If you think GPT-4o is something, wait until you see GPT-5 – a ‘significant leap forward’

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sketched out a tantalizing idea of what people might expect from the eagerly anticipated GPT-5 artificial intelligence model. He attempted to balance optimism and caution in his comments, but his vision of the new model's potential underlined his confidence that GPT-5 will represent a substantial improvement over its predecessor, GPT-4, and won't face unresolvable issues.

“I expect it to be a significant leap forward,” Altman said. “A lot of the things that GPT-4 gets wrong, you know, can't do much in the way of reasoning, sometimes just sort of totally goes off the rails and makes a dumb mistake, like even a six-year-old would never make.” 

Altman likened the current state of AI technology to the early days of the iPhone, suggesting that while today's models are useful, they are still in the nascent stages of their potential. He pointed out that current AI models, including GPT-5, are relatively small compared to what future advancements might bring.

Interestingly, Altman's recent comments about model size indicate a slight shift from his previous stance. For those who follow Altman's comments closely, that's a sharp turn from when he suggested that the era of giant models might be nearing its end last year. Instead, he now apparently thinks models will likely continue to grow, driven by significant investments in computing power and energy.

Altman is confident that GPT-5 will address many of the shortcomings of GPT-4, particularly in areas such as reasoning and error prevention. But, Altman also emphasized that while the development of GPT-5 is promising, there is still considerable work to be done. “We don't know yet. We are optimistic, but we still have a lot of work to do on it.”

The big picture for large language models

Altman did take on some of the biggest controversies around AI, particularly content licensing. He took the opportunity to brag about OpenAI's approach, which involves agreements with publishers to license news content for ChatGPT in exchange for training data for the models. He contrasted this approach with that of companies like Google, which claims that AI-driven traffic benefits publishers – a claim he and many others view with skepticism.

Altman also during the interview tempered expectations of what AI means for the internet and the broader economy. He simultaneously suggested there won't be a massive impact on internet use while also pushing for brand-new approaches to commerce. 

 “I think maybe AI is going to not super significantly but somewhat significantly change the way people use the internet,” Altman said. “And if so, you can see some of the economic models of the past needing to evolve, and I think that's a broader conversation than just training data.”

Altman suggested that GPT-5 is just the beginning of a series of advancements aimed at building more sophisticated and capable AI systems. The next few months will be critical in determining whether GPT-5 can deliver on its promise of a significant leap forward, addressing the limitations of its predecessors and paving the way for more advanced AI applications.

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macOS Sequoia has yet another cool feature to look forward to, this time adding a way to customize your AirPods Audio experience

It seems like every day, there is a new macOS Sequoia feature to look forward to, or some kind of improvement in Apple’s incoming OS, with a freshly spotted one opening up the doors to improved accessibility on the audio front.

MacRumors has been busy playing with the macOS 15 developer beta and discovered this new functionality in System Settings. Under Headphone Accommodations (in Accessibility > Audio), you can tweak the sound for your AirPods and some Beats headphones. 

The settings therein let you amplify softer sounds – to make them more easily heard – and change the audio output frequencies to make your music, phone calls, and more clearer sounding (or at least that’s the idea). From what we can tell, the new settings you run with will carry over when using your AirPods on devices other than your Mac. 

This could be a really useful feature for those who are hard of hearing to some degree, and it’s an ability that has been on iOS devices for some time. So, while it’s undoubtedly a very commendable step forward for accessibility with macOS, some folks out there are wondering why it took so long to bring this functionality across to the Mac.

Still, we’re glad to see it’s arriving, and in the run-up to the release of macOS Sequoia, we’re seeing a lot of new and interesting features and tweaks pop up that seem to be popular. 

A recent example is the fix for the annoying storage issue Mac users have to deal with when it comes to downloading apps, as well as the more anticipated changes like iPhone mirroring and a plethora of AI features powered by Apple Intelligence.

