motiona yearslong boycott of Qatar by four Arab nations, including the kingdom.Trump maintained close relations with Saudi Arabia, even after Prince Mohammed was implicated in the 2018 killing and dismemberment ofWashington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggiin Istanbul. The kingdom also had been talking for years with the Biden administration about a wider deal to diplomatically recognize Israel in exchange for U.S. defense protections and other support.The $600 billion pledge, which dwarves the gross domestic product of many nations, also comes as the kingdom faces budgetary pressures of its own. Global oil prices remain depressed years after the height of the coronavirus pandemic, affecting the kingdoms revenues.Meanwhile, Prince Mohammed also wants to continue his $500 billion project at NEOM,a new city in Saudi Arabias western deserton the Red Sea. It also will need to build tens of billions of dollars worth of new stadiums and infrastructure ahead of ithosting the 2034 FIFA World Cup.Jon Gambrell, Associated Press

Welcome toAI Decoded,Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekhere.Trumps Stargate Project reveal had little to do with realityStargate sounds like a movie, and where Donald Trump is concerned it is indeed mainly a performance.Stargate, a new joint venture formed by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, aims to build up to $500 billion worth of new data centers over the next four years to run large AI models. OpenAIs Sam Altman, SoftBanks Masayoshi Son, and Oracle CEO Larry Elder joined Trump in the Oval Office Tuesday to outline the new project. Trump took to the podium to hitch his administration to the job creation and geopolitical rewards of the current AI boom.The announcement in the Oval was choreographed to look like a public-private partnership, but its not. Trump pledged no federal federal funding or tax breaks; he only talked vaguely about using emergency declarations to smooth Stargates way. (In theory the White House could work with Texas lawmakers to bypass regulatory land-use hurdles, etc.).This is very much a private projectits no different than a big company deciding to [build] their factory in the U.S., and so thats good for America in the sense that it creates jobs, says Abhishek Nagaraj, a professor at the University of CaliforniaBerkeleys Haas business school. This isnt necessarily going to do all the things that weve been asking the government to do in terms of supporting AI innovation, research, etc. within the U.S.The initiative was already well underway before Trumps second term began. Altman has been talking for months about raising trillions to build more data centers for his companys next generation of compute-hungry models. OpenAI and Oracle had already been working together on those data centers, and have in fact broken ground on 10 of them, Oracles Ellison said. SoftBank has been trying to invest in OpenAI since 2023, finally getting its chance last November when it put $1.3 billion into the company. Son pledged to invest $100 billion back in December.So the Stargate announcement now looks like another example of U.S. tech leaders hurrying to curry favor with Trump, in this case by offering him a chance at some unearned political points. Thats not to say the demand for new data centers isnt real. I generally think that there needs to be (and will be) a massive infrastructure buildout to really enable AI to reach its potential, says Anyscale cofounder Robert Nishihara in an email. This has been true of every major technology waveinternet, cloud, mobilewere just at the start.And yet the hardware may play a unique role in this new tech wave compared to previous ones. The generative AI boom owes a lot to the availability of powerful GPUs. The game-changing intelligence gains that led to ChatGPT happened mostly because researchers discovered ways of applying more computing power to large transformer models. With enough GPUs, something remarkable happens (researchers dont know exactly what) deep in the layers of the neural network that results in an alarmingly nuanced understanding of the relationships among words, code, or images. Even more surprising was the discovery that adding more and more GPUs leads to better and better results. Altman is betting OpenAI can ride this scaling law all the way to artificial general intelligence, then superintelligence. If that holds, Nagaraj says, it effectively means that whoever controls the infrastructure will control a lot of the market.Chinese DeepSeek model makes strong case for state-of-the-art AIA small Chinese research lab called DeepSeek has sent shockwaves through the AI world by releasing a new reasoning model called DeepSeek-R1 that rivals OpenAIs o1 model in mathematics, coding, and general knowledge, according to benchmark tests. The model can break down problems into chunks, and scrutinize and verify its own results. DeepSeek reportedly costs 90-95% less to run than OpenAIs o1.Remarkably, the Chinese company open-sourced the models, meaning developers can freely access and modify them for their own uses. In other words, DeepSeek is doing what OpenAI set out to do when it started in 2015: developing open AI models that can be used to benefit all of humanity. OpenAI has since locked down the details of its most capable models, and charged developers fees to use them. So why would DeepSeek give away the value it created with DeepSeek-R1?It helps DeepSeek attract top talent by showcasing their technical capabilities and commitment to collaborative development, says David Bader, a professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The strategy also fosters a developer ecosystem around their technology, potentially accelerating innovation and adoption. In the end it could position DeepSeek for broader influence in both domestic and international AI development, Bader says. DeepSeek has emerged as a leading force in Chinas language model development, surpassing established tech giants like Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, and ByteDance, Bader explains. DeepSeek has also set off a price war among Chinas AI providers.DeepSeek is similar to o1 in some ways. For example the model does lots of computation at test time after its been prompted by a user to begin work on a problem. It can feel its way through various approaches to the problem, following promising pathways while steering away from nonproductive ones. But this doesnt mean that DeepSeek copied OpenAIs work on o1. [T]he core knowledge for building these models is taught in universities and discussed openly at conferences, Bader says. When developments like OpenAIs o1 model emerge, its natural for other implementations like DeepSeeks R1 to follow, as researchers worldwide build upon shared technical foundations.Accenture: More AI budget should go to training humansAccenture, which helps enterprises adopt AI, is out with results from its latest round of survey work on executive and worker views on AI deployment in 2025. The firm surveyed 3,450 C-suite leaders and 3,000 employees across 22 industries in 20 countries in the last quarter of 2024.A few highlights from the survey:2024 was the year of gen AIbut after 12 months of rapid adoption, just 50% of C-suite leaders claim to be fully prepared for technological disruption and only 36% say they have scaled gen AI solutions. A mere 13% report seeing significant enterprise-level value.The top three reasons C-suite leaders cite are capitalizing on advances in the technology (28%); maintaining business competitiveness (20%); and increasing confidence in managing associated business risk (20%).Just 12% [of executives] consider improving skills as the main [reason to invest]. This is corroborated by Accentures own experience working with companies globally: the company found that three times more gen AI budget is spent on technology than on people.More AI coverage from Fast Company:States are turning their public benefits systems over to AI. The results have often led to immense sufferingThe Brutalist used AI voice editing. Is that such a crime?Why Trump dashed Bidens AI executive order, and why it mattersSamsungs Galaxy S25 phones areyou guessed itall-in on AIWant exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium.

