NerdNews

OpenAI is reportedly planning a major overhaul of its ChatGPT tool, which will encourage users to use coding tools, image generation, and applications built by partners. The redesigned ChatGPT is expected to roll out in the coming weeks and will first appear through changes to the website and mobile apps. The goal is to attract more enterprise users and generate revenue through larger businesses deploying the new ChatGPT across their workforce.

Microsoft is shifting its focus towards pragmatic AI usage due to increasing costs. The company introduced the RTX Spark laptop, which can run medium-sized AI models locally, reducing the need for costly cloud services. Microsoft also released smaller, cheaper AI models and emphasized the importance of 'hill climbing' - a method to optimize AI performance while minimizing costs. Additionally, the company announced MXC, an operating system-level sandbox for securing AI agents, and Autopilot, a hosted service for long-running AI agents.

Microsoft is shifting focus towards 'agent-first' operating systems, where autonomous assistants power the computing experience across multiple devices, rather than being tied to a single device.

Apple's WWDC 2026 is expected to feature updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and other platforms, with a focus on AI-powered Siri and potential hardware announcements.

OpenAI is reportedly planning to make radical changes to ChatGPT, transforming it into a 'superapp' that will serve as a gateway for agents and coding tools, generating more revenue. The new app will encourage users to use Apps, along with coding and image generation, and may ditch prompts and features, relying on models to automatically understand users' intentions.

Lloyds Banking Group is operationalizing AI security across product lifecycles, governance, and real-time defenses. The company's 'AI safe adoption strategy' spans the entire lifecycle, from engineers pulling packages and building agents to promotion, runtime observability, and decommissioning. Lloyds has created an internal agent marketplace to centralize registration, governance, and controls.

The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) has introduced a new agentic AI security maturity framework to help organizations close the gap between agentic systems and governance. The framework maps governance problems across two dimensions: deployment and governance maturity, providing a practical decision tool for organizations to assess their AI security maturity.

Ox Security claims that traditional application security is insufficient for agentic development, introducing four new attack surfaces: input, tools, execution, and output. To mitigate these risks, security must be embedded directly into AI coding tools, enabling continuous and contextual security checks.

OpenAI is working on a 'super app' with coding tools and AI agents, aiming to become more competitive and get closer to profitability. The company plans to turn ChatGPT into a gateway to paid products, with a personal agent capable of helping users across everything in their life.

The AI industry is experiencing a vibe shift as companies face backlash over tokenmaxxing, a practice that encourages excessive use of AI tokens. This has led to significant costs and a reevaluation of AI strategies. Meanwhile, politicians are proposing regulations, and investors are becoming increasingly skeptical.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced a new national AI strategy called 'AI for All', which aims to strengthen data protections, increase AI adoption, and invest in AI infrastructure. The plan includes updating legislative frameworks, creating an online safety regime, and providing free AI training. However, the strategy has been met with skepticism due to concerns about the impact of AI on productivity and its growing unpopularity.

Helion, a fusion startup backed by Sam Altman, has raised $465 million to build a power plant for Microsoft, with a goal to deploy fusion power to the grid as early as 2028. The company's approach to fusion power uses magnets to compress fuel and harvest electricity directly from the magnets, which could improve efficiency but has raised skepticism among some experts.

Waymo has announced a deal with energy storage company B2U to use retired robotaxi batteries for grid storage in California and Texas, providing a solution for the end-of-life treatment of thousands of robotaxis and promoting sustainable energy practices.

Hello Robot, a startup founded in 2017, has released the fourth iteration of its home assistance robot, Stretch. Stretch is designed to work in real homes with real people, focusing on safety and accessibility. The robot has a telescoping arm and can be controlled using a voice-operated iPhone app. Hello Robot's approach is different from other robotics companies, prioritizing deployment and real-world testing over maximalist promises.

The largest US banks are launching a tokenized deposit network to compete with crypto stablecoins. The network, set to launch in 2025, will allow banks to issue digital versions of customer deposits, providing an alternative to stablecoins. This move is seen as a response to the growing popularity of stablecoins and the need for traditional banks to adapt to the changing financial landscape.

A new documentary, TikTok Never Dies, chronicles the legal drama around banning TikTok in the US. The film follows three TikTok creators as they navigate the complexities of the ban, which became a symbol of American anxieties about social media, China, and political power. The documentary explores how the ban was more about American politics than TikTok itself, and how it revealed deeper issues with social media regulation and free speech.

Apple announced that its App Store facilitated over $1.4 trillion in developer billings and sales in 2025, with 90% of transactions not involving a commission. The figure includes sales of physical goods and services, as well as digital goods and in-app revenue from ads.

Chinese peptide labs are booming, funded by cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, Meta's AI support was hacked, allowing access to high-profile Instagram accounts. Anthropic is helping the NSA with offensive hacking, and a decades-long GPS satellite mystery may have been solved.

Apple's WWDC26 keynote is expected to focus on software updates, including Siri and Apple Intelligence, which could provide clues about the company's future hardware plans, such as advancements in AI and wearable devices.

AWS has announced ExtendDB, an open-source DynamoDB-compatible adapter that allows developers to use the DynamoDB API with different storage backends, starting with PostgreSQL. ExtendDB supports existing AWS SDKs and tools without modification, giving teams greater flexibility to run DynamoDB-style workloads outside of native DynamoDB while maintaining compatibility with current applications and workflows.