OpenAI Launches GPT-5, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet
OpenAI has officially launched GPT-5, its latest and most powerful AI system. The company touts the new generative AI model as a major leap in artificial intelligence, showcasing state-of-the-art capabilities in coding, mathematics, creative writing, and health. GPT-5 operates as a unified system, engineered to provide rapid answers for simple queries and engage in deeper, longer ’thinking’ for more complex problems. The model is now available to all users, with premium access and features reserved for Plus and Pro subscribers. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman highlighted the model’s evolution, comparing GPT-3 to a high school student and GPT-4 to a college student, while describing GPT-5 as a ‘PhD-level expert.’ This landmark release is a significant move for OpenAI, poised to solidify its leadership in the competitive generative AI industry.
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World Robot Conference 2025 Kicks Off in Beijing with a Focus on Embodied Intelligence
The 2025 World Robot Conference (WRC) has kicked off in Beijing, marking a significant shift from technological demos to practical commercial applications. Themed “Making Robots Smarter, Making Embodied Agents More Intelligent,” this year’s event features the debut of over 100 cutting-edge robotics products—nearly double the previous year. Over 500 companies are showcasing the latest in industrial, service, special-purpose, and humanoid robotics. A key report released at the conference highlights future trends in embodied intelligent robots, focusing on advancements in cognition, decision-making, and safety. Notable innovations include Orbbec’s Pulsar ME450, an industry-first dToF 3D LiDAR with configurable scanning. The conference, running until August 12, hosts forums, exhibitions, and competitions with over 200 global robotics firms.
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NHTSA Grants Zoox First-Ever Exemption for US-Made Driverless Vehicles
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has granted an exemption for Zoox’s driverless vehicles, the first-ever permit for a US-built autonomous vehicle under the expanded Automated Vehicle Exemption Program. This landmark decision allows Zoox to deploy its purpose-built vehicles, which lack traditional controls like steering wheels and pedals, on U.S. public roads. The exemption is a significant milestone for advancing autonomous vehicle technology in the United States. As a condition, Zoox must remove any statements claiming its vehicles comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Simultaneously, NHTSA has closed its investigation into Zoox’s self-certification of its autonomous vehicles.
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Baidu Robotaxi Incident in China Raises Safety Questions
An autonomous vehicle from Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxi service fell into a construction pit in Chongqing, China, on August 6 with a passenger on board. The passenger was unharmed and was helped out of the trench by local residents. Videos of the incident, showing the Baidu Apollo vehicle at the bottom of the construction site, circulated widely on Chinese social media. According to a local witness, the construction area had barriers and warning signs, raising questions about how the autonomous vehicle bypassed these safety measures.
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OpenAI Releases Free, Customizable Open-Weight AI Models
In a major strategic shift, OpenAI has released two new open-weight AI models, gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b, available for free download and modification. This is the first time since 2019 that OpenAI has released open-weight models, empowering users to fine-tune the technology on their own hardware. These new text-only models are designed for cost-effective, high performance on tasks like web searching and coding. The larger model, gpt-oss-120b, is now available on IBM’s watsonx.ai platform, and both are offered as NVIDIA NIM microservices for streamlined deployment. In another key development, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has become the first cloud provider besides Microsoft to offer these new OpenAI models.
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Oracle Launches New Globally Distributed Database Service for AI and Analytics
Oracle has launched its Oracle Globally Distributed Exadata Database on Exascale Infrastructure, a new cloud service on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). The service is designed to create a unified operating experience for globally distributed workloads, including demanding agentic AI and analytics applications. By combining Oracle’s Global Distributed Database and Exadata technologies, it addresses key enterprise challenges like data sovereignty, high performance, and availability. The platform is engineered to manage petabyte-scale AI and analytics workloads, processing millions of records per second in real-time. This launch coincides with a 52% growth in the cloud market since late 2022, driven by rising enterprise adoption of generative AI in the public cloud.
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Cloud Market Analysis: AI Drives Azure Growth, AWS Faces Supply Constraints
A recent cloud market analysis reveals the profound impact of Artificial Intelligence on hyperscaler performance. Microsoft’s Azure reported substantial growth, primarily fueled by AI inference from services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Microsoft Cloud revenue hit $46.7B (a 27% increase), and the company disclosed Azure’s annual revenue at $75B for the first time. In contrast, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is facing supply constraints, with demand for AI capacity outpacing its available power and components. Google Cloud also demonstrated strong performance with $13.6B in revenue, as its Google Cloud Platform (GCP) infrastructure services outpaced its overall cloud business growth. The unifying trend is a massive capital expenditure race among all major cloud providers to build out AI infrastructure, a race now facing real-world limits on power, data center sites, and server lead times.
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Magic State Efficiency Boosted for Superconducting Quantum Computers
A study by scientists from Alice & Bob and Inria introduces a more hardware-efficient method for creating magic states, a critical component for practical quantum computing. This new technique significantly reduces the qubit requirements for the resource-intensive process of magic state preparation, making it much faster. The method is specifically designed for ‘cat qubits,’ which offer inherent protection against certain quantum errors. Magic states are essential for performing a universal set of operations, allowing a quantum computer to execute any possible quantum algorithm. The research advances existing theory by adapting a complex 3D code into a more practical 2D architecture. Alice & Bob CEO Théau Peronnin stated the work helps de-risk the company’s technology roadmap.
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Proxmox VE 9.0 Released with Debian 13 and Enhanced SDN Capabilities
Proxmox has released Virtual Environment (VE) 9.0, a major update to its open-source server management platform. This new version is based on Debian 13 ‘Trixie’ and uses a newer Linux kernel 6.14.8-2 for improved hardware support and performance. Key enhancements include significant upgrades to storage and networking. Notably, Proxmox VE 9.0 adds long-awaited support for snapshots on thick-provisioned LVM shared storage, a critical feature for enterprise environments using Fibre Channel or iSCSI SANs. The Software-Defined Networking (SDN) stack is upgraded with a new ‘fabric’ feature, simplifying the management of complex routed networks like EVPN or full-mesh Ceph networks. The release also includes updated versions of QEMU 10.0.2, LXC 6.0.4, and ZFS 2.3.3. Subsequently, Proxmox Backup Server v4.0 was also announced, introducing support for S3-compatible object storage.
RubyGems Malware Campaign Discovered Stealing Passwords
A malware campaign targeting the RubyGems package registry has been discovered, designed to steal passwords from developers. This security breach highlights the persistent risks within the software supply chain and package repositories. Developers are strongly urged to exercise caution and verify the integrity of all packages used in their projects. The incident underscores the critical need for robust security practices throughout the open-source ecosystem to defend against malicious attacks.
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