Author: precious

I’m Precious Amusat, Phronews’ Content Writer. I conduct in-depth research and write on the latest developments in the tech industry, including trends in big tech, startups, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and their global impacts. When I’m off the clock, you’ll find me cheering on women’s footy, curled up with a romance novel, or binge-watching crime thrillers.

OpenAI’s next major update in ChatGPT has invited controversy, even long before its launch. Starting December 2025, and marking a sharp turn from the AI giant’s previous cautious stance on explicit content, the company will roll out an update that allows verified adult users generate erotica content. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in an X post explains the principle behind the update as a “treat adult users like adults” thing. However, critics and users alike see this update as risky on the part of OpenAI, as they’d be massively contributing to the erosion of public trust, a rise in sexual harassment,…

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Anthropic has yet again pushed the boundaries of AI-powered coding capabilities by releasing the latest model in its Claude family, Claude Sonnet 4.5. This model boasts of autonomous features that enable it to operate independently for extended periods.  “Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the best coding model in the world. It’s the strongest model for building complex agents. It’s the best model at using computers. And it shows substantial gains in reasoning and math,” was what Anthropic said in the press release announcing the launch of the model.  On industry-standard benchmarks like the SWE-bench verified, Claude Sonnet 4.5 scores an impressive…

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Legal AI startup Eve has joined the unicorn club after securing $103 million in a Series B funding round, reaching a $1 billion valuation. For the San Francisco-based company, it is a big upgrade as the company is contributing to the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into plaintiff litigation management. Founded in 2020, Eve’s AI-powered plaintiff management platform leverages advanced large language models (LLMs) to automate complex legal workflows that are traditionally burdensome for plaintiff law firms. This funding round was led by Spark Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Menlo Ventures. From intake assessment…

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Anthropic has updated its policy to start using user conversations with its Claude AI chatbot for training future models. Chats from Claude Free, Pro, and Max users, as well as coding sessions on Claude Code, will now be incorporated by default into the company’s data training pipeline, unless users opt out through a newly introduced privacy toggle. This update means that anonymized and de-identified conversations will help improve Claude’s accuracy, safety, and responsiveness. Previously, Claude users’ chat data wasn’t used for training consumer models. Now, Anthropic aims to leverage real-world interaction to improve Claude’s accuracy, reasoning, and safety systems, as…

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Meta is set to acquire chip startup Rivos with the aim of accelerating its autonomous chip development and ultimately reduce its reliance on Nvidia’s GPUs. The social media giant will be buying Rivos, a Santra Clara-based chip startup known for building and designing chips on the RISC-V architecture, an open-source set and alternative to chip designs from Arm, Intel, and AMD. This architecture allows Rivos to develop both custom CPUs and GPUs accelerators that are optimized for large-scale AI training and inference. Its programmable, energy-efficient server solutions also support today’s LLM demands and future AI innovations. Meta’s acquisition of Rivos…

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The intersection where creativity and technology meet has taken another leap forward with OpenAI’s latest release of Sora 2, a cutting-edge AI model that generates realistic videos with native audio and sound effects.  Termed OpenAI’s “flagship and audio generation model,” Sora 2’s strength lies in its ability to generate physically accurate scenes complete with natural lighting, continuous object motion, and environment-consistent and aware cacophony. Unlike previous models like Sora 1 which was only limited to visuals, Sora 2 incorporates dialogue, ambient noises, and sound effects. These sound effects may include footsteps, glass breaking, or water splashes that are mirrored and…

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OpenAI has rolled out its new video generation model, Sora 2, with a controversial update that allows it to freely use copyrighted material unless the content and right owners explicitly disallow it. This ethical detail has stirred a storm within the entertainment industry, pitting the innovations of AI creators against the legal and ethical boundaries of copyright law. Unlike earlier AI tools requiring explicit permission from copyright owners, Sora 2 was initially released without that option. By default, the new AI-powered video generation model was designed to openly use protected content and generate videos featuring copyrighted characters and other protected…

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Amazon is architecting and building home-based hardware that listens, understands, and proactively responds to its users, with the latest introduction of a new generation of smart home devices that are powered by cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI).  These latest suites of devices are built around Amazon’s enhanced Alexa+ AI assistant, combining advancements in custom AI chips, sensor fusion, and smart integration to create an ambient experience that feels intuitive, personalized, and all-round connected. What’s New On The Smart Home Front? Amazon launched four distinct Echo devices designed for seamless Alexa+ interaction, each equipped with custom-designed silicon chips AZ3 and AZ3 Pro,…

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Vibranium Labs, a New York-based startup founded by a veteran team from top tech companies, has secured $4.6 million in seed funding to launch Vibe AI, an autonomous AI engineer designed to monitor, diagnose, and fix IT incidents around the clock.  This AI-powered technology aims to reduce outages and downtime caused particularly by vibe-coding errors, by acting as a reliable, 24/7 teammate that is in charge of accelerating incident resolution. In industries where every minute of downtime costs millions, like in finance, healthcare, defense, and retail, Vibranium’s Vibe AI offers a transformative solution to an increasingly urgent problem – how…

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Construction sites are notoriously complex environments where keeping track of progress and quality is both crucial and challenging. Track3D, a company specializing in AI-powered construction monitoring, recently raised $10 million in Series A funding round to expand its Reality Intelligence platform that provides real-time insights into construction project status.  This capital infusion, led by Ironspring Ventures with co-lead Zacua Ventures, aims to bring a new level of accuracy and transparency to an industry ripe for transformation. Transforming The Construction Landscape With AI Construction projects often involve multiple stakeholders, tight deadlines, and costly risks when progress is halted or errors go…

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