Author: Tor Fosheim

Musk runs into a snag on data center gas turbines — they are now illegal

xAI fits gas turbines on flatbed trucks and calls them «temporary» to avoid regulation. No more, says the EPA. (Picture: generated)
Apparently, a new EPA rule on stationary and «temporary» gas turbines for energy generation has made them illegal, according to CNBC.

They produce much too high levels of nitrogen oxides, and must be regulated as combustion engines, the EPA says.

That means Musk’s and xAI’s Colossus plant will have to rethink their energy use, as they make widespread use of natural gas turbines to generate electricity for their facilities.

They will basically have to get Clean Air Act permits, and prove they aren’t harmful.

The local population have long been complaining of a rotten-egg-like stench in the atmosphere, CNBC writes, and smog is supposedly prevalent.

xAI uses 15 turbines for Colossus 1 and at one point had 59 turbines for Colossus 2, The Guardian writes.

Read more: The EPA Rule. Writeups on CNBC, Gizmodo and The Guardian.

Demis Hassabis: China is just «months» behind US in AI capabilities

China is great at playing catch-up, but can they innovate? That’s the next challenge, Hassabis, says. (Picture: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
The CEO of Google’s DeepMind has some choice words for China in a recent podcast.

They might be «just a matter of months» begin Western capabilities, he tells CNBC.

— The question is, can they innovate something new beyond the frontier? So I think they’ve shown they can catch up … and be very close to the frontier … But can they actually innovate something new, like a new transformer … that gets beyond the frontier? I don’t think that’s been shown yet, he tells the new podcast The Tech Download.

The key tech to unlock Chinese AI is access to chips, he says, where the USA is far ahead. The US recently okay’ed exports of the powerful H200 chip from Nvidia, but reception in China has been lukewarm from authorities.

— To invent something is about 100 times harder than it is to copy it, says Hassabis on the podcast. — That’s the next frontier really, and I haven’t seen evidence of that yet, but it’s very difficult.

Read the full scoop on CNBC.

OpenAI to start «public» advertising tests on ChatGPT

What ads will look like If you click it, you can query it for more information. (Picture: OpenAI)
The tests will happen «during the coming weeks» for ChatGPT Free and Go tiers — and will try to put relevant, clearly labeled ads beneath GPT responses, OpenAI announces.

OpenAI says they won’t share your data or conversation to advertisers, and will «maintain a high standard» where you can turn off personalization if you want to.

They won’t be shown to under-18s, they say, nor will they show on sensitive topics, such as physical health, mental health or politics.

The neat part of the coming ads is that you click on them and query them for further detail, which is a feature not found in traditional advertising.

The Financial times estimates that OpenAI can earn somewhere around the «low billions» from advertising.

Ads won’t be shown for paying tiers, such as Plus, Pro and Enterprise.

Read more: OpenAI’s announcement. Writeups on Reuters, The Verge and Ars Technica.

ChatGPT Go expands globally, comes to the United States

A little more dollars for a little more usage. It’s a simple plan, yet effective. (Picture: generated).
ChatGPT Go was first launched as a cheap way to access more GPT queries in India in August, 2025, for around $5. Now, the subscription has become popular enough to expand globally to every market where OpenAI is active.

The idea is that for a just little more money, $8 in the USA, you can get ten times the queries, ten times the file use, and ten times the image generations compared to the free plan.

OpenAI says that since the introduction of the Go subscription tier, they have seen extensive everyday use in tasks such as writing, learning, image generations and problem-solving.

Along with the Free tier, ChatGPT Go will be showing ads once they are ready.

Read more: OpenAI’s announcement, OpenAI’s sub overview. Writeups on The Verge, MacRumors.

Gemini Pro and Ultra subscribers get upgraded, decoupled usage limits

Pro and Thinking modes of Gemini 3 no longer draw from the same usage allocation. (Picture: Generated)
Using the Thinking and Pro Gemini models used to draw from a shared pool of a hundred available prompts — and this is no longer the case.

Now you get separate usage limits for the models, so you no longer drain your Pro pool by using the Thinking model or vice versa.

At the same time, Google is upgrading the total limits for the Thinking model to up to 300 prompts per day for the Pro plan, while leaving the Pro model allocation at 100 per day.

Ultra subscribers get 500 daily prompts on the Pro model and 1,500 prompts on the Thinking model.

