Former NSA official and famed whistleblower Edward Snowden warned the public about OpenAI and its products after the company appointed a retired NSA director to its board.

On June 13, OpenAI announced that it was appointing retired US Army General Paul M. Nakasone to the company's board of directors, which OpenAI says reflects the company's commitment to safety and security. In its blog post, OpenAI states that Nakasone will join the Board's Safety and Security Committee and that his insights will influence recommendations made to the Board of Directors regarding safety and security decisions across OpenAI's products.

While OpenAI and US government officials on Capitol Hill regard this hiring as a win, not everyone is totally convinced, with former NSA officials and whistleblower Edward Snowden took to his personal X account to write, "They've gone full mask off: do not ever trust OpenAI or its products. There is only one reason for appointing an NSA Director to your board. This is a willful, calculated betrayal of the rights of every person on Earth. You have been warned."

It's only a matter of days before FromSoftware releases the highly anticipated DLC to Elden Ring, and ahead of its launch, we now have the official PC hardware requirements.

The minimum and recommended specifications to play Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree have barely changed, with the only real difference being the amount of storage space needed for it to be installed. Elden Ring comes in at 60GB, while installing Elden Ring with the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC will require 80GB of free space.

FromSoftware has taken to its official Elden Ring X account to share an updated list of the minimum and recommended specifications for the upcoming DLC, and players should really be aiming for "recommended" rather than "minimum". The Shadow of the Erdtree will require Windows 10, a CPU that's at least a Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 3 3300X, a GPU that's at least a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (3GB VRAM) / AMD Radeon RX 580 (4GB VRAM) / Intel Arc A380 (6GB VRAM), 12GB of RAM, and 60GB of storage.

SpaceX is closing in on the fifth launch of Starship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket that has ever taken to the skies.

The fifth launch of the rocket will mark a monumental milestone in Elon Musk's quest to create a rapidly reusable rocket capable of traveling to Mars, and it will likely be the riskiest flight Starship has undertaken yet. Starship recently completed its fourth test flight, where SpaceX successfully recovered both Starship and its booster, Super Heavy, after they splashed down in the ocean. The next step in reaching Mars is to get Super Heavy to land back on land.

Unlike SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, which can autonomously land back on a launch pad, SpaceX plans on catching Super Heavy with an enormous tower that has arms attached to it. Previously, it was reported that these arms were referred to as "chopsticks" and that they would be used to catch Super Heavy upon its descent to reduce ground impact and increase reusability.

Into cars and PC's? LIAN LI has your back with a partnership with Lamborghini that has spawned a Lamborghini-themed PC case that comes with all the bells and whistles you would expect.

LIAN LI and Automobili Lamborghini announced on June 14 a new partnership that has created the limited edition O11D EVO RGB Automobili Lamborghini PC case, which has been designed with performance and innovation at its forefront. Notably, there will only be 6498 units of this case, and according to LIAN LI's CEO Jameson Chen, the partnership with Lamborghini isn't just about collaborating with an iconic name but "redefining the boundaries of PC craftsmanship".

So, what does your Lamborghini-themed PC case come with? Engineers have integrated authentic carbon fiber into the design of the case, with the inclusion of a removable top piece that adds to its overall aesthetic design. Additionally, Lamborghini has sprinkled some magic onto the case with an Automobili Lamborghini Dashboard that's inspired by past Lamborghini designs.

TSMC has just secured orders from US tech giants Google and Qualcomm for next-gen 3nm, as Samsung Foundry is having issues with yields and power efficiency, reports South Korean media.

In a new report from Business Korea, we learn that most companies will allocate their orders to TSMC for next-gen 3nm chip designs. As of June 17, there are 7 major companies using TSMC for 3nm designs. This includes NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Google, which are prioritizing the use of TSMC's 3nm manufacturing process.

We heard rumors of Google moving to TSMC to make its next-gen Tensor G5 processor for its upcoming Pixel 10 smartphones in late-May, but it seems these deals are actually happening now as Samsung Foundry is floundering with trying to catch up (let alone match) the semiconductor dominance that TSMC holds.

