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Chinese start-up DeepSeek has caused the AI market to flip after its new chatbot, which is comparable to OpenAI's latest AI model, was made available for much cheaper.

The AI market is still reeling from the unveiling of DeepSeek, with the announcement dramatically affecting the stock value of AI companies, including NVIDIA, which lost an estimated $600 billion, and OpenAI, which has accused DeepSeek of using its database. Moreover, the US government has launched a probe into DeepSeek to see if the company circumvented US trade restrictions on high-end NVIDIA AI GPUs by using Singapore as a middleman. It's safe to say the AI market is in turmoil right now since the new player entered the field, and now we are starting to see its effects in terms of users.

According to data from Semrush, ChatGPT's daily visits in the US have reduced significantly since the unveiling of DeepSeek, with the popular chatbot dropping from 22.1 million users in October 2024 to 14.9 million by January 2025. By comparison, DeepSeek had just 2,300 visits in October 2024 but sharply grew to 71,200 by January 19. As for globally, DeepSeek traffic has surpassed 7,120,000 million users and has ascended to the top of the charts for most downloaded apps across 140 countries.

ChatGPT Pro users can get their hands on OpenAI's second AI agent, following the release of Deep Research on February 2nd. Deep Research is an AI-powered tool that can search, crunch, and parse massive amounts of data, generating detailed, citation-backed reports from those insights.

Following the eruption of Deepseek, the move comes in a bid to fortify OpenAI's position as a market leader in the space. Their first AI agent, Operator, was released January 23rd, and their latest reasoning model, o3-mini, was made available February 1st.

As shown in a recent demo, using the tool is straightforward - select 'deep research' in ChatGPT, enter your query, and attach files if needed. From there, it browses, analyzes, and compiles information over 5-30 minutes, then delivers a thorough report with sources and key takeaways.

OpenAI's Operator was attached to some strong claims in the lead up to its January 23 launch. 'Ph.D. level intelligence', the ability to autonomously carry out coding tasks, and the potential to exceed human capabilities. However, early user experiences with the tool suggest the contrary.

The key distinction of AI Agents like Operator from a chatbot like ChatGPT is that they're designed to act on your behalf. Meaning: give them a task, and they'll take care of it with minimal oversight. Operator functions by essentially taking over your computer, utilizing a Computer-Using Agent (CUA) model that integrates visual processing and reasoning capabilities to interpret what's happening on the screen, and to carry out certain actions.

Bloomberg's Rachel Metz spent some time with Operator, taking it through various day-to-day tasks. Purchasing groceries, booking reservations, and filling out forms. The agent was able to successfully order lipstick from Sephora, fill out a cart for Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and even suggested adding additional items to qualify for free delivery. However, it fell short on simple tasks like filling out spreadsheets, managing calendars, and navigating unfamiliar web-pages. A common thread among users was that the agent required constant supervision - and was not particularly efficient even when it did succeed.

If Rockstar Games is still planning on releasing Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2025, then the team is probably squashing as many bugs as possible right now--a massive undertaking for any studio.

There's no game like a GTA game. This has been proven true by GTA V's megaton sales figures of 200 million lifetime units so far, and GTA VI is expected to be so powerful that it'll uplift the entire video games industry. Now we have some interesting commentary from someone who was involved in GTA V's development and knows how Rockstar operates behind the scenes, and he's speculating that Rockstar is currently in the rampant bug-squashing phase of a playable GTA 6 build.

Here's what former Rockstar Games animator Mike York said in a recent interview with Australian video games personality Kiwi Talkz:

EA is developing the next Battlefield game specifically around direct player feedback, and the new-and-improved destruction physics will be among the first things that players can test out.

Today, EA announced Battlefield Labs, a massive new community-driven playtesting program specifically for the Battlefield franchise. It's the largest-ever undertaking from EA in regards to closed beta testing, and everyone will have to sign an NDA. Those who are selected can try out various pieces and modes of the game, including new weapons, maps, and the explosive real-time carnage that DICE is known for.

