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OpenAI’s much‑anticipated livestream reveal of GPT‑5 crammed a lot into about an hour and a half of announcements and demonstrations. CEO Sam Altman didn't show any of the fear he claimed to feel about the new AI model, just a lot of pride at what he and his team had accomplished.

Much of the presentation showed off GPT-5's technical milestones and how they translate into powerful new and upgraded AI features for users. Altman also had some lighter fare to unveil for ChatGPT, offering more customization options and ways for users to link their existing online footprint to ChatGPT.

Here are the five most notable pieces to emerge from GPT-5's debut.

GPT-5 is the next iteration of OpenAI's models, bigger and more powerful, but not dissimilar in its basic form. Even so, GPT-5 is big and complex enough to reach a new level in how it seems to reason.

Essentially, you no longer have to spoon-feed it context or restate complex prompts three times, or at least not nearly as often. Multifaceted questions like how changing interest rates might affect Gen Z homeownership trends in mixed markets might take several prompts refined multiple times to provide the answers you seek with earlier ChatGPT models, but GPT‑5 can unpack the whole thing.

Based on the demonstrations, GPT‑5 seems to parse each part separately and stitch it together. And it flags when there's a gap in its knowledge, which is far better than confidently hallucinating. It applies that way of thinking to how it interacts with users, too. While obviously not 'thinking', it does appear to read between the lines well enough to reflect a user's mood and even adjust its response to an expressed emotion.

The model is supposed to be particularly good with math and coding software. Good enough to handle the increasingly popular pursuit of 'vibe coding,' where you simply describe a feeling or a mood of a piece of software, and the AI produces the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to match your design vision.

GPT-5 comes in many sizes in addition to the standard version. There's also the smaller gpt-5-mini, and an even leaner gpt-5-nano, which lives solely in the API. The big news is that free ChatGPT users now get access to both GPT-5 and mini, while ChatGPT Plus subscribers enjoy higher usage limits across the board.

If you’re a Pro user paying $200 a month, you’ll now get unlimited GPT-5 access, along with access to the more powerful gpt-5-pro model and gpt-5-thinking. These both take longer to provide answers, but come back with deeper, more thoughtful responses.

There is no need to pick and choose yourself, either, though. ChatGPT now picks the right model automatically based on what you're asking and what plan you’re on.

ChatGPT has a default, pleasantly bland personality, but GPT‑5 is advanced enough to offer more variety in the tone and style of the AI chatbot. If you don't want the usual neutral mode, you can choose “Cynic” for sarcasm with your answer, “Listener” if you’re venting and just need it to echo back understanding, "Nerd" for a side of geeky trivia, and "Robot" for the purely mechanical response.

These personalities don’t undercut the answers you get, but they do flavor the response. Therefore, you might get dry wit with productivity tips from the “Cynic” tone or gentle encouragement in your goals from “Listener.”

Additionally, the chatbot's appearance can now be altered with the new color themes. If you're a paid subscriber, you'll soon be able to adjust the look of ChatGPT instead of switching between the usual black or white.

ChatGPT's Voice Mode is getting an audio glow-up of its own. OpenAI is rolling out a much-improved version that not only works with custom GPTs but also adapts its tone and speech style based on your instructions and overall vibe.

You can ask it to be snappier, slower, warmer, or whatever else you want. For ChatGPT Plus users, voice responses are now nearly unlimited. Free users still get access, too, with a few hours a day to chat hands-free.

To streamline things, the old Standard Voice Mode is being phased out entirely within 30 days. After that, everyone will be on the same upgraded experience.

Next week, ChatGPT Pro users will be able to hook up their Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts directly to ChatGPT. That means no more switching tabs to check if you're free next Tuesday or digging through threads to find that one email you definitely forgot to reply to.

Once connected, ChatGPT will pull in what it needs to help respond to your queries. OpenAI assured users that it will only pull in the minimum needed and only when it’s helpful.

You don’t need to say “check my calendar” or “pull that contact.” The AI will do so based on whether you request something that requires it, like scheduling a meeting. It will pick a time that works for you and write the email on your behalf. Other subscription tiers are scheduled to get access to the connections in the near future, so this won't be limited to Pro forever.

