OpenAIs board of directors has unanimously rejected billionaire Elon Musks offer to buy the nonprofit that effectively governs OpenAI, the company said on Friday. In a statement shared via OpenAIs press account on X, Bret Taylor, board chair, called Musks bid an attempt to disrupt his competition.OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musks latest attempt to disrupt his competition, Taylor said. Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure [artificial general intelligence] benefits all of humanity.The New York Times reported that OpenAI also sent a letter to Musks lawyer, Marc Toberoff, saying that the bid was not in the best interests of [OpenAIs] mission.On Monday, Musk, his AI company, xAI, and a group ofinvestorsoffered to buy OpenAIs nonprofit for $97.4 billion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the companys board of directorsquickly but not formally dismissed the unsolicited proposal. In astatement, Andy Nussbaum, the counsel representing OpenAIs board, said Musks bid doesnt set a value for [OpenAIs] nonprofit and that the nonprofit is not for sale.Musk, an OpenAI co-founder, last year brought a lawsuit against the company and Altman that alleges that OpenAI engaged in anticompetitive behavior and fraud, among other offenses.OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit before it transitioned to a capped-profit structure in 2019. The nonprofit is the sole controlling shareholder of the capped-profit OpenAI corporation, which retains formal fiduciary responsibility to the nonprofits charter.OpenAI is now in the process of restructuring this time to a traditional for-profit company, specifically a public benefit corporation. But Musk, via the lawsuit, is seeking to enjoin the conversion.In a court filing on Wednesday, lawyers for Musk said the billionaire will withdraw his bid if OpenAIs board preserve[s] the charitys mission and halts OpenAIs conversion to a for-profit. In afiling earlier the same day, attorneys for OpenAI called Musks move to take control of the company an improper bid to undermine a competitor, and a contradiction of his position in court that a transfer of the startups assets through restructuring would breach its mission as a charitable trust.Musks allies and Altman have traded blows over the bid this week. In a podcast interview on Thursday, Ari Emanuel, one of the backers of Musks offer for the OpenAI nonprofit, called Altman a phony who is trying to get away with cheating the charity and its original mission.Altman has characterized Musks bid as an attempt to slow [OpenAI] down, and quipped that Musks life is from a position of insecurity.

To Build LawCanadian Centre for Architecture1920 Baile Street, MontrealOn view through May 25What do architects do? At the risk of eliding the many other forms of labor involved, the easy answer is to say that they make buildings. Whether through physical or intellectual effort, the production of new buildings has been at the center of architectures disciplinary focus for centuries. Given the burning need to address climate change and other matters of pressing ecological concern, the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal has commissioned Groundwork, a series of three film-based exhibitions presenting the work of architects whose modes of practice shift their focus from completed buildings onto the processes of the buildings becoming. The highly compelling and fiercely urgent second chapter in this trilogy is now on display at the CCA. To Build Law presents Berlin-based bplus.xyz (b+)s campaign to use direct democracy within the European Unions governance structures to apply political pressure in favor of renovation and against demolition. Spearheaded by Arno Brandlhuber (b+), Olaf Grawert (b+), and Alina Ana Kolar (station+), the idea is straightforward: Given the embodied carbon and other material outlays present in Europes existing building stock, to demolish extant structures and replace them with new builds seems wholly incompatible with existing emissions-reduction commitments and public opinion. Fittingly, b+ is correctly and judiciously seeking to change the series of financial and regulatory norms that favor new builds on cleared sites.Installation view of To Build Law CCA. (Matthieu Brouillard/ CCA)To do so, b+ has partnered with station+ (s+, a teaching and research platform at ETH Zrich that uses film and television as narrative tools) and others to found HouseEurope!, an NGO gathering collaborators from several European countries to launch the European Citizens Initiative. If they can gather over one million signatures from EU citizens during a 12-month period, the European Commission will be obliged to consider their proposal, which calls for three changes: (1) to boost renovation markets with tax incentives, (2) to institute fair and harmonized standards for renovation, and (3) to apply intemporal life cycle assessments in the building sector. The current iteration of the office founded by Brandlhuber in 2006, b+ has demonstrated the ecological value (and photogenic appeal) of adaptive reuse through well-known projects such as Brunnenstrae 9 and San Gimignano Lichtenberg. The challenges that made these sites unappealing for speculative development created the very conditions that have allowed b+ to successfully intervene. Often, b+ has introduced ecological arguments where aesthetic appeals have previously failedfor example the successful