With AI popping up everywhere, theres a maddening rush of new designs and services that try to shove the technology in your face. Some try to put an AI label on every app or feature, while others promise some flashy, orange AI device that vanishes quickly like vapor. If youre tired of ambitious devices that put technology ahead of human needs, or the exaggerated claims of AI companies that are more interested in user data than user experience, you arent the only one.CES 2025 was filled with smart wearables and eyewear that all promise a future where computers and AI stand between you and the real world, a future where comfort is an afterthought to technical prowess. Looktech, however, is painting a different picture of the future, one where discreet and fashionable eyeglasses offer a comfortable way to wear AI all day, empowering you to enjoy more of life without worrying about screens, complicated user interfaces, and ridiculously large pair of spectacles that make you look like a spectacle as well.Designer: Looktech Inc.Click Here to Buy Now: $209 $349 ($140 off). Hurry, 45/1320 left! Raised over $975,000.At CES!Unlike even the most sophisticated and lightweight AR glasses, the Looktech AI Glasses look (no pun intended) nothing more like regular eyeglasses. There are no displays or projectors to burn images into your retinas, which is probably why it was initially unnoticed at CES 2025. But the moment people started putting it on to try the experience, they were easily convinced by Looktechs vision. Rather than push a flashy design that ends up being a flop, it instead focuses on practical and fashionable eyewear that delivers a personalized AI that actually gets the job done.Looktech AI Glasses redefine style and comfort, weighing in at a feather-light 37 grams. With their sleek TR90 frames and titanium hinges, theyre designed for all-day adventures without sacrificing an ounce of style. Choose lenses that fit your lifestyle yes, even prescription ones at no extra cost and colors like dark transparent, cool black, pink-white, and more, that match your mood or outfit. With a 14-hour battery life, the Looktech AI Glasses are always ready to help all day long. Why waste resources and battery life on a display technology thats still years away from actually being useful when you can focus on a comfortable and better user experience?Of course, the Looktech AI Glasses arent just some fashionable eye accessory. It comes equipped with just the right hardware and features to make life easier and more meaningful. Imagine snapping a stunning 13MP photo or recording a vibrant 2K video without lifting a finger. The horizontal video format isnt just a favorite of YouTubers and influencers but also means that the AI sees the world the same way we do. With Looktech, a simple voice command or button press on the side does the trick, and thanks to Anti-Shake Technology, your recordings always come out smooth. And when its time to edit, the built-in AI video editor in the Looktech mobile app picks out the highlights, adds tunes, and throws in captions for a perfect finish.These glasses are your new best friend, learning your quirks and preferences like a loyal sidekick. Need to set a reminder, find your way, or take a call? Its all hands-free. The open-ear dual superlinear speakers offer rich sound without cutting you off from the world. And when youre making a call in a bustling caf or a noisy street, the microphones active noise cancellation and acoustic echo reduction make sure your voice comes through loud and clear.Beyond capturing and connecting, Looktechs camera sees signs and menus in foreign languages and whispers their translation in your ears, tracks calories, and even suggests recipes based on whats in your fridge. This goes beyond just offering convenience. Its about enhancing your lifestyle with a smart companion that grows alongside you, offering solutions that make everyday life a breeze. Looktech is powered by AI models from GPT-4o, Gemini, or Claude and will be constantly updated to ensure you have the latest and most reliable AI models at your beck and call.Unlike other AI-powered devices and services, privacy is more than just a promise for Looktech. It is a guarantee that comes with these AI-powered glasses, and it is one of the top reasons why people are investing in them. Every photo, suggestion, and insight is anonymized and encrypted before it ever leaves your device. With the Looktech app, you decide what gets stored, deleted, or shared, putting you in the drivers seat of your digital life. Feel free to explore and connect with AI, knowing your privacy is rock-solid.The buzz around Looktech AI Glasses is undeniable. Theyve snagged the Best of Kickstarter award and turned heads at CES 2025. These glasses prove that you can have it all privacy, style, and a personal AI assistant that doesnt compromise on any front. So why settle for impersonal AI that treats you like a number? Looktech AI Glasses offer a vibrant, engaging experience that doesnt just evolve with you but also looks as smart and stylish as you.Click Here to Buy Now: $209 $349 ($140 off). Hurry, 45/1320 left! Raised over $975,000.The post Meet Looktech Smart Glasses: The Personalized AI Assistant Stealing the Show at CES 2025 first appeared on Yanko Design.

