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President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima will henceforth pay the required fees at tollgates whenever they use the nation’s airports.

The Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, who disclosed this on Tuesday, May 14, said this became mandatory after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, approved that there should be no more exemption granted to users of the airports from paying tollgate fees.

Keyamo had earlier presented a memorandum where he argued that the government was losing over 82% of the revenue it should have earned from the e-tags that provide access to the tollgates.

He explained that the memoranda had initially prescribed an exemption for only the president and the vice president before Tinubu overruled and directed that both of them should be included among those who must pay.

Briefing journalists after the FEC meeting, Keyamo regretted that Very Important Persons (VIPs) with money who should pay are those who have not been paying, noting that only poor people had been charged for using the tollgates.

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Apple (AAPL) is reportedly nearing a deal with OpenAI that would bring artificial intelligence (AI) tech to the next iPhone, strengthening its position amid the AI boom and potentially increasing competition among big tech players such as Alphabet (GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT).

Under the partnership, Apple would integrate the ChatGPT maker's AI tech into Apple's next iPhone, according to . The partnership could help Apple establish itself as a major benefactor of the AI era while expanding OpenAI's reach.

Wedbush analysts led by Dan Ives said they expect the partnership will affect iOS 18 and the upcoming iPhone 16 expected in September.

The partnership "will consist of an OpenAI Chatbot with exclusive features" that build upon "on-device Apple LLMs" and "cloud-powered Apple LLMs" alongside "Apple powering AI on its own high end chips," the analysts wrote.

CFRA analysts noted that "most importantly" the OpenAI deal could catalyze "a slew of new revenue streams," including increased iPhone 16 sales, subscriptions, licensing revenue, new apps, and higher advertising revenue. They wrote the "partnership would significantly boost AAPL's AI capabilities, injecting excitement across its hardware, software, and services portfolio."

The news comes shortly after Apple unveiled an iPad Pro powered by its new AI-capable M4 chip, last week, marking a key milestone in Apple's push into AI. Before the iPad announcement, the iPhone maker had been quiet about its AI initiatives unlike many of its big tech peers though the company has indicated it views the emerging tech as a source of major opportunity.

Analysts said that the partnership could be the beginning of a major Siri upgrade.

Wedbush analysts said they anticipate Apple will "build out a next level Siri technology with OpenAI that can do complex tasks for Apple users and more advanced features that will eventually be a separate monthly subscription service along with other AI features."

They noted they don't expect Apple to make an official announcement at its annual developers conference set for June 10.

CFRA analysts said that "Siri is poised to get its biggest-ever upgrade and could be marketed as potentially being the best personal assistant to consumers."

The reports come as OpenAI announced its latest AI model, GPT-4o, at an event on Monday where the company showcased ChatGPT powered by GPT-4o's voice capabilities.

The report from also indicated that the iPhone maker has been in talks with Alphabet's Google about a similar deal to use its AI model, Gemini, but has not reached an agreement.

Wedbush analysts said that they expect an Apple and OpenAI deal would be exclusive, but CFRA said it might be too early to tell.

Alphabet shares fell following the release of the report, but CFRA analyst Angelo Zino told Investopedia that the sell-off "could be premature as an OpenAI/AAPL partnership doesn’t necessarily mean that AAPL won’t strike a separate partnership with GOOGL (Gemini) for different AI capabilities tied to search."

He did underline that "it does create more long-term risk to that search business if AAPL’s ties with OpenAI/Microsoft get stronger."

Microsoft has established itself as an early leader in the AI boom with its partnership with OpenAI through multi-billion dollar investments.

While Microsoft is positioned to share some of OpenAI's gains, the deal could have minimal impact on the company beyond relationship building with Apple.

It's "not a huge deal for MSFT at the moment," Zino told Investopedia, though he noted that depending on the outcome of the ongoing Department of Justice (DOJ) case against Google, Microsoft could become a better cloud option for Apple, which faces its own DOJ case.

Wedbush analysts said the partnership may benefit Microsoft, writing that the "OpenAI chatbox embedded in iPhone 16 will also open up avenues of growth and the all-important developers to flock to the Apple ecosystem along with the Microsoft developer ecosystem in tow."

"It changes the game having a tight partnership with OpenAI and for Microsoft/OpenAI" as it's a "smart strategic move to tie themselves in with the biggest consumer installed base in the world looking forward," the analysts said.

Apple, OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft did not immediately respond to Investopedia's requests for comment.