The upgrade is due to user feedback, writes 9to5Google, quoting Google:

— Many of you want more precision and transparency when deciding which model to use for your daily tasks.

Read more: Google: Rate limits on Gemini, writeups on 9to5Google, Mashable.

Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral and Perplexity join Wikipedia’s AI program

Some of the companies joined last year, but this is the first time it’s made public. (Picture: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Wikimedia Enterprise collaboration grew by five new members in time for Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary, joining to receive structured data directly from the web’s largest knowledge repository.

— In the AI era, Wikipedia’s human-created and curated knowledge has never been more valuable, Wikimedia, the encyclopedia’s parent, writes in a blog post.

They currently have more than 65 million articles in 300 languages, and get more than 15 billion views a month.

The Wikimedia Enterprise program is both a way to support Wikipedia’s efforts, as it is a paid service, and gives access to some powerful data.

The on-demand API gives labs the most recent version of specific articles, the snapshot API provides a downloadable file for every language and is updated hourly, and the realtime API is a stream of updates as they happen.

Together, they provide better access than just scraping the data off the public servers, and Wikipedia hopes for more to join, if only to stave off having to pay for extensive scanning of its archives — which is more costly.

Read more: Reuters, CNBC, The Verge.

OpenAI to spend $10 billion on compute from AI chip startup Cerebras

Cerebras makes powerful inference chips, for when an AI needs to think a little deeper. (Picture: generated)
The deal will land OpenAI with an added power capacity of 750 megawatts — but it’s not just any kind of compute.

Cerebras makes wafer-scale inference chips (for generating the response an AI gives after a query), looping in networking and high-bandwidth memory on the same die.

This makes for much faster thinking on complex tasks, should enable real-time reasoning, and OpenAI could possibly route those kinds of queries to this kind of compute.

The deal is worth over $10 billion, Reuters writes, and the capacity should come online in multiple tranches to be fully delivered in 2028, OpenAI says.

Sam Altman is an early investor in the company, and OpenAI once considered buying it, TechCrunch reports.

Read more: OpenAI’s announcement, writeups on Reuters, CNBC and TechCrunch.

xAI moves to technically block non-consensual «undressing» edits

Turning real people into pinups is officially over on x.com. (Picture: generated)
xAI’s «Safety»-account has posted a long screed on non-consensual sexualized content delivered through the @Grok account — and it intends to block it:

— We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis. This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers, the post says.

That basically means the fountain is shut off for the controversial «undressing» pictures on the platform for good, and not just limited to paying users. It’s off, period.

It further says that all image generation and edits will only be available to paying subscribers, making it possible to trace any violations to real people.

They also say they are now geoblocking risqué images in countries where such content is illegal.

That’s what concerted international pressure can do. Watchdogs and attorneys general across the world were only just starting their investigations into Grok and xAI, and it had already been blocked in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Read more: Ars Technica, BBC.

Google launches Personal Intelligence, based on trove of data held on people

Google wants to get to know you better by attaching more data to your account — to provide «personal» answers. (Picture: Google)
In what was probably just a question of time, Google has found a way to tie all its personal data on people to its AI products.

Personal Intelligence, launched today, lets Gemini and, later, AI Mode, draw information from Gmail, Google Photos, YouTube and Search history to give you a more «personalized» experience.

Continue reading “Google launches Personal Intelligence, based on trove of data held on people”

Reuters sources: Nvidia H200 not allowed in China

The H200 was getting popular in China, being miles ahead on performance. (Picture: generated)
Several sources are telling Reuters that the H200 chips are not permitted to enter, and authorities have told technology execs explicitly to not purchase the chips.

The H200 was cleared by Commerce for export to China in December and got finally approved this week.

They are much more powerful than anything on the Chinese market, and Nvidia received so many orders, they ran out.

Though the sources from Reuters say officials have not given any reason for this ban, it is likely in order to protect their domestic chip industry.

They do say that chips can be bought «when necessary» or for research and development programs with Chinese universities.

Read the full scoop at Reuters.

Utah allows an AI to refill prescriptions

For a limited set of medications, the company behind the AI says it is just as good as a doctor. (Picture: Adobe)
Doctors and pharmacists alike are voicing subtle and not-so-subtle warnings about cutting doctors out of the loop.

