SoftBank Group is in discussions to invest as much as $30 billion more in OpenAI, a sharp increase in commitment that reflects founder Masayoshi Son's ambitions to play a central role in developing artificial intelligence. The Japanese company, already one of the ChatGPT-maker's biggest backers, is in deliberations to commit more capital toward the fast-growing startup, people familiar with the matter said. The maximum amount SoftBank is considering is $30 billion, one of the people said, asking to remain anonymous to discuss private talks. They cautioned that the discussions are fluid and the amount of funding could change. SoftBank's shares rose 5.8% in Tokyo on Wednesday. Son has been unwinding positions to increase its stake in OpenAI and ready capital for sweeping investments aimed at injecting AI in all devices.

Apple could unveil Gemini-powered Siri in Feb. Adobe Photoshop introduced some new features that are rolling out for creators today. As you'd expect from any service operator in this day and age, there's some AI involved. Adobe has improved the tools for Generative Fill, Generative Expand and Remove that are powered by its Firefly generative AI platform. Using these tools for image editing should now produce results in 2K resolution with fewer artifacts and increased detail all while delivering better matches for the provided prompts. The Reference Image option for Generative Fill has also been upgraded to deliver geometry-aware results that better match the scene.

OpenAI's latest product lets you vibe code science Prism is a ChatGPT-powered text editor that automates much of the work involved in writing scientific papers. OpenAI just revealed what its new in-house team, OpenAI for Science, has been up to. The firm has released a free LLM-powered tool for scientists called Prism, which embeds ChatGPT in a text editor for writing scientific papers. The idea is to put ChatGPT front and center inside software that scientists use to write up their work in much the same way that chatbots are now embedded into popular programming editors. Kevin Weil, head of OpenAI for Science, pushes that analogy himself. "I think 2026 will be for AI and science what 2025 was for AI in software engineering," he said at a press briefing yesterday.

Apple could unveil Gemini-powered Siri in Feb. Prism can edit and format LaTeX. OpenAI is releasing a new app called Prism today, and it hopes it does for science what coding agents like Claude Code and its own Codex platform have done for programming. Prism builds on Crixet, a cloud-based LaTeX platform the company is announcing it acquired today. For the uninitiated, LaTeX is a typesetting system for formatting scientific documents and journals. Nearly the entire scientific community relies on LaTeX, but it can make some tasks, such as drawing diagrams through TikZ commands, time-consuming to do.

PCWorld reports that OpenAI is testing an updated Temporary Chat feature for ChatGPT that retains personal customizations without saving conversations. This hidden setting functions like Incognito Mode, allowing private chats while maintaining user personalization preferences across sessions. AI engineer Tibor Blaho discovered the optional feature, though OpenAI may still store chat copies for up to 30 days for security purposes. OpenAI is testing an update to ChatGPT's "Temporary Chat" feature . Temporary Chat allows you to "have a conversation with a blank slate" where "ChatGPT won't be aware of previous conversations or access memories." It's a lot like Incognito Mode in Chrome, which you can use to "privately" browse the web--except here, it's chatting. The update to Temporary Chat will sort of tweak this, allowing ChatGPT to retain your personal customizations without the conversation itself being saved or affecting your overall account. Temporary chat in ChatGPT has a new, currently hidden option that lets you still use personalization (memory, chat history, style and tone preferences) even though the chat is only temporary ChatGPT web app now also mentions new ChatGPT FinServ plans (Enterprise-like), shopping pic.twitter.com/CaMaeYlCmP

Apple could unveil Gemini-powered Siri in Feb. Yahoo Scout will be powered by Claude and is integrated across the company's products. Yahoo has a new AI-powered answer engine, dubbed Yahoo Scout. The new tool is available now in beta and is powered by Anthropic's . The company says Scout synthesizes info from the web, as well as Yahoo's own data and content when constructing responses to user's natural-language search queries. Yahoo says the interface will include interactive digital media, structured lists and tables and visible source links aimed at making answers easier to verify.

In the three years since ChatGPT's explosive debut, OpenAI's technology has upended a remarkable range of everyday activities at home, at work, and in schools. Now OpenAI is making an explicit play for scientists. In October, the firm announced that it had launched a whole new team, called OpenAI for Science, dedicated to exploring how its large language models could help scientists and tweaking its tools to support them. How does a push into science fit with OpenAI's wider mission? And what exactly is the firm hoping to achieve? I put these questions to Kevin Weil, a vice president at OpenAI who leads the new OpenAI for Science team, in an exclusive interview.

An exclusive conversation with Kevin Weil, head of OpenAI for Science, a new in-house team that wants to make scientists more productive. In the three years since ChatGPT's explosive debut, OpenAI's technology has upended a remarkable range of everyday activities at home, at work, in schools--anywhere people have a browser open or a phone out, which is everywhere. Now OpenAI is making an explicit play for scientists. In October, the firm announced that it had launched a whole new team, called OpenAI for Science, dedicated to exploring how its large language models could help scientists and tweaking its tools to support them. The last couple of months have seen a slew of social media posts and academic publications in which mathematicians, physicists, biologists, and others have described how LLMs (and OpenAI's GPT-5 in particular) have helped them make a discovery or nudged them toward a solution they might otherwise have missed. In part, OpenAI for Science was set up to engage with this community.

Apple could unveil Gemini-powered Siri in Feb. A good prompt goes a long way. ChatGPT is available on both iOS and Android. Since March 2025, ChatGPT has been capable of generating images. Following a period where it briefly wasn't available to free users, you now don't even pay for one of OpenAI's subscriptions to use this feature.

A British AI startup that makes realistic video avatars has almost doubled its valuation to $4bn (£3bn), in a boost for the UK technology sector. Synthesia was valued at $2.1bn last year and moved into new offices in central London, marking the moment with a ceremony attended by the Sadiq Khan, the city's mayor, and Peter Kyle, then technology secretary. On Monday, it announced its latest funding round, led by an existing investor, Google Ventures, had raised $200m and valued the British company at $4bn. Google Ventures is the search firm's venture capital arm. Synthesia uses human actors to generate digital avatars of people and also offers employers the ability to create replicas of their staff.