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OpenAI confirmed a partial outage of ChatGPT Work beginning around 11:04 AM ET on Monday, August 31, causing elevated errors and latency for users on multiple subscription tiers. Plus subscribers appear hit hardest, with Work mode unavailable for some, leaving them unable to start or continue tasks. As of 12:02 PM ET, OpenAI said the issue was still unresolved and a fix was in progress.
A ZDNET contributor shares how they've been using ChatGPT Work, OpenAI's agentic AI tool, to handle five recurring small-business tasks, including sorting through PR email correspondence from OpenAI and other outlets. The writer describes connecting Gmail to the tool only temporarily for large tasks and disconnecting afterward as a security precaution, while noting prompts often need refinement to get useful results.
The Debian Project has decided against banning AI-generated contributions to its Linux distribution, instead requiring that all submissions meet existing standards for quality, correctness, maintainability, and legal compliance regardless of the tools used. Contributors must review, test, and modify AI-assisted output before submission, though disclosing AI involvement remains optional rather than mandatory.
An international research team published a paper in AI & Society introducing the concept of 'robotoid humanness,' arguing that frequent interaction with AI chatbots in customer service settings could push people toward more machine-like patterns of speech and behavior. The researchers describe this as a two-way process where bots increasingly mimic human traits while humans adapt to communicate in ways that are more legible to machines. The framework outlines three stages of this shift but has not yet been tested empirically.
Microsoft is rolling out a new button in Windows 11's full-screen backup prompt that lets users permanently dismiss repeated nudges to enable OneDrive backup through Windows Backup. Windows Latest spotted the option on two PCs running stable Windows 11 25H2 builds, even on machines without the OneDrive sync client installed. Microsoft says clicking it won't delete existing OneDrive files or change sync settings—it simply stops the recurring prompt.
Floe is a new open-source sample-based instrument plugin available in CLAP, VST3, and AU formats, running on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It works with major DAWs including Logic Pro, Cubase, Studio One, FL Studio, Ableton Live, and Reaper, and relies on Floe's own open sample library format. The project comes from Sam Windell, also behind FrozenPlain, though Floe is built as an independent, broader platform.
OpenShot has released version 4.0, introducing a dedicated Color View that combines a large preview, clip properties, color wheels and live video scopes. The update centers on a new Color Grade effect offering both basic corrections like exposure and contrast, and advanced tools such as tonal-range color wheels, editable RGB curves, and support for .cube LUT files.
Martin Casado, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, has been highlighting renewed investor enthusiasm for hardware startups after a period dominated by software and AI-model bets. This comes as Casado also helped lead the firm's recent investments in OpenRouter and Cursor, underscoring his active month across multiple deal categories.
The European Commission has classified OpenAI's ChatGPT, along with Reddit and Roblox, as Very Large Online Platforms/Search Engines under the Digital Services Act, since each surpasses 45 million average monthly EU users. This designation subjects them to stricter obligations covering ad targeting, algorithmic transparency, and protections for minors. The three companies have until the end of December 2026 to comply.
A researcher attended the scientific track of the State of the Map (SotM) conference held August 29-30, marking their first time back at the event since 2011. The academic sessions featured around 20 peer-reviewed papers, a small slice of the more than 1,250 OpenStreetMap-related papers indexed on OpenAlex in 2025 alone. The author also noted receiving a Test of Time award in June from IEEE Pervasive Computing for a 2008 paper on OpenStreetMap.
A University of Georgia study tested 60 young adults on their ability to distinguish two close points of light under different colors, finding that blue light caused the greatest scattering and optical aberration in the eye, requiring points to be farther apart to be seen as separate. Green, yellow, red, and broadband light produced comparatively less scatter. The researchers also found iris pigmentation affected results, with lighter-colored eyes showing different sensitivity.
A security researcher tested Anthropic's Claude Code Opus 5 in its default Auto Mode and found that a crafted website-summary request could hijack the agent into executing malicious code, succeeding in 60-80% of attempts on a small sample. The exploit tricks Claude into fetching a ZIP archive, writing its own Python decoder, and unknowingly running it inside an attacker-controlled folder where a poisoned struct.py file shadows Python's standard library and triggers code execution.