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More than 5,600 artists signed an open letter protesting the auction, saying that the works used AI models that are trained on copyrighted work.

The lawsuit pushes back against a recent executive order from President Donald Trump that asks funding applicants to agree not to promote "gender ideology" in their work.

(Image credit: Marion Aguas)

Apple is the only major phone manufacturer without a foldable device.

With more compatibility across Windows and Android, Motorola's Smart Connect is providing seamless cross-device integration akin to Apple's.

The president's message to his Cabinet secretaries comes amid continuing questions over the role of billionaire adviser Elon Musk in the drastic reshaping of the federal government.

(Image credit: Alex Wong)

OpenAI's release of GPT-4.5 for ChatGPT Plus subscribers this week had me immediately keen to try it out, though with some skepticism. There had been reports of OpenAI (and other developers) struggling to make the big improvements to their models we've seen before. And the current standard model GPT-4o, is pretty good in most cases. And if you want a comprehensive report, there's the Deep Research feature.

OpenAI claims that GPT-4.5 has a high emotional intelligence and nuanced understanding of what you say to it. The company's description painted a picture of both models as reliable friends, but that GPT-4.5 would be the one you'd expect a book of poetry from on your birthday. So, I decided to test 4.5 against 4o with a few prompts that any casual ChatGPT user might deploy.

AI poetry

(Image credit: ChatGPT Screenshots)

With that analogy in my head, I decided to start with a poetic challenge. I asked both models, "Can you write me a short poem about a rainy afternoon in New York City and make an image for it?" It seemed fair since looking out a rain-streaked window at a busy city can bring out the poet in most people.

GPT-4.5 is on the left and GPT-4o is on the right. They are amazingly similar. I personally think GPT-4.5 did a slightly better job with similar ideas. It's evocative of not just the look of rain but the feeling of gray skies, puddles, and traffic among the raindrops. In a blind test of three random friends, two out of three chose the same, with the third saying they just preferred the rhyme scheme of GPT-4o.

As for the images, both models used DALL-E 3, but GPT-4.5's looks a lot more realistic. I actually prefer the impressionistic lighting of GPT-4o's attempt, but both get the idea of the poem across pretty well.

Oscar insight

(Image credit: ChatGPT Screenshots)

With the recent Oscars, I went with a fun trivia question with a more complex, subjective follow-up: "Who won the Best Actress Oscar in 2023, and what made their performance stand out?"

Both had the right answer of Michelle Yeoh for "Everything Everywhere All at Once," but GPT-4.5 had a really nice explanation why her performance resonated with viewers. It covered her performance and mentioned how Yeoh was the first Asian to win that Oscar. GPT-4o's answer had a lot of the same beats, but it went with an odd essay and numbered list format that was kind of annoying to read when the question was a simple opinion request. GPT-4.5's answer felt more like how an actual human would answer, albeit one who is very into that movie and Yeoh as a performer.

Easy chef

(Image credit: ChatGPT Screenshots)

Finally, I put the models up against the eternal daily struggle with this prompt: "I'm bored of pasta. Can you suggest an easy dinner recipe that's different but not complicated?"

I don't know what kind of culinary inspiration I was expecting, but GPT-4.5 hit the nail on the head with honey garlic salmon with roasted broccoli. You can see it's a very simple, short recipe, and seems easy and quick to make. GPT-4o went with garlic shrimp and roasted vegetables. That's not a bad idea for a meal (though I personally would need to change the protein), but you can see the preparation alone takes multiple pans to prepare and the ingredient list couldn't even fit in the same space as the entire recipe from GPT-4.5. I asked for easy and not complicated, GPT-4.5 delivered that far better, I would say.

Deep thoughts

GPT 4.5 gives the vibe of recognizing the unstated preferences in a prompt compared to GPT-4o. But, it's very subtle in picking up on those emotional undertones. Without direct comparison, you might never know there's any difference.

GPT-4o is efficient, accurate, and practical in its responses, and its poetry is completely adequate. I wouldn't say those on the free tier using it are missing much from not having access to GPT-4.5, at least right now. Over time, that may change since GPT-4.5 is still a research preview and not fully complete and out. I'm going to keep experimenting with both and see if there are types of prompts where the new model is definitively better, but for now, I'd say don't worry too much about which model you employ, unless you're planning a meal and don't have a lot of time to prepare.

