Ilya Sutskever has announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he's leaving OpenAI almost a decade after he co-founded the company. He's confident that OpenAI "will build [artificial general intelligence] that is both safe and beneficial" under the leadership of CEO Sam Altman, President Greg Brockman and CTO Mira Murati, he continued. In his own post about Sutskever's departure, Altman called him "one of the greatest minds of our generation" and credited him for his work with the company. Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI's previous Director of Research who headed the development of GPT-4 and OpenAI Five, has taken Sutskever's role as Chief Scientist. 

While Sutskever and Altman praised each other in their farewell messages, the two were embroiled in the company's biggest scandal last year. In November, OpenAI's board of directors suddenly fired Altman and company President Greg Brockman. "[T]he board no longer has confidence in [Altman's] ability to continue leading OpenAI," the ChatGPT-maker announced back then. Sutskever, who was a board member, was involved in their dismissal and was the one who asked both Altman and Brockman to separate meetings where they were informed that they were being fired. According to reports that came out at the time, Altman and Sutskever had been butting heads when it came to how quickly OpenAI was developing and commercializing its generative AI technology. 

Both Altman and Brockman were reinstated just five days after they were fired, and the original board was disbanded and replaced with a new one. Shortly before that happened, Sutskever posted on X that he "deeply regre[tted his] participation in the board's actions" and that he will do everything he can "to reunite the company." He then stepped down from his role as a board member, and while he remained Chief Scientist, The New York Times says he never really returned to work. 

Sutskever shared that he's moving on to a new project that's "very personally meaningful" to him, though he has yet to share details about it. As for OpenAI, it recently unveiled GPT-4o, which it claims can recognize emotion and can process and generate output in text, audio and images.

Google has introduced another capability for its Circle to Search feature at the company's annual I/O developer conference, and it's something that could help students better understand potentially difficult class topics. The feature will now be able to show them step-by-step instructions for a "range of physics and math word problems." They just have to activate the feature by long-pressing the home button or navigation bar and then circling the problem that's got them stumped, though some math problems will require users to be signed up for Google's experimental Search Labs feature.

The company says Circle to Search's new capability was made possible by its new family of AI models called LearnLM that was specifically created and fine-tuned for learning. It's also planning to make adjustments to this particular capability and to roll out an upgraded version later this year that could solve even more complex problems "involving symbolic formulas, diagrams, graphs and more." Google launched Circle to Search earlier this year at a Samsung Unpacked event, because the feature was initially available on Galaxy 24, as well as on Pixel 8 devices. It's now also out for the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S22, Z Fold, Z Flip, Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 devices, and it'll likely make its way to more hardware in the future. 

In addition to the new Circle to Search capability, Google has also revealed that devices that can support the Gemini for Android chatbot assistant will now be able to bring it up as an overlay on top of the application that's currently open. Users can then drag and drop images straight from the overlay into apps like Gmail, for instance, or use the overlay to look up information without having to swipe away from whatever they're doing. They can tap "Ask this video" to find specific information within a YouTube video that's open, and if they have access to Gemini Advanced, they can use the "Ask this PDF" option to find information from within lengthy documents. 

Google is also rolling out multimodal capabilities to Nano, the smallest model in the Gemini family that can process information on-device. The updated Gemini Nano, which will be able to process sights, sounds and spoken language, is coming to Google's TalkBack screen reader later this year. Gemini Nano will enable TalkBack to describe images onscreen more quickly and even without an internet connection. Finally, Google is currently testing a Gemini Nano feature that can alert users while a call is ongoing if it detects common conversation patterns associated with scams. Users will be alerted, for instance, if they're talking to someone asking them for their PINs or passwords or to someone asking them to buy gift cards. 

Catch up on all the news from Google I/O 2024 right here!

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SEI) has announced a new leadership structure that puts two people in charge of different parts of its business. Hideaki Nishino, who is currently serving as the SVP for the Platform Experience Group, will become the CEO of SIE's Platform Business Group starting on June 1. On the same day, Hermen Hulst will take on the role of CEO for SIE's Studio Business Group after serving as SVP and Head of PlayStation Studios. 

The two executives are stepping into their roles after Jim Ryan decided to leave his seat as SEI's CEO in March. When he announced his departure, he said he was finding it "increasingly difficult" to juggle his home life in the UK and his job that's located in the US. Ryan helped establish the company's presence in Europe and oversaw the launch of the PlayStation 5 in the midst of the pandemic. Both Nishino and Hulst will report to interim CEO Hiroki Totoki, who will take a step back and continue his role as Chairman of SIE as as well as President, COO and CFO of Sony Group Corporation. 

Nishino currently leads the team that develops all the experiences and tech for PlayStation services and products. He'll continue being responsible for those, but he will also oversee the company's work with third-party publishers and developers. Nishino will be in charge of SIE's commercial operations, including sales and marketing for all PlayStation hardware, services and peripherals, as well. Meanwhile, Hulst has been heading efforts for content development across PlayStation consoles and PCs. He's also in charge of the development of video game adaptations for movies and TV, such as The Last of Us. In the future, he will be "responsible for the development, publishing, and business operations of SIE's first-party content."

