OpenAI raises $40bn in deal with SoftBank, Apple releases iOS18.4

OpenAI said it had raised $40bn in a funding round that valued the ChatGPT maker at $300bn – the biggest capital-raising session ever for a startup. It comes in a partnership with the Japanese investment group SoftBank and “enables us to push the frontiers of AI research even further,” OpenAI announced, adding it would “pave the way toward AGI (artificial general intelligence)” for which “massive computing power is essential”. SoftBank said it wanted to realise “artificial super intelligence” (ASI) surpassing human intelligence and OpenAI was the partner closest to achieving that goal. The Guardian

Britain’s intelligence services fear the nation is extremely vulnerable to cyber attacks, the Technology Secretary has revealed. Ministers are concerned that the NHS and the national power grid can be hacked by hostile foreign states because they use outsourced IT companies that are not subject to the same security rules as public services. Peter Kyle, the Technology Secretary, said he was warned of weaknesses that left him “deeply concerned” about the safety of Britain’s critical national infrastructure after he took office. Telegraph 

To say that Garmin has upset its users with its new subscription service would be putting it mildly. The company recently announced Garmin Connect+, a new paid premium tier of its Connect app that features some shiny new paywalled features, including AI-powered insights and a performance dashboard for all of the best Garmin watches. It hasn’t gone down well. Thousands of furious Garmin fans have taken to Reddit over the news, demanding customers take a stand. Tech Radar 

Want to talk to whoever comes to your front door no matter where you are in the world? Then you will need a video doorbell. While Amazon-owned Ring is generally acknowledged as the market leader, another Amazon-owned company, Blink, offers a cheaper and, for some, more attractive option. Available in black or white versions (we tested both), the Blink video doorbell’s key benefit is that it’s battery-operated, which means you don’t have to remove it from the door for recharging every couple of months. It also makes it very lightweight. However, the downside is you will need to buy new lithium AA batteries which aren’t cheap. Tech Radar 

British authors have told Sky News they felt “absolutely sick” to see their book titles appear in a “shadow library” allegedly used by tech giant Meta to help develop artificial intelligence software. “It’s my whole life,” said one best-selling novelist. “The thought somebody in Silicon Valley or wherever is taking that work to produce identikit fake AI versions… it’s so upsetting.” The tool to search the LibGen database was published by The Atlantic last week after court documents filed as part of a lawsuit by US comedian Sarah Silverman and other authors against Meta. Sky News