In a big update post, Battlefield Studios says that combat and physics will be tested first. Snippets of new gameplay show some pretty impressive effects and it's an exciting time to be a Battlefield fan.

Apple posted its best financial quarter yet with Q1 2025 results blowing the industry out of the water, wth $124.3 billion in revenue, and over half of that is thanks to mega iPhone sales.

Apple announced its Q1 2025 financial results with a monster $124.3 billion in revenue, earning profits of $36.3 billion, compared to $119.6 billion revenue and $ 33.9 billion profits from the same period in 2024. Over 50% of Apple's earnings for Q1 2025 were thanks to iPhone sales.

The iPhone delivered $69.1 billion in revenue for Apple, accounting for 55.63% of its Q1 2025 revenue, with those numbers ever-so-slightly down from Q1 2024 where the iPhone made $69.7 billion in revenue. The new premium M4-powered iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air series were also great money makers, with the iPad division raking in $8.08 billion in Q1 2025, compared to $7 billion in Q1 2024.

TSMC is speeding up into its next-generation, cutting-edge 1nm process node production which is expected to kick off in 2030.

In a new report from the Taiwan Economic Daily, we're learning that TSMC is planning to continue its domination in the semiconductor industry with preparations for 1nm production lines at its new state-of-the-art facility in Taiwan. The report suggests that TSMC's new 1nm process node will be mass-produced at a dedicated fab in Tainan, Taiwan.

TSMC's bleeding-edge 1nm process node will be fabbed at the "Fab 25" facility, expected to produce new 12-inch wafers with 6 production lines. TSMC Is also reportedly planning to build new facilities for its upcoming 2nm and 1.4nm process nodes -- also in Tainan -- as Taiwan receives government incentives, helping the process along, as TSMC runs towards being a semiconductor-focused "Silicon Valley".

Just imagine... plugging in your hard-to-find, mega-expensive new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 or RTX 5090D graphics card and it's bricked... done, finished... that's what some PC gamers are experiencing.

According to some posts on Chinese forums including Chiphell, Baidu and social media outlet Bilibili, reports are flowing that the new GeForce RTX 5090D graphics card are bricking: from both COLORFUL and Manli. There are also reports that GIGABYTE and ASUS custom GeForce RTX 5090 cards are also dying.

One poster explained: "After installing the driver, the screen goes black, the graphics card cannot be recognized, and the same thing happens after changing the DP port to HDMI... this time, the 90 series only released such a small amount, and several of them were affected".

Sony's next-generation PlayStation 6 console won't be completely discless according to former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden, as Sony has a huge global market that still wants physical games.

In a new interview with KiwiTalks, Layden talked about the PS6 saying that he doesn't think the company can get away with releasing its next-gen PlayStation 6 console in discless form. He said that Microsoft has had success with Xbox and moving discless in particular countries like the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, where gamers have internet connections that allow for digital games... but Sony has a huge global market that won't gel well with discless PS6 gaming.

Layden said: "actually, I don't think Sony can get away with it now. I think, you know, Xbox has had more success in pursuing that strategy, but Xbox is really most successful in their business... in a clutch of countries. US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa".

AMD's new flagship Ryzen 9 9955HX3D laptop processor has found its way into early pre-orders in Europe, packing NVIDIA's new flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU with 24GB of GDDR7 memory.

Polish-based laptop retailer Dream Machines has multiple new AMD Ryzen 9000 HX series "Fire Range" processors ready inside of next-gen gaming laptops, but with no ETA on the new Fire Range CPUs, we could be waiting a few weeks... or even a few months. NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 50 Laptop GPUs are expected to ship in March, so we still have a few weeks to wait at the earliest.