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Not so fast, Windows 11! Microsoft is keeping Windows 10 in the game with new features going forward

Microsoft might be eager to move users along to Windows 11, and from there, whatever the next iteration of its desktop operating system may be, but it looks like Windows 10 isn’t completely shelved just yet.

In fact, quite the opposite, as Microsoft has recently published a blog post announcing that it’s reopening the Windows 10 Beta channel.

The Beta channel is the penultimate testing avenue of the Windows Insider Program, ahead of the final Release Preview channel. Users sign up to test the newest features for Windows 10, which are eventually released to all users of the OS.

Bearing in mind that Windows 10 support is scheduled to end in October 2025, which is not all that far off now, it’s a bit surprising that Microsoft has made this move. It certainly shows that we can expect new features down the line, ones that need to be tested – although to be fair, Microsoft has made a number of additions to Windows 10 in recent times. (After briefly declaring the OS would only get security updates, and nothing else).

So, Microsoft isn’t totally finished with Windows 10 yet, and this is perhaps a kind of acknowledgment that it’s still the most popular Windows OS (by quite some margin over Windows 11).

Microsoft Windows 10

(Image credit: Microsoft)

So, what does this mean for Windows 10 users?

I wouldn’t blame people for being a little confused by this move. It might seem strange that Microsoft is still dedicating resources to continue developing Windows 10, even though it’s due to stop receiving support next year.

Windows Latest probed Microsoft on whether this reactivation of the Beta channel could even be a hint that Windows 10 support might just be extended beyond October 2025, but that is not the case. All updates will still be ceased when that month rolls around next year.

Microsoft has indicated that it will offer a consumer version of its Extended Security Updates program, but the subscription price has yet to be announced. This will grant users the ability to continue receiving security updates past Windows 10’s end-of-life date, but again, only for a limited time and at a cost.

We recently saw Microsoft bring Windows 11’s ‘Mobile Devices’ page to Windows 10, allowing users to access, view, and edit photos from their Android device on their PC instantly. It’s unknown what other features Windows 10 will receive going forward, but I imagine these will be existing Windows 11 features as they’re already developed.

Overall, I think Windows 10 users will welcome this news and we’ll have to see how Microsoft fares when the big end-of-life date comes around. 

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Colleges are now teaching courses on how to use ChatGPT effectively – and it may be the only way forward

ChatGPT has created quite a buzz since its launch last fall, and has quickly settled as a staple in everyday life. Despite concerns surrounding the use of AI within academic fields, some university professors are now introducing classes and courses focused solely on educating students on the topics of prompt engineering and AI comprehension.

The rapid rise in popularity prompted Andrew Maynard, a professor at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society, to offer a course tailored to help students get a head start with these emergent AI tools.

“We’ve got to the point where it was very clear to me [that] there was a lot of panic, a lot of intrigue and things were moving fast”, Maynard told Inside Higher Ed.

In April this year, Maynard offered a course now known as Basic Prompt Engineering with ChatGPT, which teaches students how to effectively create prompts for the chatbot that consistently generates desirable output.

Adapt to Survive?

While there has been significant pushback in the education sector against ChatGPT, citing obvious concerns like plagiarism and cheating, the faculty behind courses like Maynard’s see this as an opportunity to prepare students for the drastically changing digital landscape created by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI tools like it.

This will affect every domain, every discipline, and it’s really important we teach it.

Jules White

Jules White, director of the Future of Learning and Generative AI at Vanderbilt University, argues that “People are saying, ‘Generative AI is taking your job’ – if that’s the case, we better do something about it and make sure students are innovating and succeeding”.

It may seem like a counterproductive approach to the concerns about how AI will affect future employment landscapes, but the move to get young members of the workforce up to speed and ‘useful’ in a world of increasing AI prevalence could actually mitigate any projected damage to the job market.

Amusingly enough, Maynard went straight to ChatGPT to help design his online course, though he did also have faculty and graduate students help test and evaluate the content. The chatbot did have a major role in the initial phases of creating the course; while it makes sense for ChatGPT to explain how to use its own software, could this be the start of AI-generated curriculums?

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