All of these upgrades leveraging GPT-5 point to OpenAI's bigger plans to make its AI models an intimate part of your life, not just a tool you occasionally turn to and feel annoyed about having to carefully parse answers. Smarter reasoning means less cleanup for the user. Vibe coding shifts AI from merely aping code to interpreting your intended use with software. The personalities and colors make the AI feel like it's more unique to you, not just a one-size-fits-all tool, especially with the more realistic voice and access to your email account and calendar

GPT‑5 mimics awareness better than any of its predecessors. That means it could blend into our routines and become as second nature to use as our smartphones. Or at least, that's what OpenAI and its investors likely hope to see happen.

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• OpenAI's GPT-5 debut included the reveal of a new integration that allows ChatGPT Pro users to link their Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts directly to the chatbot
• ChatGPT can summarize your day, create a schedule, and flag important emails
• Though an opt-in feature requiring user confirmation, privacy issues are likely to be raised

The spectacle of GPT-5 may have overshadowed some of OpenAI's other news during its livestream on Thursday, but the demonstration of ChatGPT's new ability to directly peruse and analyze a user's Google data caught my eye as a major moment in ChatGPT's development and OpenAI's battle for supremacy among AI chatbots.

The new feature enables ChatGPT users to connect the AI chatbot to their Gmail, Google Contacts, and Google Calendar data. The demo showed ChatGPT responding to a request to see a schedule of the following day by going through the user's calendar and email inbox, then rapidly compiling a complete and complex schedule, including important unread emails to respond to.

This may not sound like a breakthrough to anyone who’s already overwhelmed with their digital list of things to do, but ChatGPT sorting that information and putting it in front of you might actually lower your stress, at least judging by the demo.

It's easy to imagine an AI outline for your day, or a nudge to handle that still-unread message, reducing the mental workload by cutting out the tedious sorting and linking of scheduled events to relevant emails. You might say, “What’s on my plate today?” and see your calendar paired with that flagged email. That would mean no more toggling between Gmail and your calendar, squinting at what's urgent.

Further, the data could help ChatGPT learn more about you and your needs by reading the meeting invites you've sent, deadlines you've barely hit, and RSVPs you sent the second you got the invite. For now, this option is only available to ChatGPT Pro users, though OpenAI promised it would become more widely available soon.

That said, the idea of handing over Gmail and Calendar data to ChatGPT might raise an eyebrow or two for good reason. Gmail could hold confirmation of doctor appointments and secret romantic rendezvous plans.

Don't worry about inadvertently sharing those details with ChatGPT, though. You'll need to opt in to link your accounts to ChatGPT and confirm actions before they occur, which will prevent any emails from being sent automatically.

Then again, there are plenty of smart scheduling bots and email add-ons that automatically pull event details or remind you about missed invites. But ChatGPT’s integration adds actual conversation to the mix. You don’t forward an email or set up complex rules of how the automated system should respond to certain family members. You just type in regular language, and it will act more like a human secretary.

Assuming you're okay with the concept, you can see how those who use Google and ChatGPT might value linking the two. Especially if you're not a fan of Google Gemini for one reason or another. You might long to have an AI chatbot connected to your Google account, but simply prefer ChatGPT to Gemini. OpenAI wants to give you that option.

If Google doesn't have an exclusive claim to linking your email and calendar to an AI chatbot, then OpenAI can hope to win out in other areas where it may feel it has the advantage, like the power of GPT-5. You just have to be okay with letting ChatGPT see which weddings you'll be attending in the next few months.

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Enterprise cloud demands have evolved beyond the early drivers of adoption. Now, more than ever, businesses must be prepared to scale at a moment’s notice. Meeting unexpected user demand while maintaining service levels is an ongoing challenge. At the same time, cloud computing workloads are becoming increasingly specialized, requiring optimized solutions across CPUs, DPUs, and AI accelerators to fully harness cloud-native architectures and frameworks.

As a result, cloud spending has become a critical operational priority. According to Flexera, nearly half of all workloads and data are now in the public cloud. In fact, 72% of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) are prioritizing cloud optimization as a key organizational initiative to drive cost savings.

These trends highlight the importance of right-sizing cloud solutions. Enterprises must ensure that their infrastructure is optimized for their specific business needs and workload requirements. The right cloud strategy delivers flexibility, security, performance, and cost efficiency, all of which are fundamental to maintaining a competitive edge.

Cloud computing has long been the backbone of modern digital infrastructure, primarily built around general-purpose computing. However, the era of one-size-fits-all cloud solutions is rapidly fading in a business environment increasingly dominated by AI and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. Legacy cloud solutions struggle to meet the computational intensity of deep learning models, preventing organizations from fully realizing the benefits of their investments.

At the same time, cloud-native architectures have become the standard, as businesses face mounting pressure to innovate, reduce time-to-market, and optimize costs. Without a cloud-optimized IT infrastructure, organizations risk losing key operational advantages—such as maximizing performance efficiency and minimizing security risks in a multi-cloud environment—ultimately negating the benefits of cloud-native adoption.

Moreover, running AI workloads at scale without an optimized cloud infrastructure leads to unnecessary energy consumption, increasing both operational costs and environmental impact. This inefficiency strains financial resources and undermines corporate sustainability goals, which are now under greater scrutiny from stakeholders who prioritize green initiatives.

Beyond performance gains, security is yet another critical consideration when selecting cloud-optimized hardware that often goes underappreciated. Cloud-optimized hardware often provide a strong suite of advanced security features, such as confidential computing. These technologies ensure that sensitive data remains encrypted while in use, reducing the risk of physical DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Module) attacks or virtual threats in hyperconverged infrastructure environments.

As the risks of data breaches continue to escalate – both in financial and reputational terms – organizations must recognize that leaving cloud environments unprotected is no longer an option. The rise of sophisticated cyber threats, from rogue hackers to nation-state-sponsored actors, makes enhanced cloud security a non-negotiable priority.

Furthermore, as industries push forward with the adoption and deployment of AI tools, IT leaders must ensure that their cloud infrastructure can support compute-intensive workloads while balancing cost, security, and efficiency considerations. While each organization's computing needs are unique, IT teams embarking on hardware modernization should consider the following:

Performance: Are your cloud instances equipped for the level of compute performance your business requires? Cloud infrastructure must support a range of workloads, from web front-end applications to in-memory analytics and heavy transactional processing.

Cost and efficiency: Can you reduce your cloud footprint by running the same workloads on fewer servers? Prioritizing instances with high compute density allows businesses to run more VMs or containers per server, achieving significant cost and energy efficiency benefits.

Security: Does your cloud instance provide the level of data protection you require? Confidential computing helps mitigate security risks by protecting data in use, reducing vulnerabilities in virtualized environments.

Ecosystem: Opting for processors powered by industry-standard x86 architecture simplifies cloud environments, making it easier to develop, maintain, and migrate applications with minimal disruption.

For IT decision-makers, understanding the cost implications of each 'unit of work' is crucial when selecting cloud instances. Traditional infrastructure forces enterprises to choose between overprovisioning resources – leading to unnecessary expenses – or under provisioning, which can cause performance bottlenecks. Cloud-optimized hardware changes this equation by enabling businesses to achieve more with fewer resources while maintaining high levels of performance, security, and efficiency.

As cloud technologies continue to evolve, enterprises that prioritize modernization will reap the benefits of seamless scalability, improved sustainability, and a resilient digital foundation for future innovation. In a world where agility is critical, cloud optimization is no longer a luxury—it is a business imperative for staying competitive in 2025 and beyond.

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• Unidentified hackers access Air France and KLM through a third-party service provider
• The attackers stole names, contact details, and more
• Passport data was not compromised

Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have confirmed recently suffering cyberattacks in which both airlines lost sensitive customer data.

The companies, both owned by the same airline holding firm, sent out data breach notification letters to affected customers, and in a statement shared with Tweakers, KLM said the incident happened when threat actors broke into a third-party service provider.

“Unusual activity was detected on a third-party platform used by our contact centres, which led our IT security team, together with the third-party system involved, to swiftly implement corrective measures to put an end to the incident,” the company also told Cybernews.

We don’t know exactly how many people were affected by the breach, but the airlines transport more than 80 million people every year.

The information stolen in this attack include people’s full names, contact details, Flying Blue numbers and tier levels, and subject lines of service request emails.

Luckily, passport numbers, payment card details, passwords, or Flying Blue Miles (the airline’s loyalty program) balances were not stolen.

There was no word on the attackers, and no one claimed responsibility for the attack.

However, in late June 2025, the FBI warned Scattered Spider hackers were now increasing targeting airlines.

Scattered Spider works by impersonating company staff, and convincing support employees from the IT department that they lost access to their corporate accounts.

After gaining initial access, they map out the company, identify high-level individuals, and then repeat the process until they gain access to accounts through which they can steal data.

The hacking group struck Qantas in early July 2025, and Hawaiian Airlines in late June, and Russian Aeroflot, American GlobalX, and Canadian WestJet have all suffered similar incidents in recent months.

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