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Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI unveiled its most capable artificial intelligence (AI) model yet, GPT-4o, as well as a ChatGPT desktop app and upgrades to ChatGPT's voice and video capabilities at an event on Monday. The new model is available to paid and free users alike, with some features rolling out Monday while others are set to roll out in the next few weeks.

The announcement comes amid reports that OpenAI is near closing a deal with Apple (AAPL) to integrate its tech into the iPhone, and ahead of the likely AI-focused Google I/O developer conference on Tuesday.

OpenAI's latest model GPT-4o "brings GPT-4 level intelligence to everyone, including our free users," OpenAI Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mira Murati said at the presentation.

GPT-4o is Open AI's "best model ever" and "is available to all ChatGPT users, including on the free plan," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, adding that "this is important to our mission; we want to put great AI tools in the hands of everyone."

The new model is twice as fast, 50% cheaper, has five times higher rate limits compared to GPT-4 Turbo, and supports more than 50 languages, OpenAI said. GPT-4o is to power OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot, as well as application programming interface (API), which allows developers to use OpenAI's models.

OpenAI is beginning the GPT-4o rollout to ChatGPT Plus and Team users, with enterprise user availability "coming soon." The company said it is "also starting to roll out to ChatGPT Free with usage limits" on Monday.

The new model is also set to bring improved voice and video features in the next few weeks, OpenAI said.

During the presentation, OpenAI demonstrated ChatGPT's abilities to detect emotion through voice and video, translate in real-time, and assist with coding. Users can also interrupt ChatGPT when making requests to simulate a more natural conversation.

The voice features of ChatGPT could raise competition with other voice assistants like Apple's Siri, Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google, and Amazon's (AMZN) Alexa, among others.

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Police operatives in Plateau State have arrested a 17-year-old boy, identified simply as Michael, for storming a banking hall with b%mb in Jos area of the state.

It was gathered that the incident occurred in Dadin Kowa town on Monday, May 13, 2024.

According to reports online, the suspect approached a cashier and demanded the sum of N100 million or he will detonate the b%mb.

Unfortunately for him, an alarm was raised, and he was subsequently arrested.

In a video obtained, the suspect claimed he was forced into doing it, however, he didn’t say who forced him.

NB: We can’t post the FULL video due to IG community guidelines. However, you can click the link in our bio to watch the video.

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A Nigeria man of foreign descent has shared a receipt of his friend’s electricity bill for the month of April that accrued to over N47 million.

Recall that few months ago, he came online to lament about the new hike in electricity tariffs, as he revealed that his friend was paying over 14 million monthly before the tariff was increased.

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Americans feel the outlook for household finances in the year ahead is getting gloomier. 

Consumers expected steeper price increases and lower income growth over the coming year in April than they did in March, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released Monday. One-year inflation expectations rose to 3.3% from 3%, reaching the highest since November, while earnings growth expectations fell to 2.7% from 2.8%. 

A separate survey released last week by the University of Michigan also showed inflation expectations increasing. 

Short-term inflation expectations have soured at the same time that actual inflation numbers have proven worse than expected.

Economists and officials closely watch consumer expectations about inflation because they’re thought to be something of a self-fulfilling prophecy—if people believe inflation is getting worse, they might behave in ways that worsen inflation. For example, they could make big purchases sooner than they otherwise would, to avoid future price increases, which would push up demand for products and businesses would then respond by raising prices. 

Monday’s survey came ahead of an official inflation report Wednesday, which financial markets and officials at the Federal Reserve are watching closely for signs about how well the Fed’s battle against inflation is going.

Forecasters expect that report to show the cost of living as measured by the Consumer Price Index rose stubbornly fast in April, reinforcing the idea that the Fed will have to keep interest rates higher for longer than previously believed in order to bring it down to a 2% annual rate. 

Within the New York Fed survey, consumers predicted higher price increases for houses, medical care, education, food, gas, and rent than they did in March.

Home price growth expectations rose to 3.3% from 3%, reaching the highest since July 2022. Home prices have risen to record highs in recent months as high mortgage rates have prevented many homeowners from selling, keeping inventories low and competition high.At the same time, the labor market has cooled off, with employers pulling back on job openings and wage increases, official data shows.While short-term expectations rose, the outlook for the medium term was more subdued, with expectations for the inflation rate three years from now falling to 2.8% from 2.9%, according to the New York Fed survey.

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