标签: startup

  • OpenAI’s new ChatGPT image generator makes faking photos easy

    For most of photography’s roughly 200-year history, altering a photo convincingly required either a darkroom, some Photoshop expertise, or, at minimum, a steady hand with scissors and glue. On Tuesday, OpenAI released a tool that reduces the process to typing a sentence.

    It’s not the first company to do so. While OpenAI had a conversational image-editing model in the works since GPT-4o in 2024, Google beat OpenAI to market in March with a public prototype, then refined it to a popular model called Nano Banana image model (and Nano Banana Pro). The enthusiastic response to Google’s image-editing model in the AI community got OpenAI’s attention.

    OpenAI’s new GPT Image 1.5 is an AI image synthesis model that reportedly generates images up to four times faster than its predecessor and costs about 20 percent less through the API. The model rolled out to all ChatGPT users on Tuesday and represents another step toward making photorealistic image manipulation a casual process that requires no particular visual skills.

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  • Man sues cops who jailed him for 37 days for trolling a Charlie Kirk vigil

    Larry Bushart, a man who was jailed for 37 days for reposting a Trump meme, has now sued the cops who allegedly schemed to keep him imprisoned for as long as possible simply because they disagreed with his point of view.

    Bushart is a former cop who lost his post-retirement job after a seemingly vengeful sheriff jailed him for trolling a Charlie Kirk vigil post in a Facebook group. Upset that Kirk’s death commanded more attention than other victims of gun violence, Bushart posted a string of memes, among which was an image of Trump with an actual quote saying “We have to get over it” about a 2024 school shooting.

    Perry County sheriff Nick Weems has since acknowledged that he “knew” that the meme referenced a prior school shooting. However, the entire time that Bushart was detained, Weems maintained that Bushart’s post incited “mass hysteria” from parents concerned that he was threatening violence at a local high school. Painting Bushart as indifferent to the supposed hysteria, Weems justified his arrest, as well as the $2 million bond ensuring Bushart couldn’t afford bail and remained behind bars.

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  • FCC chair scrubs website after learning it called FCC an “independent agency”

    Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr today faced blistering criticism in a Senate hearing for his September threats to revoke ABC station licenses over comments made by Jimmy Kimmel. While Democrats provided nearly all the criticism, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that Congress should act to restrict the FCC’s power to intimidate news broadcasters.

    As an immediate result of today’s hearing, the FCC removed a statement from its website that said it is an independent agency. Carr, who has embraced President Trump’s declaration that independent agencies may no longer operate independently from the White House, apparently didn’t realize that the website still called the FCC an independent agency.

    “Yes or no, is the FCC an independent agency?” Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) asked. Carr answered that the FCC is not independent, prompting Luján to point to a statement on the FCC website calling the FCC “an independent US government agency overseen by Congress.”

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  • Kuxiu’s S3 MagSafe power bank is bigger and better and probably won’t explode

    The Kuxiu S3 simultaneously charging an iPhone wirelessly and an older Android phone via the integrated USB-C cable.

    Kuxiu is back with a new S3 portable battery that addresses most of the issues I had during my review of the S2, aka the “world’s first” semi-solid state power bank. It also introduces a few new ones, while adding useful features like a kickstand and integrated USB-C cable.

    As a reminder, these are not true “solid state power banks” despite the marketing hype. The 10,000mAh Kuxiu S3 uses the same solid-liquid mixed electrolyte found in the S2, making it less prone to thermal runaway than the all-liquid Lithium-ion batteries found in most power banks. Kuxiu says its unique semi-solid state chemistry also lasts twice as long, making it good f …

    Read the full story at The Verge.

  • Cowboy saddles up with a new owner

    Another independent rides off into the sunset. | Image: Cowboy

    The Brussels-based electric bike company has officially closed its deal to be acquired by ReBirth Group Holding, which also owns cycling brands Peugeot, Gitane, and Solex. The transaction includes new, undisclosed funding from ReBirth as well as €15 million ($17.6 million) from existing shareholders. The funding will be used to restart production and deal with a backlog of spare parts, the companies say.

    Rebirth is the parent of Re-cycles, the French manufacturer of traditional bicycles that took over responsibility for Cowboy’s e-bike assembly operations earlier this year. Cowboy was plagued by issues in 2025, including delayed deliveries …

    Read the full story at The Verge.

  • The ChatGPT app store is here

    On Wednesday evening, OpenAI launched an App Directory to browse all the tools currently available and opened its SDK for developers to build new interactive experiences that operate within the bot’s UI. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said last month that “We are planning to build the obvious features that you would expect for a robust platform over time,” and opening an app store is certainly a huge step in that direction.

    Another change is that OpenAI has renamed the “connectors” that helped users pull data from other services (like Google Drive or Dropbox) into ChatGPT, and is now calling those apps too. As a support page explains, chat connector …

    Read the full story at The Verge.

  • Sony’s legal battle against Tencent’s Horizon ‘clone’ is already over

    In July, Sony sued Tencent to prevent the release of Light of Motiram, a game Sony alleged was a “slavish clone” of its popular Horizon series. But the legal battle is already over; the two companies have reached a “confidential settlement” and the case has been dismissed with prejudice, according to a court document filed on Wednesday.

    Light of Motiram is also no longer listed on Steam and the Epic Games Store despite the game’s website showing links to listings on both stores as of this writing. A user on the game’s official subreddit also noticed the removal, pointing to a SteamDB link that says “this app has been retired and is no longe …

    Read the full story at The Verge.

  • LG and Dolby partner to release the first FlexConnect soundbar

    Dolby Atmos FlexConnect technology debuted this year with the TCL Z100 speakers, and now we’re getting our first FlexConnect soundbar thanks to LG. The new H7 soundbar – which runs on the same Alpha 11 Gen 3 chip as LG’s OLEDs and new Micro RGB LED – is a part of the LG Sound Suite, a modular home audio system the company will debut at CES 2026. In addition to the soundbar, the Sound Suite will include the M5 and M7 surround speakers and the W7 subwoofer. All of the speakers feature Peerless Audio components.

    The two main drawbacks of TCL’s Dolby FlexConnect implementation were the limitation of only allowing four connected speakers, includ …

    Read the full story at The Verge.

  • Instacart’s AI-driven pricing tool attracted attention — now the FTC has questions

    In an economy where everyone’s feeling squeezed, AI-driven price testing of kitchen essentials was bound to attract attention.
  • Adobe hit with proposed class-action, accused of misusing authors’ work in AI training

    The lawsuit is just the latest in a string of copyright-related legal complaints aimed at the AI industry.