AI company Perplexity announced in February that it was building its own browser called Comet. In a recent interview with the TBPN podcast, CEO Aravind Srinivas gave some insight as to why the business appeared to be branching out from its artificial intelligence focus: It's to collect user data and sell them targeted advertisements. "That's kind of one of the other reasons we wanted to build a browser, is we want to get data even outside the app to better understand you," he said. "We plan to use all the context to build a better user profile and, maybe you know, through our discover feed we could show some ads there." If that all sounds familiar, it could be become Google's Chrome browser has taken a similar approach.

Automakers and tech developers testing and deploying self-driving and advanced driver assistance features will no longer have to report as much detailed, public crash information to the federal government, according to a new framework released today by the US Department of Transportation. The moves are a boon for makers of self-driving cars and the wider vehicle technology industry, which has complained that federal crash reporting requirements are overly burdensome and redundant. But the new rules will limit the information available to those who watchdog and study autonomous vehicles and driver assistance features--tech developments that are deeply entwined with public safety but which companies often shield from public view because they involve proprietary systems that companies spend billions to develop. The government's new orders limit "one of the only sources of publicly available data that we have on incidents involving Level 2 systems," says Sam Abuelsamid, who writes about the self-driving vehicle industry and is the vice president of marketing at Telemetry, a Michigan research firm, referring to driver assistance features such as Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised), General Motors' Super Cruise, and Ford's Blue Cruise. These incidents, he notes, are only becoming "more common."

Remember when Microsoft promised that the Copilot key would be the next big thing? Since then Microsoft has begun backing away from its Copilot app, and this week the company is promising that Copilot won't even launch when you tap the key -- just a subset of the app will. Instead, Microsoft is promising that the Copilot key -- or, in future, the WIN C shortcut -- will launch Copilot Chat, a small chat box that won't take up as much screen space as before. But even this new experience isn't free from Microsoft's fragmentation problems, which puts separate features on separate tracks. Microsoft has two Copilot experiences: the "consumer" version of Copilot, and the more professional Copilot experience as Microsoft 365 Copilot.

The California Supreme Court urged the State Bar of California Thursday to explain how and why it utilized artificial intelligence to develop multiple-choice questions for its botched February bar exams. California's highest court, which oversees the State Bar, disclosed Tuesday that its justices were not informed before the exam that the State Bar had allowed its independent psychometrician to use AI to develop a small subset of questions. The Court on Thursday upped its public pressure on the State Bar, demanding it explain how it used AI to develop questions -- and what actions it took to ensure the reliability of the questions. The demand comes as the State Bar petitions the court to adjust test scores for hundreds of prospective California lawyers who complained of multiple technical problems and irregularities during the February exams. Using AI-developed questions written by non-legally-trained psychometricians represents'an obvious conflict of interest,' critics say.

You've heard of AI models taking the bar exam, but this time, AI also helped write the questions. The State Bar of California revealed on Monday that it used AI to develop a portion of its exam questions, according to the LA Times. The AI-generated exam questions were created by an independent psychometrician called ACS Ventures hired by the State Bar. The questions were "developed with the assistance of AI and subsequently reviewed by content validation panels and a subject matter expert in advance of the exam," announced the State Bar in a statement addressing technical glitches and question errors that test takers had previously complained about. The LA Times reported that 23 out of the 171 multiple choice questions were made by ACS Ventures.

This week, Emily Bazelon and David Plotz are joined by Henry Blodget to discuss the financial and political fallout from the President's threats to fire Fed Chair Powell and subsequent retreat; a Supreme Court case over free exercise of religion that could have broad implications; and why Trump stands by Hegseth after Signalgate Part 2. Here are some notes and references from this week's show: Colby Smith for The New York Times: Trump Says He Won't Fire Powell. His Fed Battle May Not Be Over Yet. America's economy is collateral damage Nicole Narea for Vox: Trump's tariffs are driving a gold rush Megan K. Stack for the New York Times (Opinion: Guest Essay): My School District Could Have Avoided This Supreme Court Case Neal McCluskey for Reason: The Supreme Court Is About To Hear 2 Education Cases. Ian Millhiser for Vox: The Supreme Court's "Don't Say Gay" argument went disastrously for public schools Aaron Blake for The Washington Post (Analysis): Even on the gravest of issues, GOP can't summon the will to question Trump Michael Crowley for The New York Times: Critics Call Rubio's Overhaul Plan a Blow to U.S. Values Here are this week's chatters: Henry: Christopher Lamb, Alicia Johnson, Jhasua Razo, and Sarah-Grace Mankarious for CNN: Who will be the next pope?

Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel joined'Fox & Friends' to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on medicine and his take on President Trump's decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization. A mother of two credits ChatGPT for saving her life, claiming the artificial intelligence chatbot flagged the condition leading to her cancer when doctors missed it. Lauren Bannon, who divides her time between North Carolina and the U.S. Virgin Islands, first noticed in February 2024 that she was having trouble bending her fingers in the morning and evening, as reported by Kennedy News and Media. After four months, the 40-year-old was told by doctors that she had rheumatoid arthritis, despite testing negative for the condition. WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

Google's AI Overviews sometimes acts like a lost man who won't ask for directions: It would rather confidently make a mistake than admit it doesn't know something. We know this because folks online have noticed you can ask Google about any faux idiom -- any random, nonsense saying you make up -- and Google AI Overviews will often prescribe its meaning. That's not exactly surprising, as AI has shown a penchant for either hallucinating or inventing stuff in an effort to provide answers with insufficient data. In the case of made-up idioms, it's kind of funny to see how Google's AI responds to idiotic sayings like "You can't lick a badger twice." On X, SEO expert Lily Ray dubbed the phenomenon "AI-splaining."

Google's parent company Alphabet will report its first quarter earnings on Thursday, which come as the tech giant is embroiled in antitrust lawsuits brought by the US government and a 17% drop in its stock price since the beginning of the year. It is also the company's first earnings report since Donald Trump levied tariffs on trade partners around the world. Despite the upheaval, analysts appear optimistic on Alphabet's outlook projecting first quarter revenue of 89.2bn, up 11% since the same time last year, and earnings of 2.01 per share, up 7%, according to consensus estimates. Analysts do not expect the global tariffs to create much of an impact for Alphabet, since they were mostly instituted after the end of the quarter. Alphabet is one of the world's most valuable companies, worth nearly 2trn.

In the latest development in an ongoing struggle over OpenAI's future direction--and potentially the future of artificial intelligence itself--dozens of prominent figures are urging the Attorneys General of California and Delaware to block OpenAI's controversial plan to convert from its unique nonprofit-controlled structure to a for-profit company. In a letter made public April 23, signatories including "AI Godfather" Geoffrey Hinton, Harvard legal professor Lawrence Lessig, and several former OpenAI researchers argue the move represents a fundamental betrayal of OpenAI's founding mission. "The proposed restructuring would eliminate essential safeguards, effectively handing control of, and profits from, what could be the most powerful technology ever created to a for-profit entity with legal duties to prioritize shareholder returns," the letter's authors write. It lands as OpenAI faces immense pressure from the other side: failing to implement the restructure by the end of the year could cost the company 20 billion and hamstring future fundraising. OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit, with its stated mission being to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) "benefits all of humanity" rather than advancing "the private gain of any person."