AMD has a few different Fire Range CPUs up its sleeve, with the flagship Ryzen 9 9955HX3D with 16 cores, 32 threads at up to 5.4GHz, and a delicious 128MB of L3 cache. The Ryzen 9 9955HX (without X3D cache) has the same 16C/32T @ 5.4GHz but because it doesn't have X3D cache the 9955HX has only 64MB of L3 cache., while the Ryzen 9 9855HX features 12 cores and 24 threads at up to 5.2GHz with 64MB of cache.

EA is connecting fans directly to game developers to ensure its next Battlefield game isn't a flop.

The live service Battlefield 2042 proved to be a big miscalculation on EA's part, but the publisher has been working on an overhaul to its billion-dollar shooter for quite some time. Announced today as Battlefield Labs, EA's new community portal will allow gamers to test out different iterations of new Battlefield content and give feedback directly to the teams that are making the games.

The new program is called Battlefield Labs (sign up here), and it's being called "the most ambitious community testing program in franchise history." Battlefield Studios was also established and there's four studios under the banner: DICE, Ripple Effect (formerly DICE LA), EA Motive, and Criterion. Vince Zampella is now Head of Battlefield.

NVIDIA's new RTX 5090 requires 4 x 8-pin connectors for its power (delivering 600W) when used with an adapter setup (rather than a new 12V-2x6 connector), but what about if you only have a 3 x 8-pin setup for whatever reason?

As VideoCardz points out, this might be because you're short on power connectors, or you just don't have quite a beefy enough PSU, but the interesting spin on the RTX 5090 here is that it works just fine on 3 x 8-pin connectors.

Obviously, this will only supply 450W, so the RTX 5090 will operate at a considerably lower level than its TDP. (Which is 575W, at least for the baseline graphics cards - that can go up to 600W with heavyweight third-party cards like the ASUS ROG Astral (pictured top of this article, though its power usage is nothing compared to the GPU's mind-blowing price tag).

Apple Music currently has a tempting offer running whereby you can pay just $2.99 for six months of the music streaming service.

That's in the US, but the same offer also appears to be available in the UK for £2.99 (and possibly other regions too, we guess).

That works out at 50 cents per month instead of $10.99 monthly, but be warned, as ever with these kinds of promotions, you're signed up for the subscription and if you don't cancel it, after six months it'll auto-renew at the full price.

Microsoft Defender has a VPN, and if this is the first you're hearing of this - and you wouldn't be alone in that - well, the discovery comes a bit late, as the news here is that the software giant is ditching this feature.

Microsoft Defender is a solid enough option for security that's left in place as default coverage in Windows for less tech-savvy people who don't know much, or indeed care much, about antivirus apps.

It has a built-in VPN feature called 'privacy protection' which rolled out last year (actually from late 2023). Microsoft implemented it as a basic service, as you might imagine, with no server choice, so it's just a simple switch to hook you up to the nearest server and provide encryption for your data being sent online (and anonymity for your IP address).

The unveiling of the DeepSeek R1 AI model has caused the AI industry to turn on its head, with accusations now flying around about the theft of data sets and the circumvention of US trade restrictions on NVIDIA hardware.

The latter has caused quite a stir, with the US government announcing it has launched a probe into China's potentially illegal use of NVIDIA AI GPUs that industry experts have suggested were used to train DeepSeek's AI. Government officials, and in particular, Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Commerce Department, insinuated DeepSeek circumvented US trade policies by using intermediaries to acquire NVIDIA's hardware.

Notably, the US government has already banned the trade of these high-end NVIDIA GPUs in more than countries as it believes these countries could be used as intermediaries for China. However, Singapore isn't banned, and consists of approximately 20% of NVIDIA's revenue.

NVIDIA surprised us with the recent launch of its Smooth Motion feature, a driver-level system-wide implementation of frame generation, and it seemed as if this was an RTX 5000 exclusive - but that's not the case.

Well, to be fair, the feature (which is essentially a rival for AMD Fluid Motion Frames, known as AFMF) is for Blackwell GPUs only right now, but NVIDIA intends to also support RTX 4000 graphics cards down the line.

