Tech News Weekly 396: OpenAI's New ChatGPT Agent Is Here

Sixty years ago this week, the Mariner 4 probe sped past Mars, the first to succeed in this then-brash undertaking. The technology was unbelievably primitive, yet effective, sending back 22 low-resolution video frames of the Red Planet. On that day, the wee hours of July 15 at JPL in Pasadena, the Mars of the romantics died. What had long been viewed as a slightly colder, somewhat drier, near-twin of Earth ended up having just a trace of an atmosphere and looked more like the moon--bone dry and pummelled by craters. Rob Manning, JPL's Chief Engineer Emeritus, joins us for this look back at that mission and the first images returned of another planet from space. Headlines Apollo-Soyuz 50th Anniversary: Rod and Tariq marked 50 years since the historic Apollo-Soyuz docking, a significant event for international cooperation in space. Starliner: Boeing's Starliner won't fly again until early 2026, with good odds that it will be an uncrewed flight. Mars Meteorite on Earth: Tariq shared his awe-inspiring experience viewing the largest piece of Mars on Earth, a 54-pound meteorite discovered in 2023 that recently sold for $5.3 million. Main Topic - The 60th Anniversary of Mariner 4 Rob Manning, JPL Chief Engineer Emeritus: Rob Manning joins the host to discuss his extensive career working on most of NASA's Mars missions. Mariner 4's 60th Anniversary: The show's discussion highlighted the 60th anniversary of Mariner 4, which was America's first successful spacecraft to Mars. The "Death" of Mars: Mariner 4's images shattered romantic notions of Mars, revealing a cratered, arid planet with a thin atmosphere. Mariner 4's Camera Technology: Rob Manning detailed the technical challenges involved in adding a Vidicon tube TV camera to Mariner 4, emphasizing the difficulties in managing data size and ensuring functionality in space. Hand-Colored Mars Image: Scientists famously hand-colored Mariner 4's first black and white digital image. Mariner 4 Scientific Discoveries: Key scientific findings from Mariner 4 included the discovery of Mars' extremely thin atmosphere, roughly 1% the density of Earth's, and the absence of a strong global magnetic field. Challenges of Martian Landings: Rob underscores the extreme difficulty of landing on Mars due to its thin atmosphere, which rendered early concepts like glider landings impractical and dangerous. Legacy of John Casani: Rob praises the recently passed John Casani, Mariner 4's manager, for his pivotal role in advocating for the camera's inclusion and inspiring innovation at JPL. "Properly Paranoid" Approach: Rob discussed the concept of being "properly paranoid" in space engineering, stressing the importance of meticulous testing and proactive risk mitigation for high-stakes missions. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Guest: Rob Manning Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Emily Forlini of PCMag joins Mikah Sargent this week! A look into Synchron's headquarters, Beeper relaunches its messaging services after being acquired by Automattic, OpenAI releases its new agentic AI service, and an AI service company is hosting over 5,000 nonconsensual AI models of real people. Emily shares her time checking out Synchron, a company developing brain-computer interface implants that is considered a significant competitor to Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk. Mikah talks about Beeper's relaunch of its messaging app, which runs on devices and offers premium services such as access to more accounts and power-user-type features. OpenAI launched its new agentic AI service, ChatGPT Agent, on Thursday morning. This service can complete work for you on your computer and perform a variety of tasks for you. And Emanuel Maiberg of 404 Media shares his reporting into Hugging Face and how it is hosting over 5,000 AI models of real people, without consent, following another company, Civitai, which previously banned these models. Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Emily Forlini Guest: Emanuel Maiberg Download or subscribe to Tech News Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: smarty.com/twit threatlocker.com for Tech News Weekly

Interview with Anil Dash egirl Grok x Claude Zuckerberg announces Meta's new AI data centers for superintelligence Meta Hires Two More OpenAI Researchers Reflections on OpenAI RSS is (not) dead (yet) (NED #3) – audra mcnamee Perplexity AI browser Perplexity CEO says its browser will track everything users do online to sell 'hyper personalized' ads Stewart Holbrook: Portland Mythmaker How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Have Fun With A.I. Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Anil Dash Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: helixsleep.com/twit agntcy.org Melissa.com/twit

