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AI models are being cranked out at a dizzying pace, by everyone from Big Tech companies like Google to startups like OpenAI and Anthropic. Keeping track of the latest ones can be overwhelming.  Adding to the confusion is that AI models are often promoted based on industry benchmarks. But these technical metrics often reveal little about how real people and companies actually use them.  To cut through the noise, TechCrunch has compiled an overview of the most advanced AI models released since 2024, with details on how to use them and what they’re best for. We’ll keep this list updated…

Snowflake plans to expand its startup accelerator with $200 million in additional commitments, the tech giant that specializes in cloud-based data storage said Thursday. The new injection of capital follows a string of activity by Snowflake over the past several months that illustrates that company’s growth ambitions. The Snowflake Startup Accelerator, formerly known as the Powered by Snowflake Funding Program, invests in a broad range of early-stage startups. Notably, the accelerator invests in startups building AI-based industry-specific products on Snowflake. Startups in the accelerator receive technical support from Snowflake and access to co-marketing opportunities, as well as credits for Amazon’s public…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the company was forced to stagger the rollout of its newest model, GPT-4.5, because OpenAI is “out of GPUs.” In a post on X, Altman said that GPT-4.5, which he described as “giant” and “expensive,” will require “tens of thousands” more GPUs before additional ChatGPT users can gain access. GPT-4.5 will come first to subscribers to ChatGPT Pro starting Thursday, followed by ChatGPT Plus customers next week. Perhaps in part due to its enormous size, GPT-4.5 is wildly expensive. OpenAI is charging $75 per million tokens (~750,000 words) fed into the model and $150…

OpenAI’s next major AI model, GPT-4.5, is highly persuasive, according to the results of OpenAI’s internal benchmark evaluations. It’s particularly good at convincing another AI to give it cash. On Thursday, OpenAI published a white paper describing the capabilities of its GPT-4.5 model, code-named Orion, which was released Thursday. According to the paper, OpenAI tested the model on a battery of benchmarks for “persuasion,” which OpenAI defines as “risks related to convincing people to change their beliefs (or act on) both static and interactive model-generated content.” In one test that had GPT-4.5 attempt to manipulate another model — OpenAI’s GPT-4o —…

Updated 2:40 pm PT: Hours after GPT-4.5’s release, OpenAI removed a line from the AI model’s white paper that said “GPT-4.5 is not a frontier AI model.” GPT-4.5’s new white paper does not include that line. You can find a link to the old white paper here. The original article follows. OpenAI announced on Thursday it is launching GPT-4.5, the much-anticipated AI model code-named Orion. GPT-4.5 is OpenAI’s largest model to date, trained using more computing power and data than any of the company’s previous releases. Despite its size, OpenAI notes in a white paper that it does not consider…

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TikTok is preparing to sunset its creator marketplace in favor of a new, more expanded experience, the company has informed businesses and creators via email. The online platform, which connects brands with creators for collaborating on ads and other sponsorships, will stop allowing creator invitations or the creation of new campaigns as of Saturday the company says. On April 1, the Creator Marketplace will be fully shut down, and the website will redirect visitors to the new TikTok One creative platform instead. While the stand-alone marketplace is going away, TikTok will continue to offer ways for brands and creators to…

Figure is planning to bring its humanoids into the home sooner than expected. CEO Brett Adcock confirmed on Thursday that the Bay Area robotics startup will begin “alpha testing” its Figure 02 robot in the home setting later in 2025. The executive says the accelerated timeline is a product of the company’s “generalist” Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model, called Helix. Adcock’s comments arrive one week after Figure announced the machine learning platform. Helix is designed to process both visual data and natural language input to accelerate the speed with which the system can pick up new tasks. Earlier this month, Figure revealed…

CrowdStrike this week published its 2025 Global
Threat Report, which summarizes the latest adversary tactics and techniques, as well as important trends that defined 2024. The cybersecurity giant started tracking 26 new threat groups in 2024, which brought the total number of adversaries known by the company to 257.  CrowdStrike pointed out that China-linked activity surged, with a 150% increase seen across all sectors, and a rise of 200-300% in industries such as financial services, media, manufacturing, and industrials and engineering compared to 2023.  One interesting aspect that CrowdStrike has been tracking is breakout time, the time it takes threat actors…

Microsoft finally released a macOS app for Copilot, its free generative AI chatbot.  Similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI chatbots, Copilot enables users to ask questions and receive responses generated by AI. Copilot is designed to assist users in numerous tasks, such as drafting emails, summarizing documents, writing cover letters, and more. There’s also an image generator driven by DALL-E 3. The wait is over – we can finally hang out on macOS! Download Copilot for Mac and try me out today.— Microsoft Copilot (@MSFTCopilot) February 27, 2025 When Microsoft first launched Copilot two years ago, it was only…