In a special episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Ben and Mike discuss (with apologies to Tay-Tay) the three eras of content moderation in the media and what comes next.
Together, they unpack three distinct phases: The Strange Fascination Era (2003–2015), when newsrooms powered platform growth and treated social media as an exciting new frontier; The “We’re Watching You” Era (2016–2020), when investigative reporting exposed online harms and pushed platforms to formalise Trust & Safety; and The Mask Off Era (2021–present), as platforms retreat from working with the media and the commitment to moderation waned.
The past ten days have been among the most consequential in OpenAI’s history, with developments stacking up across product, politics, personnel, and the courts. Here is what happened — and what it means.
OpenAI on Tuesday launched a set of interactive visual tools inside ChatGPT that let users manipulate mathematical and scientific formulas in real time — a genuinely impressive education feature that landed in the middle of the most turbulent stretch of the company’s corporate life.
The new experience covers more than 70 core math and science concepts, from the Pythagorean theorem to Ohm’s law to compound interest. When a user asks ChatGPT to explain one of these topics, the chatbot now generates a dynamic module with adjustable sliders alongside its written response. Drag a variable, and the equations, graphs, and diagrams update instantly. The feature is available today to all logged-in users worldwide, across every plan, including free.
OpenAI tells VentureBeat that 140 million people already use ChatGPT each week for math and science learning. That is a staggering number. It also means the feature arrives with unusually high stakes: since late February, OpenAI has been sued by the family of a 12-year-old mass shooting victim who alleges the company knew the attacker was planning violence through ChatGPT; lost its head of robotics over a Pentagon deal that triggered a near-300% spike in app uninstalls; watched more than 30 of its own employees file a legal brief supporting rival Anthropic against the U.S. government; and scrapped plans with Oracle to expand a flagship data center in Texas. Its chief competitor’s app, Claude, now sits atop the App Store.
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The interactive learning tools are, on their merits, a strong product. They also arrive at a company fighting on every front simultaneously — and burning through an estimated $15 billion in cash this year to do it.
ChatGPT’s new interactive learning module for Ohm’s Law, with adjustable sliders for current and resistance and a real-time circuit visualization. (Credit: OpenAI)
How the new ChatGPT learning tools actually work
The feature is built on a simple pedagogical premise: students understand formulas better when they can see what happens as the inputs change.
Ask ChatGPT “help me understand the Pythagorean theorem,” and the system now responds with a written explanation alongside an interactive panel. On the left, the formula $a^2 + b^2 = c^2$ appears in clean notation with sliders for sides $a$ and $b$. On the right, a geometric visualization — a right triangle with squares drawn on each side — reshapes dynamically as you adjust the values. The computed hypotenuse updates in real time. The same treatment applies across topics: voltage and resistance for Ohm’s law, pressure and temperature for the ideal gas equation, radius and height for cone volume.
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OpenAI’s initial roster of more than 70 topics targets high school and introductory college material: binomial squares, Charles’ law, circle equations, Coulomb’s law, cylinder volume, degrees of freedom, exponential decay, Hooke’s law, kinetic energy, the lens equation, linear equations, slope-intercept form, surface area of a sphere, trigonometric angle sum identities, and others.
The company cited research suggesting that “visual, interaction-based learning can lead to stronger conceptual understanding than traditional instruction for many students,” and pointed to a recent Gallup survey in which more than half of U.S. adults said they struggle with math. In early testing, OpenAI said, students reported the modules helped them grasp how variables relate to one another, and parents described using them to work through problems alongside their children.
Anjini Grover, a high school mathematics teacher quoted in OpenAI’s announcement, said the feature stands out for “how strongly this feature emphasizes conceptual understanding.” Raquel Gibson, a high school algebra teacher, called it “a step towards empowering students to independently explore abstract concepts.”
The tools build on ChatGPT’s existing education features — a “study mode” for step-by-step problem solving and a quizzes feature for exam prep — and OpenAI said it plans to expand interactive learning to additional subjects. The company also said it intends to publish research through its NextGenAI initiative and OpenAI Learning Lab to study how AI shapes learning outcomes over time.
