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OpenAI is launching a new learning platform for journalists and publishers called the "Academy for News Organizations." Developed in collaboration with the American Journalism Project and the Lenfest Institute, the initiative aims to teach media organizations how to effectively use artificial intelligence. The program offers on-demand training, practical examples for research and translation, and guidance on establishing internal AI guidelines. OpenAI says the goal is to help editorial teams work more efficiently, freeing up time for core journalistic work.

According to OpenAI, the Academy was developed with critical industry issues in mind, including concerns about job displacement and the reliability of AI-generated content. The platform builds on existing partnerships with major publishers like News Corp and Hearst, with plans to expand the offering next year. These educational initiatives might also be an attempt to smooth over tensions in the industry - while OpenAI courts publishers with tools and training, it is simultaneously battling copyright lawsuits from major media companies like the New York Times and Ziff Davis.

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OpenAI has started accepting submissions for ChatGPT apps, which will populate a new directory following a review process. These applications allow users to perform specific actions directly within conversations, such as ordering food. The directory is located in the Tools menu, and users can launch specific apps simply by using the "@" command. While a software development kit (SDK) is currently available in beta, the first batch of tested applications is scheduled to launch in early 2026.

On the security front, OpenAI requires that apps remain suitable for general audiences and request only essential user information. At this stage, developers can link from their ChatGPT apps to external websites or native apps to complete transactions for physical goods. However, the company is exploring additional monetization options—including for digital goods—and notes that it has been collaborating with PayPal for several months. This rollout follows October's Dev Day, where OpenAI introduced the Apps SDK alongside its AgentKit for autonomous AI agents.

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OpenAI is in early talks with investors about a massive funding round that could push the company's valuation to around $750 billion, according to The Information. The company could raise tens of billions of dollars, potentially as much as $100 billion.

The discussions are still in their early stages, and nothing is set in stone. At this valuation, the deal would mark a 50 percent jump from OpenAI's last share sale in October.

Amazon is also in talks to invest $10 billion or more. It's the kind of circular AI deal that's become common: Amazon hands OpenAI cash, and OpenAI turns around and spends it on Amazon's chips and cloud services.

According to The Information, OpenAI has reached an annualized revenue run rate of $19 billion, keeping the company on pace to hit its $20 billion target by year's end. The company is projecting $30 billion in revenue for 2026, rising to around $200 billion by 2030. But these ambitious growth targets come with an enormous cash burn of roughly $26 billion for this year and next.

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Renowned mathematician Terence Tao has proposed a new way to think about AI capabilities. On Mastodon, Tao questions whether true "artificial general intelligence" (AGI) is actually achievable with current AI tools. His alternative: "artificial general cleverness" (AGC).

According to Tao, "general cleverness" means the ability to solve complex problems using partly improvised methods. These solutions might be random, rely on raw computing power, or draw from training data. That makes them something other than true "intelligence," but they can still succeed at many tasks, especially when strict testing procedures filter out incorrect results, he says.

"This results in the somewhat unintuitive combination of a technology that can be very useful and impressive, while simultaneously being fundamentally unsatisfying and disappointing."

Terence Tao

In humans, cleverness and intelligence are linked, but in AI they're decoupled, Tao argues. The mathematician has recently spoken positively about how AI has sped up his own work.

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Amazon is reportedly in talks to invest at least $10 billion in OpenAI. According to three people familiar with the discussions who spoke to The Information, the deal would push OpenAI's valuation past $500 billion. The influx of cash is intended to help OpenAI cover its massive server costs, including a recently agreed-upon $38 billion deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS). As part of the arrangement, OpenAI would commit to using Amazon's proprietary "Trainium" AI chips rather than relying solely on Nvidia hardware.

The companies are also discussing the possibility of turning ChatGPT into a shopping platform. However, Microsoft's exclusive rights to sell OpenAI models to cloud customers could limit Amazon's options here. Talks reportedly began in October following OpenAI's corporate restructuring but haven't concluded yet. OpenAI remains in urgent need of capital, as the company expects to burn through more than $100 billion over the next four years.

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The experimental productivity assistant called CC comes from Google Labs and runs on Gemini. After signing up, CC connects to Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, and the internet to understand your daily routine. AI agents with access to private data like this raise familiar security concerns.

Every morning, CC sends an email summary called "Your Day Ahead." It pulls together your appointments, important tasks, and relevant updates, like upcoming bills or deadlines. The agent can also draft emails and create calendar entries when needed. Users control CC by replying to its emails, sharing preferences, or asking it to remember ideas and tasks.

CC is launching as an early test for users 18 and older in the US and Canada. You'll need a personal Google account plus a subscription to Google AI Ultra or another paid service. Those interested can sign up for the waitlist on the Google Labs website.

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Google has released an update for Gemini 2.5 Flash Native Audio that makes voice assistants more capable. The model now handles complex workflows better, follows user instructions more precisely, and conducts more natural conversations. Compliance with developer instructions jumped from 84 to 90 percent, and call quality in multi-step conversations has also improved.

According to Google, the updated audio model scores 71.5 percent accuracy on function calls in the ComplexFuncBench benchmark, putting it ahead of OpenAI's gpt-realtime at 66.5 percent. It's worth noting, though, that Google likely didn't test against the latest realtime version, which OpenAI released just yesterday.

The update is now available in Google AI Studio, Vertex AI, Gemini Live, and Search Live. Google Cloud customers are already using the technology, and developers can test the model through the Gemini API.

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