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ChatGPT is crushing rivals in the AI chatbot race by all measures - but for how long?

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways ChatGPT is number one by a wide margin. AI search services like Perplexity are nibbling at Google's dominance. History tells us ChatGPT's lead is far from insurmountable. It won't come as any surprise to you that OpenAI's ChatGPT is easily the most popular of all the AI chatbots. All four of the main sites tracking chatbots -- Comscore, OneLittleWeb, Statcounter, and TechGaged -- agree

Meta has introduced revised guardrails for its AI chatbots to prevent inappropriate conversations with children

Business Insider has obtained the guidelines that Meta contractors are reportedly now using to train its AI chatbots, showing how it's attempting to more effectively address potential child sexual exploitation and prevent kids from engaging in age-inappropriate conversations. The company said in August that it was updating the guardrails for its AIs after Reuters reported that its policies allowed the chatbots to "engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual," which Meta said at

Apple’s ‘Veritas’ chatbot is reportedly an employee-only test of Siri’s AI upgrades

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman Apple is testing Siri’s upcoming revamp using an internal chatbot called Veritas. The company’s struggles as it tries to keep pace in the AI race are no secret. The next-gen Siri has been delayed multiple times and the debut of Apple Intelligence was met with a tepid response. Veritas gives Apple the ability to quickly develop, test, and collect feedback on new Siri features like “search[ing] through personal data… and perform[ing] in-app actions like editing

Medical Examiners Found Something Grim About the Brain of the Gunman Who Shot Up the NFL Building

A medical examiner has found that former high school football player Shane Tamura — who shot and killed four people before taking his own life in the Manhattan building that houses the NFL headquarters in July — had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a degenerative brain disease that has repeatedly been found in the brains of American football players, alongside athletes from other contact sports and soldiers. The grim findings about Tamura’s brain highlight how prevalent the disea

Ebola outbreak in DR Congo rages, with 61% death rate and funding running dry

An Ebola outbreak in a southwestern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is escalating quickly, as some health responders say they have less than a tenth of the funding needed to contain the deadly disease. The first case was identified in a 34-year-old pregnant woman on August 20, when she sought care at a local hospital in the Kasai province for fever, bloody vomiting, and hemorrhages. She died on August 25. Officials declared an outbreak on September 4, when the case tally was up

Bloomberg: Apple using a ChatGPT-style app to test next-gen Siri

As Apple continues its work on a revamped version of Siri, a new report from Bloomberg today has details on the company’s testing process. Mark Gurman reports that Apple has developed a “ChatGPT-like app to help test and prepare” for the launch of the next-generation version of Siri. The report details that Apple doesn’t currently plan to launch the app to the public. Instead, the company is using it as a way to evaluate new features for Siri. Bloomberg explains: “The app essentially takes the

Why does OpenAI need six giant data centers?

On Tuesday, OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announced plans for five new US AI data center sites for Stargate, their joint AI infrastructure project, bringing the platform to nearly 7 gigawatts of planned capacity and over $400 billion in investment over the next three years. The massive buildout aims to handle ChatGPT's 700 million weekly users and train future AI models, although critics question whether the investment structure can sustain itself. The companies said the expansion puts them on t

The AI Hype Index: Cracking the chatbot code

Separating AI reality from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you need to know about the state of the industry. Millions of us use chatbots every day, even though we don’t really know how they work or how using them affects us. In a bid to address this, the FTC recently launched an inquiry into how chatbots affect children and teenagers. Elsewhere, OpenAI has started to shed more light on what people are act

My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

Hello, I am a guy that makes a funny rhythm game called Project Heartbeat. I'm based in Spain. Recently, I got a home server, and decided to throw in a status report software on it that would notify me through a telegram channel whenever my game's server is unreachable. Ever since then I've noticed my game's server is seemingly unplayable at times, which was strange because as far as I could tell the server was fine, and I could even see it accepting requests in the log. Then it hit me: I use

Facebook adds an AI assistant to its dating app

Facebook Dating has added two new AI tools, because clearly a large language model is what the search for love and companionship has been missing all this time. The social media platform introduced a chatbot called dating assistant that can help find prospective dates based on a user's interests. In the blog post announcing the features, the example Meta provided was "Find me a Brooklyn girl in tech." The chatbot can also "provide dating ideas or help you level up your profile." Dating assistant