The original Minimoog, first sold in the 1970s, revolutionized the way music was made. Before it came along, synthesizers were massive, complicated beasts that stayed tethered to studios. The Minimoog was portable, easy to use, and brought electronic music into the hands of any musician who dared to experiment. Suddenly, prog-rock, funk, jazz, and disco had a whole new palette of sounds to play with, and the world of music hasnt been the same since. This LEGO Minimoog pays tribute to that iconic machine.LEGO builder Eliot Obrien took this legendary instrument and reimagined it on a 1:1 scale, complete with details that would make any synth enthusiast smile. Rotating knobs? Check. Pitch wheels? Of course. The keys? Fully pushable, naturally. And in an inspired touch, the rear control panel opens up to reveal the circuits inside, a nod to the heart of the original Minimoogs magic.Designer: Eliot ObrienThe process of assembling the set feels oddly poetic, like youre channeling the spirit of an engineer designing the instrument for the first time. Each piece snaps into place with purpose, as if youre connecting to the energy of Robert Moog (creator of the Moog synth) himself. Youre building a modular synth, whats more modular than a LEGO brick, eh??Whats wild is how much the Minimoog shaped music culture. Artists like Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder, and Herbie Hancock were pioneers in using its warm analog tones to push their creative boundaries. Even now, decades later, its sounds can be heard in genres as far-flung as EDM and hip-hop. This LEGO version somehow captures that impactit feels alive, like a miniature monument to the synths enduring influence.The LEGO recreation stays very true to its original. Aside from the fact that its a perfect 1:1 representation, every aspect of the LEGO Minimoog is interactive. Its deck flips up to reveal the circuitry at the back. The keys can be pushed, knobs turned, and mod/pitch wheels rotated. The synth comes in the perfect color combination too, capturing the wooden outer construction as well as every single component down to the screws and the capacitors in the back panel circuitry.Obrien (who built this MOC or My Own Creation) hasnt specified how many parts this build requires, but my guess is that given the wood paneling uses multiple layered bricks (and the circuitry at the back is exceptionally detailed), this build should easily average in the 2000+ brick mark. If youre in that niche intersection of being a music nerd and a LEGO enthusiast, theres no build thats more apt than this brick-based Minimoog. Its currently up on the LEGO Ideas website as a submission, and is accepting votes from the broader public. Almost near the halfway mark with 4,740 votes, the submission is well on its way to hitting the 10k vote mark, following which LEGOs internal team just might turn it into a retail box set. If youd like to see that happen, cast your vote on the LEGO Ideas website here!The post LEGO Minimoog Synth sports a Gorgeous 1:1 Scale Design With Playable Keys and Rotating Knobs first appeared on Yanko Design.

