The G.SKILL OC World Cup 2025 details have been announced. The live qualifiers and grand final will again take place at Computex in Taipei from May 20 to May 23. The Online Qualifier stage is kicking off this weekend and will run from February 15 until March 19. 2025 on HWBOT.org.

Nine finalists from this online stage will be invited to compete live at Computex, where they'll use lots of LN2 to earn their share of the $40,000 USD prize pool. The OC World Cup 2025 Champion will take home $10,000 USD in prize money - alongside the crown of being the world's best overclocker.

The OC World Cup 2025 competition includes five stages: Memory Frequency for DDR5, 7-Zip, PYPrime, SuperPi, and y-cruncher. HWBOT has the full details on the various stages and rules. The hardware requirements for competitors are that they use Intel LGA1700/1851 CPUs and G.Skill DDR5 memory - strictly retail components.

AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 25.2.1 is now available for Radeon GPU owners to download and install. This is a beta or optional update; however, it's a big one for new game support - Sid Meier's Civilization VII, Avowed, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii are all listed in the Release Notes.

The last official Adrenalin Edition 24.12.1 driver release for Radeon GPUs was on December 5, over two months ago. GPU driver updates usually arrive at least once a month or alongside significant PC game releases, which happens more often than not these days. Perhaps AMD's next major Radeon GPU driver update and Adrenalin Edition release will arrive with the first RDNA 4 GPUs in early March 2025 - the Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon RX 9070 XT.

With AMD pushing back the launch from January and advising that it did so to ensure that its software - including drivers and FSR 4 - was ready, this beta release makes sense. The other notable update in AMD Software, Adrenalin Edition 25.2.1, fixes a black screen issue in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

NVIDIA will kick off GeForce RTX 50 series gaming laptop pre-orders on February 25, with retail availability of the RTX 50 series gaming laptops starting in March.

In a new post on X, the official NVIDIA GeForce account said: "GeForce RTX 50 Series Laptop pre-orders start Feb 25 from OEMs. Stay tuned for more details!" The company announced its fleet of Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 Laptop GPUs at CES 2025, which includes the RTX 5070 Laptop GPU, RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, RTX 5080 Laptop GPU, and the flagship RTX 5090 Laptop GPU.

NVIDIA will have prices starting at $1299 for RTX 5070 gaming laptops, at $1599 for RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptops, while the higher-end side of things with the RTX 5080 gaming laptops starting at $2199, while flagship RTX 5090 gaming laptops will begin at $2899. We've seen many of these designs through official teases at CES 2025 and over the weeks since, as well as leaks and rumors at the same time.

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card is under fire, with a Redditor reporting that his new RTX 5090 FE has had its 12V-2x6 power connector melted, with a third-party cable to blame. Check it out:

The Redditor said that he was playing Battlefield V with his GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition using 500-520W of power, but then he smelled something burning and turned the system off. He admitted to using a non-official power cable instead of using the power adapter that NVIDIA sends in the box, but it was too late, the 12V-2x6 power connector on his expensive new RTX 5090 FE was melted.

The Redditor explained: "I guess it was a matter of time. I lucked out on 5090FE - and my luck has just run out. I have just upgraded from 4090FE to 5090FE. My PSU is ASUS Loki SFX-L. The cable used was this one (link here). I am not distant from the PC-building world and know what I'm doing. The cable was securely fastened and clicked on both sides (GPU and PSU).

OpenAI is fishing for money right now, with Elon Musk offering to buy the ChatGPT creator for $97.4 billion but being turned down by CEO Sam Altman... and now Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney wants to buy OpenAI... with VBucks, the virtual currency from Fortnite.

In a post on X, the founder and CEO of Epic Games said: "Will OpenAI take VBucks in payment? Thinking of making an offer" in reply to a post about a group of investors led by Elon Musk offering a $97.4 billion bid to takeover OpenAI. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declined the $97.4B offer, with a counter-offer to acquire X (which he called Twitter) for $9.74 billion.

Musk said in a statement provided by his lawyer Mark Toberoff to The Wall Street Journal: "It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was. We will make sure that happens". Better yet, Musk's team has promised to match or exceed any higher offers for OpenAI that it receives, and with the likes of Microsoft and other AI giants swirling around, things are going to get real interesting for OpenAI, real soon.

SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI boss Elon Musk has offered to buy ChatGPT maker OpenAI for $97.4 billion, to which CEO Sam Altman declined by saying "no thank you" while offering a $9.74 billion offer for X (which he trolls, and calls Twitter).

OpenAI is currently converting into a for-profit structure, away from its non-profit structure now, raising $40 billion at a $340 billion valuation, simultaneously launching a $500 billion AI infrastructure project. Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman back in 2015 before leaving in 2019, and now the Tesla and DOGE boss is offering less than one-third of what OpenAI's latest valuation was to acquire the company.

Musk said in a statement provided by his lawyer Mark Toberoff to The Wall Street Journal: "It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was. We will make sure that happens". Better yet, Musk's team has promised to match or exceed any higher offers for OpenAI that it receives, and with the likes of Microsoft and other AI giants swirling around, things are going to get real interesting for OpenAI, real soon.