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An interactive Pythagorean theorem module in ChatGPT, where users can drag sliders to adjust the lengths of a right triangle’s sides and watch the geometry update in real time. (Credit: OpenAI)
A lawsuit alleging OpenAI knew a mass shooter was planning an attack
On the day before OpenAI shipped its education tools, the company faced the most serious legal challenge it has ever faced.
On Monday, the mother of 12-year-old Maya Gebala filed a civil lawsuit against OpenAI in B.C. Supreme Court, alleging the company had “specific knowledge of the shooter’s long-range planning of a mass casualty event” through ChatGPT interactions and “took no steps to act upon this knowledge.” Gebala was shot three times during a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia on February 10 that killed eight people and the 18-year-old attacker. She suffered what the lawsuit describes as a catastrophic traumatic brain injury with permanent cognitive and physical disabilities.
The claim paints a damning picture of how the shooter used ChatGPT. It alleges the platform functioned as a “counsellor, pseudo-therapist, trusted confidante, friend, and ally” and was “intentionally designed to foster psychological dependency between the user and ChatGPT.” The shooter was under 18 when they began using the service, the suit states, and despite OpenAI’s requirement that minors obtain parental consent, the company “took no steps to implement age verification or consent procedures.”
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OpenAI has separately acknowledged that it suspended the shooter’s account months before the attack but did not alert Canadian law enforcement — a decision that provoked sharp political fallout. B.C. Premier David Eby said after a virtual meeting with Altman that the CEO agreed to apologize to the people of Tumbler Ridge and work with the provincial government on AI regulation recommendations.
None of the claims have been proven in court. OpenAI has not publicly commented on the lawsuit. But the case poses a question that transcends any single legal proceeding: when an AI company’s own internal systems identify a user as dangerous enough to ban, what obligation does it have to tell someone?
The Pentagon deal that split OpenAI from the inside
The Tumbler Ridge lawsuit is unfolding against the backdrop of an internal crisis that has already cost OpenAI key talent and millions of users.
On February 28, CEO Sam Altman announced a deal giving the Pentagon access to OpenAI’s AI models inside secure government computing systems. The agreement came days after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publicly refused similar terms, saying his company could not proceed without assurances against autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. The Pentagon responded by designating Anthropic a “supply-chain risk” — a classification normally reserved for foreign adversaries — and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth barred any military contractor from conducting commercial activity with the company.
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The reaction inside OpenAI was immediate. Caitlin Kalinowski, who joined from Meta in 2024 to build out the company’s robotics hardware division, resigned on principle. “AI has an important role in national security,” she wrote publicly. “But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.” Research scientist Aidan McLaughlin wrote on social media that he “personally don’t think this deal was worth it.” Another employee told CNN that many OpenAI staffers “really respect” Anthropic for walking away.
The reaction outside the company was even more dramatic. ChatGPT uninstalls spiked more than 295% on the day the deal was announced. Anthropic’s Claude surged to No. 1 among free apps on the U.S. Apple App Store and remained there as of this past weekend. Protesters gathered outside OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters calling for a “QuitGPT” movement.
And in the most extraordinary development, more than 30 OpenAI and Google DeepMind employees — including DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean — filed an amicus brief Monday supporting Anthropic’s lawsuit against the Defense Department. The brief argued that the Pentagon’s actions, “if allowed to proceed,” would “undoubtedly have consequences for the United States’ industrial and scientific competitiveness in the field of artificial intelligence and beyond.” The employees signed in their personal capacity, but the spectacle of OpenAI’s own researchers rallying to a competitor’s legal defense against the same government their company just partnered with has no real precedent in the industry.
Altman, to his credit, has not pretended the situation is fine. In an internal memo later shared publicly, he admitted the deal “was definitely rushed” and “just looked opportunistic and sloppy.” He revised the contract to include explicit prohibitions against mass domestic surveillance and the use of OpenAI technology on commercially acquired data. He also publicly said that enforcing the supply-chain risk designation against Anthropic “would be very bad for our industry and our country.”
