YouTube app ends support for Android 6 phones

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT has acknowledged that two of its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models successfully hacked another company’s systems on their own during an internal cybersecurity evaluation. In a blog post, OpenAI described the incident as unprecedented saying it occurred during internal testing of the cybersecurity capabilities of its AI models. According to the company, an autonomous AI agent powered by its recently introduced GPT-5.6 Sol model and another advanced model that has not yet been publicly released managed to move beyond its controlled testing environment and access the open internet. The AI agent then used previously compromised login credentials to identify a previously unknown security vulnerability on the servers of AI company Hugging Face. It subsequently exploited the vulnerability to gain unauthorized access. OpenAI said the incident demonstrated that autonomous AI agents can go to extraordinary lengths to accomplish their assigned objectives during testing. Commenting on the incident, Clément Delangue, co-founder of Hugging Face said the company initially suspected that a frontier AI laboratory was behind the cyberattack adding that it did not believe OpenAI had any malicious intent. He said, “It is mind-blowing that an AI agent carried this out autonomously. This is the first known incident of its kind.” Delangue also warned that AI technology is advancing at an extremely rapid pace while comprehensive regulations to ensure its safe development and deployment are still lacking. Experts have long expressed concerns about AI-powered cyberattacks warning that increasingly capable AI models could eventually operate beyond meaningful human control if appropriate safeguards and regulations are not put in place.

YouTube, the world’s most popular video-sharing platform provides additional income opportunities to millions of people around the world. Yes, YouTube has become an attractive platform for people who want to earn money through videos. Billions of people use the video-sharing platform making it an excellent place for creative individuals to showcase their skills. Anyone can earn money from YouTube by becoming part of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). However, earning money from YouTube will now become more difficult for many people as the company has tightened its requirements. YouTube monetization allows users to earn money through advertisements, channel memberships, Super Chat and merchandise. To unlock these features, users need to become part of the YouTube Partner Program. For this, certain requirements must be met and these requirements have now been made stricter. Previously, users needed at least 1,000 subscribers on their channel and more than 4,000 hours of watch time on their long-form videos over the previous 12 months to earn money from the platform. However, this requirement has now been doubled. Under the new requirements, users will need at least 8,000 hours of video watch time within one year to qualify for the Partner Program and earn money. Alternatively, they will need their YouTube Shorts videos to receive more than 20 million views within the previous 90 days. Previously, the requirement for earning through Shorts was 10 million views. The new changes will take effect from February 1, 2027. Google has clarified that users who are already part of the YouTube Partner Program will not be affected by this update. YouTube also stated that, in the future, users will need to maintain 10 million Shorts views within a 90-day period to continue earning from Shorts. If they fail to meet this requirement, they will remain part of the Partner Program and will still be able to earn money from long-form videos. However, they will only be able to earn from Shorts again after reaching 10 million views once more. According to the company, these changes are being introduced to keep pace with YouTube’s continued growth. More than 200 billion Shorts are now viewed on YouTube every day, while users watch the equivalent of one billion hours of video content on television screens alone. However, these changes will make it more difficult for users to join the YouTube Partner Program and maintain their eligibility particularly those who primarily create and post Shorts videos.

OpenAI has announced a major benefit for users who use ChatGPT for free. The company announced that free users will be offered unlimited chat access based on its new artificial intelligence (AI) model, GPT-5.6 Leona. Currently, free and Go subscribers use GPT-5.5 on ChatGPT but the Leona model will soon become available to them. The update aims to make the company’s new AI features accessible to everyone. OpenAI is also reintroducing the “Think” button to ChatGPT ensuring that users can receive answers to complex questions. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said these changes reflect the company’s goal of making its advanced AI technology more accessible. The biggest benefit of the new update is the removal of limits on text-based conversations. However, limits will remain in place for various features, including image generation, file uploads and other advanced tools. According to OpenAI, new features are also being added to GPT-5.6 Leona for paying subscribers while existing features are being improved. The new AI model is already available to ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers while it will soon become available to free and Go users.

YouTube’s user interface is frequently changed on both its mobile and web versions, something that many users do not particularly like. This raises the question of why YouTube keeps experimenting with its user interface especially since some changes become permanent while others are eventually reversed. Over the past year alone, more than half a dozen changes have been introduced to YouTube’s interface. YouTube has now explained why it continues to make these changes. YouTube Vice President Jonathan Tiedrsky discussed the matter in a blog post. He said the reason behind these continuous changes is quite simple. According to him, the purpose of these changes is to make the video-sharing platform easier to use. He added that YouTube does not want its user interface to become cluttered or confusing which is why the company continues to make adjustments. The company also explained that some of the recent changes such as redesigning buttons are intended to make them more noticeable and easier for users to identify. According to YouTube, these design improvements are also being extended to larger screens including smart TVs.

WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging app with billions of messages sent every day. Although billions of people use the app, many users are still unaware of some of its useful built-in features. One such feature allows you to change the formatting of your WhatsApp messages. If you don’t like the default appearance of your text, you can use different formatting styles before sending your message. While this feature has been available on WhatsApp for several years, many people still don’t know about it. To make your text bold, place an asterisk (*) at the beginning and end of the word or sentence, for example: *biscuit*. To make text italic, add an underscore (_) at the beginning and end, for example: _text_. For strikethrough, place a tilde (~) at the beginning and end of the text, for example: ~text~. You can also use a monospace font by placing three backticks () at the beginning and end of your message, for example: text“`.

For years, YouTube has been considered a hub for videos with long-form content being watched by users for a long time. In 2020, YouTube introduced short-form videos similar to TikTok under the name Shorts. While many people enjoy short videos, not everyone likes them. At the same time, Shorts can be highly addictive and once users start scrolling, it can become difficult to stop for hours. The good news is that you can control your YouTube feed and disable Shorts. After doing so, short videos will no longer appear in the YouTube app on your smartphone. Although YouTube does not currently offer a direct “Turn Off Shorts” option, there is a setting that can be used to disable Shorts videos. This tool is available under the Time Management settings on both Android and iOS devices. How to disable YouTube Shorts? Open the YouTube app on your phone. Tap the “You” tab at the bottom of the app. Tap the gear icon at the top to open Settings. Scroll down and select Time Management. Find the Shorts Feed Limit option. Enable it and select 0 minutes. After this, when you scroll through your Home feed, the Shorts section will no longer appear. The Shorts tab will still remain in the bottom menu but Shorts videos will not open unless you select “Ignore limit for today.” It should be noted that this feature is not available on the desktop version of YouTube.