GIGABYTE's new GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 AORUS Master graphics cards are in the wild, but did you know they have an optional fourth fan in the box, which attaches to the back of the card.

In some new reviews posted by HardwareZone and Glitched Online, we're learning more about the RTX 5090 + RTX 5080 AORUS Master graphics cards, and that it includes an additional fan in the box. The additional 120mm RGB fan doesn't include a dedicated fan header for the GPU, rather you need to go old school and have a cable hanging off of your expensive new RTX 5090 or RTX 5080 AORUS Master.

The fourth fan doesn't offer a huge improvement in thermals of the RTX 5080 or RTX 5090, where most users won't even tell the difference unless they were watching their GPU temps in real-time.

At the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, the Trump administration refused to sign a global declaration that aims to encourage the "open," "inclusive," and "ethical" development of AI.

Much of the summit's discussions centered on AI regulation, with French President Emmanuel Macron stressing the need for clear ground rules to ensure the safe advancement of the technology.

"We need these rules for AI to move forward," Macron stated.

After months of rumors, Sony's State of Play Livestream is officially happening. In a surprise blog post, Sony announced that the event will be taking place on Wednesday, February 12th, at 5PM ET, available to stream via YouTube and Twitch. The show will have a 40-minute run-time.

The last State of Play took place September 24th, 2024. We were shown the announcement trailer for Ghost of Yotei, in addition to the release dates for Monster Hunter Wilds, Lego Horizon Adventures, and a new trailer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Four months have passed since the last State of Play, and there's still very little info regarding what to expect at this event. Three weeks ago, reputable leaker NateTheHate correctly hinted at the early February schedule for the event. A day ago, an anonymous Reddit poster also suggested that Hell is Us, an exploration-focused sci-fi action-adventure title, would be part of the 2025 State of Play lineup. However, no sources were provided to support this claim.

Spotify Premium users have been taking the popular music-streaming apps official forums to complain they are hearing advertisements. Now Spotify has responded.

For those who don't know, Spotify Premium users pay for the service to not hear advertisements between the content they are listening to, along with other features such as the ability to download and listen to content offline. Unfortunately, many Premium users are reporting they are still receiving ads despite having active Premium subscriptions. Notably, the ads are being heard by Premium users across iOS, Android, and Spotify Web.

The response from Spotify isn't what some cynical Premium users may be thinking - Spotify is preparing to inject advertisements into the Premium subscription tier. Here's what a company representative responded within a thread, "Our tech teams are currently investigating reports of Premium users hearing ads." Judging from this response, we are able to assume the advertisements being heard by Premium users aren't deliberately placed there by Spotify and that the problem is instead a bug that engineers will soon squash.

Researchers from Fudan University used Large Language Models (LLMs), the underpinning technology of AI, to determine if AI was capable of cloning itself.

The team pitted LLMs from Meta and Alibaba across 10 trials and found that both of the AI models created a clone of themselves in 50% of tests (Meta's Llama31-70B-Instruct model) and 90% of tests (Alibaba's Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct model.) The results, which are yet to be peer-reviewed, indicate each of the AI models may already have the capabilities of cloning itself outside the confinements set by humans, commonly referred to as "gone rogue."

The study was conducted with off-the-shelf GPUs and in a precisely controlled environment, with the researchers attempting to recreate a real-world environment. The team looked at two specific scenario: "shutdown avoidance" and "chain of replication". In the first scenario, the team programmed the AI models to detect when it was going about to be shut down and then clone itself before the termination process took place. The other scenario involved the AI's being programmed to clone itself and then program its cloned version with instructions to replicate itself. Creating a domino effect of cloned AI replicas.

Rumors have begun recirculatnig about a modern video game adaptation of the famous Back to the Future franchise. Speculation about the project first emerged in a 2024 interview, where the film's screenwriter Bob Gale all but confirmed the possibility.

He also clearly iterated that 2025 is the 40th anniversary of the original movie, hinting that if there was any time to hear about it, it'd be this year.

Researchers at Chinese AI company ByteDance have unveiled their latest AI video model: OmniHuman. This end-to-end AI framework can generate realistic human videos from a single image, producing life-like movements and natural gestures while seamlessly integrating different audio and video inputs.

Several examples of OmniHuman in action have surfaced on X, featuring figures like Taylor Swift, Albert Einstein, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. Notable demonstrations include:

OmniHuman's capabilities are particularly striking. The Albert Einstein video, for example, was recreated from a still portrait taken in 1921. You can note slight shimmers in the recreation of the famous physicist, but the output is very convincing. From the animation of his hands and eyes, to the lip-syncing of the image to the audio provided.

Andrew Ng, the founder of DeepLearning AI, released a video to his socials last week outlining the release of Agentic Object Detection. While on the surface, this feature allows users to identify images using text prompts, there's a few additional layers that make it a significant advancement in computer vision.

As outlined in the company's video demonstration, it works by filling in a text prompt for the object you want to identify. In the example, he asks the tool to locate 'unripe strawberries' in an image that contains a mixture of both. As you can see in the image below, the tool successfully places a box around any visual element that fits the criteria.

