AI Storm: Breakthroughs, Backlash & Billion-Dollar Bets (Global AI News Roundup, Aug 15–16, 2025)
In mid-August 2025, OpenAI unveiled GPT-5, a “major upgrade” with PhD-level expertise across coding to medicine and rolling out to all 700 million ChatGPT users; Sam Altman said it feels like you can ask a legitimate expert about anything, but it cannot learn on its own. A team led by Pan Jianwei in China arranged more than 2,000 neutral-atom qubits into a perfect array—roughly 10× larger than prior systems—and positioned rubidium atoms in precise patterns in about 1/60,000th of a second using AI-driven optimization. On August 14, 2025, the White House released an “America’s AI Action Plan” to boost U.S.