The AI, created by Doctronic, matched physicians’ prescription plans 99.2% of the time in a test shared by the company.

— The AI is actually better than doctors at doing this, said Dr. Adam Oskowitz, Doctronic co-founder and an associate professor of surgery at the University of California San Francisco, to Politico. — When you go see a doctor, it’s not going to do all the checks that the AI is doing.

The program will be limited to a 190-200 item list of common, non-controlled medications — and will not be writing out new ones. That means the AI won’t be prescribing things like opioids or ADHD drugs.

The American Medical Association says that while AI «has limitless opportunity to transform medicine for the better,» it warns of «serious risk» to patients without a physician in the loop.

Prescription renewals account for 80% of medication activity in Utah, notes The Utah Department of Commerce.

Read more: Press release from The Utah Department of Commerce. Writeups on Politico, Ars Technica, The Washington Post.

Apple’s Google partnership will allow them to tinker with the AI

Expect more advanced AI features in June, not spring, a new report says. (Picture: generated)
More detail is coming out on the Apple-Google AI deal, and it is clear it will come with absolutely no Google or Gemini type branding or references on the Apple side.

The LLM will supposedly function like any other, and be better at things such as scanning your Calendar app for upcoming events and your Contacts for sending messages. It should also be better at providing «emotional support» through «conversational responses» according to a report from paywalled The Information, seen by 9to5Mac.

The Google model will not be in a glass house over at Googleplex, but rather sit on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers, and, according to The Information, Apple can choose to ask Google to implement improvements to it, or tinker with the model themselves — thereby evolving it to their particular needs.

Timewise, «some features» will launch already this spring, but others — like remembering past conversations, or things like warning of the weather ahead of an Apple Calendar event, won’t be launching until the WWDC in June, apparently.

Read more: The Information (paywalled), 9to5Mac, AppleInsider — and some choice speculation from The Verge.

Anthropic launches computer use agent Cowork — as a macOS app

Available as a research preview for Max users on macOS, the agent can both handle your files and create new ones.

Based on Claude Code users surprising their developers, using the tool to manipulate local files — Anthropic is now launching an app that does just that.

Continue reading “Anthropic launches computer use agent Cowork — as a macOS app”

Zuckerberg unveils «Meta Compute» initiative to secure infrastructure

Meta is serious about investing in data centers in the coming years. (Picture: generated)
The Meta CEO announced his new «top level» compute team on threads, saying «Meta is planning to build tens of gigawatts this decade.»

He also said they will expand to «hundreds of gigawatts,» «over time.»

— How we engineer, invest, and partner to build this infrastructure will become a strategic advantage, Zuckerberg continues.

There are lots of obstacles to build global infrastructure like this, and challenges in «operating our global datacenter fleet and network,» Zuckerberg says.

The team will be headed up by Meta’s head of global infrastructure Santosh Janardhan and Daniel Gross, in close collaboration with newly hired Dina Powell McCormick.

Meta hasn’t released a frontier model since the Llama series in April, 2025, which saw lots of controversies. They have since formed a Superintelligence Lab from across the industry to develop the next generation of models. There is no timeline for when they’ll be ready, but the ambition is real, Zuckerberg says:

— [we want to] deliver personal superintelligence to billions of people around the world, he closes his message.

Read more: Zuck’s threads message, Reuters, TechCrunch, Business Insider.

It’s official: Apple chooses Google as AI provider

You’ll find Google’s AI under the hood of your Apple devices in the near future. (Picture: generated)
In a joint statement, Apple says that «Google’s Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models,» and will now be driving AI for Apple.

All of Google/Apple’s models will continue to run on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, ensuring industry leading safety and privacy for queries and prompts.

Unpacking the statement reveals a lot. Firstly that Apple is not limiting Google to make a long awaited smarter Siri assistant, but will be using it as a foundation for «innovative new experiences» for all Apple users.

The deal was tentatively agreed in November, and the reason for such a late statement could be that Apple has decided to expand the scope.

This means Google will be delivering AI services to Android and iOS, cornering the smartphone market, and to Chrome, which basically has a browser monopoly — spurring antitrust ideas for many, including from Elon Musk.

Apple has been rumored to announce a revamped Siri assistant in March or April this year, writes MacRumors

Read more: statement from Apple and Google, CNBC, MacRumors, Engadget.