Lawmakers from opposites sides of the aisle are looking to sunset Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, because it has "outlived its usefulness." House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers and ranking member Frank Pallone, Jr. have released a bipartisan draft legislation introducing their proposed bill, which is seeking to render the provision ineffective after December 31, 2025. In the op-ed piece the lawmakers wrote for The Wall Street Journal, they admitted that Section 230 "helped shepherd the internet from the 'you've got mail' era into today's global nexus of communication and commerce." However, they said that big tech companies are now exploiting the same law to "shield them from any responsibility or accountability as their platforms inflict immense harm on Americans, especially children."

They added that the lawmakers who previously tried to address issues with Section 230 didn't succeed because tech companies refused any meaningful cooperation. Their bill would compel tech companies to work with government officials for 18 months to conjure and enact a new legal framework to replace the current version of Section 230. The new law will still allow for free speech and innovation, but it will also encourage the companies "to be good stewards of their platforms." Rodgers and Pallone said that their bill will give companies the choice between ensuring the internet is "a safe, healthy place for good" and losing their Section 230 protections altogether. 

Section 230 shields online publishers from liability when it comes to content posted by their users. Companies like Meta and Google have repeatedly used it in the past to get lawsuits dismissed, but it has come under intense scrutiny in recent years. Last year, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that would amend the section to require big platforms to pull down content within four days if they were deemed illegal by courts. Another bipartisan group also proposed a "No Section 230 Immunity for AI Act," which seeks to hold companies like OpenAI liable for harmful content, such as deepfake images or audio created to ruin somebody's reputation. 

If you've been seeing more Waymo robotaxis recently in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, that's because more and more people are hailing one for a ride. The Alphabet-owned company has announced on Twitter/X that it's now serving more than 50,000 paid trips every week across three cities. Waymo One operates 24/7 in parts of those cities. If the company is getting 50,000 rides a week, that means it receives an average of 300 bookings every hour or five bookings every minute. Waymo has revealed, as well, that it's had over one million rider-only trips across four cities, including Austin, where it's currently offering limited rides to select members of the public.

In its announcement, Waymo credited its "safe and deliberate approach" to scaling its program for reaching the milestone. "We see people from all walks of life use our service to travel carefree, gain independence, reclaim their commute and more. Fully autonomous ride-hailing is a reality and a preferred mobility option for people navigating their cities every day," it added. 

While Waymo certainly seems to be doing better than Cruise, which only recently re-deployed some of its autonomous vehicles following a much-needed hiatus, it's had its share of controversies. In April, six Waymo robotaxis blocked traffic in a San Francisco freeway, and it was just one of the instances wherein the company's vehicles caused traffic blockage. Earlier this year, two Waymo vehicles crashed into the same pickup truck one after the other, because their software had incorrectly predicted the future movements of the truck. The company issued a software recall after the incident to fix the issue and prevent similar incidents from happening. 

In a couple of months, you'll be able to get Microsoft's mobile games from its own store. Xbox President Sarah Bond has revealed at the Bloomberg Technology Summit that the company is launching a web-based store where you can download its mobile games and get add-ons or in-app purchases at a discount. Bond said the company has decided to launch a browser-based store instead of an app to make it "accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what" so that you don't get "locked to a single ecosystem."

Microsoft will only host its own games to start with, which means it will feature a lot of titles from Activision Blizzard. If you'll recall, it snapped up the gaming developer and publisher in a $70 billion deal that closed last year. You'll most likely find Candy Crush Saga, which has apparently generated $20 billion in revenue since it launched in 2012, and Call of Duty's mobile games in the first batch of titles available for download. Bond said that Minecraft may also be one of the first games you can get. 

An Xbox spokesperson told Bloomberg that this is "just the first step in [the company's] journey to building a trusted app store with its roots in gaming." Microsoft plans to open the app store to third-party publishers in the future, though it didn't share a timeline for that goal. 

The company first announced its intention to launch a gaming store for Android and iOS devices last year shortly before rules under the EU's Digital Markets Act became applicable. To comply with DMA rules, Apple and Google have to allow third-party app stores to be accessible on their platforms and to offer alternative billing systems for purchases. They're also compelled to allow app sideloading, which will be a massive change for Apple, a company known for its "walled garden" approach to business. 

Operators of third-party app stores will get to avoid some of the fees Google and Apple charge, but they'd still have to pay the companies for bypassing their mobile platforms' official stores. Both tech giants have already outlined how they're changing things up to comply with the DMA regulations. The companies' rivals found the changes they're making insufficient, however, prompting the European Commission to start investigating their compliance plans. 

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a Class I recall for the t:connect mobile app on iOS, which is used to monitor and control the t:slim X2 insulin pump used by people with diabetes. It was supposedly the first smartphone app that can program insulin doses that the FDA had approved. The agency issued the highest level of recall it could, because the app had serious software problems that could've have caused life-threatening conditions or even death. In fact, while there were no mortalities reported, the FDA received 224 injury reports as of April 15. 