campaign to prevent the demolition of Berlins Brutalist Musebunker, a former animal testing laboratory.Conceptually, To Build Law is divided chronologically into three parts. The first, presented across two galleries, covers the period 200723 and gives a project-based history of b+s practice. In addition to the works mentioned above, b+s incipient attempts at political activism are featured, such as its 2011 intervention in the Berlin state elections, in which it critiqued all major parties failure to address housing concerns. With Archipel, a 2012 exhibition, b+ reflected on the danger that its adaptive reuse projects were in fact contributing to the homogenization of Berlin. As with many recent CCA exhibitions, the materials illustrating b+s biography are presented horizontally on tables in a nonhierarchical fashion, leaving the visitor free to choose which items are worthy of more concentrated attention. Turning to the near present, To Build Law presents a 50-minute film directed by Joshua Frank that follows Brandlhuber, Grawert, and Kolar as they plan HouseEurope!s European Citizens Initiative. Viewers follow these principals through a series of meetings, lectures, and planning sessions. While the consequences of what they propose are radicalnothing less than the fundamental redirection of the European building industry and its laborers away from new construction toward adaptive reusetheir methods are presented as banal. Slow and thoughtful work within existing systems is central to their vision of activism, which is illustrated by the amount of time Franks camera spends on the setting up for and putting away of chairs after meetings. These gatherings are well lit, everyone speaks clearly, and disagreements lead to dialectical synthesis: Should Stop Demolition! or Ready for Renovation be the movements slogan? The answer is simple: It will be a combination of both.HouseEurope! assembly at Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, 2024, from the documentary film To Build Law. ( CCA)The same aesthetic smoothness present in b+s projects guides its attempts to influence the European political system. This is not a revolution from below, and hints of (West) Berlins radical politics and environmentalism of the 1970s and 80s are few and far between in To Build Law. Reuse is not a matter of squatting in neglected structures; instead, we follow Grawert and Kolar as they meet with a Swiss consultant who advises them how to market their campaign. Berlins history of ground-up activism on spatial issues offers, however, a clear prehistory for the initiative. To Build Law concludes with an assembly at the former Tempelhof Airport, an immense urban structure frequently at the heart of debates over what kind of city Berlin should become.If architecture is to follow b+ and HouseEurope!s lead, what are its chances of success? If the needed signatures are gathered, will the European Commission enact new laws? Globally, it seems doubtful, with President Donald Trump back in the White House, Canadas own carbon tax unlikely to survive the outcome of its next federal election, and Europes political-industrial consensus still shaken by rising energy prices caused by Russias invasion of Ukraine. Here the film gets across two crucial points. The first is that any political coalition in favor of adaptive reuse will be heterodox. As Grawert observes, many small-town conservatives unconvinced by modernist architecture already oppose new construction that will alter their picturesque townscapes. (But what happens when such people block new constructions to densify existing cities? The film does not answer this question, and viewers are left to suppose that all new building is in fact wasteful.)The second is that campaigns for adaptive reuse will necessarily excite some portion of the public more than other parts. Whereas measures favoring housing abundance and cost limitation may appeal to renters, subsidies for renovation are principally directed toward current homeowners. Generational unease also comes into play: While middle-aged professors (perhaps inspired by the specter of May 1968 and the 1973 oil crisis) may be convinced of the need for adaptive reuse, the younger generation, especially those 18 to 24 years old, is not. For Grawert, it is up to todays architecture students to convince their friends. All in all, we are left with the sense that architecture, which so often reifies the status quo, is not always an easy ally for progress, however it is defined.To Build Law exemplifies two overlapping tendencies in recent CCA exhibitions. Firstly, the use of film as a medium to reach new publics, both in terms of age and geographic location. CCA director Giovanna Borasis recent series of three films (201923) exploring new modes of living in the 21st century and curator Francesco Garuttis projects, which include Misleading Innocence: (tracing what a bridge can do) (2014), have put film at the forefront of the CCAs project. Secondly, many recent CCA exhibitions have sought to redefine architecture as a fundamentally ecological concern, one in which political and not technological solutions must rise to the fore. One example: 1973: Sorry, Out of Gas (2007) presented the 1973 oil crisis as an antecedent to our present moment and reminded visitors of the panoply of low-tech solutions popularized then and still available for use today. Its All Happening So Fast (2017) recast Canadian history as an