The company announced the changes on Monday, making AI Plus the lowest-priced paid AI subscription offered by a provider in the US market.

Vikas Kansal, product lead for Gemini AI subscriptions, said on X that the storage upgrade would reach users over the next few days.

Google AI Plus was introduced in January as an entry-level paid plan aimed at individual users and students. The service includes access to Gemini with higher usage limits, Omni Flash video generation, Google Flow creative tools, NotebookLM and AI-powered features in Gmail.

In Nigeria, alongside AI Plus at N7,700, Google still offers higher-priced plans. Google AI Pro costs N28,500 per month and includes 5TB of storage, expanded Gemini access and the company’s Pro model.

Google AI Ultra starts at N89,000 per month, offers at least 20TB of storage and provides significantly higher usage limits, as well as early access to new features.

The current price reduction follows a series of changes to Google’s AI subscription business this year. In April, the company increased storage on its AI Pro plan to 5TB without raising prices. A month later, it launched a new AI Ultra package and reduced the cost of its top-tier subscription from $250 to $200 per month.

With competition increasing among AI providers over subscription pricing, and premium plans taking over the market, companies have now started introducing cheaper options to attract more users.

This first became visible in India, one of the world’s fastest-growing AI markets. OpenAI launched ChatGPT Go there in August 2025 at about $4.60 per month, well below the price of its standard ChatGPT Plus subscription. Google followed with its own sub-$5 AI Plus offering in India later that year.

Google’s latest decision brings that pricing strategy to the United States, where subscription costs have so far played a smaller role in competition between major AI companies.

The development could increase pressure on competitors, particularly Anthropic, which has not introduced a lower-cost subscription tier or localised pricing in key international markets.

OpenAI and Anthropic are both preparing for public listings after filing confidential IPO paperwork, and growing price competition could become an important issue for investors assessing the long-term profitability of AI businesses.

The iPhone maker said on Monday that Ternus will take over on September 1, while Cook will become executive chairman.

The leadership change comes as Apple strengthens its focus on artificial intelligence, responding to competition from companies including Nvidia, Meta and Google.

Ternus joined Apple in 2001 and currently serves as senior vice-president of hardware engineering. He has worked on several of the company’s biggest products, including the Mac, iPad and AirPods.

He is also seen as an important figure in improving Mac sales in recent years, helping the product regain momentum against personal computer competitors.

Although he has kept a lower public profile than some Apple executives, the company has recently given him a more visible role.

Last year, Ternus presented the iPhone Air, a major redesign of Apple’s flagship device and one of the biggest changes to the product line in years.

At 50, he takes over at the same age Cook did when he succeeded Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011.

Cook leaves the chief executive role after overseeing one of the most successful periods in Apple’s history. Since taking charge in August 2011, he has helped increase the company’s market value by about $3.6 trillion.

He was widely credited with expanding Apple’s global supply chain, especially through manufacturing partnerships in China, while also growing the company’s services and hardware businesses.

Cook also became the first Fortune 500 chief executive to publicly come out as gay in 2014 and often spoke on issues including workplace diversity and environmental policy.

Apple said Cook will remain involved in dealing with policymakers as executive chairman.

Ternus now inherits a company under pressure to show stronger progress in artificial intelligence.

Although Apple introduced Siri in 2011, it has struggled to match the pace of newer AI-focused companies.

Tech giants such as OpenAI and Anthropic have attracted millions of users with new chatbot products, while Nvidia has become the world’s most valuable listed company on the back of demand for AI chips.

In January, Apple reached an agreement with Google to use Gemini technology to improve Siri.

Ternus will also face competition in new devices. Meta Platforms has found success with smart glasses, while Apple’s Vision Pro headset has faced questions over its high price.

Alongside appointing John Ternus as CEO, Apple said Johny Srouji has been named chief hardware officer. He will continue leading the company’s custom chip and sensor teams.

The hardware engineering group previously led by Ternus will now be overseen by Tom Merieb.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the upgrade will arrive with iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27, expected later this year.

People familiar with the plans said the feature will allow Siri to process multi-step commands in a single query, instead of handling them one at a time.

Right now, Siri responds to one instruction per request. That has left it trailing competitors that can manage more complex tasks in a single interaction. With this change, a user could ask Siri to get directions and share them with a contact in one sentence.

