From TechCrunch: OpenAI has sold $6.6 billion in shares held by current and former employees, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The sale pushed OpenAI’s total valuation to $500 billion, the highest ever achieved by a privately held company. Purchasers included SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment...

From PC World: Xbox Game Pass is getting a lot more expensive—up to 50 percent more expensive for the all-you-can-eat Ultimate tier—which is a problem for a service that appeals to players based on its relative affordability. It looks like Brad Chacos isn’t the only one cancelling before the higher...

From TechCrunch: Several current and former OpenAI researchers are speaking out over the company’s first foray into social media: the Sora app, a TikTok-style feed filled with AI-generated videos and a lot of Sam Altman deepfakes. The researchers, airing their grievances on X, seem torn over how the...

From TechCrunch: AI search startup Perplexity is making its new Comet browser available to everyone in the world for free as it works to position the product against big browsers and search engines. For certain paid subscribers, the startup has also launched a new “background assistant” to handle...

From The Verge: T-Mobile has expanded its satellite-to-cell service to several popular apps in the US, allowing users to stay connected without cellular coverage. The Starlink-powered “T-Satellite” service now supports WhatsApp, Google Maps, X, AccuWeather, and T-Mobile’s customer service app T-Life...

From TechCrunch: Google says hackers associated with a prolific ransomware group are sending extortion emails to executives at “numerous” large organizations after claiming to have stolen their sensitive information from a suite of business software products developed by Oracle.

In a statement...

From ExtremeTech: Microsoft is rolling out this year's Windows 11 update, 25H2. Despite the hype surrounding this release, most users will hardly see differences at first. That's because Windows 11 25H2 is called an "enablement package," meaning it turns on new options already in place within the...

From eWeek: OpenAI has released Sora 2, its new and improved video generation model. The standout feature is “cameos,” where users can place a realistic avatar of themselves, or any human, animal, or object, in a generated clip.

To generate a cameo, a user just needs to capture a short, one-time...

From The Verge: When Microsoft first launched its Copilot Pro plan last year and wanted an extra $20 a month on top of a Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription to get AI-powered Office features, it seemed like a tall ask. After bundling Office AI features into Microsoft 365 subscriptions...

From PC World: Elon Musk wants to develop an alternative online encyclopedia that’ll go by the name “Grokipedia.” It’ll be made with his AI company xAI, according to the announcement via social media post. The name is derived from Musk’s AI chatbot Grok, which—according to Musk—is designed to search...