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Meanwhile, Anthropic warned in court filings that the Pentagon’s blacklisting could cost it up to $5 billion in lost business — roughly equivalent to its total revenue since commercializing its AI technology in 2023. The company is seeking a temporary court order to continue working with military contractors while the case proceeds.
Why OpenAI’s $15 billion cash burn makes every user count
Strip away the lawsuits and the politics, and OpenAI still has a math problem of its own.
The company is expected to burn through approximately $15 billion in cash this year, up from $9 billion in 2025. It has roughly 910 million weekly users. About 95% of them pay nothing. Subscriptions alone cannot bridge that gap, which is why OpenAI is simultaneously building out an internal advertising infrastructure and leaning on partners like Criteo — and reportedly The Trade Desk — to bring advertisers into ChatGPT.
The company is hiring aggressively for this effort: a monetization infrastructure engineer, an engineering manager, a product designer for the ads experience, a senior manager for ad revenue accounting, and a trust and safety specialist dedicated to the ads product, all based at headquarters in San Francisco. The compensation bands run as high as $385,000 — the kind of investment a company makes when it plans to own its ad stack, not rent it.
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But advertising inside ChatGPT introduces a trust problem that compounds the ones OpenAI is already managing. Users who abandoned the app over the Pentagon deal demonstrated that loyalty to ChatGPT is thinner than its market share suggests. Adding commercial messages to a product already under fire for its military ties and its handling of a mass shooter’s data will require OpenAI to navigate user sentiment with a precision it has not recently demonstrated.
The infrastructure picture is equally unsettled. Oracle and OpenAI recently scrapped plans to expand a flagship AI data center in Abilene, Texas, after negotiations stalled over financing and OpenAI’s evolving needs. Meta and Nvidia moved quickly to explore the site — a reminder that in the current AI arms race, any gap in execution gets filled by a competitor within days.
Why interactive learning is OpenAI’s strongest remaining argument
Beyond the product itself, the education feature carries strategic significance for OpenAI.
Education has always been ChatGPT’s cleanest use case — the application where the technology most obviously augments human capability rather than surveilling it, weaponizing it, or monetizing the attention of people who came looking for help. It is the use case that resonates across demographics: students prepping for the SAT, parents revisiting algebra at the kitchen table, adults circling back to concepts they never quite understood. And it is the use case where ChatGPT still holds a clear lead. Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and xAI’s Grok are all investing in education, but none has shipped anything comparable to real-time interactive formula visualization embedded in a conversational interface.
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OpenAI acknowledged that the “research landscape on how AI affects learning is still taking shape,” but pointed to its own early findings on study mode as showing “promising early signals.” The company said it will continue working with educators and researchers through its NextGenAI initiative and OpenAI Learning Lab, and plans to publish findings and expand into additional subjects.
Somewhere tonight, a ninth-grader will open ChatGPT, drag a slider, and watch a hypotenuse lengthen across her screen. The Pythagorean theorem will make sense for the first time. She will not know about the Pentagon deal, or the Tumbler Ridge lawsuit, or the 295% spike in uninstalls, or the $15 billion cash burn underwriting the server that just rendered her triangle. She will only know that it worked. For OpenAI, that may have to be enough — for now.
Apple debuted the MacBook Neo on March 4, 2026, and units begin arriving in customers’ hands tomorrow (March 11th). The laptop starts at $599, or a modest $499 for students thanks to educational pricing. That alone has a lot of people sitting up and taking note, and with good reason, given that past entry-level MacBooks were priced at $999 or higher.
Apple based the Neo on the same A18 Pro chip that powers the iPhone 16 Pro. This mobile processor handles everyday activities easily; online browsing is snappy, streaming is smooth, and light creative tasks like photo editing or casual gaming seem extremely responsive. Apple says the Neo can get through everyday tasks 50% faster than recent Intel-based PCs, and its built-in AI features can work up to three times faster in certain situations. On top of that, the chip runs so efficiently that the laptop stays completely silent even during long sessions, with no fans, no noise, and nothing to worry about.
