This Week’s Top Five Stories in Technology
OpenAI’s Super App and the Next Wave of AI-Native Shopping
Ever since the surge of generative AI – propelled by the viral adoption of OpenAI’s ChatGPT – users have relied on a patchwork of tools for domain-specific tasks, from agentic coding workflows to everyday writing.
That fragmented landscape may soon converge.
OpenAI is preparing a desktop “super app” that consolidates its flagship tools – ChatGPT, Codex and the Atlas web browser – into a single experience designed to streamline workflows and sharpen focus.
The move comes as competition intensifies.
Anthropic’s Claude recently surpassed ChatGPT atop Apple’s App Store download charts, underscoring the urgency for differentiation and polish.
At the same time, OpenAI is investing in ways to make ChatGPT more useful in day-to-day tasks like product discovery, pushing further into AI-native commerce.
White House App: A New Era of Direct-to-Citizen GovTech
The modern executive branch is increasingly moving toward a direct-to-citizen digital model.
By deploying a dedicated mobile platform, the White House bypasses traditional media intermediaries, describing the shift as delivering “President Donald J. Trump and his Administration directly to the American people like never before”.
This strategy treats the executive office as a primary content provider, utilising a proprietary stack to maintain a persistent connection with its user base.
What is Major League Baseball's New ABS Challenging System?
Screaming matches with the umpire is a nuisance of the past at Major League Baseball, as it steps firmly into the future with the launch of its Automated Balls and Strikes (ABS) Challenge System.
This landmark rule change debuted on the Opening Day of the 2026 season. The move marks one of the most significant technological shifts in the sport’s modern era, blending human officiating with precision tracking.
As T-Mobile puts it: “A call is challenged. The decision has to show up in seconds – live, for the entire stadium.”
The ABS Challenge System runs on a 5G private network from T-Mobile for Business’ Advanced Network Solutions and will be used across Spring Training, the regular season and the postseason.
How Insilico and Lilly Are Automating the Drug R&D Stack
The pharmaceutical industry is transitioning toward an automated, data-first R&D model by merging Gen AI with traditional drug development.
Insilico Medicine, a biotechnology company powered by Gen AI and automation, is working with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly to accelerate the discovery and development of novel therapeutics across multiple therapeutic areas.
The companies will work together towards a software-defined pipeline.
Pharma.AI is an end-to-end suite designed to automate the entire process of making a drug, from picking the right biological target to predicting if the drug will actually work in humans. It aims to replace years of trial-and-error with high-speed AI simulations.
For example, the PandaOmics platform scans biological data to find the specific “broken” protein or gene (the target) that is causing a disease.
Once the target is found, Insilico’s Chemistry42 “imagines” and designs new molecules from scratch that can attach to and fix that target.
Meanwhile, the inClinco analyses data from previous clinical trials to predict the probability of a new drug succeeding in human testing, helping researchers avoid expensive failures.
UK Regulator Targets Microsoft with AI Cloud Licensing Probe
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), responsible for overseeing the digital markets competition regime for the most powerful digital firms, will launch a strategic market status (SMS) investigation into Microsoft’s business software ecosystem, beginning in May.
The investigation will look into Microsoft’s use of software licensing – including across Windows, Word, Excel, Teams and Copilot – and how it is reducing cloud competition. The aim is to provide “a level playing field among [cloud] providers at a critical moment, as A-driven innovation reshapes competition in productivity software”, according to the UK Government’s press release on the matter.
Microsoft and Amazon, which the CMA’s 2025 Cloud Services Market Investigation found to be the largest cloud providers in the UK alongside Google, have set out actions on cloud egress fees and interoperability to support greater choice for businesses and public sector organisations in the UK. These changes should lower the cost and effort required for UK customers using more than one cloud provider.