unfolding series of ecological catastrophes. At the juncture of these, To Build Law once again invites architects and the wider public to rethink what architecture should be and how it can act as an ethical force.Installation view of To Build Law CCA. (Matthieu Brouillard/ CCA)To begin to answer this question, Grawert and Kolar organized a roundtable on Canadian policy and regulations at the CCA. Tear Down or Repair featured three young Canadian professionals, each charting their own course: Juliette Cook (Ha/f Climate Design), Alexandre Landry (LEnsemble), and Conrad Speckert (LGA Architectural Partners). While each of these three talented designers has adopted a different approach (from material reuse to changing building codes), what is most impressive is the fact that each identified a failing in the way architecture is conceived and set to work to ameliorate it.The final chronological chapter of this story looms over the exhibition: The drive to gather signatures opened on February 1.Meanwhile in Montreal, having begun with Chinese architect Xu Tiantians Into the Island (2024), Groundwork will conclude in the second half of 2025 with Carla Juaabas practice in Brazil.Peter Sealy is an architectural historian and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, where he directs the undergraduate architectural studies program. Previously, he held fellowships at the Canadian Centre for Architecture from the Power Corporation of Canada (2006) and the Mellon Foundation (201617) at CCA, where he also worked as a research assistant from 2007 to 2010.

Mensent Photography/Getty ImagesOpenAI recently announced Operator, an AI agent designed to perform tasks on the web.After testing it (yes, I paid the $200 bucks, but, more importantly, I kept the subscription), this is a game-changer, but not for the reason you think.This article will probably get me in trouble with my business partner.Also: Will AI kill creativity and destroy human innovation? Here's the unsettling truthI'm about to snitch on myself for your benefit. I'm going to tell you the secret sauce behind how our ecom business generates millions in revenue and how Operator can help.In this article, I'll break down:What Operator is and why it mattersThe good, the bad, and the ugly of using itThree ways you can turn Operator into a side hustleGrab a pen and paper if you're into this kind of stuff. You'll want to take notes. Quick introTo understand why this is a game changer, first, you must understand who I am and what I do for a living.If you are new to my work, my name is Lester, but feel free to call me Les.I'm a founder with a successful exit under my belt. These days, I'm the exec chair for a group of ecom brands, but at my core, I'm an award-winning performance marketer. Also:From zero to millions? How regular people are cashing in on AINeedless to say, data and insights are my jam. We operate more like a data company than an ecom brand. Our secret sauce? Pairing data and insights with ideas that generate revenue.If you are into leveraging AI or emerging tech to help your workflow or generate revenue, check out my free newsletter, No Fluff Just Facts. I break down what is working in the world of AI along with actionable insights to implement no fluff, just facts (see what I did there).But enough about me. I have to tell you why Operator is a game changer! What is Operator and why it's a game changerOperator helps US-based PRO users perform browser activities like filling out forms and ordering groceries; apparently, it can even help you create memes. It interacts with web pages by clicking, typing, and scrolling like a human.A new AI model powers Operator called Computer Using Agent (CUA), combined with GPT-4's vision and capabilities for advanced reasoning. This is what allows it to understand what is happening on a website.Now that you're all caught up, let me share the opportunities. Also:The billion-dollar AI company no one is talking about - and why you should carePrice is the biggest complaint among users. At $200 per month, it's a significant jump from the $20 plan, and many don't see enough value to make the upgrade worthwhile, which is a valid point.But instead of comparing it to the cheaper plan, I look at it in terms of the time and resources it can save.A big part of my day job is validating ideas, visiting different websites, looking at trends, and documenting them. While this is not the best use of time, it is still necessary and has a cost, whether I do it myself or hire an assistant to do it for me.$200 is a lot of bread, especially in this economy, but the alternative could cost thousands of dollars per month and tens of thousands per year. Operator allows small business owners and professionals to automate without hiring or paying a developer to create an internal tool.Sure, there are online tools that can perform similar functions, but that is yet another tool to learn. OpenAI is already part of my workflow, so having everything in one place is beneficial.Also:Have a genealogy mystery? How I used AI to solve a family puzzleOperator is a great tool to handle the mundane, time-consuming tasks I don't want to do.And for $200 bucks? Pffft. Have at it, Operator.Let me know when you're done or if you need me.The biggest limitation may not be Operator itself, but our imagination when using it.How I use OperatorAh yes, the reason why my biz partner may beat my you-know-what.First, I need to explain the core of