Some posts related to obtaining abortion pills were recently hidden on Instagram and Facebook and some accounts were suspended, before being later restored.

For iOS 18, Apple has introduced a new Focus Mode called Reduce Interruptions, which aims to use Apple Intelligence to prioritize notifications to cut them down, yet not have you miss anything important.The new Reduce Notifications Focus ModeA strength of Apple Intelligence is that rather than some separate ChatGPT-like app, its features are woven into all aspects of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. But that also makes it confusing when Apple promotes some feature but doesn't say where it fits."For example," said Craig Federighi at the WWDC 2024 launch, "your iPhone can prioritize your notifications to minimize unnecessary distractions while ensuring you don't miss something important." Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

While developer Sandfall Interactive finally announced a release date for its upcoming RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the studio CEO and creative director on the game Guillaume Broche also revealed some more details about the title in an interview on Xbox Wire.Broche talks about wanting Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to feel like a real game rather than just being something that looks pretty. Because of this, characters in the game all play differently, and players also have the choice to make use of their unique mechanics and skill trees to figure out their own playing style.We didnt want the game to just be a pretty face, said Broche. We wanted it to be like a game that feels like a real game. So every character has their own playstyle and you can really play them in a lot of different ways but they also feel very different from each other, and they all have their unique mechanics and their unique skill tree.Broche also spoke about some of the games character customisation and playstyle, which was also showcased during the recent Developer_Direct. Broche explained that players will end up changing the equipment on their characters quite often, and all the Lumina that players accumulate will ultimately allow them to pull of interesting combos and crazy builds.The example used was that of character Lune, whose core gameplay mechanic revolves around accumulating a resource called Stain by using skills. This resource can then be used in fights to empower her abilities, but players will still have plenty of choice in how they use the Stain and buff up Lunes capabilities.So whats very cool is that, when you play through the game, you will change your equipment a lot and you will get more and more Lumina and at the end of the game you have a full list of passives that you can either activate or deactivate, and this allows some crazy build opportunities, he explained. This is where we really make some crazy combos, and this is where we expect players to really break the game and we hope they break the game, because its made for that!Speaking about the games mix of real-time elements with turn-based combat, Broche also spoke about some of the design decisions taken with the game, such as the fact that players cant simply rely on parrying all enemy attacks, and that dodging will also be an incredibly important mechanic to master, especially on harder difficulties.So youre not supposed to parry everything, of course, that would be far too hard, explained Broche. So we have difficulty options in the game, and depending on the difficulty options the parry window and dodge window will be bigger or smaller if you are playing in Hard mode, and you dont dodge at least 50% of the attacks, you will have some trouble. If you are in Normal, its a bit more [forgiving] than that, and if you are in Easy if you build your characters correctly, at least, you will go by without having to be a master dodger.Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is slated for release on April 24, and will be coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Team Ninja and PlatinumGames surprised everyone by announcing Ninja Gaiden 4, the first new mainline title in the series since 2012. However, the gameplay showcased looked extremely polished. As it turns out, the two studios have been working together for years in secret on the sequel.Speaking to Xbox Wire, PlatinumGames director and producer Yuji Nakao revealed that the title is currently 70 to 80 percent complete with the team entering the polishing phase. Well continue to work closely with Team NINJA, ensuring every detail meets the expectations of fans. More details will be revealed to help players understand just how fun and exciting this game is, so stay tuned.Interestingly, there may be a chance for hands-on time gameplay before launch. Team Ninja head Fumihiko Yasuda said the team is looking into ways to give you opportunities to get hands-on experience. A pre-release demo be far-fetched Nioh 1, Nioh 2, and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty all received the same. Rise of the Ronin also received a demo, though that was post-launch.Ninja Gaiden 4 launches this Fall for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC while coming to Game Pass on day one. Team Ninja also shadow-dropped Ninja Gaiden 2 Black today for Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass. Head here for more details.

Circana's December report reveals Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is 2024's last big hurrah on the U.S. sales charts.Read More