Foxconn has won exclusivity on manufacturing NVIDIA's new NVLink switches for its next-gen GB200 AI servers, a key component of GB200, which is known as the "magic weapon for improving computing power".

In a new report from UDN, we're learning that the order volume in 7x that of the GB200 AI server cabinets, where it's not just a new order, but the gross profit margin is also "much higher" than that of server assembly. It will become a powerful tool for Foxconn's gross profits and supplement its profits.

Foxconn has never commented on its orders or customer dynamics, but the industry has highlighted that the exclusive technology behind NVIDIA's new NVLink consists of two parts. First is the bridge technology, which connects the CPU and the AI chips together, while the other is the switch technology, which is the key to the interconnection between the GPUs.

Qualcomm is leading the Copilot+ PC era by launching its new Snapdragon X-powered Copilot+ PCs, beginning Microsoft's big change into an AI-fueled future of Windows.

Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon X Elite processors earlier this year, where they'll compete directly against Apple, Intel, and AMD. The new Snapdragon X platform is the first fully Microsoft Copilot+ compliant platform, offering out-of-the-box support for the latest AI features, something that Intel and AMD won't have at launch with their next-gen Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" and AMD Ryzen AI 300 series "Strix Point" processors.

Microsoft has announced that the first Copilot+ PCs will begin at $999, with a huge list of Copilot+ PC systems from the likes of Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, and Microsoft itself. Qualcomm is the first with Copilot+ PC systems powered by its new Snapdragon X processor, packing a new Arm-based Oryon CPU, upgraded Adrenop GPU, and more.

Regarding desktop GPUs for PC gaming, NVIDIA is dominating - a recent report by Jon Peddie Research (JPR) showed that 88% of AIB GPU shipments for Q1 2024 were GeForce RTX cards. Looking at the latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for May 2024, it's a similar picture: 76.18% of PC gamers across desktop rigs and laptops are playing with GeForce RTX cards.

Drilling down into the data and looking at the most popular GPUs, the picture becomes even worse for AMD and Intel. With 15.96% of the Steam GPU share, AMD's second-place position is bolstered by integrated Radeon graphics in mobile chips and gaming handhelds like Valve's Steam Deck. According to the latest data, the most popular discrete desktop gaming GPU is the Radeon RX 580, a GeForce GTX 1060 competitor from 2017.

With a 7.62% market share, all Intel entries in the list cover the company's integrated and aging Xe, UHD, and HD graphics technologies - there's no Arc mentioned anywhere. And when it comes to modern graphics cards, NVIDIA's latest GeForce RTX 40 Series is on its own.

NVIDIA couldn't be the company it is today without Taiwan, and CEO Jensen Huang knows that, and respects it, as well as the country itself.

During a recent interview, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently said that the company's $100 billion revenue is mostly manufactured in Taiwan, noting that AI has benefited Taiwan and that Taiwanese companies can thrive in the upcoming AI era.

In the full interview, Jensen said: said: "For over 25-years, we've been [working with companies in Taiwan]...Another reason is technology excellence. The ecosystem is unparalleled. Every aspect of building chips and building computers are located here. All the way down to the most minute, complex connectors that connect very high-speed cables are manufactured here".

TSMC plans to build two new CoWoS advanced packaging plants in Chiayi Science Park are underway, with the first of the CoWoS plants starting construction in May with geological drilling operations. However, suspected archeological ruins were discovered at the site earlier this month, and now construction has been suspended.

The news is coming from Taiwan news outlet LTN, reporting that in accordance with cultural capital procedures, TSMC has also proposed a plan to build a second CoWoS advanced packaging facility in the Southern Science Park Administration of the National Science and Technology Council, and the Southern Science and Technology Bureau expressed its "full assistance".

The South Science and Technology Management Bureau confirmed that TSMC's first new CoWoS plant in Chiayi Science Park discovered suspected remains, suspending construction, with a response strategy formed that would propose to build a second CoWoS factory first. When the suspected ruins were found, a change of development behavior was submitted to adjust the location of the park land and reduce the impact.