It's been a big year for Windows 11 updates. This month is at least semi-manageable! Also, a few more bits from the layoffs. Plus, Amiga Forever 11 and C64 11 Forever help you live in the past! Patch Tuesday Copilot+ PC only: Ask Copilot action for Click to Do 24H2 only: Show smaller Taskbar icons. Screen curtain feature in Narrator. Settings home page for commercial customer 23H2 and 24H2: Windows Share shows preview when sharing web content. Beginning of PC migration feature in Windows Backup. More changes for EU users to meet DMA requirements, mostly Edge related Windows 10: EU/DMA updates as above More Windows 11 WE DID IT! Windows 11 is now in use on more PCs than Windows 10. It's time for Windows 12! No new Insider features but some bug fixes in Canary Microsoft Edge keeps getting more responsive Microsoft 365 and AI Teams gets threading in Channels about three years later than needed Google brought its Veo 3 video generation model to all AI Pro subscribers last week, and now it's bringing that and two other big AI features to Pixel Perplexity just launched its AI web browser Xbox and gaming No, Phil Spencer is not retiring Romero Games forced to cancel Xbox shooter, lay off 100 employees Warcraft Rumble Mobile won't get any more updates Xbox angst in the wake of last week's layoffs is mostly undeserved Xbox fans keep finding new ways to complain - Most of the game/studio closures we know about were well-deserved. If anything, Microsoft let these things continue for too long with no viable deliverables But what is Xbox? Looking at the platform and what Microsoft has done under Phil Spencer paints a very different picture than all the moaning we see on social media Game Pass was key to getting Satya Nadella to keep Xbox going, but after the Activision acquisition, the day and date promise was unworkable. After the changes and price hikes, it's possible that Game Pass has peaked. Microsoft uploaded an out of date version of Call of Duty: WWII to the Store and hilarity ensues Sony to publish a game for Xbox for the first time Epic Games quietly settled with Samsung ahead of today's Unpacked event - but not with Google Tips and picks Tip of the week: Office 365 for IT Pros 2026 Edition is now available App pick of the week: Microsoft Edge RunAs Radio this week: Building Real Software using PowerApps with Luise Freese Brown liquor pick of the week: Bolster Road Maple Rye Whiskey Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: 1password.com/windowsweekly threatlocker.com/twit

Microsoft's latest round of layoffs hits Xbox Gaming hard as the company cuts approximately 9,000 jobs despite record profits. This week, Paul Thurrott and Richard Campbell discuss the impact of these layoffs, Windows 11's new version naming, Microsoft Copilot coming to Mac, and dive deep into passkey security. LAYOFFS As expected, Microsoft began a massive round of layoffs across Xbox/Microsoft Gaming on Wednesday. The fiscal year started on Tuesday. These were originally going to happen a week or two earlier. 9,000 employees impacted across Microsoft - about 4 percent of workforce, Xbox/MSGaming was NOT hit hardest, Microsoft now says (on top of 6,000 in May). 10 percent of King being laid off. Carefully worded email from Phil Spencer requires some parsing. It's Finally Official: 25H2 Is Next! Microsoft finally admits that the Dev channel is testing Windows 11 version 25H2, which will arrive, as expected, around October This news came as part of another set of commingled Dev and Beta channel builds. 25H2 will be delivered as an enablement package, so it's a minor release technically. Dev and Beta are linked because 25H2 and 24H2 are linked: Each will get the same features, as started with 22H2/23H2 in late 2023. Windows 11 Last week was Week D, but we didn't get preview updates per usual before WW That finally happened last Thursday - new preview updates for 24H2 and 23H2/22H2 24H2: Click to Do improvements, start of PC migration in Windows Backup, small icons in Taskbar, more. Windows Insider Preview: Those Dev/Beta builds noted above have the first implementation of third-party passkey. Microsoft Edge 138 is a pretty big update, with AI-enhanced history search and Copilot integration into the search box and new tab page. AI Microsoft 365 Copilot is available on the Mac. Apple may cave and adopt Anthropic Claude and/or OpenAI ChatGPT for Apple Intelligence. After Coda's acquisition and $1 billion in funding, Grammarly acquires Superhuman to build an "AI-native" productivity suite that will take on Big Tech (Microsoft, Google) and Little Tech (Notion, Proton) alike. Xbox and Gaming Xbox 360 dashboard is getting its first update in years. Halo Studios teases an October tease of the next Halo from the studio. New Game Pass titles for the first half of July - plus, COD: WWII turns up in Game Pass for the first time. Cursor sort of comes to the web and mobile - like Adobe Firefly on mobile, but for devs when "the mood strikes". Tips and Picks Tip/App picks of the week: Cure Mac envy. The Mac is about to get even prettier. But Windows 11 can rise to this challenge. The PC matters: Paul recommends Surface Laptop 7 as a MacBook Air alternative. Software? It's all free. Full screen apps: Hide the Taskbar and touchpad gestures - also, use DS Clock if you need to see the time. Transparent system menu? You can make the Taskbar transparent too. Want Spotlight? No problem, we have Command Palette (an updated, more extensible PowerToys Run) in PowerToys. Bonus app pick: Inoreader for RSS feeds (and read later if you want). RunAs Radio This Week: More Azure Innovations with Mark Russinovich Brown Liquor Pick of the Week: Alberta Distillers 23 Year Old Rare Batch No. 1 These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/939 Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell Sponsor: uscloud.com