Apple is also working on a comprehensive redesign of Siri. The company is said to be building a more advanced version of the assistant using technology linked to Alphabet Inc.’s Gemini model. Apple has not responded to requests for comment.

The upgrade is expected to feature at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8, 2026, where Apple usually previews its next software updates.

Beyond handling multiple requests, Apple is testing a new Siri app with both voice and text input. Users may also be able to revisit past conversations, a feature already common with tools like ChatGPT.

There are also plans for an “Extensions” system that would allow third-party services to plug directly into Siri.

At the same time, Apple is looking at opening Siri to other AI providers. Reports say users could choose between different assistants, including those from Anthropic, alongside existing integrations.

This changes the tech giant’s approach. Apple’s earlier Apple Intelligence rollout in 2024 did not gain strong traction, and the company has been under pressure to close the gap with competing systems.

Internally, the project to overhaul Siri into a full chatbot is said to carry the codename “Campos”. The plan is to embed it across the iPhone, iPad and Mac, replacing the current interface with something more interactive and capable.

The update focuses on one issue, which is prompt injection. In these attacks, hidden instructions are placed inside content an AI system reads. The goal is to mislead the system into revealing sensitive data or taking actions it should not take.

Lockdown Mode is optional and built for a small group of users who face higher security risks, including executives and security teams in major organisations. Most users will not need it.

When switched on, Lockdown Mode restricts how ChatGPT interacts with external systems. It disables certain tools that attackers could exploit to extract data from conversations or connected applications.

Web browsing is limited to cached content. No live network requests leave OpenAI’s controlled network. Some features are disabled entirely where the company says it cannot guarantee data safety.

The setting is now available for ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu, ChatGPT for Healthcare and ChatGPT for Teachers. Workspace administrators can enable it by creating a new role in Workspace Settings. Once activated, it adds tighter limits on top of existing controls.

At the same time, administrators keep granular control. They decide which apps remain available in Lockdown Mode and what actions users can take within those apps. Separately, the Compliance API Logs Platform provides visibility into app usage, shared data and connected sources.

OpenAI said it plans to make Lockdown Mode available to consumer users in the coming months.

The OWASP GenAI Security Project has classified prompt injection as a top vulnerability for large language models. It noted that malicious prompts can alter AI behaviour in unintended ways, even when they appear harmless.

Google’s security team has warned about indirect prompt injections, where hidden instructions are embedded in emails or documents. An AI system may access those sources and leak sensitive data without the user knowing.

Attackers have embedded instructions inside webpages or retrieved documents, causing AI systems to carry out harmful actions. In one case involving Gemini in Google Translate’s Gemini Mode, researchers showed how translation functions could be bypassed to generate dangerous content.

Anthropic recently published findings on prompt injection failure rates. It reported that even advanced models could be breached in certain contexts. In GUI-based systems with extended reasoning enabled, attack success rates exceeded 50% after repeated attempts.

Security researchers have also identified newer forms of attack, including Logic-Layer Prompt Control Injection, which targets deeper parts of AI systems such as persistent memory and retrieval logic.

By restricting live network access and disabling high-risk tools, Lockdown Mode addresses common attack surfaces linked to prompt injection, including browsing and connected apps.

The company said the feature builds on existing safeguards such as sandboxing, monitoring, enforcement, role-based access and audit logs, while adding stricter limits.

Alongside this, OpenAI has standardised “Elevated Risk” labels across ChatGPT, ChatGPT Atlas and Codex. These labels mark features that may introduce additional risk, particularly those involving network access.

For instance, in Codex, developers can grant network access so the system can retrieve documentation or perform actions on the web.

Where that access is enabled, the interface now displays an “Elevated Risk” label explaining what changes, what risks may arise and when such access may be appropriate.

The company said it will continue to review which features carry the label. As security protections improve and risks are reduced, it plans to remove the label from features considered safe for general use.

The message, shared internally and seen by CNBC, said the company is also getting ready to release “an updated Chat model” this week. 

ChatGPT now has more than 800 million people using it every week and competition is getting tougher. 

Google’s Gemini app passed 750 million monthly users at the end of last year, while Anthropic has gained ground, especially among software developers.

The pressure is being felt most in coding tools. In his note to staff, Altman said OpenAI’s own coding product, Codex, had grown by about 50% in just one week. 

Codex goes head-to-head with Anthropic’s Claude Code, which has seen fast uptake over the past year.