any business. Most businesses operate on some form of arbitrage, whether it's sourcing a product at a lower cost and selling it at a higher price, or offering a service where the cost to deliver is lower than the price charged.Whether you are selling a product or service, the core of what is happening is the same.The key is creating value while managing cost differences between markets.Now that we understand that, let's dig into how we build businesses. Everyone sees Amazon as a place to buy, but we consider it a place to validate product ideas.Let's say we have an idea for a funny candle. We go to Amazon first to see if the concept already exists. If it does, we document things like:Product namePriceSales rank Lester MappThis information is critical. The arbitrage is then sourcing that product and introducing it to our audience.Bonus tip: We do not just copy. We look at how a product can be improved and offer our audience the new and improved version on our website.Make sense?Now that we have that out of the way, let me explain how we used Operator. As I mentioned, part of the job is endless scrolling -- looking and looking. I instructed Operator to do my product research for me.Here is the exact prompt I used:"I need you to go to www.amazon.com and search 'funny candles.' I then need you to tell me the price and name of each listing. Then, I need you to tell me the sales rank for the first 48 product listings."After a CAPTCHA and a little finessing with the prompt, I got the exact output I needed.Operator was able to handle the most critical role in our business, which is product research.It freed up my time and allowed me to focus on things like talking to customers. Nobody likes doing these types of tasks as they are monotonous and tedious. It's all the "ous-es" you can think of.But it is vital for staying ahead.Operator did it autonomously for the most part.Like I said, it's a game changer.The good, the bad, and the kind of uglyThe goodI like the fact that I can operate independently without having to wait for a coworker or a developer to help. If you are anything like me, you know exactly what I mean by that. I would rather wash my eyes with bleach than wait for someone.I also love that I can speak, and it appears. I do not have to write a fancy brief or send ten gazillion emails to get what I want.I love the fact that it is centralized. I don't need ten apps and integrations to do one thing. I allow it to log into things like Google Sheets and copy the info.The badIt's not all the way there. It is AI. It does weird AI stuff, like hallucinating and providing incorrect and nonsensical information. I stay patient and keep it pushing.It's slow, but still faster than me at getting the job done. Honestly, I can't even call that a real complaint.It was asking me for confirmation way too much. This meant Operator would stop and sit there waiting for my input while I was off living my best life. Time wasted. To combat this, I turned on notifications to see if that improves the time between confirmations. I will let you know how it goes.The kinda ugly Sure, there are flaws and things that could be better, but at this moment, the real issue is me. I wish I could think of even more creative ways to use it.To be clear, I'm not talking about everyday stuff like grocery shopping. That's table stakes.I mean, how do I get this thing to 10x my business while I am on vacation? How to make money with OpenAI OperatorWith any emerging technology, there will always be a group of people who:Need help implementingDo not have the time to do it themselvesThere's potential to build a business around either of these scenarios. In my humble opinion, this is a great place to start, especially if you are an early mover, as it could position you as the go-to resource.That said, here are a few more ideas on how you can use Operator to generate income.1. AI automation as a serviceOffer automation services to businesses that want to streamline repetitive tasks like data entry, email responses, or customer support.2. AI-powered lead generation and sales automationUse Operator to send personalized messages to potential leads on LinkedIn about your product or service.3. AI-powered e-commerceUse Operator to automatically list, update, and optimize product listings on eBay, Amazon, or Shopify.These are just a few ideas, but the biggest opportunity is using Operator to enhance what we are already doing.Rather than looking for some magical new opportunity, the best move is to integrate it into your current workflow.Operator is a tool that makes us more efficient and provides an opportunity to win back some of our time.The real opportunity is looking within and asking yourself, what can AI help me do? As I mentioned earlier, it really comes down to your imagination and how you use it in your existing workflow or even how you create a new one.The critics aren't wrong about its limitations, but the tool is still incredibly powerful. Unlocking its full potential just requires a bit of creativity and a willingness to work around its constraints.Writing the technology off entirely because it is not there yet is unwise. My two centsSo, is Operator worth it?Like most things in life, it depends. The price of $200 is relative and depends on how you use it.If you are using it to book your Airbnb or something like that, I am hard-pressed to find any reason to justify paying $200 for the luxury of not doing it yourself (unless this