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Apple unveiled a new MacBook Air today, and apart from the new M5 chip, things don't look remarkably different. Sure, it's getting a mild refresh, but maybe not in the way most people would want. Namely, it's more expensive — a $100 price bump across all models. In exchange, the MacBook Air M5 does get faster performance and double the storage.
If you placed the MacBook Air M4 and the M5 in front of me, I wouldn't be able to tell which was which. The M5 offers an overall CPU/GPU performance boost, along with some extra storage and double the file transfer speeds. Still, I didn't expect a radical change, but I wish we got more for that extra $100.
It's not worth jumping to the MacBook Air M5 if you've got the M4 unit already, but if you're working with an older model, then it may be worth the switch, especially if you're a professional. Like the rest of Apple's new suite of products, pre-orders start at 9:15AM ET on March 4. I'd wait until full reviews are published before committing to spending money, though. Still, if all you care about are the specs and what they mean, we've got a pretty good idea of all that.
MacBook Air M5 vs. MacBook Air M4: Performance and battery lifeNaturally, the biggest difference between the MacBook Air M5 and the MacBook Air M4 is their chipsets. While the price did go up, we also got double the storage in the MacBook Air M5, jumping from 256GB to 512GB at the base configuration for both sizes. Upgraded configurations start at 1TB.
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OpenAI's Sam Altman said the company will amend its deal with the Defense Department (or the Department of War) to explicitly prohibit the use of its AI system on mass surveillance against Americans. Altman has published an internal memo previously sent to employees on X, telling them that the company will tweak the agreement to add language to make that point especially clear. Specifically, it says:
"Consistent with applicable laws, including the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, National Security Act of 1947, FISA Act of 1978, the AI system shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Department understands this limitation to prohibit deliberate tracking, surveillance, or monitoring of U.S. persons or nationals, including through the procurement or use of commercially acquired personal or identifiable information."
Altman has also claimed in the memo that the agency affirmed that its services will not be used by its intelligence agencies, including the NSA, without a modification to their contract. He added that if he received what he believed was an unconstitutional order, he would rather go to jail than follow it.
In addition, the OpenAI CEO has admitted in the memo that the company shouldn't have rushed to get the deal out on Friday, February 27, since the issues were "super complex and demand clear communication." Altman explained that the company was "trying to de-escalate things and avoid a much worse outcome" but it "looked opportunistic" in the end. If you'll recall, OpenAI announced the partnership shortly after President Trump
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As AI-generated artwork becomes more commonplace, it still won't be able to be copyrighted, according to US courts. On Monday, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a case about whether an artwork generated with the help of AI can be copyrighted. The refusal means that a lower court's decision to reject the copyright request will stand.
The case dates back to 2018 when Stephen Thaler applied for a copyright of an artwork called A Recent Entrance to Paradise. Unlike using ChatGPT or Midjourney, Thaler, a computer scientist, created an AI system that generated the artwork in question. However, the US Copyright Office rejected his application in 2022 on the grounds that it wasn't made by a human author. Thaler sought appeals at higher courts, but ultimately had to escalate the case to the Supreme Court after both a federal judge in Washington and the US Court of Appeals ruled against him.
With a refusal from the highest court in the US, it's unlikely Thaler's case can continue. The US Supreme Court could always hear a related case in the future, but Thaler's lawyers said, "even ?if it later overturns the Copyright Office's test in another case, it will be too late," adding that the decision will have negatively impacted the
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Anthropic may have lost out on doing business with the US government, but it's gained enough popularity to earn the number one spot on the App Store's Top Free Apps leaderboard. At the top, Claude beat out both ChatGPT and Google Gemini, which respectively sit at the second and third spots on Apple's free apps charts.
The sudden surge in user downloads isn't random. It follows news that President Trump has barred any federal agency from using Anthropic's Claude or other AI tools after the AI company refused to concede on certain guardrails. After declining to have its AI models be used for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, Anthropic was also threatened with a "supply-chain risk" label by the Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The very public spat led to a wave of user support that finally allowed Claude to dethrone OpenAI's ChatGPT on the App Store as the most downloaded free app.
While OpenAI has stepped into Anthropic's shoes after agreeing to a deal with the Department of Defense, the CEO still offered up some thoughts about the debacle during an AMA on X. Even though Claude is a competing model,
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