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In a few short days, jury selection will begin in the long-awaited Musk v. Altman case. At the end of that process, an Oakland federal court will task nine regular people with deciding if OpenAI defrauded Elon Musk when it announced, and recently completed, its reorganization to become a more traditional for-profit business. More than just being the venue where two billionaires will air their grievances against one another in public, the trial has the potential to reshape the AI industry.
How did we get here?Musk first sued OpenAI in 2024, but the seed of the dispute was planted when Sam Altman emailed the billionaire on the evening of May 25, 2015. "Been thinking a lot about whether it's possible to stop humanity from developing AI. I think the answer is most definitely not," Altman wrote at the time. "If it's going to happen anyway, it seems like it would be good for someone other than Google to do it first. Any thoughts on whether it would be good for [Y Combinator] to start a Manhattan Project for AI?"
"Probably worth a conversation," Musk responded a couple of hours later. That same year, OpenAI announced itself to the world, with Altman and Musk as co-chairs of the new joint venture. "OpenAI is a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company. Our goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is mostly likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return. Si
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Cell phone plans can get exceedingly complicated, so Comcast's pitch for Xfinity Mobile's simplicity is rather appealing — particularly at a time when everything is more expensive than ever. Today, the company is announcing two simple plans priced at $30 and $45 a month that have some serious perks for their prices.
The $30 Mobile Select plan covers the main basics, including 50GB of "premium" full-speed data; Global Travel Pass to cover yourself when traveling in 215 different countries; and Xfinity's Wi-Fi PowerBoost. That latter feature takes advantage of Xfinity's wide network of Wi-Fi hotspots around the country. Your phone will automatically connect to those when you're out and about, and you'll get priority speeds of up to 1 gigabit on those networks as well as at home.
The $45 Mobile Plus plan adds some pretty significant perks. For starters, you'll get unlimited premium data and 4K video streaming (the Select plan limits you to 720p). But more significantly, the Plus plan promises device upgrades at literally any time. At this point, most carriers offer ways to upgrade before the typical three-year device payment plan is up, but as someone who did that late last year, I can confirm that the constantly changing promotions around phone upgrades make it hard to know exactly what you'll be eligible for.
Comcast, however, says that Mobile Plus subscribers can literally upgrade their phone at any time. I asked how it would work if I was crazy enough to switch to a Galaxy S26 six months after getting an iPhone 17 Pro, and they said it would be no issue, regardless of how much I had beat up my iPhone. I'm trying to figure out if there's a catch, but the company's representatives were very adamant about "anytime upgrades" being as uncomplicated as they said.
Similarly, the Plus plan also includes lifetime device protection, another thing that most carriers charge separately for. This extends to any connected device on your plan like sma
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If Windows 11 is on the table for you, today is your lucky day because you can get Windows 11 licenses for super cheap on the PCWorld Software Store right now. Seriously, both Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro are currently priced at $14.97 each. That's down from $139 (89% off) and $199 (92% off), respectively. Huge savings!
Casual users who don't need all the fancy features of the Pro version can get away with Windows 11 Home, although given that they're on sale for the same price, you might consider getting Windows 11 Pro for the heck of it. Windows 11 Pro unlocks advanced features like BitLocker encryption, Remote Desktop Server, Hyper-V virtualization, and Windows Sandbox. (See our breakdown of Windows 11 Pro versus Home.)
Get Windows 11 for up to 92% off right nowBuy now via PCWorld Software Store
How to activate your Windows 11 license
After you've made your order, you'll have to check your email inbox for the license key. Once you have that and your chosen Windows 11 copy is installed, here's how to activate t
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What's not a given is paying full retail price. Yep, you can snag discounts on Windows 11. How much you'll save depends on your circumstances (and your stomach for hassle), but if you're lucky, you could technically get it for free. Legitimately for free, since installing Windows without ever activating it doesn't count as a full, sanctioned copy of the software. (Ahem.)
Here's how, in several different ways. These strategies often apply for Windows 10 licenses too, but that operating system got the axe on October 14. Your better bet will be Windows 11, as it'll get feature updates.
Simple upgrade: Trade up from Windows 10 to Windows 11
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