Starfield is on track to receive annual story expansions, with the first of two currently in development on track for a 2024 release. The Shattered Space expansion focuses on the mysterious House Va'ruun, the Great Serpent, and a story that will take players to a new location in the "dark reaches of space."

As a new RPG from Bethesda Game Studios, the team behind Skyrim, Fallout 4, and other classic titles, the response to Starfield has been divisive among Bethesda fans - with any criticizing how different the game feels compared to Elder Scrolls or Fallout.

One of the biggest criticisms of Starfield surrounds how the game handles exploration. Instead of Skyrim's meticulously hand-crafted open worlds, you've got countless procedurally generated planets with a handful of randomly generated points of interest repeating. With a loading screen every few minutes.

Since it launched into Beta earlier his year, I switched to the new NVIDIA App for my main gaming rig and laptop, as the new interface and overlay are fast and feature-packed. At Computex 2024 the Control Panel and GeForce Experience replacement also got a meaty update in the form of 120 FPS ShadowPlay AV1 recording and one-click overclocking for GeForce RTX GPUs.

So yeah, there's no real reason to stick with the aging GeForce Experience app for GeForce RTX owners. However, seeing as the NVIDIA App is still opt-in and in Beta, Experience is still the official way to access GeForce RTX features like ShadowPlay game recording, performance monitoring tools, and optimized game settings. However, NVIDIA has almost forgotten that the GeForce Experience existed.

The new GeForce Experience 3.28 update is the app's first since November 2023. It brings a massive 122 'optimal game settings' for titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Diablo IV, Alan Wake 2, Starfield, HELLDIVERS 2, Horizon Forbidden West, and many more.

NVIDIA announced the "most powerful AI chip on earth" by introducing its Blackwell-based GB200 AI superchip. Taiwan companies Foxconn and Quanta won major contracts for GB200 AI servers.

According to a new report by UDN, Foxconn will be handling 40% and Quanta will take 30% of GB200 AI servers, with shipments expected to begin in Q3 2024, driving a "big jump in overall revenue performance". NVIDIA's new DGX GB200 will also begin mass production in the second half of this year, with estimates of around 40,000 units in 2025.

Foxconn and Quanta will be the main suppliers of NVIDIA's upcoming NVL72 and NVL36 AI server cabinets, with UDN reporting that industry experts saying Foxconn has received orders for three categories of "DGX GB200" system cabinets (DGX NVL72, NLV32, and HGX B200). Foxconn said that GB200 series products will be shipped in rack form, with rough order estimates as high as 50,000 containers, with total revenue contribution to hit 2.5 trillion to 3 trillion yuan (around $344 billion to $413 billion USD or so).

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang made quite the famous trip to Taiwan this year, not just for Computex 2024, but to meet important tech partners in the country.

During his time, Jensen was interviewed by local media where he said that NVIDIA's annual growth exceeds $100 billion with various GPUs and AI GPUs, and that most of them are made in Taiwan. AI applications have benefitted Taiwan, and Taiwanese companies can thrive in the AI wave, reports CNA.

Jensen said that the AI era is a new beginning, something that NVIDIA has been preparing for a very long time now. Taiwan's technology industry is fully committed to the future of AI, with Jensen saying during a recent interview: "I am very happy to see this phenomenon".

Blizzard has just announced that Overwatch 2 Season 11: Super Mega Ultrawatch will launch on June 20, featuring a new Mythic cosmetic type, a new Push map, and the huge return of Pink Mercy. Check out the trailer below:

Pink Mercy launched in May 2018, and Blizzard helped raise $12.7 million for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). I was one of those buyers (on a personal note: in support of my mother-in-law, who passed away from cancer in 2018, just months after the Pink Mercy skin was launched).

You can now secure the elusive Pink Mercy skin for $14.99, with 100% of the purchase price being donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Not just that, but Blizzard is giving everyone the chance to support this cause with a new charity cosmetic bundle, the Rose Gold Mercy bundle, which is available for a limited time starting on June 25, for $19.99, and just like Pink Mercy, 100% of the purchase price goes towards the BCRF.

AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X, the incoming flagship for its new Zen 5 chips which debut in July 2024, could be cheaper than its predecessor from the Ryzen 7000 family - if a pricing leak is on the money, so to speak.

Wccftech spotted that the Ryzen 9950X was listed early by a Canadian online retailer, with the processor being priced at CA$839 before the product listing was taken down.

It's not unusual for early pricing leaks like this to happen, and they could be mistakes or, the more cynical might suggest, an opportunity for a retailer to generate a bit of traffic and publicity.

Microsoft's controversial Windows 11 feature, which was expected to be released tomorrow for Copilot+ PCs, will not be available at launch, as the company caved to the public's concerns about privacy.

The Windows Recall feature, which indiscriminately takes screenshots of a user's desktop every few minutes, was widely criticized as providing a bad actor with an indexed folder of all a user's sensitive information (finances, passwords, sensitive content, etc.). Recall was meant to be released with Copilot+ PCs as a default option, but Microsoft announced on June 7 that it would instead be opt-in.

This June 7 announcement also included more encryption designed to make it more difficult for a hacker to access the Recall folder containing the screenshots. Notably, Microsoft quietly pulled the build of Windows 11 24H2 from its Release Preview channel, which contained the Recall feature being tested by Windows Insiders. However, Microsoft has announced that Windows 11 24H2 is back for users to download, but it doesn't include the Recall feature, and instead comes with fixes.

Intel has responded to recent report the root cause behind instability issues being reported by 13th and 14th Gen CPU users has been discovered, with the company saying an investigation is still underway to determine the source of the problem.

The response from Intel came after a report from Igor Wallosek of Igorslab.de, who claimed he obtained a statement from an Intel official that the instability issues with the company's later generation CPUs were being caused by an incorrect value in the microcode algorithm that's associated with the chip's Thermal Velocity Boost (eTVB). For those who don't know, this feature enables the chip to detect when there is enough thermal headroom and respond by increasing clock speed.

However, Intel has now responded to those claims specifically, saying that while an error was detected in the microcode algorithm, and it may have contributed to the instability issue, it's not the "root cause." While the problem with the algorithm isn't believed to be the main problem, at least according to Intel, it's still recommended to owners of 13th and 14th Gen CPUs to update their BIOS to microcode 0x125 or later, as this microcode includes the eTVB fix.

China's Zephyr has released the world's first ITX-ready GeForce RTX 4070, a dual-slot version of the card that is only 172mm long and arrives with a single fan. Dual-slot GeForce RTX 4070 cards aren't uncommon thanks to the Ada generation's excellent power efficiency, but the Zephyr GeForce RTX 4070 ITX Sakura Blizzard graphics card is the smallest we've seen.

Granted, the card's look isn't exactly minimal - it features a white shroud with holographic patterns, a pink PC, and a pink fan. The dimensions are impressive: 172 x 123 x 42mm - the world's smallest GeForce RTX 4070 GPU - powered by the same single 8-pin power connector. Under the hood, you also have the same AD104-250 GPU and 12GB GDDR6X memory, but with stock settings and no out-of-the-box OC.

As spotted by VideoCardz, this tiny GeForce RTX 4070 sold out on its first day of sale. Zephyr noted that a restock will be available in mid-July.

In a recent interview with PCGamer, FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki said the developer isn't against the Seamless Co-op mod for Elden Ring, and it's something it's actively taking notes on and considering for future FromSoftware games.

For those that don't know what the FromSoftware president is referring to, the Seamless Co-op mod enables PC players have a true co-op experience within Elden Ring that enables players to take on bosses together and experience the narrative. Prior to this mod players were only able to summon in friends through the use of an item and in certain situations.

The Seamless Co-op mod revamped the way Elden Ring co-op could be played and was quickly popularized by players that wanted to experience their second or third play-through with a friend. Miyazaki was asked what he thinks about the mod, to which he said FromSoftware definitely doesn't "actively oppose or want to downplay" and it is something FromSoftware will consider "with our future games".