Xorte logo

News Markets Groups

USA | Europe | Asia | World| Stocks | Commodities



Add a new RSS channel

 
 


Keywords

2026-01-16 20:28:31| Engadget

OpenAI plans to start testing ads inside of ChatGPT "in the coming weeks." In a blog post published Friday, the company said adult users in the US of its free and Go tiers (more on the latter in a moment) would start seeing sponsored products and services appear below their conversations with its chatbot. "Ads will be clearly labeled and separated from the organic answer," OpenAI said, adding any sponsored spots would not influence the answers ChatGPT generates. "Answers are optimized based on what's most helpful to you." OpenAI says people won't see ads appear when they're talking to ChatGPT about sensitive subjects like their health, mental state of mind or current politics. The company also won't show ads to teens under the age of 18. As for privacy, OpenAI states it won't share or sell your data with advertisers. The company will also give users the option to disable ad personalization and clear the data it uses to generate sponsored responses. "Well always offer a way to not see ads in ChatGPT, including a paid tier thats ad-free," OpenAI adds. Users can dismiss ads, at which point they'll be asked to explain why they didn't engage with it.   Users will be able to ask follow-up questions about sponsored content. OpenAI"Given what AI can do, we're excited to develop new experiences over time that people find more helpful and relevant than any other ads. Conversational interfaces create possibilities for people to go beyond static messages and links," OpenAI said. However, the company was also quick to note its "long-term focus remains on building products that millions of people and businesses find valuable enough to pay for."To that point, OpenAI said it would also make its ChatGPT Go subscription available to users in the US. The company first launched the tier in India last August, marketing it as a low-cost alternative to its more expensive Plus and Pro offerings. In the US, Go will cost $8 per month or $12 less than the monthly price of the Plus plan and offer 10 times higher rate limits for messages, file uploads and image creation than the free tier. The subscription also extends ChatGPT's memory and context window, meaning the chatbot will be better at remembering details from past conversations. That said, you'll see ads at this tier. To go ad-free, you'll need to subscribe to one of OpenAI's more expensive plans. For consumers, that means either the Plus or Pro plans.       According to reports, OpenAI had been testing ads inside of ChatGPT since at least the end of last year. As companies continue to pay a high cost for model training and inference, all chatbots are likely to feature ads in some form. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-is-bringing-ads-to-chatgpt-192831449.html?src=rss


Category: Marketing and Advertising

 

LATEST NEWS

2026-01-16 20:14:51| Engadget

Although X removed Groks ability to create nonconsensual digitally undressed images on the social platform, the standalone Grok app is another story. It reportedly continues to produce nudified deepfakes of real people. And now, Ashley St. Clair, a conservative political strategist and mother of one of Elon Musks 14 children, has sued xAI for nonconsensual sexualized images of her that Grok allegedly produced.In the court filing, St. Clair accused xAIs Grok chatbot of creating and disseminating deepfakes of her as a child stripped down to a string bikini, and as an adult in sexually explicit poses, covered in semen, or wearing only bikini floss. In some cases, the chatbot allegedly produced bikini-clad deepfakes of St. Clair based on a photo of her as a 14-year-old. People took pictures of me as a child and undressed me. Theres one where they undressed me and bent me over, and in the background is my childs backpack that hes wearing right now, she said.I am also seeing images where they add bruises to women, beat them up, tie them up, mutilated, St. Clair told The Guardian. These sickos used to have to go to the dark depths of the internet, and now it is on a mainstream social media app.St. Clair said that, after she reported the images to X, the social platform replied that the content didnt violate any policies. In addition, she claims that X left the images posted for up to seven days after she reported them. St. Clair said xAI then retaliated against her by creating more digitally undressed deepfakes of her, therefore making [St. Clair] the laughingstock of the social media platform.She accused the company of then revoking her X Premium subscription, verification checkmark and ability to monetize content on the platform. xAI further banned [her] from repurchasing Premium, St. Clairs court filing states.On Wednesday, X said it changed its policies so that Grok would no longer generate sexualized images of children or nonconsensual nudity in those jurisdictions where its illegal. However, the standalone Grok app reportedly continues to undress and sexualize photos when prompted to do so.Neither Apple nor Google has removed the Grok app despite explicit policy violations.Anna Moneymaker via Getty ImagesApple and Google have thus far done, well, absolutely nothing. Despite the multi-week outrage over the deepfakes  and an open letter from 28 advocacy groups neither company has removed the X or Grok apps from their app stores. Both the App Store and Play Store have policies that explicitly prohibit apps that generate such content.Neither Apple nor Google has responded to multiple requests for comment from Engadget. That includes a follow-up email sent on Friday, regarding the Grok app continuing to nudify photos of real women and other people.While Apple and Google fail to act, many governments have done the opposite. On Monday, Malaysia and Indonesia banned Grok. The same day, UK regulator Ofcom opened a formal investigation into X. California opened one on Wednesday. The US Senate even passed the Defiance Act for a second time in the wake of the blowback. If you are a woman, you cant post a picture, and you cant speak, or you risk this abuse, St. Clair told The Guardian. Its dangerous, and I believe this is by design. You are supposed to feed AI humanity and thoughts, and when you are doing things that particularly impact women, and they dont want to participate in it because they are being targeted, it means the AI is inherently going to be biased.Speaking about Musk and his team, she added that these people believe they are above the law, because they are. They dont think they are going to get in trouble, they think they have no consequences.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-mother-of-one-of-elon-musks-children-is-suing-xai-over-nonconsensual-deepfake-images-191451979.html?src=rss


Category: Marketing and Advertising

 

