Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

When OpenAI launched GPT-5 last week, the company said the model would simplify the ChatGPT experience. OpenAI hoped GPT-5 would act as a sort of “one size fits all” AI model with a router that would automatically decide how to best answer user questions. The company said this unified approach would eliminate the need for users to navigate its model picker — a long, complicated menu of AI options that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly said he hates. But it looks like GPT-5 is not the unified AI model OpenAI hoped it would be. Altman said in a post…

Sam Altman is in the process of co-founding a new brain-to-computer interface startup called Merge Labs and raising funds for it with the capital possibly coming largely from OpenAI’s ventures team, unnamed sources told the Financial Times. The startup is expected to be valued at $850 million. A source familiar with the deal tells TechCrunch that talks are still early and OpenAI has not yet committed to participation, so terms could change. Merge Labs is also reportedly working with Alex Blania, who runs Tools for Humanity (formerly World) — Altman’s eye-scanning digital ID project that “allows anyone to verify their humanness,”…

Lifelong boat captain George Billiris says he’s lucky to be alive after Vibrio vulnificus, the so-called “flesh-eating” bacteria that lurks in warm coastal waters like those along Florida’s Gulf Coast, nearly killed him.”I started to get chills, feverish, my leg was swelling, burning,” the third-generation sponge fisherman told CBS News.Billiris was wading in the water while fishing with his grandson back in July 2019 when he contracted the bacteria, which got into his system through a cut he had on his back leg. It was “just a little tiny scab,” Billiris said.At the hospital, doctors used a marker on his…

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Anguished pleas from parents. Confused police officers. The horrifying scene that emergency crews found when they first got inside the classrooms at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.Newly released records surrounding the May 2022 massacre, including hundreds of pages of files and hours of body camera video, show in greater detail the heartbreak and failures of one the worst school shootings in U.S. history. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed.The documents offer a deeper portrait of the teenage gunman and actions of hundreds of law enforcement officers who rushed to the rural South Texas campus.…

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Sal Frelick and Brice Turang homered off Paul Skenes, and the Milwaukee Brewers pounded the Pittsburgh Pirates 14-0 on Tuesday night for their 11th consecutive victory.Christian Yelich, Andrew Vaughn and Caleb Durbin also went deep as major league-leading Milwaukee improved to 27-5 in its last 32 games. Freddy Peralta (14-5) pitched six innings of three-hit ball in his second straight win.The Brewers’ 11-game winning streak is their second of the season and the second-longest in franchise history.Skenes (7-9) permitted four runs and six hits in four innings. The ace right-hander struck out four and walked two.It was…

A U.S. company that makes health care products is recalling four over-the-counter skin cleansers and an anti-itch lotion it says could lead to “serious and life-threatening infections.”New Jersey-based DermaRite Industries announced on Friday that it was voluntarily recalling the health care products due to the fact that they may cause a microbial contamination known as Burkholderia cepecia, which may result in adverse reactions, particularly in immunocompromised individuals.In a company statement, DermaRite said the contaminated products “may be used by immunosuppressed individuals or by people who are attending to these individuals.” The recall notice was also shared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.Symptoms…

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso hit his 253rd career homer on Tuesday night, breaking the franchise record held by Darryl Strawberry for 37 years.The 30-year-old Alonso drove a 95.1 mph fastball from Atlanta Braves right-hander Spencer Strider just over the wall in right-center for a two-run shot in the third inning. Alonso’s 27th homer of the season lifted the Mets to a 5-1 lead.Alonso went deep again in the sixth, connecting for a solo shot off Austin Cox. It was his franchise-record 25th multihomer game, three more than Strawberry.The Mets celebrated the record-breaking homer with…

Autism is being diagnosed earlier in young children, especially in boys, according to a major new analysis of medical records published on Tuesday.Conducted by Epic Research — the data and analytics arm of the electronic health record software company, Epic Systems — the analysis also found that many girls still face years-long delays in receiving a diagnosis and an increasing share of women are not diagnosed until adulthood.This raises concerns about missed opportunities for early support, Dr. Catherine Lord, the George Tarjan Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Education in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, told ABC News.MORE:…

The death of talent manager and producer Brandon Blackstock, Kelly Clarkson’s ex-husband, at the age of 48, is shining a spotlight on melanoma.Dan Hollis, the Butte-Silver Bow County coroner in Montana, confirmed to ABC News that Blackstock’s cause of death was natural and due to melanoma. Hollis also said Blackstock died at his home in Butte, Montana, on Aug. 7.The Blackstock family announced last Thursday that Brandon Blackstock had “bravely battled cancer for more than three years” and that he died “peacefully” and “was surrounded by family.”Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images – PHOTO: Kelly Clarkson and Brandon Blackstock attend the 2018 CMT…

Elon Musk says Apple has made it “impossible” for AI apps that aren’t ChatGPT to hit No. 1 on the App Store. The problem with that argument is that DeepSeek did exactly that earlier this year — and Musk’s Grok app may have as well.XAI’s Grok app currently sits at #5 on the Apple App Store’s top free apps chart — four spots away from the long-dominant ChatGPT.On Monday, Musk blamed Apple, suggesting without evidence that Apple has its thumb on the App Store scales. Apple partnered with OpenAI last year to integrate ChatGPT into iOS.”Apple is behaving in a manner…