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OpenAI lands $200 million US defense contract

What just happened? The Department of Defense has awarded a one-year, $200 million contract to OpenAI to develop advanced artificial intelligence tools aimed at addressing critical national security challenges "in both warfighting and enterprise domains." The deal was announced Monday in the DoD's daily list of newly awarded contracts. The Department of Defense said OpenAI will receive $2 million immediately for research and development purposes. The company will also use the funds to test and

Resurrecting a dead torrent tracker and finding 3M peers

So I was uh, downloading some linux isos, like usual. It was going slowly, so I opened up the Trackers tab in qBittorrent and saw the following: Most of the trackers were totally dead. Either the hosts were down or the domains weren’t being used. That got me thinking. What if I picked up one of these dead domains? How many clients would try to connect? What are trackers for, anyways? A tracker is a core component of the BitTorrent protocol. Trackers are the services that point you to other p

This 1-800 number will generate ChatGPT images, if for some reason you need that

The discourse around artificial intelligence has all been about pursuing the bleeding edge, pushing the tech into the future as fast as possible. So maybe it should be refreshing that OpenAI's latest announcement feels almost quaintly analog. Starting today, users can tap into the company's image generation by texting 1-800-ChatGPT on WhatsApp. The post on X announcing this new option for using the ChatGPT AI chatbot specifies that the feature is "now available to everyone." I'm not sure what p

ChatGPT search just got smarter - but can it replace Google for you yet?

Dmitry Kovalchuk/Getty Watch out, Google. OpenAI has beefed up its ChatGPT search tool to try to win over more people. And it may be working. In a new support article published last Friday, OpenAI described a recent upgrade designed to improve the quality and performance of its search option. In general, ChatGPT search has been enhanced to provide more comprehensive and up-to-date responses. Based on its own testing, OpenAI said that users preferred the new search process over the previous exp

OpenAI weighs “nuclear option” of antitrust complaint against Microsoft

OpenAI executives have discussed filing an antitrust complaint with US regulators against Microsoft, the company's largest investor, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, marking a dramatic escalation in tensions between the two long-term AI partners. OpenAI, which develops ChatGPT, has reportedly considered seeking a federal regulatory review of the terms of its contract with Microsoft for potential antitrust law violations, according to people familiar with the matter. The potential antitr

Fleet lands $27M Series B to expand open device management with cloud and self-hosting flexibility

Device management vendor Fleet has raised $27 million in Series B funding to accelerate development of its open device management platform. The round was led by Ten Eleven Ventures and brings Fleet’s total funding to $52.3 million. The company reports 6x revenue growth over the past two years and plans to use the funding to expand adoption across enterprises looking for flexible deployment options. Some of my favorite gear eufyCam 2C Upgrade your home security with wireless cameras that include

OpenAI awarded $200 million US defense contract for the use of its AI models

OpenAI has just launched an initiative called OpenAI For Government starting with a modest new contract. The company was awarded $200 million by the US Department of Defense (DoD) to develop "prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains," according to the DoD's website. The contract is the DoD's first with OpenAI. It will last a year and take place largely in an area that includes Washington, DC and nearby countie

OpenAI and Microsoft Execs Reportedly Considering the ‘Nuclear Option’

OpenAI and Microsoft like to present themselves as the power couple of Silicon Valley, but behind closed doors, it’s looking increasingly like a distraught and loveless marriage. The two companies, which are bound together by cash flows and an entwined product base, have been undergoing a turbulent negotiation surrounding OpenAI’s desire for a shorter leash and the opportunity to turn itself into a for-profit company. Microsoft appears to be resistant to some of those goals. Now, a new report cl

Best Open Earbuds, Tested and Reviewed (2025): Bose and More

Open earbuds (AKA open-ear buds) are among the fastest-growing trends in audio. Thanks to their distinctive design that keeps your ear canals clear, the best open earbuds let you enjoy your favorite music or media while staying naturally aware of the world. Without any way to block ambient sounds, these probably can't be your everything buds, but they will let you hear everything. We’ve tested dozens of open-ear gadgets, from clip-on buds to audio glasses and everything in between. These are our

OpenAI awarded $200 million US defense contract

OpenAI is officially on the Pentagon’s payroll. The Department of Defence announced a $200 million contract with OpenAI to provide the US government with new artificial intelligence tools, including those used for proactive cyber defense. In a post outlining its latest contracts, the DoD said that OpenAI “will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains.” The work will primarily be completed in the Washin

