Walmart is expanding its drone delivery program from one pocket of the Dallas-Fort Worth area to millions of people in 30 municipalities in the area, Chief Executive Doug McMillon announced Tuesday at CES 2024. The retailer will use drone delivery systems operated by startup Zipline and by Alphabet subsidiary Wing, companies that have made hundreds of thousands of deliveries in recent years. They each recently obtained FAA clearance to fly their drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) -- in other words, out of the eyesight of a human operator -- which makes large-scale drone delivery operations more practical and economical. Delivery drones offer fast service, with Walmart packages arriving between 10 and 30 minutes after an order is placed from stores up to 10 miles away. Walmart touts the technology for people who need missing cooking ingredients, last-minute birthday gifts, over-the-counter medications or movie night snacks.

OpenAI, the company whose ChatGPT brought AI chatbots to mainstream awareness, said Monday that it'll let you build special-purpose AI apps using its technology. And with a new app store coming that'll let you find or share these GPTs, as the company is calling these customized artificial intelligence tools, OpenAI looks like it's hoping to have something an iPhone moment. You don't need to know how to program to make a new GPT. You have to give it plain-language instructions, upload some of your own knowledge in the form of PDFs, videos or other files, then steer the bot's purpose in a direction like creating images or searching the web. "GPTs are tailored versions of ChatGPT for a specific purpose," OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said at the OpenAI DevDay conference in San Francisco.

If you subscribe to Apple Arcade ($5, £5 or AU$8 a month), you can play this game at no additional charge, and without ads or in-app purchases, which is why this version is called "Stardew Valley Plus." This game was developed by ConcernedApe. It was nominated for a handful of awards in 2016 and won the Golden Joystick Awards's Breakthrough Award that same year. Stardew Valley opens with you leaving your office job and moving back to your grandfather's rundown farm with the hope of living a simpler life. But if you scratch beneath the surface you'll find that this game is anything but simple. Sure, you can stay on your land as you grow crops, raise animals and fix your home, but there's so much to do in Stardew Valley Plus.

Apple has created its own generative artificial intelligence tools to compete with ChatGPT, according to a Bloomberg report Wednesday. Apple built its own framework that can create large language models, called "Ajax," as well as a chatbot service that internal engineers are calling Apple GPT, according to Bloomberg citing unnamed sources. It's part of the iPhone giant's bid to compete in the AI space, the report said. Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Large language models are what power generative artificial intelligence chatbots, like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard.

The US Federal Trade Commission has reportedly launched an investigation into whether OpenAI, the company behind popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, has violated consumer protection laws. The FTC sent OpenAI a 20-page request for documents covering concerns related to data privacy and reputational harm, according to a report Thursday from The Washington Post. The agency also asked for details on OpenAI's large language model, the technology behind its generative AI chatbot, including all sources used to train the model and how data was obtained, according to the request, which was shared by the Post. CNET hasn't independently verified the request. The FTC declined to comment.

Generative artificial intelligence like ChatGPT and Google's Bard generates certain text in response to a query using natural language processing and machine learning. Meta's new generative AI, Voicebox, does things a little differently -- by producing audio clips. Voicebox, announced Friday by Facebook's parent company Meta, can synthesize speech using a 2-second audio sample. With that clip, it can match the audio style as well as do text-to-speech generation or re-create a portion of the speech that may have been interrupted by some external noise. Voicebox can also take that sample and have it read English text in other languages such as French, German, Spanish, Polish or Portuguese. Meta says Voicebox can be used to give a natural-sounding voice to virtual assistants or nonplayer characters in the metaverse, which are digital worlds in which people will gather to work, play and hang out.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a warning on Tuesday on generative AI chatbots being used by banks. The agency says it's received "numerous" complaints from customers who have interacted with the chatbots and have failed to receive "timely, straightforward" answers to their questions. "Working with customers to resolve a problem or answer a question is an essential function for financial institutions – and is the basis of relationship banking," the agency said in its press release. AI chatbots could run the risk of providing inaccurate financial information to customers or infringe on their privacy and data, CFPB said. Artificial intelligence chatbots could run the risk of providing inaccurate financial information to customers or infringe on their privacy and data, the CFPB said.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard the term "generative AI" at least a handful of times now, perhaps thanks to the wildly popular ChatGPT service. The AI-powered chatbot's success didn't just shine a spotlight on OpenAI, the creator behind it, but it also catalyzed an AI arms race in the tech industry – a race from which Apple has been noticeably absent. Earlier this month, Google made a flurry of AI-related announcements at its annual developer conference, including a new AI-infused version of search and Bard, its AI-powered chatbot, which is being rolled out across the world. Before that, Microsoft built generative AI into its suite of long-established productivity apps like Word, PowerPoint and Outlook in a move that's changing how more than a billion people work. In February, Meta released its own sophisticated AI model, which has many of the same capabilities at ChatGPT and Bard, as open-source software for public use.

Vacuuming is one of those daily tasks that never really goes away. But as technology has advanced, new vacuums can handle cleaning your floors for you -- and with so many robot vacuum deals out there, you don't have to spend an arm and a leg to cross vacuuming off your to-do list. Right now at eBay, you can take an extra 20% off (up to $100) new and refurbished iRobot devices and accessories when you use promo code IROBOT20 at checkout. There's no minimum order requirements and you can use the promo code up to two times now through May 14. There are a ton of options available that can save you a little time and effort when tidying up, including the Roomba S9 Plus robot vacuum with a self-emptying base, which earned a spot on our list of the best robot vacuums for 2023.

Ever since the release of ChatGPT last year, new generative AI tools and services have captured people's attention. Now, Meta is warning that bad actors have taken notice of interest in AI chatbots. The Facebook parent said scammers are creating malware that poses at ChatGPT and similar tools. In a security report released Wednesday, Meta said it discovered 10 malware families posing as ChatGPT or related tools since March. Some of the malicious software, which can steal your personal information and compromise accounts, came in the form of browser extensions and links.