OpenAI released a new version of Codex, called GPT-5.3-Codex, last week. Altman described the recent momentum as “insane” and added: “This was a great week.”

The company’s push comes after a period of concern about slowing growth. In December, OpenAI shifted staff and resources to improve ChatGPT as competitors closed in, both in growth and other areas.

Since then, the focus has been on keeping users engaged while expanding paid and business services.

OpenAI is also moving ahead with plans to show adverts inside ChatGPT for some users in the United States. The company has said the ads will be clearly marked, appear at the bottom of responses and will not affect what the chatbot says.

Behind the scenes, Altman and finance chief Sarah Friar have been briefing investors on OpenAI’s performance as the company seeks to complete a large funding round. 

CNBC has reported that discussions involve several major technology firms and could be finalised in stages. The figures and structure are still under discussion and may change.

For now, the message to ChatGPT staff was that growth in usage is here again, new products are rolling out, and OpenAI believes it has regained momentum in a crowded market.

The company wants to scale first, refine later, and lock users into an AI-driven system before competitors can meet up.

By the end of last year, around 400 million Samsung devices already carried Gemini-powered features. That figure will double as the company extends AI beyond smartphones to tablets, televisions and home appliances. 

Beyond a feature upgrade, Samsung is enhancing how its products work and how users interact with them.

“We will apply AI to all products, all functions, and all services as quickly as possible,” T M Roh said in his first interview since becoming co-CEO.

As the largest supporter of Google’s Android platform, Samsung is also giving Google a massive consumer advantage at a time when AI models are fighting for everyday relevance. 

Every Samsung Galaxy phone shipped with Gemini baked in is another front opened in Google’s move against OpenAI and others.

Global Smartphone Shipments to Fall 2.1% in 2026 as High Memory Prices Hit Low-End Devices Hard

The strategy is already visible in Samsung’s flagship devices. The Galaxy S25 series, launched in early 2025, arrived with solid Gemini integration, including side-button access that replaces Bixby in some tasks. 

Samsung wants AI to feel native, not optional. The aim is to make Gemini a default layer across the Galaxy ecosystem, not just a chatbot buried in an app.

This comes as competition in AI is growing. Google’s Gemini 3, released in November 2025, set new performance records, becoming the first model to cross the 1500 Elo threshold on reasoning benchmarks. 

It also led in maths, coding, multimodal tasks and long-context understanding. The response was quick. OpenAI launched GPT-5.2 weeks later, following reports that Sam Altman had declared an internal “code red” to enhance development.

Samsung believes consumer adoption is meeting up with the technology. Roh said internal surveys show awareness of its Galaxy AI brand has jumped from about 30% to 80% in just one year.

“Even though the AI technology might seem a bit doubtful right now, within six months to a year, these technologies will become more widespread,” he said.

On phones, search is the most used AI feature. But usage is spreading to image editing, productivity tools, translation and summaries. These are small actions, repeated daily, and that is where Samsung thinks loyalty will be built.

Still, the aggressive AI rollout is happening against a tougher market backdrop. A global shortage of memory chips is lifting prices for key components, helping Samsung’s semiconductor unit but squeezing margins in its smartphone business.

“As this situation is unprecedented, no company is immune to its impact,” Roh said.

He acknowledged that price increases may be unavoidable, calling some impact “inevitable”, even as Samsung works with partners to soften the blow over the longer term. 

Counterpoint Research revised its 2026 smartphone shipment forecast in December, predicting a 2.1% decline as higher DRAM prices increase device costs. Analysts estimate memory price hikes have added between 10% and 25% to the bill of materials across devices.

Samsung is also managing expectations around foldable phones, a category it pioneered in 2019. Growth has been slower than hoped, held back by engineering challenges and a lack of apps designed for foldable screens. 

Roh believes the format will break through within two to three years, noting that repeat purchase rates among foldable users are “very high”.

For now, Samsung is firmly in control. It held about 64% of the global foldable smartphone market in the third quarter of 2025, far ahead of Huawei and Motorola.

Apple is expected to launch its first foldable iPhone in 2026, increasing the stakes in a segment Samsung once had to itself.

Many digital tools have attracted attention, but few have moved this quickly or changed how people think about creating images.

The model first appeared in August as Nano Banana, built for speed and clean edits. By November, Nano Banana Pro followed, adding more visual accuracy and stronger understanding of real-world detail. 

That upgrade changed how people used it. What started as simple photo touch-ups turned into full creative workflows, from personal experiments to professional production.

