1. OpenAI is expected to air a SuperBowl ad for the second year. This artificial-intelligence company is to broadcast a 60-second commercial during NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl LX. The ad is the latest component of OpenAI's expensive marketing offensive, which began last year with its inaugural Super Bowl commercial. Regarding the fact that some advertisers are paying more than $8 million for just 30 seconds of airtime during this year's Super Bowl, the amount of OpenAI's expense cannot be learned.
OpenAI has recently encountered significant competitive pressure, as Google's latest Gemini model outperformed OpenAI's ChatGPT on several key industry benchmarks. This prompted OpenAI to quickly launch a more powerful version of ChatGPT and narrow the performance gap. OpenAI's big game ad might have positioned ChatGPT as the next significant artificial intelligence by framing the technology as an everyday tool.
2. The U.S. will put a 25% tariff on any country in a business relationship with Iran, President Trump said on Monday. Trump's Truth Social on Monday stated, "Effective immediately, any country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America".
On Sunday, Iran's parliamentary speaker threatened to attack American military bases in the Middle East if the U.S. acted first. Trump, speaking Sunday, said he had been reviewing military options to strike Iran after the regime was actually starting to cross the line of not killing protestors.
Trump called the order "final and conclusive"; however did not detail the legal details of the tariff execution and no further actions or posts were on the White House website. The president is slated to meet with senior officials Tuesday on the subject, and the White House declined to mention further on the subject.
It remains unclear whether the 25% tariff would be added to existing duties paid by Iran's economic partners. Iran's top trading partner is China, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, followed by Turkey, India, Pakistan and Armenia. Russia had also signed a free-trade agreement the previous year, according to Russia's news agency TASS.
Increasing tariffs on China could derail a fragile trade truce that Trump and Xi Jinping made at APEC last October, which could affect the meeting between the two leaders this spring. This could also derail ongoing talks with India, who already is paying 50% tariffs for purchasing sanctioned Russian Oil.
Trump is scheduled to be briefed on Tuesday on options to respond to the protests in Iran, according to U.S. officials.