According to the agency, version 2.7 of the t:connect mobile app had a bug that initiated a cycle wherein the app would crash and then would be relaunched by the iOS platform again and again. That apparently led to excessive Bluetooth communication that would drain the pump's battery and cause it to shut down earlier than the user would expect. Insulin pumps like the t:slim X2 are designed to automatically deliver insulin under the user's skin at set time intervals and whenever needed. They're supposed to take on the burden of managing the user's sugar levels so that they can go about their day without having to stop and inject themselves or if they're prone to getting hypo or hyperglycemia. 

If a pump shuts down without warning and before the user expects it to, it could lead to the under-delivery of insulin. As the FDA explained in its recall, that could result in hyperglycemia and even diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication caused by the inability of the body to turn sugar into energy due to the lack of insulin. Tandem Diabetes Care, the company behind the app and the pump, sent all affected customers an emergency notice back in March. It advised them to update their app, to monitor their pump battery level closely and to carry backup insulin supplies. The FDA's recall notice could reach potentially affected customers who may not have seen the manufacturer's alerts, however, or who may have brushed it aside. Malfunctioning insulin pumps had been linked to multiple deaths in the past, so users may want to keep a close eye on theirs regardless of the brand. 

Netflix has added Sonic Mania Plus to its roster of games subscribers can access for free on mobile without ads or in-app purchases. The company first announced that it was going to add the title to its lineup, along with Game Dev Tycoon, back in December 2023. Sonic Mania Plus was developed for the franchise's 25th anniversary by fans known for their Sonic fangame creations and for their work in the ROM hacking community. It is frequently cited as one of the best Sonic games of all time ever since the original version was released in 2017. Sonic Mania Plus, which came out in 2018, includes additional content. Netflix says the version in its library will come with new levels and bosses, as well. 

On May 14th, Netflix is also adding the anniversary edition of Braid to its gaming lineup. Braid is a time-manipulation platformer, where players control a character called Tim who has to explore old memories across interconnected worlds to find and rescue a princess. Its anniversary edition features upgraded audio, new animation sequences, fully repainted graphics and more puzzles to solve, along with 15 hours of audio commentary discussing the game's development. 

In addition to those two titles, Netflix's gaming library is also getting top-down puzzle adventure Paper Trail on May 21 and a Stories game based on the series Virgin River on May 29. The 2019 platformer Katana Zero, which features a katana-wielding assassin in a dystopian setting, will also make its way to Netflix games, though the company doesn't have a date for its arrival yet. 

Disney has expanded its partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery to offer a streaming bundle sometime this summer. The companies have announced that they'll soon give people the option to pay for Disney+, Hulu and Max subscriptions together in the US. Hulu on Disney+ recently came out of beta, a few months after Disney took full ownership of the former late last year. An ad-free bundle with the two services costs $20, while a Max subscription without ads costs $16 a month. An offering with all three will most likely be cheaper than $36, and viewers will have the option to get their ad-supported versions if they want to pay even less. 

Disney's ESPN is also working with Warner Bros. Discovery, as well as Fox Sports, to launch a streaming sports service, the companies announced back in February. The joint service will stream sporting events from all the networks the companies own, including games from the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA.

"This new offering delivers for consumers the greatest collection of entertainment for the best value in streaming, and will help drive incremental subscribers and much stronger retention," said JB Perrette, the CEO and President for Warner Bros. Discovery's Global Streaming and Games. Indeed, subscribers might be less inclined to give up a bundle of three if ever they decide to cull the services they're paying for. As The New York Times notes, Disney has seen good results from its Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ bundle, so we can probably expect it to come up with more offerings like it. 

The companies have yet to reveal pricing and an exact release date for their new product, but they said it will be available for purchase on any of the streaming platforms' websites. Subscribers might also get notifications to get the bundle for an additional payment if they already have any of the services, similar to how Disney+ members get asked if they want to pay $2 more for Hulu content. 

Tencent and Remedy, the developer of Control and Alan Wake, have completely scrapped their joint gaming project codenamed Kestrel, which they have been working on since 2021. The companies were originally developing a free-to-play co-op shooter until they decided to go in a different direction in November last year. They went back to the drawing board, renamed their project from Vanguard to Kestrel and had planned to make a "premium game with a strong, cooperative multiplayer component" instead. Back then, they said their game will "lean more into Remedy's core strengths" and will use repurposed versions of the company's assets and themes. Clearly, though, their partnership wasn't meant to be. 

In its announcement, Remedy said that the project's cancellation will allow it to give more attention to its other games in development. While it didn't list them out, the company is working on the sequel to Control that will be released for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, as well as on a franchise spin-off game currently known as Condor. It will reassign developers to its other game projects, and since it was going to co-finance Kestrel with Tencent, the project's cancellation means reduced investment and recruitment needs for the company.

Codename Kestrel was still in its early concept phase, Remedy's CEO Tero Virtala said in a statement, while the company's other projects have already "advanced well" and are moving on to the next stages in their development. "This is yet another means to ensure that our game projects continue advancing well," Virtala added.