Why Being Polite to ChatGPT Is Costing OpenAI Millions and Wasting Electricity

image c/o pcmag.com
image c/o pcmag.com

Polite exchanges are costing the AI company a fortune, CEO Sam Altman revealed in an exchange on X. "I wonder how much money OpenAI has lost in electricity costs from people saying 'please' and 'thank you' to their models," writes user @tomieinlove. "Tens of millions of dollars well spent—you never know," Altman responded.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/why-being-polite-to-chatgpt-is-costing-openai-millions-and-wasting-electricity

ChatGPT is transforming LinkedIn users into really dull dolls

image via theverge.com
image via theverge.com

ChatGPT’s latest image generator had an explosive debut thanks to the viral Studio Ghibli art trend, and LinkedIn users have now jumped on a new gimmick: turning yourself into a toy. There are several flavors of the trend being shared. The “AI Action Figure” variant appears to have gained the most traction, in which a person generates a plastic version of themselves in a blister pack, alongside various accessories — typically a laptop, a book, and a coffee cup, which is fitting given LinkedIn is largely driving this trend. Other versions try to specifically emulate recognizable branding, such as the “Barbie Box Challenge.”

https://www.theverge.com/news/647356/chatgpt-ai-barbie-action-figure-viral-trend

OpenAI’s new AI image generator is potent and bound to provoke

image via arstechnica.com
image via arstechnica.com

On Tuesday, OpenAI announced new multimodal image-generation capabilities that are directly integrated into its GPT-4o AI language model, making it the default image generator within the ChatGPT interface. The integration, called "4o Image Generation" (which we'll call "4o IG" for short), allows the model to follow prompts more accurately (with better text rendering than DALL-E 3) and respond to chat context for image modification instructions. Some users on social media initially reported confusion since there's no UI indication of which image generator is active, but you'll know it's the new model if the generation is ultra slow and proceeds from top to bottom. The previous DALL-E model remains available through a dedicated "DALL-E GPT" interface, while API access to GPT-4o image generation is expected within weeks.

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/openais-new-ai-image-generator-is-potent-and-bound-to-provoke/

What Is DeepSeek? China Shocks AI Industry With ‘Sputnik Moment’

image c/o pcmag.com
image c/o pcmag.com

Chinese AI company DeepSeek released an AI model that is sending shockwaves through the US tech industry due to its low cost and high performance. Tech investor Marc Andreessen calls it "AI's Sputnik moment," causing US tech stocks to tumble this morning, with Nvidia the hardest hit, down 11%. The app surpassed ChatGPT on the Apple App Store as the most-downloaded free application. But after receiving a flood of registrations and "large-scale malicious attacks"—possibly a DDoS attack—DeepSeek has "temporarily" restricted access to those with a +86 mainland Chinese phone number. You may still be able to sign in with a Google account.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/what-is-deepseek-china-shocks-ai-industry-with-sputnik-moment

This Logitech Mouse Comes With AI Buttons: Do People Really Want That?

image via pcmag.com
image via pcmag.com

Logitech is the latest tech company to launch an AI product and its solution is a mouse with a dedicated button that pulls up its new AI Prompt Builder software. There are two AI buttons on the Logitech Signature AI Edition M750 Mouse; a teal-colored one up top activates the prompt software, while one of its side buttons is a ChatGPT shortcut. Prompt Builder can paraphrase or summarize text, reply to text inputs, or write emails from scratch.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/this-logitech-mouse-comes-with-ai-buttons-do-people-really-want-that

Now you can use ChatGPT without an account

image via theverge.com
image via theverge.com

OpenAI will no longer require an account to use ChatGPT, the company’s free AI platform. However, this only applies to ChatGPT, as other OpenAI products, like DALL-E 3, cost money to access and will still require an account for access. “We’re rolling this out gradually, with the aim to make AI accessible to anyone curious about its capabilities,” OpenAI said in a blog post.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/1/24118007/openai-chatgpt-free-no-account-login