is your job).I can see a future where Operator, when used effectively, becomes one of the best business assets in your toolkit by automating repetitive tasks.However, it's not a magic fix. You still need to build a strong business by solving real problems and maintaining solid unit economics.Also: The work tasks people use Claude AI for most, according to AnthropicWe are not at a place where AI can do everything for us. A do-it-with-me approach would be the better way to look at it.All that said, I am bullish on Operator as a business tool and look forward to seeing where it goes. Hope this helps; I am rooting for you.By the way, if you want to learn more about leveraging AI or emerging tech to optimize your workflow or generate revenue, check out my free newsletter, No Fluff Just Facts. I break down what is working in the world of AI, along with actionable insights you can implement and the occasional pep talk. If this sounds like your jam and you wanna be besties forever, click here to sign up. It's totally free. Artificial Intelligence Editorial standards

Captain America: Brave New WorldCredit: Disney / MarvelOne thing that might have made Captain America: Brave New World a better film, or at least a better moviegoing experience, would have been a final act surprise. Imagine if Disney hadnt marketed the hell out of the Red Hulk and we hadnt known going into the movie that Harrison Fords president Ross was going to turn into the Red Hulk. If that hadnt been spoiled in the marketing, it might have been a really fun twist. Instead, we just waited around to see when it would happen and then watched a big fight scene and then that was that. Light spoilers ahead.Captain America: Brave New World isnt the best or the worst MCU film. It has some genuinely fun action scenes. Theres a good political thriller buried in the overstuffed plot. Anthony Mackie did a really great job as Captain America, and as someone who is generally not a huge fan of Mackie, Im happy to report that he really grew on me here.But outside of Mackie and Ford and some strong but brief moments with both Giancarlo Espositos Seth Voelker and Tim Blake Nelsons Samuel Sterns, the movie is just a convoluted mess. Ive already listed three villains: Voelker, Sterns and Red Hulk / Ross, though Ross is less of a villain and more of a well-meaning antagonist and Red Hulk is just a natural disaster. Im already having trouble keeping track of all these bad guys, plus the new good guys introduced, and the characters from past MCU shows. The more I thought about this movie after seeing it, the less I liked it, because the more I realized how little any of it matters.So much is going on in Brave New World its honestly hard to keep up, and the plot is just go, go, go from the start. There are various factions and alliances and treaties and conflicts and all of them come at you fast, relentlessly, like the film is worried that if it ever slows down people might pay too much attention. Despite tons and tons of exposition to keep audiences up to speed (and to help clue them in on whats going on since many likely missed The Eternals and Falcon and the Winter Soldier) the whole thing is just clunky as hell.Its also hard to really care about any of it. I dont care about Ross and his estranged daughter. I dont really care about the international relationships between the US and Japan (seriously, Japan?) and the rest of the world powers. I dont really understand why the Celestial is filled with Adamantium, either. Surely all this does is cheapen Wolverine?MORE FOR YOUI wont even bother recapping the plot. The plot is too messy. The plot gets in the way of what might have been an interesting movie. The movie is constantly tripping all over itself because of this, and the few nice character moments that do occur feel rushed and out-of-place, like they were jammed in as an afterthought. There are a few funny moments, but not enough to offset all the Very Serious ones. The plot just keeps coming at you. The plot is Red Hulk and its running and leaping and charging right at us the whole time.Theres some mind control stuff going on that could be super interesting if handled properly, but the explanation we get ends up being far less interesting than what could have been a really compelling conspiracy thriller. Somewhere buried in the rubble of all this plot is an interesting story struggling to breathe. Gasping and gasping for air.Was I entertained? Sure. I enjoyed pieces of this movie. Some of the fights are great. Caps vibranium suit is cool. Hes basically a weird hybrid of Ant-Man, Falcon, Black Panther and Captain America now, but without any actual powers, so thats kind of weird but also kind of fun. But overall, this is a pretty forgettable entry in the MCU. The whole is less than the sum of its parts. Its the fourth Captain America film and the least impressive of the bunch. Disney and Marvel really need to get back to basics, starting with a halfway decent script. And maybe the MCU has outgrown itself. Maybe Disney is asking audiences to juggle too many shows and movies, all interconnected, and the result is an increasingly apathetic fanbase.I really hope Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four: First Steps are better.Check out my weekend streaming guide right here for more movies and TV shows to watch, and let me know your thoughts on Captain America: Brave New World on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.

