ChatGPT users can now try out a new, lightweight version of the AI's Deep Research tool, and you don't even need a paid subscription. Announced in an X post on Thursday, the new version is not only free to use but will automatically activate for paid subscribers who use up their quota of the full Deep Research. Also: How much energy does a single chatbot prompt use? Unveiled in early February, Deep Research browses the web to find and compile the information you need. Simply submit your question or request to ChatGPT, and the AI will search the web for the most relevant sources to answer your query.

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Not too long ago, I was messaging a friend on Instagram about hangout plans. The photo app's DMs are a common place for us to chat, since we frequently share memes with each other there and it usually makes sense to consolidate those communications in one spot. At least, it did until very recently, when we fully beheld the wretched manifestations of Meta's desperate A.I. push. If you're still a regular Instagrammer who hasn't quit in protest of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Trumpy turn, you've doubtless encountered various artificial intelligence integrations in your everyday uses of the app.

Google has a monopoly, and that's the official line of the US federal government. In fact, it has two of them, losing two separate antitrust cases that threaten to cripple the tech giant. The Department of Justice has proposed forcing Google to sell or otherwise divest itself of the Chrome browser as its first and preferred remedy. But who would buy it? Unsurprisingly, there are beaucoup business beaus lining up around the block for this browser bachelorette.

Beleaguered chipmaker Intel has confirmed plans to restructure in a shift that will involve an unspecified number of layoffs. It was reported this week that the company could lay off around 20 percent of staff (it had 108,900 employees at the end of last year). In a memo, new CEO Lip-Bu Tan declined to detail the extent of the downsizing, which is largely aimed at reducing "unnecessary bureaucracy" and layers of middle management. "I'm a big believer in the philosophy that the best leaders get the most done with the fewest people. We will embrace this mindset across the company, which will include empowering our top talent to make decisions and take greater ownership of key priorities," Tan wrote.

Chances are, unless you're already deep into AI programming, you've never heard of Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP is rapidly emerging as a foundational standard for the next generation of AI-powered applications. Developed as an open standard by Anthropic in late 2024, MCP is designed to solve a core problem in the AI ecosystem: How to seamlessly and securely connect large language models (LLMs) and AI agents to the vast, ever-changing landscape of real-world data, tools, and services. The AI company Anthropic explained that as AI assistants and the LLMs behind them have improved, "even the most sophisticated models are constrained by their isolation from data -- trapped behind information silos and legacy systems. Every new data source requires its own custom implementation, making truly connected systems difficult to scale."

The HP EliteBook Ultra G1i combines a premium Lunar Lake laptop with lots of AI software tricks, but the price tag feels too high. I feel like I've been hearing about AI PCs for years now, and it's easy to tune that out. Despite the machine's capable hardware and attractive build, HP's primary focus remains on AI. HP really wants to talk about all the AI software it bundled with this PC, so I'll try to focus more on that in this review than normal. Indeed, this is a high-quality portable PC with solid Lunar Lake hardware. Assuming you don't want a discrete GPU, it's a good pick.

Miranda Lowther is a PhD researcher at the FARSCOPE-TU Centre for Doctoral Training, a joint venture between University of Bristol, University of West of England, and Bristol Robotics Laboratory, where she is pursuing her passion for using soft robotics and morphological computation to help people in healthcare. For her PhD, she is investigating how soft e-skins and morphological computation concepts can be used to improve prosthetic user health, comfort, and quality of life, through sensing and adaptation.

OpenAI is giving free ChatGPT users limited access to its Deep Research tool without the need to pay for it. In addition, the company has expanded the tool's limits for all users by rolling out a lightweight version of it powered by its o4-mini model. It says the o4-mini Deep Research feature produces slightly shorter responses, but is "nearly as smart, more cost-efficient and delivers similarly high-quality results" as the original version. OpenAI previously released the tool for use by paying Pro, Plus, Team, Edu and Enterprise subscribers. But even they have a limited number of Deep Research queries per month.

Microsoft has good news for anyone with corner office ambitions. In the future we're all going to be bosses – of AI employees. The tech company is predicting the rise of a new kind of business, called a "frontier firm", where ultimately a human worker directs autonomous artificial intelligence agents to carry out tasks. Everyone, according to Microsoft, will become an agent boss. "As agents increasingly join the workforce, we'll see the rise of the agent boss: someone who builds, delegates to and manages agents to amplify their impact and take control of their career in the age of AI," wrote Jared Spataro, a Microsoft executive, in a blogpost this week.

United States President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in Moscow for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, hours after Russia killed at least five people in Ukraine. A child was among three people killed overnight on Friday in Russian drone attacks on central Ukraine's industrial city of Pavlohrad, according to Serhiy Lysak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region. He said 14 people were also wounded in the attack on a five-storey building, including a six-year-old boy and teenagers, aged 15 and 17. Five of the wounded remained in hospital, he added. Two more people were killed on Friday morning in Donetsk region's Yarova settlement, where an aerial bomb was dropped on a residential building, according to Donetsk regional prosecutors.