DSO Gaming (via Wccftech) spoke to NVIDIA and Team Green told the website: "NVIDIA Smooth Motion is a brand-new driver technology and requires time for validation and QA across multiple products. Support for GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs will be coming in a future update."

Samsung officially teased its first triple-folding smartphone at its Unpacked event late last month, and now we have begun to hear rumblings of a possible name for the device.

Samsung didn't provide any details of its tri-fold smartphone at Unpacked 2025 and only showcased a silhouette that revealed a device capable of folding horizontally. According to South Korean tipster yeux1122, the upcoming device is reportedly launching in Q3 2025 and will be called the Galaxy G Fold. Previous rumors indicate the tri-fold will feature a monster display of 9.96-inches, which would make it approximately 30% larger than the 7.6-inch panel on the Galaxy Z Fold 6

As for when it's folded, reports indicate it will measure 6.54 inches, making its height in line with traditional smartphone sizes. As for weight, we can expect the Galaxy G Fold to weigh approximately the same as the Huawei Mate XT, the only other triple-fold smartphone on the market.

With the eruption of Deepseek in the last fortnight, the pace at which companies are moving to advance artificial intelligence is only continuing to increase. However, a key question remains - how are consumer businesses actually embracing the technology? A recent report from CPA Australia appears to shed some light.

The CPA Australia Business Technology Report 2024 examines technology adoption in businesses across the Asia-Pacific region. Conducted mid-last year, the survey was conducted with a few key questions on their mind: how is tech impacting business, what are the challenges businesses face with tech adoption, and what are the trends being observed with AI?

The results were interesting. As you'd expect, AI adoption surged from 55% in 2023 to 69% in 2024 - a significant jump. Half of all businesses also planned to increase their AI usage over the following year, citing the benefits of efficiency, productivity, and decision-making improvements. However, one of the glaring figures was that only 8% of businesses have fully integrated AI into their operations. In other words, while many are experimenting with AI tools, only a small fraction have made them a core part of their workflows.

When you hear the word 'cordyceps' - one might shudder at the mental visual of a fungus-brained humanoid. After all, it was a real condition (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis) occurring in ants that inspired the infection in The Last of Us.

You can add a new fear to the list, as a similar parasite was discovered in spiders located in Northern Ireland. The zombie-spider fungus, entitled G. attenboroughii (after Sir David Attenborough) was originally discovered in 2021 during the filming of BBC's Winterwatch in a gunpowder storeroom at Castle Espie. As reported by LiveScience, the parasite infects spiders while they're still alive. It causes a fluffy white fungus to accumulate on their bodies and has a range of 'zombie-like' effects as it takes over its host.

In a study published January 24th, G. attenboroughii was officially confirmed as a new species. Similar to the zombie-ant fungus, the infection works by penetrating the host's body, producing toxins to kill said host, while releasing antibiotics to preserve the corpse while extracting nutrients. From there, under the right conditions, the fungus eventually grows long structures to spread spores and reproduce. Leading to disturbing visuals such as that pictured below:

Samsung has showcased its new line-up of smartphones for 2025, which include the S25, S25 Plus, and the S25 Ultra, and the latter has undergone a thorough durability test, revealing some questionable design choices.

The tester is none other than popular YouTuber JerryRigEverything, who has managed to get his hands on an S25 Ultra and run it through its durability paces ahead of its full tear down. The YouTuber points out the S25 Ultra is very similar to the S24 Ultra, with very minimal physical design changes. One of which is the camera lenses, where on the S25 Ultra the camera lenses aren't actually attached to the base of the phone, versus the S24 Ultra being wholly connected to the backplate with no gaps.

The YouTuber highlights the metal rings around each of the lenses, which may at first look like they are part of the lens itself, but as we learn, aren't assisting the lens at all besides providing protection from scratches while it's lying on its back. The YouTuber begins the durability test by sliding a razer blade underneath the metal rings, eventually popping them off, and saying they appear to be "glued into place like fake eyelashes."