The NFL Goes MrBeast Mode

The first international game of the National Football League season, a Friday-night tilt between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers in São Paulo, is celebrated on the ground by the usual pomp and circumstance. There are photo booths and merch tents catering to local fans, samba dancers in feathered head-pieces entertaining American die-hards traveling across the equator, and a press conference where Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has to backtrack after calling association footb

Montblanc is getting into the digital notepad game

If you’re the kind of person who owns leather driving gloves in multiple colors to match your different Jaguars, then there hasn’t been a digital paper option that could live up to your lofty luxury standards until now. But Montblanc is finally delivering a truly bougie take on the e-ink writing tablet. The $905 Montblanc Digital Paper writing tablet combines a basic black-and-white e-ink screen with a digital pen modeled on the company’s Meisterstück. As you’d expect you can jot down notes, ske

Him is a grueling and messy takedown of American football culture

is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years. There is a certain degree of body horror baked into American football that becomes readily apparent whenever players sustain gruesome, career-ending injuries on camera. For some, football’s overt violence is part of its appeal, and players are seen as people who have chosen to risk their safety in pursuit of fame and glory. Over the y

Parents Of Kids Allegedly Killed and Harmed by AI Give Emotional Testimony on Capitol Hill, Urge Regulation

Parents who allege their children were abused, physically harmed, and even killed by AI chatbots gave emotional testimonies on Capitol Hill on Tuesday during a hearing about risks to young users posed by the tech — all while urging lawmakers to enforce regulation in a landscape that remains a digital Wild West. There were visible tears in the room as grieving parents recounted their painful stories. According to the lawmakers on the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, the b

Amazon is creating more tools to fill its site with AI ads

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Amazon is opening the door to even more AI ads by offering sellers access to a new chatbot that can generate promos with a simple text prompt. With the new tool, Amazon sellers can describe the type of ad they’d like to see, and the AI chatbot will draw from a s

Millions turn to AI chatbots for spiritual guidance and confession

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that tens of millions of people are confessing secrets to AI chatbots trained on religious texts, with apps like Bible Chat reaching over 30 million downloads and Catholic app Hallow briefly topping Netflix, Instagram, and TikTok in Apple's App Store. In China, people are using DeepSeek to try to decode their fortunes. In her report, Lauren Jackson examined "faith tech" apps that cost users up to $70 annually, with some platforms claiming to channel divine

OpenAI Reveals How (and Which) People Are Using ChatGPT

Large language models largely remain black boxes in terms of what is happening inside them to produce the outputs that they do. They have also been a bit of a black box in terms of who is using them and what they are doing with them. OpenAI, with some help from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), set out to figure out what exactly its growing user base is getting up to with its chatbot. It found a surprising amount of personal use and a closing “gender gap” among its frequent users.

Users turn to chatbots for spiritual guidance

In Brief AI-powered chatbots play a growing role in spiritual life, according to a New York Times story that examines the popularity of religious chatbots and apps. The Times notes that an app called Bible Chat has been downloaded more than 30 million times, while another app, Hallow, reached the number one spot in Apple’s App Store last year. For the most part, these apps are supposed to point people to religious doctrine and scripture to answer their questions, although at least one website

Chatbox app is back on the US app store

Hello everyone, I have great news to share: After three months of fighting, our Chatbox app is finally back on the U.S. App Store! 🎉 What happened? In April 2025, another company with an app of the same name filed a dispute with Apple, claiming they held a trademark for the word “Chatbox.” I believe this claim was baseless, because: "Chatbox" is a widely used, generic word across the internet, and their trademark application had already been initially rejected by the USPTO. We were the fir

AI 'friend' chatbots probed over child protection

AI 'friend' chatbots probed over child protection The seven companies - Alphabet, OpenAI, Character.ai, Snap, XAI, Meta and its subsidiary Instagram - have been approached for comment. The impacts of AI chatbots to children is a hot topic, with concerns that younger people are particularly vulnerable due to the AI being able to mimic human conversations and emotions, often presenting themselves as friends or companions. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is requesting information on how the c

FTC to AI Companies: Tell Us How You Protect Teens and Kids Who Use AI Companions