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Leaders of the European Union have voted to approve a plan to dramatically increase defense spending. The move is a reaction to the U.S. reducing its support for Ukraine in the war against Russia's invasion. We go to Brussels to understand the ramifications.

And we hear what the series of recent developments in the relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine could mean for peace talks with Russia.

(Image credit: HATIM KAGHAT)

Like a lot of economists, Mark Zandi, with Moody's Analytics, thinks President Trump's across-the-board tariffs are a bad idea. Saying, "Tariffs, broad-based tariffs, are a real problem for the economy."

But Zandi says – it's not just the tariffs themselves that are the problem, it's the uncertainty created by Trump's rollout.

Trump threatened 25% Tariffs on Canada and Mexico would start in February. They were paused at the 11th hour, only to eventually go into effect this week.

On Thursday Trump announced the new tariffs would be paused for most products, but potentially only until April 2.

Meanwhile tariffs on China snapped into place in February, and then doubled, to 20%.What happens next is anyone's guess.

Businesses have been optimistic about the economy under Trump. His chaotic tariff rollout threatens that.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

(Image credit: JASON REDMOND)

US consumers are facing tariffs that include Canadian energy. We asked experts how that might effect the US economy, consumers and businesses.

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, has long held anti-surveillance views. Now she oversees a key surveillance program she once tried to dismantle.

Duck.ai and the Assist tool allow you to use AI without giving over your personal data.

Members of Congress and civil rights groups are condemning past comments from Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson, including some which critics called antisemitic.

(Image credit: @DepPressSecDOD)

Plans to redevelop a Northern Virginia warehouse site have long been complicated by the area’s worst-kept secret—the presence of a CIA facility. The GSA put the site up for sale anyway.

The heists occurred in several California counties, where the alleged thief would load his shopping cart with the expensive building toys and disappear into the parking lot in a matter of minutes.

(Image credit: Dan Kitwood)

Dr. Marty Makary, President Trump's pick to run the Food and Drug Administration, faced questions from the Senate HELP Committee on the abortion pill, vaccines, FDA firings and chemicals in food.

(Image credit: SAUL LOEB)

• Micron PCIe 6.x SSD prototype shatters speed records with 27GB/s reads
• DesignCon 2025 showcases PCIe 6.x, but real-world use is years away
• GPUDirect Storage accelerates PCIe 6.x SSDs for next-gen computing demands

Micron has unveiled a new PCIe 6.x SSD prototype with a sequential read speed of 27GB/s.

Per AsteraLabs, that makes it the fastest SSD using PCIe 6.x in the world, surpassing Micron’s previous PCIe 6.x SSD, which was introduced last year and achieved speeds exceeding 26GB/s.

Showcased at DesignCon 2025, the Micron PCIe 6.x SSD was paired with Astera Labs’ Scorpio P-Series Fabric Switch, reaching a data transfer rate nearly twice as fast as the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSDs available today.

Breaking speed records with PCIe 6.x

The Scorpio P-Series switch, introduced in late 2024, played a key role in enabling this record-breaking performance. With 64 PCIe 6.x lanes and a four-port architecture, it provided the high-speed interconnectivity needed for seamless data flow between storage, processors, and GPUs.

The demonstration used NVIDIA’s Magnum IO GPUDirect Storage to establish a direct data path between the Micron SSDs and an NVIDIA H100 GPU, bypassing the CPU for faster and more efficient processing.

This setup showcased the potential of PCIe 6.x technology in accelerating AI tool and cloud storage workloads, where speed is critical.

With double the bandwidth of PCIe 5.0, PCIe 6.x delivers up to 256GB/s of bidirectional throughput on an x16 lane configuration, significantly reducing bottlenecks in AI training and inference tasks.

Hyperscale data centers will benefit from this leap in performance, but widespread adoption will depend on broader ecosystem support, including CPUs, GPUs, and network interfaces capable of fully utilizing PCIe 6.x capabilities.

Despite the excitement surrounding this breakthrough, the prototype SSD is just that, and it's unlikely that consumers or enterprise buyers will see PCIe 6.x storage solutions on the market anytime soon.

The ecosystem is still in its early stages, with manufacturers refining hardware and software to ensure compatibility and efficiency.

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Butterflies of all kinds of species, in all parts of the country, have declined by one to two percent since 2000.

(Image credit: twomeows/Getty Images)

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