Rather than one dominant use, Nano Banana triggered a flood of different behaviours. Some users focused on subtle edits, pushing lighting, mood and texture to extremes. 

Night scenes lit by moonlight, soft shadows, and controlled contrast became common. Others went in the opposite direction, turning ordinary photos into stylised art pieces, cartoons and watercolour-style images that looked ready for print.

One interesting pattern was that people wanted consistency. Users began creating small 3D figurines from real pets, restoring old photographs without changing faces, or placing themselves into carefully staged scenes. 

The aim was not beauty alone, but realism that holds up across multiple edits. That strength helped Nano Banana gain ground over tools that focus mainly on artistic flair.

There was also a strong pull towards storytelling. Comic strips, game boards and isometric cities appeared in large numbers. A single prompt could generate a three-panel story or a detailed underwater world. 

For many users, this removed the gap between an idea and a visual explanation. I noticed that infographics became more complex too, mixing clean design with factual structure rather than decoration.

Fashion and personal identity were not left out as well. Hairstyle tests, outfit swaps and editorial-style portraits became everyday use cases. People wanted to see believable outcomes, whether it was a new haircut or a high-fashion scene with controlled lighting and colour balance.

Seasonal content added to it. Holiday portraits, restored family photos and themed edits showed how deeply the tool entered daily life. Puppies, gifts, pyjamas and warm lighting were not about novelty but memory-making. That emotional angle helped explain why adoption spread so quickly.

Nano Banana moved beyond its original app and landed in Search, NotebookLM, Google Workspace and Vertex AI. That reach changed the audience. Developers started building with it through the Gemini API. Businesses used it for marketing visuals, infographics and brand assets. What looked like a consumer trend became a professional tool.

By the end of 2025, Nano Banana was no longer limited to image editing, ithad become a visual engine for ideas, explanation and experimentation. 

People did not just edit images anymore, they built worlds, tested identities and restored moments. That range is why Nano Banana closed the year at the top, not because it was overdoing, but because it worked where creativity met clarity.

Placing the company in direct competition with Google Chrome, the browser, now available globally on macOS, brings ChatGPT beyond its traditional chat interface and into the core of how users interact with the web. 

Atlas allows users to summarise webpages, compare products, analyse data, fill out forms, and even automate complex tasks. With its built-in “Agent Mode,” paid subscribers can delegate multi-step activities such as trip planning, online shopping, or research, all executed autonomously by ChatGPT.

In a live demo, OpenAI engineers showed ChatGPT finding an online recipe and purchasing all the required ingredients on Instacart, demonstrating the browser’s ability to handle tasks from start to finish. Versions for Windows, iOS, and Android are expected to follow soon.

Atlas is built on Chromium, the same open-source engine behind Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, ensuring full compatibility with existing websites. The browser also introduces browser memories, allowing ChatGPT to retain context from sites a user visits and use that information to provide smarter assistance later. 

Importantly, users maintain full control, they can view, archive, or delete these memories and browsing history at any time.

One early tester, college student Yogya Kalra, commended the tool’s seamless learning experience: “During lectures, I like using practice questions and real-world examples to really understand the material. 

“I used to switch between my slides and ChatGPT, taking screenshots just to ask a question. Now ChatGPT instantly understands what I’m looking at, helping me improve my knowledge checks as I go.”

According to OpenAI, Atlas is designed to create a more natural and interactive browsing experience by letting ChatGPT “come with you anywhere across the web.” The company says this integration will allow users to get work done faster, without constantly switching tabs or copying and pasting information.

Following the release, Alphabet’s shares fell by 1.8%. This reveals the market is uneasy due to the potential disruption to Google’s search advertising business. Analysts note that by embedding chat-driven search into a browser, OpenAI could eventually compete for a significant portion of Google’s ad revenue.

“Integrating chat into a browser is a precursor for OpenAI starting to sell ads, which it has yet to do so far,” said Gil Luria, analyst at D.A. Davidson. “Once OpenAI starts selling ads, that could take away a significant part of search advertising share from Google, which has around 90% of that spend category.”

Despite Chrome’s commanding 71.9% global market share, experts believe AI-native browsers like Atlas could gradually impact user behaviour, pushing the industry toward a more personalised, conversational web.

With the launch, OpenAI is leaping from being a software provider to owning part of the consumer interface. With over 800 million weekly active ChatGPT users, the company now has a massive base to build new monetisation channels, from search ads to productivity tools.