The cracks in the OpenAI-Microsoft relationship are reportedly widening

In Brief OpenAI and Microsoft may be reaching an inflection point in their relationship, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The report, citing anonymous sources, says OpenAI executives have considered publicly accusing Microsoft of anticompetitive behavior throughout their partnership. OpenAI executives also mulled whether to seek a federal regulatory review of their contract with Microsoft. OpenAI is trying to loosen Microsoft’s grip on its intellectual property and computin

OpenAI wins $200M U.S. defense contract

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Snowflake Summit in San Francisco on June 2, 2025. OpenAI has been awarded a $200 million contract to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial intelligence tools. The department announced the one-year contract on Monday, months after OpenAI said it would collaborate with defense technology startup Anduril to deploy advanced AI systems for "national security missions." "Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabil

OpenAI wins $200 million U.S. defense contract

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Snowflake Summit in San Francisco on June 2, 2025. OpenAI has been awarded a $200 million contract to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial intelligence tools. The department announced the one-year contract on Monday, months after OpenAI said it would collaborate with defense technology startup Anduril to deploy advanced AI systems for "national security missions." "Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabil

OpenTelemetry for Go: Measuring overhead costs

Everything comes at a cost — and observability is no exception. When we add metrics, logging, or distributed tracing to our applications, it helps us understand what’s going on with performance and key UX metrics like success rate and latency. But what’s the cost? I’m not talking about the price of observability tools here, I mean the instrumentation overhead. If an application logs or traces everything it does, that’s bound to slow it down or at least increase resource consumption. Of course,

Darklang Goes Open Source

As part of shutting down Dark Inc. and forming Darklang Inc. , we've finally open-sourced all of our repositories. Our source code is now under the Apache License 2.0. For years, we wrestled with questions of sustainability and how to build something that truly empowers developers. We've long believed in open source philosophically, but felt that Darklang's unique architecture and business model required a different approach. Why We Initially Chose Source-Available We originally designed Dark

German government moves closer to ditching Microsoft: "We're done with Teams!"

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years.TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust In brief: The long-running battle of Germany's northernmost state, Schleswig-Holstein, to make a complete switch from Microsoft software to open-source alternatives looks close to an end. Many government operatives will permanently wave goodbye to the likes of Teams, Word, Excel, and Outlook in the next three months in a move to ensure independence, sustainability, and security. Plans to go open-so

From Hello Barbie to ChatGPT: Mattel is bringing OpenAI's tech to children's toys

Not the Children: Life in plastic may be fantastic, but a touch of AI and chatbots can make even a child's toy better in today's market. Mattel seems convinced it can bring language models to a wider – and younger – audience, though its previous attempts with AI ended in an absolute privacy and security disaster. Mattel recently announced a new partnership with OpenAI, anticipating a major infusion of AI and chatbot services into its upcoming products. The world's second-largest toy maker (afte

Acefast Acefit Air Review: Sleek Style, Solid Substance

In the swelling tide of open earbuds, it can be easy to overlook an underdog. When Acefast’s Acefit Air first came to my attention, they seemed like any other pair of budget ear hooks, the baseline design for buds that let you listen to tunes while keeping your ears open to the world. I was delightfully surprised once I got them out of the box, starting with their spyware-thin charging case harboring stylishly slim buds with a touch of metallic flair. The Acefit Air’s daily performance is simil

ChatGPT Plus Review: A Feature-Rich AI Chatbot That's Great for Research

CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. 9.0 / 10 SCORE ChatGPT Plus Review Pros Very accurate Powerful reasoning models that are great for research Voice mode for long chats Long-term memory Robust image generation Document and image analysis Custom GPT creation Suite of tools for more niche tasks Cons Can still hallucinate ChatGPT has completely changed how I do my job. Over the past ye

Yet another European government is ditching Microsoft for Linux - here's why

querbeet/Getty Images "We're done with Teams!" declared Digitalisation Minister Dirk Schrödter, speaking via an open-source video platform, in his announcement that the German state of Schleswig-Holstein will phase out all Microsoft software from government workplaces. The goal is to fully transition from Microsoft programs to Linux and open-source programs within the next three months. Also: I found a Linux distro that combines the best parts of other operating systems (and it works) The dec

ChatGPT Search gets an upgrade as OpenAI takes aim at Google

On June 13, OpenAI began rolling out a new ChatGPT Search update to improve quality as the AI startup challenges Google’s dominance. ChatGPT Search has been around for about a year and allows users to search the web more effectively than Google. It tries to summarize content from websites to provide quick answers and includes links to sources so you can fact-check everything. “This blends the benefits of a natural language interface with the value of up-to-date sports scores, news, stock quot

How easy is it for a developer to "sandbox" a program?

