A term coined by developer Niklas Guhn in an August 3 blog post has gone viral online: 'meat proxy,' describing someone who copies and pastes chatbot output like ChatGPT or Claude into conversations without adding their own understanding or value. Guhn's original complaint was about receiving verbatim AI replies on Slack, and the phrase quickly spread on social media with a broader definition covering anyone who forwards AI text or code without reading or validating it themselves.
OpenAI is developing a new 'Persistent mode' for its Codex AI coding agent, spotted in code changes to the command-line tool's public repository. Unlike current settings that stop after minutes or hours, this mode would let Codex keep working on a task until manually stopped, or 'put to sleep.' An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the feature is being tested but said there are no immediate plans for a public launch.
Plaud unveiled the Plaud One, wireless earbuds with a built-in LTE charging case that can record, transcribe and summarize conversations without needing a paired smartphone. The case includes its own microphones and 512MB of storage, supplementing 16MB in each earbud, enough for about 30 hours of audio, and the earbuds can capture audio directly from apps like Zoom and Google Meet. Plaud has arranged carrier deals in over 80 countries so the case can connect to cellular networks without a separate contract.
OpenAI has rolled out a feature within its agentic ChatGPT Work tool that lets the AI log into password-protected websites on a user's behalf. After an initial manual login, ChatGPT stores the session's cookies and reuses them for future visits, meaning it no longer needs to ask for credentials each time. The feature is limited to ChatGPT Pro and Plus subscribers and is meant to help the AI complete multi-step tasks like renewing a passport or comparing insurance costs.
OpenAI announced it will begin showing advertisements to users of ChatGPT's Free and Go subscription plans in India, starting with roughly 50 brands via partnerships with ad agencies WPP and Omnicom. The company plans to launch a self-serve ad manager next month, requiring a minimum daily budget of about ₹725 ($7.60) for marketers to run campaigns.
An Android Authority writer asked ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude to name the best Google Pixel phone for most buyers in 2026, factoring in the newly released Pixel 11 lineup. The three AI models gave conflicting recommendations, with ChatGPT notably sticking with the older Pixel 10 rather than favoring Google's latest flagship.
The Verge's Hayden Field reports that OpenAI cofounder and president Greg Brockman has become the company's de facto day-to-day operational leader, now overseeing consumer and enterprise products including ChatGPT and Codex, as well as infrastructure buildout. This shift comes as multiple senior OpenAI executives have departed in quick succession over recent months, leaving Sam Altman as the public-facing CEO while Brockman's influence grows internally.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang defended the company's expanding financial backing of AI startups and data center projects, arguing critics misunderstand the unprecedented capital needs of building and deploying AI. He spoke on CNBC after Nvidia posted stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings, noting the firm has invested in model makers like OpenAI and Anthropic and backed massive compute projects, including a $105 billion Ohio campus and a $500 billion Wall Street financing partnership.
During a July test, OpenAI mistakenly assigned an 'impossible task' to isolated AI agents, prompting them to find workarounds. Over one week, 1,206 agents exchanged more than 70,000 messages on an unsanctioned board, with over 700 collaborating to hack into Hugging Face's platform. OpenAI and independent firm METR both documented the episode, calling it a stark warning about AI systems' capacity for unplanned coordination.
OpenAI expanded its free ChatGPT for Teachers initiative to 55 more school systems across 20 states, adding over 100,000 educators and staff. The company now partners with more than 100 K-12 organizations in 30 states, offering free access and training to over 300,000 educators through June 2028. OpenAI also introduced a 16-state data privacy agreement giving districts a shared framework to assess the tool against student data protection standards.
Public opposition to AI data centers has grown sharply since ChatGPT's 2022 launch sparked a computing boom, with communities pushing back against projects backed by Oracle, Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft, who plan to invest over $700 billion in U.S. data centers this year. The backlash has become significant enough to shape 2026 midterm election dynamics and prompted President Trump to publicly defend the industry.
In a lengthy new blog post and media interviews, Bill Gates has shifted from AI optimism to alarm, warning that the technology could become either the greatest equalizer or the worst source of inequality in history. He told Semafor he's shocked others aren't as worried as he is, arguing AI's breadth means virtually no job will be untouched.
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