Good morning. It’s Tuesday, April 15. Today we are covering:
OpenAI's new GPT-4.1 AI models focus on coding
Apple to Analyze User Data on Devices to Bolster AI Technology
Zuckerberg testifies as FTC, Meta trade opening salvos in antitrust trial
Top Trump official tells Europe to choose between US or Chinese communications tech
Google rolling out auto-restart security feature to Android
Let’s dive in
OpenAI's new GPT-4.1 AI models focus on coding
By Kyle Wiggers via TechCrunch
OpenAI has launched the GPT-4.1 family—including 4.1, 4.1 mini, and 4.1 nano—optimized for coding and instruction following, with up to 1 million tokens of context and significant improvements in structure, formatting, and real-world development tasks.
The models are positioned to compete with Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro and Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet, though GPT-4.1 trails slightly in coding benchmarks like SWE-bench Verified, while excelling in video understanding and offering tiered pricing for different performance needs.
Despite improvements, OpenAI admits limitations: performance drops at max token input, increased literalness requiring precise prompting, and ongoing challenges common to AI coders—like introducing bugs or security issues in generated code.
𝕏: how about we fix our model naming by this summer and everyone gets a few more months to make fun of us (which we very much deserve) until then? - Sam Altman (@sama)
Apple to Analyze User Data on Devices to Bolster AI Technology
By Mark Gurman via Bloomberg
Apple will begin analyzing data directly on users’ devices to enhance its AI capabilities, aiming to improve performance while maintaining user privacy.
The company currently uses synthetic data for AI training, but it often lacks the nuance of real-world input, limiting its effectiveness.
This on-device approach is part of Apple's broader strategy to catch up with rivals like OpenAI and Google in the AI race without compromising its privacy-first reputation.
𝕏: NEW: Apple's plan for fixing Apple Intelligence -- it'll begin comparing on-device user data to synthetic data it uses for AI model training. That way it'll know which of its fake data approaches real-world inputs, so it can fine-tune training. - Mark Gurman (@markgurman)
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Zuckerberg testifies as FTC, Meta trade opening salvos in antitrust trial
By Brendan Bordelon via POLITICO
Mark Zuckerberg testified as the FTC's antitrust trial against Meta began, with the government arguing Meta’s purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp were aimed at eliminating competition.
The FTC seeks to break up Meta, claiming the acquisitions reduced privacy and increased ads, while Meta argues the government is narrowly defining the social media market and ignoring competitors like TikTok and YouTube.
Judge James Boasberg, who previously dismissed the FTC's case, will decide the outcome; meanwhile, Meta’s ties to President Trump, who recently gained greater control over the FTC, raise concerns about political influence.
𝕏: It's time to downsize Mark Zuckerberg, and break up Meta. - Emerald Robinson (@EmeraldRobinson)
Top Trump official tells Europe to choose between US or Chinese communications tech
By Peggy Hollinger via Financial Times
FCC Chair Brendan Carr urged European allies to choose between U.S. and Chinese communications tech, warning against hesitation over adopting Elon Musk’s Starlink and citing the broader threat of the Chinese Communist Party.
Carr accused the European Commission of “protectionism” and an “anti-American” bias, while defending Starlink’s reliability despite geopolitical concerns and past service suspensions in Ukraine.
He encouraged Ericsson and Nokia to shift more manufacturing to the U.S. to mitigate potential Trump-era import tariffs, signaling possible regulatory incentives for companies investing in American production.
𝕏: Trump's FCC chief: "Europe is caught a little bit between the US and China. And it’s sort of time for choosing" Quite a serious mis-reading of the mood & misjudgment of the message. - Shashank Joshi (@shashj)
Google rolling out auto-restart security feature to Android
By Abner Li via 9to5Google
Android is introducing a new auto-restart security feature via Google Play services 25.14, which reboots devices that have been locked for 3 consecutive days to enhance data protection.
This restart puts the device into a Before First Unlock (BFU) state, where data is fully encrypted and inaccessible without a passcode, improving defense against unauthorized access.
The feature will roll out over the coming weeks to most Android phones and tablets, without requiring a full OS update, though TVs, Wearables, Auto, and PC devices are excluded.
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