OpenAI Plots $20k AI Agents And Apple Delays Apple Intelligence Siri Features, Amid AI Woes

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Over the last couple of days, the artificial intelligence (AI) world has once again drawn the majority of the news headlines along with people’s interest online, this time for a new AI model called Manus.

In a feeling reminiscent of the DeepSeek craze, the new Manus model also comes out of China. However, unlike DeepSeek, Manus is not open-source—even though it’s believed to be developed using open-source software. Yet, it didn’t take developers long to develop an open-source alternative called OpenManus (available on GitHub).

Manus is described as a general-purpose AI agent, one that can deliver complete results in real-time by browsing websites, generating multiple data types, and using multiple tools to deliver results. Currently, the model is available through “invite only.”

Just like DeepSeek’s initial trend, Manus will also be scrutinized to ascertain if it’s really “the next thing” in the world of AI. However, without being open source, it may find difficulty becoming the most-used product, as the industry has gone gaga over free-to-use tools—something Meta’s AI Meta AI is big on.

For the company’s CEO, open source is the way forward.

However, not everyone sees it that way. For ChatGPT maker OpenAI, it’s all about money. Soon after the company flipped its stance and opted to become a for-profit outfit, it raised $6.6 billion in funding at a $157 billion valuation, despite reports of incurring $5 billion in losses.

Since then, it’s expanded into robotics, revealed new features and products, and even took center stage in the $500 billion AI project Stargate.

Now, as per reports, the company is coming for more gold coins.

OpenAI plans to launch a wide range of specialized AI agents tailored for different applications and charge businesses to use them. The pricing ranges from $2,000 per month for high-income knowledge worker” agents, to $10,000 per month for software development, to $20,000 per month for an agent capable of “PhD-level research.” The report follows a commitment made by OpenAI investor SoftBank to spend $3 billion on OpenAI’s agent products in 2025.

Perhaps the move comes as the AI company looks to cover its losses.

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It took Apple a long time to catch up to the AI trend, remaining far behind its competitors. The company finally launched its AI platform—Apple Intelligence—in September 2024, to quite unimpressed consumers.

Of course, the company isn’t going to back away from the challenge of integrating AI into its portfolio of products. However, it will be delaying this operation, especially in its Siri offering.

Originally expected to be released in its iOS 18 update, Apple will be pushing the launch of some features that would see a more personalized ‌Siri‌ experience. Instead, these updates will be rolled out “in the coming year.” The features were expected to bring personal context, onscreen awareness, and improved app integration.

As per a statement from Apple spokeswoman Jacqueline Roy (Senior Director, Communications), “Siri helps our users find what they need and get things done quickly, and in just the past six months, we’ve made Siri more conversational, introduced new features like type to Siri and product knowledge, and added an integration with ChatGPT.”

“We’ve also been working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.”

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All this comes as the AI sector is under the microscope once again, this time for questionable outputs, immoral usage, and denigrating human potential.

Hugging Face’s co-founder and Chief Science Officer Thomas Wolf believes AI systems are becoming “yes-men on servers.” Through a lengthy post published on X, Wolf conveyed that the dream of having AI creating a “country of Einsteins sitting in a data center” as elaborated in Dario's “Machine of Loving Grace” paper, will remain a dream unless developers change their models.

“To create an Einstein in a data center, we don't just need a system that knows all the answers, but rather one that can ask questions nobody else has thought of or dared to ask,” reads the post. “One that writes 'What if everyone is wrong about this?' when all textbooks, experts, and common knowledge suggest otherwise.”

While some hold a positive outlook on AI’s capabilities, others are directly and severely affected by its negative side.

As Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) look to cut unnecessary government spending and inefficient workers, it’s also replacing laid-off employees with AI chatbots. Reportedly, workers at the U.S. General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate and oversees most government contracts, were provided access to a proprietary chatbot called GSAi, which is expected to help them with general tasks.

While the chatbot was said to come with capabilities where “the options are endless,” its list of capable tasks ended rather quickly, allowing users to “draft emails, create talking points, summarize text, write code.”

Ahead of this, the U.S. State Department is planning to use AI to scan news reports and social media accounts of students in the country on visas, and deport pro-Palestinian and Hamas sympathies, using a program called “Catch and Revoke.”

In a more direct manner, a new report finds that Russian propaganda might be influencing answers generated by AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Meta’s Meta AI. As such, the Moscow-based network “Pravda” is intentionally publishing false content and flooding search results to affect the responses of AI models.

At the same time, Match Group, the developer behind numerous dating applications such as Tinder and Hinge, will be rolling out AI bots that will help users write messages, pick photos, receive relationship coaching, and more. Sounds harmless, right?

Well, experts believe this move might remove what little authenticity remains on dating platforms, leading to people seeming excessively confident online but unable to measure up to their AI-inflated online personas in real life. They also believe it could lead to depleting trust in the apps themselves. As such, the University of Leeds’ Dr. Luke Brunning is coordinating an open letter calling for regulations on AI on dating apps.

“The main risk of hasty adoption of gen-AI, is that without adequate guardrails and education in place, it may degrade an already precarious online environment,” reads the letter.

“Misrepresentation and deception are rife online, and use of gen-AI risks worsening this to the detriment of dating app users who value authentic intimacy.”

What do you think about these AI developments?

Let us know in the comments below!

First published on Mon, Mar 10, 2025

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