HELLO, MACBOOK NEO — Ready for whatever your day brings, MacBook Neo flies through everyday tasks and apps. Choose from four stunning colors in a…
THE MOST COLORFUL MACBOOK LINEUP EVER — Choose from Silver, Blush, Citrus, or Indigo — each with a color-coordinated keyboard to complete the…
POWER FOR EVERYDAY TASKS — Ready the moment you open it, MacBook Neo with the A18 Pro chip delivers the performance and AI capabilities you need to…
The Neo’s battery life is also decent, with Apple estimating that you can get roughly 16 hours of movie playback or mixed use from a single charge. That’s more than enough to get you through a full day of lectures, emails, video calls, and surfing without having to look for an outlet. The 13-inch Liquid Retina display is definitely no slouch, with a resolution of 2408 x 1506, a brightness of 500 nits, and support for a billion colors.
There are four color choices: silver, pink, citrus, and indigo. Each one includes matching keycaps and software components such as backgrounds and icons. The aluminum body feels robust and quality, weighing approximately 2.7 pounds and measuring 0.50 inches thick. Reviewers say the design is sturdy and compact, and if you look closely, it’s comparable in quality to the MacBook Air, but it feels a lot more approachable.
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You’ll find two USB-C ports, one of which supports USB3 speeds and DisplayPort for connecting external monitors up to 4K at 60Hz, as well as a headphone socket. The Magic Keyboard has been updated to make it much more pleasant to type on, however the standard model does not include backlighting. The Multi-Touch trackpad still supports all of your favorite gestures, but with mechanical clicks rather than the fancy haptic version found on more costly versions. A 1080p FaceTime camera is also included, along with beamforming mics and side-firing speakers that have been tuned for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos, ensuring clean calls and solid sound for music or videos.
Twelve weeks of battery life from a single charge is the number that separates the Kindle Paperwhite from almost every other device in your bag, and at £134.99 it is now priced where it belongs for anyone serious about reading.
It’s flagged in our best Kindle buying guide as the best option for most people, in you’re looking for more backup. We also added the 4.5-star review of the Paperwhite: “The Kindle (2024) is great, but the Paperwhite is just a bit more luxurious. It has a nicer, flush screen and a warm light that’s easier on the eyes.”
The 7-inch Paperwhite display runs at 300ppi with a higher contrast ratio and 25% faster page turns than the previous version, which means text renders crisply and scrolling between pages feels more immediate than older Kindle models managed.
The front light adjusts from white to warm amber, so the Kindle Paperwhite remains comfortable whether you are reading in direct sunlight or a completely dark room without straining your eyes.
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IPX8 waterproofing rated to two metres of fresh water for 60 minutes means the Kindle Paperwhite travels to the pool or bath without any anxiety, and the flush-front design keeps the screen protected in a bag.
The Kindle Paperwhite carries 16GB of on-device storage, which holds thousands of titles locally, with free cloud storage for your full Amazon library, without taking up space on the device itself.
Charging takes approximately 2.5 hours via USB-C with a 9W power adaptor, which is a fast enough turnaround that plugging in overnight once every few months is all the maintenance the Kindle Paperwhite realistically demands from a regular reader.
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The ad-free version at £134.99 does contain lock-screen promotions, and at a price point that matches Black Friday levels outside of November, the Kindle Paperwhite represents straightforward value for anyone who reads regularly and wants a device built around nothing else.
You might recall that during the great mass TikTok hyperventilation of 2021-2025, there was no limit of face fanning by Republicans like Brendan Carr about overseas involvement in social media. Carr was so particular on this subject, he scuttled an FCC program aimed at shoring up “smart” home device security standards because one of the testing labs (unsurprisingly) did business in China where this stuff is made.
Fast forward to this year, and Carr curiously has zero problems with significant Saudi and Chinese investments in Larry Ellison and Paramount’s efforts to acquire Warner Brothers. Though Carr’s actual regulatory oversight of the deal is limited given the lack of public broadcast licenses involved, he took to CNBC anyway to insist the massive $111 billion deal should likely fly through regulatory approval:
“If there’s any FCC role at all, it’ll be a pretty minimal role. And I think this is a good deal, and I think it should get through pretty quickly,” Carr added.