# source code sandboxing Sandboxing is when a developer limits available system resources to a program from within its own source code. A classic example is calling chroot(2) to change the root file-system to an empty directory so that the program cannot scribble into the root file-system. int main(void) { /* Program has full file-system access. */ chroot("/var/empty"); chdir("/"); /* File-system root re-rooted in /var/empty. */ int fd = open("/etc/passwd", O_RDONLY); /* Tried to open /var/empty

These are the 10 open source Android apps I install on every new phone

Andy Walker / Android Authority There are a few apps I must install on any new Android phone. Without them, using my handset would be quite challenging. These include the usual suspects like shopping and banking apps, browsers, AI search tools, and WhatsApp. Surprisingly, I also rely heavily on open-source apps. A quick count shows that over a dozen of my apps are open source, many of which enhance my phone experience. How many open source apps do you have on your phone? 324 votes None. 24 % 1

What Is Open Source?

I published a version of this article on Medium eight years ago. This version is updated with new references and arguments. Over the last few years, I’ve been a part of lots of discussions — across domains, from technology to journalism and education — about Silicon Valley and how technology business models are affecting other industries. Outside technology industry circles, there’s lots of talk about how open source software is a more respectful model. What’s missing from many of these discus

This Android notification exploit could trick you into opening some very unfriendly links (Updated)

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR A bug in Android notifications can cause the “Open link” button to open a different link than the one displayed. Hidden characters in the messages can confuse the system, causing it to open a link that only makes up a part of the one in the displayed notification. Until Google issues a fix, it’s safest to avoid using the “Open link” button and open links manually in the app. Update, June 13, 2025 (5:19 PM ET): Google has reached out to Android Authority w

Why ads are coming to your favorite AI bots and you've only got yourself to blame

Bloomberg Intelligence Most consumers don't want to pay to chat with a chatbot, according to a recent poll by Bloomberg Intelligence. That means advertising -- rather than subscription-based services -- will be the route to monetizing large language models. "The propensity to pay for generative-AI tools remains low," writes the author, Mandeep Singh, Bloomberg Intelligence senior industry analyst, with the help of Damian Reimertz, contributing analyst, in the report, "Generative AI's trillion-

Computing’s Top 30: Deven Panchal

Leading a global open source project with hundreds of contributors across borders, cultures, platforms, and organizations is a prospect fraught with challenges. Deven Panchal is well aware of those challenges, having led two such projects for AT&T Labs: Acumos, the world’s first open source AI marketplace ONAP, which allowed developers to embed AI into the design and deployment of network, telecom, and security services To manage—if not avoid—the myriad complications entailed by such endeavo

Silicon Valley tech execs are joining the US Army Reserve

In Brief Chief technology officers (CTOs) from companies, including Palantir, Meta and OpenAI, are taking part-time roles in the U.S. Army Reserve. In October, the U.S. Defense Department put out the call to top Silicon Valley talent to take high-ranking positions in the U.S. Army Reserve so they could periodically be tapped for short-term projects in areas like data and cybersecurity, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. Now, eight months later, Silicon Valley is reporting for duty.

This Android notification exploit could trick you into opening some very unfriendly links

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR A bug in Android notifications can cause the “Open link” button to open a different link than the one displayed. Hidden characters in the messages can confuse the system, causing it to open a link that only makes up a part of the one in the displayed notification. Until Google issues a fix, it’s safest to avoid using the “Open link” button and open links manually in the app. You might want to think twice before tapping that link in your Android notificati

They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling

“You want to know the ironic thing? I wrote my son’s obituary using ChatGPT,” Mr. Taylor said. “I had talked to it for a while about what had happened, trying to find more details about exactly what he was going through. And it was beautiful and touching. It was like it read my heart and it scared the shit out of me.” ‘Approach These Interactions With Care’ I reached out to OpenAI, asking to discuss cases in which ChatGPT was reinforcing delusional thinking and aggravating users’ mental health