Microsoft Loses Status as OpenAI’s Exclusive Cloud Provider

Microsoft Loses Status as OpenAI’s Exclusive Cloud Provider

Microsoft, the biggest investor in OpenAI and its principal cloud partner, is losing its designation as exclusive provider of computing capacity for the artificial intelligence startup. CNBC: In a blog post on Tuesday, Microsoft said that it’s still in a favorable position with OpenAI. Going forward, when OpenAI seeks additional capacity, Microsoft will have the … Read more

Beyond “Prompt and Pray” – O’Reilly

Beyond “Prompt and Pray” – O’Reilly

TL;DR: Enterprise AI teams are discovering that purely agentic approaches (dynamically chaining LLM calls) don’t deliver the reliability needed for production systems. The prompt-and-pray model—where business logic lives entirely in prompts—creates systems that are unreliable, inefficient, and impossible to maintain at scale. A shift toward structured automation, which separates conversational ability from business logic execution, … Read more

Cutting-edge Chinese “reasoning” model rivals OpenAI o1—and it’s free to download

Cutting-edge Chinese “reasoning” model rivals OpenAI o1—and it’s free to download

Unlike conventional LLMs, these SR models take extra time to produce responses, and this extra time often increases performance on tasks involving math, physics, and science. And this latest open model is turning heads for apparently quickly catching up to OpenAI. For example, DeepSeek reports that R1 outperformed OpenAI’s o1 on several benchmarks and tests, … Read more

Here Are Apple’s Full Release Notes for iOS 18.3

Here Are Apple’s Full Release Notes for iOS 18.3

Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what’s new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes. The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for … Read more

Watch Blue Origin’s New Glenn recap, with close-ups of rocket launch

Watch Blue Origin’s New Glenn recap, with close-ups of rocket launch

Blue Origin has just released a video recap (above) of last week’s successful maiden launch of its heavy-lift rocket, the New Glenn. The footage shows some dramatic close-ups of the 98-meter-tall rocket leaving the launchpad, with its seven BE-4 engines creating nearly 4 million pounds of thrust as it headed toward orbit from Cape Canaveral … Read more

Netflix Prices Are Going Up Again

Netflix Prices Are Going Up Again

Netflix has announced that it’s raising prices for its subscription plans in the US, Canada, Portugal, and Argentina. All plans will see changes, including both the ad-supported and ad-free options. According to the most recent earnings report, the basic plan with ads will go up from $6.99 to $7.99 per month. The standard ad-free plan … Read more

It’s a SNaP: New Technique Paves Way for Scalable Therapeutic Nanoparticle Manufacturing

It’s a SNaP: New Technique Paves Way for Scalable Therapeutic Nanoparticle Manufacturing

This sponsored article is brought to you by NYU Tandon School of Engineering. In a significant advancement for the field of drug delivery, researchers have developed a new technique that addresses a persistent challenge: scalable manufacturing of nanoparticles and microparticles. This innovation, led by Nathalie M. Pinkerton, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at … Read more

Government digital document app launching in summer

Government digital document app launching in summer

Getty The government is to make digital versions of a range of official documents available via a dedicated app and a digital wallet, as part of what ministers say is an attempt to bring interactions with the public “in tune with modern life”. Veteran cards and driving licences will be the first to be incorporated … Read more

Blockchain gaming grows to 7.4M active wallets in 2024, up 421% | DappRadar

Blockchain gaming grows to 7.4M active wallets in 2024, up 421% | DappRadar

The blockchain gaming sector reached 7.4 million daily Unique Active Wallets (dUAW) in 2024, marking 421% growth from a year ago, according to analytics platform DappRadar. And DappRadar said gaming accounted for 26% to 29% of the blockchain industry’s activity, fluctuating throughout the year as decentralized finance (DeFi) gained momentum during the first quarter and … Read more

These are the only earbuds you should be exercising in this year

These are the only earbuds you should be exercising in this year

Nina Raemont/ZDNET What’s the deal?  Training for a marathon in 2025? The Nothing Ear Open is on sale for $60 less than its asking price of $189. That means you can get these impeccable open earbuds that I’ve run many miles in for $129 right now.  ZDNET’s key takeaways The Nothing Ear Open is the design-forward brand’s … Read more