Carr told CNBC that Netflix “would have a very difficult path” getting regulatory approval, adding that Paramount’s was “a lot cleaner, does not raise at all the same types of concerns.”
“I think there’s some real consumer benefits that can emerge from it,” he added.
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Carr’s (and Republicans’ more generally) gushing excitement comes despite the fact that significant structural overlap between Paramount and Warner Brothers will mean significantly more layoffs than we would have seen during the originally proposed Netflix Warner Brothers tie up. Layoffs that will likely be much worse than past Warner deals due to the absolutely massive debt involved.
This is before you even get to Larry Ellison’s obvious quest to built autocratic-friendly state television, the likes of which coddles authoritarianism and, in countries like Russia and Hungary, ultimately led to the total decimation of serious truth-to-power journalism.
“Before pulling out of the deal, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos – speaking to the BBC in London on the morning after the recent BAFTA Film Awards – called the Gulf sovereign funds backing Paramount’s bid a “bad idea,” noting that they are from “a part of the world that is not very big on the First Amendment.”
“It seems very odd to me with the level of investment that we’re talking about that they’d have no influence or editorial control over media in another country,” Sarandos added.
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If you recall the multi-year right wing hysteria campaign about TikTok, it was fixated on the idea that having any overseas involvement in U.S. media was a doomsday scenario (they were not subtle or flexible on this point). Of course Trumpism immediately proceeded (with bumbling Democrat help) to “fix” this problem by offloading the company to Trump’s technofascist friends, while still maintaining a significant investment presence by the Chinese.
When Netflix was planning to buy Warner Brothers, Republicans engaged in no limit of face-fanning, featuring threats of “investigations” by Republican Attorneys General, and a phony Trump DOJ “investigation” into the antitrust concerns raised by the deal. But when a technofascist ally oligarch wants to own a major media property, with Saudi and Chinese help, all of that mysteriously disappears.
It’s almost as if Trump Republicans have no coherent ideology beyond their own power and unchecked wealth accumulation, and all of their posturing on issues like antitrust and national security, routinely propped up by a lazy press, is as hollow as a Dollar Store fake chocolate Easter bunny.
Starlink is preparing a major upgrade to its satellite network, with next-generation V2 satellites promising what the company calls “5G speeds from space.”
According to Starlink, the new satellites will deliver up to 100 times the data density of the current V1 generation. This could potentially transform how satellite connectivity performs on everyday phones.
So far, satellite-to-phone services have focused more on coverage than speed. Current Starlink mobile connectivity is largely limited to basic messaging and light data use, particularly in areas without reliable cellular coverage. However, the V2 upgrade aims to push that much further. This will bring significantly higher bandwidth and faster data speeds.
One of the more notable changes is compatibility. Starlink says the upcoming system will work with hundreds of existing LTE smartphones. This will allow devices to connect directly to satellites without needing special antennas or hardware. In practice, the satellites will act like cell towers in low Earth orbit. Therefore, they will enable phones to maintain a connection even when conventional networks aren’t available.
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SpaceX plans to launch up to 15,000 V2 satellites as part of the broader Starlink constellation expansion. Early testing of the upgraded network is expected to begin around early 2027. Although the full performance gains will depend on how quickly the larger constellation can be deployed.
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In the meantime, the company has already begun launching V2 Mini satellites. These are designed to bridge the gap between the current generation and the full V2 rollout.
Starlink is also working with mobile operators to make the system more seamless. Partnerships including one with T-Mobile in the US aim to allow phones to switch between satellite and terrestrial networks without noticeable interruptions.
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If the network scales as planned, Starlink suggests peak speeds of around 150Mbps per user could eventually be achievable. That would be a major leap for satellite connectivity. Historically, satellite networks have lagged far behind conventional cellular networks in both speed and capacity.
For now, though, much of that promise depends on the pace of satellite launches and how quickly the full V2 constellation becomes operational. Until then, Starlink’s satellite-to-phone service previously known as Direct to Cell and now branded Starlink Mobile will continue offering more basic connectivity where traditional coverage is limited.
Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.
Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I thought it was a bit tricky. 1-Down is one of those old-fashioned comic-book sounds that I had to remember how to spell correctly. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.
If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.
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Apple Vision Pro owners will be able to take to the skies in the “X-Plane 12” flight simulator thanks to visionOS 26.4, which includes support for CloudXR.
Apple Vision Pro to get more gaming support via CloudXR
One of the main complaints surrounding Apple Vision Pro is its lack of a broad app ecosystem or VR game library. The latter could be addressed thanks to visionOS 26.4, and developers are already taking notice. A post in the X-Plane blog shares that X-Plane 12 will launch on Apple Vision Pro “later this spring.” It seems to insinuate that it will launch alongside the release of visionOS 26.4, which includes support for the needed Nvidia CloudXR 6.0. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
‘For many years, Europe has relied on American software and therefore created a certain risk of dependency’, said Office.eu’s CEO.
Much has happened over the past few years for Europe to decide to tighten its reigns on data in the region.
Examples include numerous comments from US president Donald Trump threatening action against the EU for its supposed discriminatory actions against US Big Tech, the possibility of the US government compelling US tech companies to share EU data, and not to mention the very same Big Tech companies dominating the region’s market while also violating its laws.
Microsoft 365 was found to have been tracking EU school students’ data illegally, Apple was found to be preventing EU users from exercising choice, and Meta was forcing users to pay or consent to its data tracking.
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Last November, around 900 policymakers and other stakeholders gathered in Berlin to discuss ways to make Europe more technologically resilient, and less dependent on the US.
France and Germany took centre stage, announcing a joint taskforce on digital sovereignty, aiming for a more competitive and sovereign Europe.
“The Digital Sovereignty Summit sends a clear signal – Europe has what it takes to lead the digital age,” commented French president Emmanuel Macron at the time. “Europe is stepping up to accelerate the development of European innovation, to uphold strong data protection and to call for fair market conditions.”
The idea of digital sovereignty has finally taken centre stage in Europe, after years of the region conducting its business and administration on infrastructure made elsewhere.
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It’s unsurprising then that a wholly European-owned alternative to Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, called Office.eu, made its debut last week, promising to enable organisations to regain control over their data and digital operations.
“We have seen more and more how essential it is to become cloud-independent and to rely on software that is built around European values,” said Maarten Roelfs, the CEO of Office.eu. The Hague-headquartered company was founded in 2024 and started operating early this year.
“For many years, Europe has relied on American software and therefore created a certain risk of dependency, but we have also given away the control over our own data. Office.eu proves that we now have a strong European alternative, with sovereignty, privacy and transparency at its core.”
Office.eu runs entirely on European data centres. Built on an open-source foundation, the platform offers a cloud drive, tools such as emails, spreadsheets, presentations and calendar, and video conference services.
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Early access already has nearly 15,000 applicants, Office.eu told SiliconRepublic.com. A phased European rollout is planned for the second quarter.
Office.eu’s Office Suite is not the first of its kind, however. Infomaniak, which describes itself as an “ethical cloud with no bullshit”, launched ‘kSuite’ back in 2022, with a Microsoft Teams alternative called ‘kChat’, and the option to use Microsoft Office with documents hosted in Switzerland.
OpenDesk, created by the German Centre for Digital Sovereignty, offers similar tools for use by the German administration. There are others as well, such as NextCloud, which offers self-hosted file storage and a chat function.
“The Rubicon has been crossed. American tech firms can no longer offer assurances to European companies that their data sovereignty will be protected,” Roelfs told Stories of Purpose.
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Tony Hoare, the Turing Award-winning pioneer who created the Quicksort algorithm, developed Hoare logic, and advanced theories of concurrency and structured programming, has died at age 92.
News of his passing was shared today in a blog post. The site I Programmer also commemorated Hoare in a post highlighting his contributions to computer science and the lasting impact of his work. Personal accounts have been shared on Hacker News and Reddit.
Many Slashdotters may know Hoare for his aphorism regarding software design: “There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.”