The Gauntlet at the Garden featured Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan, Emily Axford, Ally ... [+] Beardsley, Brian Murphy, Zac Oyama, Lou Wilson and Siobhan Thompson playing Dungeons & Dragons at Madison Square Garden.Dimension 20Its been a momentous month for the big name actual plays. Critical Role just ended its third Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a massive eight hour finale. Dimension 20 is coming off a sold out live show in Madison Square Garden.Both shows are also taking their stories on the road this year. Critical Role has stops planned in Chicago, Sydney, Melbourne, Indianapolis and New York City to celebrate their 10th anniversary. Dimension 20 is bringing their best characters to Hollywood, Seattle and Las Vegas after conquering New York city last month.I was at Gauntlet In The Garden and was able to interview some of the members of the cast before the show. I spoke with Brennan Lee Mulligan, Ally Beardsley, Zac Oyama and Lou Wilson about their beginnings in playing Dungeons and Dragons and how New York City is a perfect fantasy role playing game setting.Mulligan chose The Unsleeping City as the storyline to use in the show. This blended the high fantasy of D&D with the real life history and locations of New York. Worlds like this can be more fun to explore but they can be difficult to balance real world experience with fantasy adventure.The germ of the idea," said Mulligan, "of blending fantasy and reality together, was the love I have for New York borders on reverance of the magical to begin with. Describing that literally is the best way to decribe the depth of the feelings I have.MORE FOR YOUMulligan is a central figure in bringing D&D into the lives of his fellow cast members. His theatrical Dungeon Master style has grown Dimension 20 into one of Dropouts most successful shows. But its also show him to be willing to run with wild ideas while also nurturing players that have never rolled a 20 sided dice in their lives before.My D&D story starts with improv like everyone on this team, said Beardsley. Im working my first LA comedy job. My co-worker was like I want to make a D&D show, will you be in it? Ive never played before and Brennan said It will be fine. Youll be truly great. So my first ever game of D&D is recorded and thats the first episode of Dimension 20.I wanted to play D&D my whole life, said Wilson. I used to go to Barnes & Noble and look at the Monster Manual. I had no ideal what was going on but I loved the pictures. When I moved to LA after college I got serious about it. I found one DM, we got together and played. Pretty quickly, I was having philosophical conversations about slavery, because it existed in the world, with a buch of white guys at the table and that was not it. I walked away from D&D for a bit. Then I asked a girl out on a date. She said no but asked to join her improv team. I met Brennan Lee Mulligan on that team. I told him about my dream to play. He said he would love to run it for me and all I had to do was bring snacks.I was at a birthday pary, Siobhan [Thompsons] birthday party, said Oyama. Me and Siobhan had been working at College Humor for a bit. She knew other people from New York comedy scene that were at this birthday party. I turned around into a conversation with Brennan, Siobhan, Emily [Axford] and Murph [Brian Murphy] talking about playing D&D. It seemed intriguing. We started a home game with that crew. I was shocked that I had never played before. I liked fantasy stuff and grew up playing RPGs like Final Fantasy VII. I probably played the first half of Final Fantasy VII like 30 times. When we started playing this home game it was just hitting all my interests. I couldnt have a better first DM than Brennan.