2026-01-16 19:46:36| Engadget

Last week at CES, Lego introduced its new Smart Play system, with a tech-packed Smart Brick that can recognize and interact with sets and minifigures. It was unexpected and delightful to see Lego come up with a way to modernize its bricks without the need for apps, screens or AI. So I was a little surprised this week when the Lego Education group announced its latest initiative is the Computer Science and AI Learning Solution. After all, generative AI feels like the antithesis of Legos creative values. But Andrew Silwinski, Lego Educations head of product experience, was quick to defend Legos approach, noting that being fluent in the tools behind AI is not about generating sloppy images or music and more about expanding what it means by teaching computer science.I think most people should probably know that we started working on this before ChatGPT [got big], Silwinski told Engadget earlier this week. Some of the ideas that underline AI are really powerful foundational ideas, regardless of the current frontier model that's out this week. Helping children understand probability and statistics, data quality, algorithmic bias, sensors, machine perception. These are really foundational core ideas that go back to the 1970s. To that end, Lego Education designed courses for grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8 that incorporate Lego bricks, additional hardware and lessons tailored to introducing the fundamentals of AI as an extension of existing computer science education. The kits are designed for four students to work together, with teacher oversight. Much of this all comes from learnings Lego found in a study it commissioned showing that teachers often find they dont have the right resources to teach these subjects. The study showed that half of teachers globally say current resources leave students bored while nearly half say computer science isnt relatable and doesnt connect to students interests or day to day. Given kids familiarity with Lego and the multiple decades of experience Lego Education has in putting courses like this together, it seems like a logical step to push in this direction. In Legos materials about the new courses, AI is far from the only subject covered. Coding, looping code, triggering events and sequences, if/then conditionals and more are all on display through the combination of Lego-built models and other hardware to motorize it. It feels more like a computer science course that also introduces concepts of AI rather than something with an end goal of having kids build a chatbot.In fact, Lego set up a number of red lines in terms of how it would introduce AI. No data can ever go across the internet to us or any other third party, Silwinski said. And that's a really hard bar if you know anything about AI. So instead of going to the cloud, everything had to be able to do local inference on, as Silwinski said, the 10-year-old Chromebooks youll see in classrooms. He added that kids can train their own machine learning models, and all of that is happening locally in the classroom, and none of that data ever leaves the student's device.Lego also says that its lessons never anthropomorphize AI, one of the things that is so common in consumer-facing AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and many more. One of the things we're seeing a lot of with generative AI tools is children have a tendency to see them as somehow human or almost magical. A lot of it's because of the conversational interface, it abstracts all the mechanics away from the child. Lego also recognized that it had to build a course thatll work regardless of a teachers fluency in such subjects. So a big part of developing the course was making sure that teachers had the tools they needed to be on top of whatever lessons theyre working on. When we design and we test the products, we're not the ones testing in the classroom, Silwinski said. We give it to a teacher and we provide all of the lesson materials, all of the training, all of the notes, all the presentation materials, everything that they need to be able to teach the lesson. Lego also took into account the fact that some schools might introduce its students to these things starting in Kindergarten, whereas others might skip to the grade 3-5 or 6-8 sets. To alleviate any bumps in the courses for students or teachers, Lego Education works with school districts and individual schools to make sure theres an on-ramp for those starting from different places in their fluency.While the idea of teaching AI seemed out of character for Lego initially, the approach its taking here actually reminds me a bit of Smart Play. With Smart Play, the technology is essentially invisible kids can just open up a set, start building, and get all the benefits of the new system without having to hook up to an app or a screen. In the same vein, Silwinski said that a lot of the work you can do with the Computer Science and AI kit doesnt need a screen, particularly the lessons designed for younger kids. And the sets themselves have a mode that acts similar to a mesh, where you connect numerous motors and sensors together to build incredibly complex interactions and behaviors without even needing a computer.For educators interested in checking out this latest course, Lego has single kits up for pre-order starting at $339.95; theyll start shipping in April. Thats the pricing for the K-2 sets, the 3-5 and 6-8 sets are $429.95 and $529.95, respectively. A single kit covers four students. Lego is also selling bundles with six kits, and school districts can also request a quote for bigger orders. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/legos-latest-educational-kit-seeks-to-teach-ai-as-part-of-computer-science-not-to-build-a-chatbot-184636741.html?src=rss


Category: Marketing and Advertising

 

Latest from this category

16.01Google is appealing the ruling from its search antitrust case to avoid sharing data with rivals
16.01CyberGhost VPN review: Despite its flaws, the value is hard to beat
16.01Anthropic opens up its Claude Cowork feature to anyone with a $20 subscription
16.01OpenAI is bringing ads to ChatGPT
16.01The mother of one of Elon Musk's children is suing xAI over nonconsensual deepfake images
16.01Lego's latest educational kit seeks to teach AI as part of computer science, not to build a chatbot
16.01Canada cuts tariffs on Chinese EVs as part of new deal
16.01X has been down for most of the morning
Marketing and Advertising »

All news

17.01Mother of Elon Musks child sues his AI company over sexual deepfake images created by Grok
17.01Jan 16, Goals for a Balanced Life: 6 Key Areas to Focus On Today
16.01Tesla granted more time in US investigation into its self-driving tech
16.01Donald Trump says he may punish countries with tariffs if they dont back the US controlling Greenland
16.01Google is appealing the ruling from its search antitrust case to avoid sharing data with rivals
16.01MLK Day and the Stock Market: What Traders Need to Know
16.01FDA commissioners drug review plan sparks alarm across the agency
16.01River Forest seeks feedback on plan for long-vacant Madison Street site
More »
Privacy policy . Copyright . Contact form .