Windows 10 EOL update Microsoft confirms that Windows 10 EOL is a go for October. But... Consumers can now get a free year of extra security updates instead of paying(!) Businesses can now enroll in extended security updates program Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 to get security updates through October 2028 Windows 11 A few new features via the Insider Program Recall gets a new home page and some nice updates to hardware indicators in Dev and Beta We know there's a Settings AI agent coming to Windows 11. Apparently, it needs its own local AI model. And why this might be problematic Canary gets features we've seen elsewhere, plus an ISO - plus a new 24H2 build in Release Preview with features we can expect on June 8, Patch Tuesday Microsoft launches AI-powered learning app for Copilot+ PCs First Arm-based Chromebook Plus arrives with 50+ TOPS NPU, local AI features - using the chip that would make for a nice Copilot+ PC. But what's going on with Chrome OS? Microsoft 365 Microsoft Ignite registration is open Android users can now open shared Office documents without a Microsoft account AI Copilot is struggling against ChatGPT, even in the enterprise Alexa+ is now available to over one million testers in the U.S. - but have you met even one of them? Android Studio gets Gemini-based Agent Mode in preview Xbox and games First, the bad news: Yes, there are massive layoffs coming to Xbox next week - this is in addition to the sales org-related layoffs that are also coming, and probably more It's happening! Microsoft begins testing Steam integration with the Xbox app on Windows 11 AMD expands a bit on the news that it's working with Microsoft on next-gen Xbox silicon June Xbox update arrives with more home screen customization, more mouse and keyboard support for more games, more "Stream your own games" titles (over 200 now) There's a limited edition Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition - move quick if you want one Hellblade II: Senua's Saga Enhanced arrives on PlayStation on August 12 - but there's more going on here, including "Xbox on PC" language Tips and Picks Tip of the week: Don't pay for Windows 10 extended security App pick of the week: Discord for Windows 11 on Arm RunAs Radio this week: Getting More from GitHub with April Yoho Brown liquor pick of the week: Drayman's Highveld Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: threatlocker.com/twit cachefly.com/twit

This week's episode dives deep into the post-WWDC hangover, exploring Apple's remarkable software improvements across platforms. The hosts examine the first third-party immersive video production using Blackmagic's new camera, celebrate major Vision Pro persona upgrades, and discuss Apple's complete re-architecture of iPad windowing. The conversation reveals how Apple's software teams seem to have hit their stride after years of criticism, delivering substantial improvements from terminal apps to AI integration. • Canal+ MotoGP Documentary for Vision Pro - First third-party Apple immersive video production shot entirely with new Blackmagic URSA camera, featuring French motorcycle racer Johann Zarco • Spatial Personas Get Major Upgrade - visionOS 26 delivers dramatically improved personas that actually look like real people, though beards still cause mouth-tracking issues • Geographic Persistence and Room Mapping - visionOS 26 features allow virtual objects to stay in place across reboots and sessions • Apple Home Hub Smart Display Discovery - Code found in iOS 26 dev beta reveals upcoming HomePod with screen, expected by the end of year • iPad Multitasking Revolution - Craig Federighi explains the complete re-architecture of iPadOS 26 windowing system, bringing full Mac-style window management to iPad • Background Task Processing - iPadOS 26 introduces finite background tasks for exports and file operations, finally allowing users to switch apps during long processes • Software Quality Renaissance - Discussion of Apple's apparent software turnaround, from improved backend infrastructure (40% improvement moving from Java to Swift/Rust) to new developer APIs • New Speech-to-Text APIs - Apple provides developers access to on-device transcription that's twice as fast as Whisper, though slightly less accurate • Third-Party App Integration Improvements - Apple now allows music apps to show animated artwork on lock screen and provides access to various ML models • Terminal and Spotlight Updates - macOS 26 features the first meaningful Terminal app update in years, plus pro features added to Spotlight, including clipboard history • F1 Movie Marketing Blitz - Deep dive into Apple's $200+ million investment in the F1 film, including custom iPhone cameras built for race cars and haptic trailer experiences Picks of the Week: • Leo's Pick: Classic Sega iOS games going free before delisting on the App Store, including Crazy Taxi, Sonic titles, and Super Monkey Ball • Jason's Pick: PlugShare app for electric vehicle owners to find compatible charging stations across all networks and plug types • Andy's Pick: Usagi Yojimbo comic collection Humble Bundle featuring Stan Sakai's acclaimed samurai rabbit series, with proceeds supporting the Hero Initiative • Alex's Pick: Perla iOS camera app designed to give iPhone footage an authentic 16mm film look and feel Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: storyblok.com/twittv-25

In memoriam: Bill Atkinson Meta native apps & JavaScript collude for a localhost local mess. The EU rolls out its own DNS4EU filtered DNS service. Ukraine DDoS's Russia's Railway DNS ... and... so what? The Linux Foundation creates an alternative Wordpress package manager. Court tells OpenAI it must NOT delete ANYONE's chats. Period! :( A CVSS 10.0 in Erlang/OTP's SSH library. Can Russia intercept Telegram? Perhaps. Spain's ISPs mistakenly block Google sites. Reddit sues Anthropic. Twitter's new encrypted DM's are as lame as the old ones. The Login.gov site may not have any backups. Apple explores the question of recent Large Reasoning Models "thinking" Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1029-Notes.pdf Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now. You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page. For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: hoxhunt.com/securitynow threatlocker.com for Security Now uscloud.com canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT