OpenAI has announced the launch of GPT-4.5, its largest AI model to date, code-named Orion. The model has been trained using more computing power and data than any of the company's previous releases. CEO Sam Altman revealed that OpenAI was forced to stagger the model's rollout due to a shortage of GPUs. Subscribers to the $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro plan have access to GPT-4.5 as part of a research preview, while ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Team customers can expect to receive the model next week.

In other AI-related news, Amazon has introduced a new and improved Alexa experience called Alexa+. The new Alexa starts at $19.99 per month, competitive with other generative AI chatbots on the market, but will be free for Amazon Prime subscribers. Alexa+ will roll out in the U.S. in early access beginning next month. Amazon is also launching Alexa.com, a new web experience designed for "long-form" work, as well as a refreshed Alexa mobile app with a new interface and functionality.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced that it is pulling the plug on Skype, marking the end of an internet era. Skype users have until May 5 to either migrate their contacts and chat data to Microsoft's Teams platform or export their Skype data before it shuts down.

In a surprising move, Anthropic used the Game Boy classic Pokémon Red to benchmark its latest model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet. The model successfully battled three Pokémon gym leaders and won their badges.

Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, is launching sign-ups for Comet, an AI web browser. The company claims that Comet will "reinvent the browser" just as Perplexity has done with search. Additionally, Perplexity is reportedly raising a $50 million seed and pre-seed investment fund using some of the capital it raised for the company's growth to anchor it.

In other news, Elon Musk accidentally referred to his social media platform as Twitter – on the platform itself. This is not the first time Musk has made this mistake. Meta has fired "roughly" 20 employees for leaking confidential information, following a surge of news stories with leaked details about Meta's internal meetings and undisclosed product plans.

Google has introduced a new, free consumer version of Gemini Code Assist, its AI code completion and assistance tool. The tool lets developers use a chat window to talk in natural language with an AI model that can access and edit their codebase.

Lucid Motors' CEO, Peter Rawlinson, is stepping down from the CEO and CTO roles that he's held since before the company went public six years ago. According to regulatory filings, Rawlinson has also left the company's board.

Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried made his first public post on X in over two years as he serves the early days of his 25-year prison sentence. In the 10-post thread, he referred to himself as being "unemployed."

In a surprising turn of events, Billy McFarland, the founder of the infamous Fyre Festival, is back with its sequel. Fyre Festival 2 will allegedly take place in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, from May 30 to June 2. Tickets are on sale now – ranging from $1,400 to $1.1 million.

Finally, in response to threats from the Trump administration, companies across the U.S. have started cutting DEI programs and scrubbing public DEI commitments. The reaction to the government's anti-diversity push has taken many forms. In corporate America, companies like McDonald's, Walmart, and Target have announced some form of rollback to their DEI policies, while other companies like Apple, Costco, and JPMorgan have indicated a commitment to their diversity efforts.

Stay tuned for more updates on the latest tech news and trends.