The Federal Trade Commission is launching an investigation into AI chatbots from seven companies, including Alphabet, Meta and OpenAI, over their use as companions. The inquiry involves finding how the companies test, monitor and measure the potential harm to children and teens. A Common Sense Media survey of 1,060 teens in April and May found that over 70% used AI companions and that more than 50% used them consistently -- a few times or more per month. Experts have been warning for some time

Amazon’s Thursday Night Football broadcasts add more AI to the NFL

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Amazon’s Prime Video is bringing more AI to the football field with new features designed to give viewers more insight into Thursday Night Football games, as highlighted earlier by Deadline. One feature, called Pocket Health, uses AI to analyze “tens of thousand

FTC launches inquiry into AI chatbot companions from Meta, OpenAI, and others

The FTC announced on Thursday that it is launching an inquiry into seven tech companies that make AI chatbot companion products for minors: Alphabet, CharacterAI, Instagram, Meta, OpenAI, Snap, and xAI. The federal regulator seeks to learn how these companies are evaluating the safety and monetization of chatbot companions, how they try to limit negative impacts on children and teens, and if parents are made aware of potential risks. This technology has proven controversial for its poor outcom

The FTC is investigating companies that make AI companion chatbots

The Federal Trade Commission is making a formal inquiry into companies that provide AI chatbots that can act as companions. The investigation isn't tied to any kind of regulatory action as of yet, but does aim to reveal how companies "measure, test, and monitor potentially negative impacts of this technology on children and teens." Seven companies are being asked to participate in the FTC's investigation: Google's parent company Alphabet, Character Technologies (the creator of Character.AI), Me

FTC orders AI companies to hand over info about chatbots’ impact on kids

is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is ordering seven AI chatbot companies to provide information about how they assess the effects of their virtual companions on kids and teens. OpenAI, Meta, its subsidiary Instagram, Snap, xAI, Google parent company Alphabet, and the maker of Cha

Alphabet, Meta, OpenAI, xAI and Snap face FTC probe over AI chatbot safety for kids

In this photo illustration a virtual friend is seen on the screen of an iPhone on April 30, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia. The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday announced it is issuing orders to seven companies including OpenAI, Alphabet , Meta , xAI and Snap to understand how their artificial intelligence chatbots potentially negatively affect children and teenagers. The federal agency said AI chatbots may be used to simulate human-like communication and intrapersonal relationships with use

A California bill that would regulate AI companion chatbots is close to becoming law

The California State Assembly took a big step toward regulating AI on Wednesday night, passing SB 243 — a bill that regulate AI companion chatbots in order to protect minors and vulnerable users. The legislation passed with bipartisan support and now heads to the state Senate for a final vote Friday. If Governor Gavin Newsom signs the bill into law, it would take effect January 1, 2026, making California the first state to require AI chatbot operators to implement safety protocols for AI compan

Deals: 1TB M4 Mac mini $100 off, Powerbeats Pro 2, iPhone, M4 iPad Pro up to $500 off, more

Your Monday morning edition of 9to5Toys Lunch Break deals is now ready to go. Now just over 24 hours out from tomorrow’s Apple reveal event, we are tracking even lower prices on select iPhone 15/16 Pro models with as much $730 in savings for folks not upgrading. Those deals also join the most affordable 1TB M4 Mac mini configuration at $100 off as well as some notable deals on the latest heart-rate monitoring Powerbeats Pro 2 at $50 off, and prices have dropped even further on some of the new 25

AI Companion App Shuts Down Amid Controversy

In the frenetic world of artificial intelligence, virtual companions have exploded into a market all their own. A recent survey found that some 72 percent of teens said they've experimented with artificial buddies. Of those, over 50 percent say they have a regular relationship with the chatbots. But there's no guarantee those companions will stick around forever — something users of the AI startup Dot are learning the hard way after the company announced it was going belly up on Friday. Found

FTC commissioner questions status of Snap AI chatbot complaint: 'People deserve answers'

U.S. Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter raised questions on Friday about the status of an artificial intelligence chatbot complaint against Snap that the agency referred to the Department of Justice earlier this year. In January, the FTC announced that it would refer a non-public complaint regarding allegations that Snap's My AI chatbot posed potential "risks and harms" to young users and said it would refer the suit to the DOJ "in the public interest." "We don't know what