Atlas’s launch also stresses the competition between OpenAI and Google. In response to ChatGPT’s growing influence, Google has integrated its Gemini AI model into Chrome and introduced AI Overviews, blending chatbot-style summaries with traditional search results.

While Chrome still tops for now, Atlas shows browsing could become less about typing keywords, and more about having an intelligent assistant that understands, learns, and acts on behalf of the user.

Announced ahead of its flagship Dreamforce 2025 conference, set to begin on October 14, Agentforce 360 introduces new features designed to make AI agents more responsive, adaptable, and integrated into daily enterprise workflows. 

The update includes tools that allow users to build, test, and deploy AI agents with greater control and flexibility.

One of the features is Agent Script, a prompting tool that lets users instruct AI agents through conditional “if/then” logic. The tool, set for beta release in November, gives companies the ability to improve how agents respond in nuanced or unpredictable situations, such as complex customer queries. 

According to Salesforce, these agents will use “reasoning” models powered by Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google Gemini, which “think before responding” rather than relying solely on pattern-based outputs.

Another addition is Agentforce Builder, a unified workspace where users can create, test, and launch AI agents from a single interface. The platform also includes Agentforce Vibes, a customisation framework for defining the tone and “personality” of enterprise applications. Both features are expected to enter beta testing in November.

Salesforce is also expanding its integration with Slack, placing the workplace platform as a hub for enterprise intelligence. Starting this month, Salesforce’s core applications, including Sales, IT, and HR, will become accessible directly within Slack, with further expansion planned through early 2026. 

A new version of Slackbot is being piloted as well, designed to act as a personal assistant that learns user preferences and offers proactive insights and suggestions.

The company’s long-term plan is to make Slack a full-scale enterprise search and collaboration tool, connecting it with external platforms like Gmail, Outlook, and Dropbox by 2026.

Salesforce says it currently serves 12,000 Agentforce customers, including early adopters such as Lennar, Adecco, and Pearson. 

Salesforce’s innovation could be a huge one for businesses still having issues with measurable returns from their AI investments. A recent MIT study found that 95% of enterprise AI pilots fail before reaching production, emphasising the challenges companies face in scaling these technologies effectively.

Competitors are also moving quickly. Google recently launched Gemini Enterprise, with clients like Figma and Klarna, while Anthropic secured a major deal with Deloitte to roll out its Claude Enterprise chatbot to 500,000 employees and later announced a partnership with IBM. Unveiling Agentforce 360 just before Dreamforce, Salesforce aims to showcase incremental updates, but has a bigger vision for how enterprise AI should function, integrated, adaptable, and built for long-term scalability.

The agreement is similar to OpenAI’s move, which recently made its ChatGPT Enterprise product available to participating agencies under the same pricing model.

The offer extends to the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government. While there is no requirement for agencies to adopt Claude, the deal opens the door for lawmakers, judges and federal workers to integrate the chatbot into day-to-day operations for sensitive but unclassified tasks.

“America’s AI leadership requires that our government institutions have access to the most capable, secure AI tools available,” said Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei. “By offering expanded Claude access across all three branches of government, we’re helping the federal workforce leverage frontier AI capabilities.”

The GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service commissioner, Josh Gruenbaum, said affordability would speed adoption. “The price is going to help uptake from agencies happen that much quicker,” he noted.

Claude has already been deployed in select agencies, including the Department of Defense, and is approved under the FedRAMP High security standard. The government recently added Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Google’s Gemini to its Multiple Award Schedule, making them official suppliers for AI procurement.

Tech giants see little direct profit from such low-cost agreements. However, they gain valuable insight into how AI is applied in high-value government use cases, intelligence that could change future enterprise products or renewals once the current deals expire.

Discussions are ongoing with other providers, including Meta’s Llama, Elon Musk’s xAI’s Grok, and smaller niche AI platforms. Google is also reportedly negotiating a similar offer for its Gemini chatbot.

The approval process comes against a political backdrop. The White House has pledged to block AI systems found to have “partisan bias or ideological agendas” from doing business with the federal government. 

Critics of existing models, including some of former President Donald Trump’s allies, have claimed that tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini lean towards liberal viewpoints.

Government officials have stressed that approval for procurement does not indicate preference for any particular platform and that all approved models remain subject to ongoing bias reviews.