Adam Fry, OpenAI's consumer product lead for ChatGPT, says the number of searches performed through ChatGPT has grown to roughly 20% of Google's search volume. The company defines a search as a ChatGPT query that triggers a web search, suggesting the chatbot is becoming an increasingly significant competitor to traditional search engines. The Verge reports: Having one-fifth as many searches as Google is still a long way from overtaking it, but for comparison, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during Google's 2023 antitrust trial that Bing had about 3 percent of the search engine market share after trying for more than a decade. During the trial, Google described AI as a potential disruptor, arguing ChatGPT was poised to seriously compete with it -- now, OpenAI seems to agree. (OpenAI likely uses Microsoft Bing for a significant part of its searches, along with its in-house search index, although there is still some speculation that it routes some queries through Google.) As for ads, which OpenAI started testing earlier this year, Fry said they haven't produced a lasting backlash. "Ads have not negatively impacted the product or the usage of the product," he said, adding that "most people do not seem to mind ads in the product."

Last month, OpenAI announced plans to introduce images of sponsored products and services in ChatGPT.

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Waymo plans to end its exclusive Uber robotaxi partnership in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028 and let customers hail its vehicles directly through the Waymo app. In an interview on The Circuit, Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana called the current Uber experience a "crapshoot" because riders aren't guaranteed a Waymo. Bloomberg reports: "In the early days, we would partner because we didn't have the scale, and in that partnering, it was a little bit of a crapshoot. Will I get a Waymo? Will I not get a Waymo?," Mawakana said in a wide-ranging interview on The Circuit with Emily Chang. She cited customers' growing demand for a consistent offering from a single app, especially from riders from San Francisco or other markets, where Waymo offers the self-driving service via its own consumer app that competes with Uber.

"It's important for us to have that relationship with the rider. We've gotten that feedback from the riders in those markets," Mawakana said. "And at the same time, learning and partnering with Uber has been a really important part of our journey," she added.

[...] The comments reflect Waymo's evolving relationship with the ride-hailing giant as the Alphabet unit trials different pathways to commercialize its capital-intensive autonomous technology. Waymo has leaned on partners like Uber and Lyft, as well as fleet management companies, to help operate its roughly 4,000 vehicles across the US. The company currently does more than 500,000 trips per week in 14 cities.

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Netflix is testing its first consumer-facing feature explicitly branded as AI-powered. Called "AI Discover," the feature generates personalized TV and movie recommendations in real time based on viewing history, preferences, trending content and selectable themes like "Something Light" or "Quick Watches." Variety reports: The streamer will begin rolling out AI Discover in the U.S. to customers who use Netflix in English on supported smart TVs. If you have access to it, you will see a "Discover" tab with a red gem-shaped icon and a "New" label in the top navigation bar on your TV. The company plans to expand the feature to more regions and customers in the coming weeks.

Netflix has long used machine-learning and AI technologies to personalize content recommendations, but AI Discover is the first user-facing application that the company is branding as powered by artificial intelligence. The hope is that the AI-recommended titles will be another tool to drive up Netflix's total watch time among viewers, especially in the U.S.

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When the US’s first Muslim senator used Arabic in his victory speech, it cut through the torrent of vile racism Maga launched at him throughout his campaign

Repeat after me: yallah. YAH-luh. This versatile Arabic word means everything from “hurry up”, to “come on” to “speak to you later”. If you add a “bye” at the end, the meaning shifts to “please shut up, fool” or “speak soon friend,” depending on your intonation.

Next up: wallah. wa-LAH. Again, the definition changes depending on context and cadence. It can mean everything from “no way!” to “I swear to God.”

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Another away day, another victory for Arsenal. This time, the much-maligned Viktor Gyökeres stole the show as poor Slavia Prague matched the longest winless streak in European Cup and Champions League history despite a spirited late comeback. That now stands at 23, equalling the mark set by AEK Athens and FCSB – formerly known as Steaua Bucharest – while Arsenal are now unbeaten in their last 10 away European trips. After last week’s wobble against Fleetwood, there was no prospect of Arsenal making the same mistake again as soon as Noni Madueke fired them ahead early on after being superbly set up by Gyökeres.

That was his third assist in his last five appearances, although Mikel Arteta will have been even more encouraged by the emphatic finish that had seemed to put the game beyond Slavia’s reach just before the break. While Kai Havertz remains his undoubted first choice, having another striker in form will only boost Arsenal’s challenge and it was noticeable that there was an extra spring in the 28-year-old’s step after his goal.

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Feed Erling Haaland and Manchester City’s totemic No 9 will score. The problem, recently has been a paucity of openings for him.

This was true again before, on 77 minutes, Elliot Anderson crossed and Haaland slid home for a priceless winner for Enzo Maresca’s disjointed unit, Rayan Cherki hitting a post late on.

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If you share content using public iCloud links, Apple could soon be looking over your shoulder and checking for "harmful content." The iBiz announced plans to moderate publicly accessible iCloud share links in version 27.3 of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS on a support page published on Tuesday. To clarify, this applies only to iCloud content shared via links created to be accessible to anyone, as opposed to content shared directly with other people. “Items shared using Anyone with the Link will be checked by Apple for harmful content,” Apple explained on the new help page without bothering to define what harmful content means. Based on the wording, it appears those checks will apply to all iCloud items shared using "Anyone with the Link," which Apple says it can also access. The company hasn't explained how the checks will work. The share-with-anyone option removes end-to-end encryption from the shared item, Apple said, even if Advanced Data Protection, Apple's optional end-to-end encryption feature for supported iCloud data, remains enabled for the account. “If you try to upload harmful content, Apple reserves the right to move, refuse, modify, remove, or delete the content at any time,” the help page continues, adding that the iMaker may also block or disable accounts associated with harmful content. The company also said it reserves the right to involve law enforcement when necessary, suggesting that its undefined "harmful content" category could include child sexual abuse material (CSAM), malware, and other potentially unlawful content. Without a proper definition of what it defines as harmful, however, iCloud users are essentially left at Apple’s mercy: If it chooses to continue to bend the knee to the Trump administration, for example, content deemed objectionable by the standards of political figures could end up wiped out. Apple also hasn't explained whether human moderators, automated systems, or both will be responsible for identifying and removing so-called harmful content, or whether any decisions will be left to AI, which can easily be fooled into making a bad moderation call. The scanning of such content, as mentioned above, begins with version 27.3 of Apple’s various OSes, which were released to developers in beta on Tuesday, with a general release expected in December. Apple didn’t respond to questions for this story. ®