So great - we can accurately locate different varieties of fruit. What makes this unique? To explain that, we'll have to go back to the training process.

A recent report from researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon suggests that generative AI use may contribute to a decline in critical thinking. The logic is simple: the more you rely on AI, the less critical thinking you engage in. However, the study-conducted on 319 knowledge workers-takes a deeper look at this issue, examining its real-world implications.

The conclusions were based on self-reported survey responses, where participants detailed their AI usage, how often they applied critical thinking, and the level of effort required.

One of the findings was that excessive reliance on AI can weaken cognitive abilities. Researchers found that respondents often mistook "copy-pasting with minor tweaks" for critical thinking-accepting AI-generated content without questioning its accuracy. This is particularly concerning given AI's tendency to be confidently wrong. Just look at some of Google's AI-generated summaries and their hilarious misfires as an example.

NVIDIA is currently the only supplier of high-end AI hardware, but that is about to change as OpenAI is reportedly nearing completion of its first generation, in-house AI-dedicated silicon.

The news comes from an exclusive report from Reuters that states the ChatGPT maker is currently in the midst of finalizing the design for its first in-house AI chip, and over the next few months, the design will be locked and sent over to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) for fabrication. OpenAI previously set a goal of hitting mass production of its own AI hardware sometime in 2026, and according to the report, these plans coincide with that timeline and illustrate the ChatGPT marker is on track for hitting them.

Despite OpenAI nearing the design completion for the chip, the challenges don't stop there as the first chip design will take approximately 6 months to produce, cost tens of millions of dollars, and there's no guarantee the silicon will function as intended. A failure in the first generation of silicon will mean OpenAI will need to take the design back to the drawing board, assess where it went wrong, and repeat the whole process all over again.

Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, has commented on the falling sales of the console market while alluding to the strategy the publisher and developer Rockstar Games will implement with the release of Grand Theft Auto VI.

During a recent interview with IGN, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick touched on Grand Theft Auto 6 only coming to consoles when it releases in Fall 2025. While there hasn't been an official confirmation from Rockstar or Take-Two that a simultaneous console/PC release has been ruled out, it certainly appears that is the case. During the interview with IGN, Zelnick said, "We don't always go across all platforms simultaneously, historically, Rockstar has started with some platforms and then historically moved to other platforms."

This is hardly surprising, as it has been the case for all major Rockstar releases, with the PC port of Grand Theft Auto V taking 1.5 years. For any PC gamers still holding out hope Rockstar will release GTA 6 at the same time as the console version, the nails were further hammered into the coffin of that idea when Zelnick commented on the declining unit sales of both the current-gen consoles. Zelnick said Take-Two isn't worried console sales are declining because of the catalog of games, not just from Take-Two, but also from others scheduled to release in 2025.

In a recent interview, Bill Gates revealed an interesting piece of advice once given to him by the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, and it was a recommendation to indulge in recreational drugs.

In an interview with The Independent, Gates said the Apple founder once said to him that he wished he would have taken acid to improve his taste in designing Microsoft's products. Gates said he jokingly replied to Jobs, saying, "Look, I got the wrong batch." Gates further elaborated on the distinction between the two visionaries, saying that he understood the coding side of things when it came to the products, but Jobs helmed the marketing design aspects. Because of these differences, Gates said he didn't feel as if he was in competition with Jobs in these departments and more or less recognized each other strengths/weaknesses.

For those who don't know, Jobs was well-known for creating products with design and user interaction at the forefront, along with marketing them with his energic and passionate presentations. As for Gates, the Microsoft founder created products with an intense level of expertise and forward-thinking while also retaining a business-centered mindset. Notably, Jobs lacked technical knowledge, struggled with collaboration with others, and was renowned as a demanding and harsh leader. Gates fell short in being a charismatic public speaker, the product aesthetics and user experience.

Intel has suffered another blow after its CEO of Datacenter and AI announced his departure from the company and his adoption as the CEO and president of Nokia.

Justin Hotard took to his LinkedIn account to announce his department from the lead role at Intel's Datacenter and AI division, where Hotard was positioned for just over a year. Hotard thanked the team at Intel for their work in pushing and stabilizing the Datacenter and AI Business over the time he was at the company. Notably, Hotard was selected to join Intel in early 2024 after Sandra Rivera, Intel's former CEO of Datacenter and AI, stepped down to lead the Intel's Altera FPGA business.

As for Nokia, the company announced the transition of Hotard in a press release, stating that Hotard has more than 25 years worth of experience in the tech space, and that he will be taking on the role of President and Chief Executive Officer at Nokia. Hotard will begin his role at the company on April 1, 2025.

The Paris AI Action Summit is officially underway. All eyes are on the US and China, as discussions begin regarding the future of work, AI governance, AI for public good, and the risks of AI.

A key talking point in the lead-up to the event surrounds the US administration's stance on AI. President Trump has been vocal about his desire to make the US the 'world capital of artificial intelligence', quickly implementing his administration's own AI policies shortly after being sworn in.

"[We] must develop AI systems that are free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas," he said.