You dont need to spend more than $1,000 when buying a new gaming desktop, and you can spend much lower than that if you take advantage of the discounts from gaming PC deals. Amazon has an offer for the Acer Nitro 50 that you wouldnt want to miss: $100 in savings off its original price of $800, so youll only have to pay $700 for this machine. It wont stay at 13% off for much longer though, so you better hurry and buy the gaming desktop right now.The Acer Nitro 50 is a decent choice for playing the best PC games, as its powered by the 14th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card, and 16GB of RAM that will be enough for most gamers, according to our guide on how to buy a gaming desktop. Its not going to challenge the performance of the top-of-the-line models of the best gaming PCs, and it may struggle to run upcoming PC games at their highest settings, but the Acer Nitro 50 is an excellent and affordable option that will let you explore the world of PC gaming.For a budget-friendly gaming PC, the Acer Nitro 50 offers a lot of storage space with its 1TB SSD, so youll be able to install several games at the same time. You can start doing so right after hooking up the gaming desktop to the necessary peripherals as it ships with Windows 11 Home. The Acer Nitro 50 even comes with a keyboard and mouse, so youll only need a gaming monitor to get the party going, and you can connect all the accessories that you need through its host of USB-A and USB-C ports.RelatedThe Acer Nitro 50 is already a relatively affordable gaming desktop at its sticker price of $800, so you wouldnt want to miss this chance to get it for only $700 following a $100 discount from Amazon. The Acer Nitro 50 gaming PC is a steal for this special price at 13% off, so you need to act fast and complete your transaction for it if you dont want to miss out on the savings. However, if you prefer portability from your gaming machine, you should check out the gaming laptop deals that weve rounded up.Editors Recommendations

What if you tell an AI chatbot to search the web, look up a certain kind of source, and then create a detailed report based on all the information it has gleaned? Well, Gemini can do it, for $20 a month. Or $200 each month, if you prefer ChatGPT.Perplexity will do it for free. A few times each day, that is. Perplexity is calling its latest tool, Deep Research. Just like OpenAI. And Google Gemini before it.Recommended VideosSo, whats the fuss all about? Think of it as a research assistant, who takes the drudgery of looking up sources, taking notes, and then handing over a well-prepared report. Performing a task like that takes a lot of computing power, and as a result, it is expensive. Perplexity will offer an unlimited number of Deep Research queries to its subscribers, but free users can enjoy a limited number of answers per day.PerplexityIt excels at a range of expert-level tasksfrom finance and marketing to product researchand attains high benchmarks on Humanitys Last Exam, says the company. Deep Research by Perplexity is currently limited to the web, but will soon arrive on Android and iOS mobile apps, as well.To launch a Deep Research query, users will have to select the namesake option from the model selection dropdown, right by the text field. Once the research work is over, users will be able to export it directly as a document or PDF file.Theres also an option to convert it into an online Perplexity Page, which is shareable with anyone as a web link. In Geminis case, you can directly import it to Google Docs, as well.PerplexityThe company claims Perplexity Deep Research is better than Googles Gemini model with Thinking capabilities, OpenAIs o3-mini and o1 models, and the buzzy new DeepSeek-R1 model. It only ranks below OpenAI Deep Research on the Humanitys Last Exam benchmark.Ive extensively used Gemini Deep Research for looking through scientific papers and archives, and it does a fantastic job of pulling up the relevant information and simplifying it. It is also particularly effective at pulling up notices from government agencies and handles legal updates quite well.OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, also confirmed a few days ago that the company will offer two Deep Research queries to free users per month. For those paying a $20 monthly fee for ChatGPT Plus, they will get 10 Deep Research shots each month.Editors Recommendations

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Dark day The country is less safe: CDC disease detective program gutted CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service is as critical to public health as it is revered. Beth Mole Feb 14, 2025 5:41 pm | 14 Credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images Credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe cadre of elite disease detectives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to be left in ruin today as the Trump administration continues to slash the federal workforce.Many members of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service, EISa globally revered public health training programwere informed earlier Friday that they were about to be fired, according to reporting from Stat News. Multiple sources told CBS News that half of EIS officers are among the ongoing cuts.The Trump administration is ousting thousands of probationary federal workers in a wide-scale effort to dramatically slim agencies.The EIS is a two-year program filled with competitively selected, highly educated and trained experts. EIS officers are the ones deployed in critical public health situations, such as deadly outbreaks or bioterror attacks. The program has a long, rich history since its establishment in 1951, which includes contributing to the eradication of smallpox, among other achievements.The deep cuts to the program have horrified those in the public health sphere."The country is less safe," Dr. Anne Schuchat, a former top-ranking CDC official and alumna of the program, told CBS News. "These are the deployable assets critical for investigating new threats, from anthrax to Zika.""Its almost beyond belief," former CDC director Bill Foege told Stat. He noted that the EIS trainees were critical to stopping the spread of the disastrous West Africa Ebola outbreak of 20142016.The cuts to EIS are just some of those that CDC is facing. CBS News reports that around 1,270 are being cut from the agency, which is around 10 percent of its staff.Beth MoleSenior Health ReporterBeth MoleSenior Health Reporter Beth is Ars Technicas Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes. 14 Comments