Technologies

Should You Upgrade to the iPhone 14? Not So Fast

You may want to think twice before upgrading to the iPhone 14 right now.

You might be eyeballing the iPhone 14 lineup — especially the Pro, which introduces a sharper camera and an always-on display. But if you don’t absolutely need a new phone right now, you’re better off waiting.

Apple usually announces new iPhones in September, which means the rumored iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro could be right around the corner. Those phones are expected to come with USB-C charging for the first time among other notable changes, such as solid state buttons on the Pro models. Apple sometimes discounts older iPhones after introducing new ones, as it did with the iPhone 13 lineup last year and may do the same with the iPhone 14 this year. So whether you care about having the newest iPhone or not, it’s probably in your best interest to wait a little while longer.

Purchasing decisions will always vary depending on budget, how well your phone works right now and your personal needs, so there’s no simple answer that works for everyone. But if you’re in need of a new phone right away and can’t wait, here are the biggest differences between the iPhone 14 lineup and previous iPhone generations to help you make a decision.

What’s new in the iPhone 14

The $799 (£849, AU$1,399) iPhone 14 brought modest improvements but not game-changing ones. Those changes include nitty-gritty camera improvements and the support for satellite-based emergency messaging.

The iPhone 14 also has a new internal design, with simpler access to internal components, making it easier to repair than previous models. iFixit, a website that disassembles tech products and assesses how easy they are to fix, called it “the most repairable iPhone in years.” And if you want these features in a larger size, the iPhone 14 Plus starts at $100 more, at $899.

Apple saved its most interesting new features for the Pro lineup, including the Dynamic Island that replaces the notch, the new A16 Bionic processor and a 48-megapixel main camera sensor.

Apple’s Newest Releases

iPhone 14 vs. iPhone 13, 13 Pro, 13 Pro Max

The iPhone 14 lineup introduced new features such as car-crash detection, the removal of the physical SIM card for US phones, and enhanced cameras on the rear and front. Despite those changes, iPhone 14 isn’t different enough to justify upgrading from the iPhone 13. And even though Apple finally got rid of the infamous notch in the Pro models, the 14 and 14 Plus still have one — it’s the same smaller notch that debuted on the iPhone 13 series. In fact, the iPhone 14 represents “one of the most minimal year-over-year upgrades in Apple’s history,” according to CNET’s Patrick Holland, who reviewed Apple’s latest phones.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus have the A15 Bionic chip from iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. The 14’s screen looks exactly like the one on the 13. Perhaps the most prominent change was the introduction of a larger version of the iPhone 14 called the iPhone 14 Plus, which has a 6.7-inch screen like the Pro Max. That means you no longer have to splurge on Apple’s most expensive iPhone if you want the largest screen possible.

Of course, the iPhone 14 is still highly rated, but we recommend skipping this upgrade. If you need a new iPhone and can’t wait for the iPhone 15, we suggest going for an iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max if you can afford it. These phones are expensive, but provide access to some salient changes — namely a high-refresh rate display, Apple’s new Dynamic Island multitasking bar, an always-on display as well as better cameras among other features.

The bottom line: If you have an iPhone 13 or 13 Pro, don’t upgrade to the iPhone 14. But if you are determined to get a new phone, go for the iPhone 14 Pro or 14 Pro Max, especially if you must have the Dynamic Island right now.

iPhone 14 vs. iPhone 12, 12 Pro

Even though the iPhone 12 lineup was released in 2020, it still shares many similarities with Apple’s latest phones. Both the iPhone 12 and iPhone 14 support 5G, run on fast processors, offer great cameras and include MagSafe accessory compatibility.

Since the iPhone 14 is more of a refresh than a major upgrade, we recommend hanging onto your iPhone 12 if it’s still in good condition and waiting for the iPhone 15. You can still take advantage of the iPhone’s latest software when iOS 17 comes out in the fall, bringing new features like Standby mode for turning your phone into a mini smart display and improvements to the messaging app among other additions.

The iPhone 14 received a few notable camera upgrades, like a larger sensor, a new lens with a faster aperture, improved photo processing and Action Mode which makes the movements in videos look smoother when you record them.

But the iPhone 12’s cameras remain excellent even though they are almost 3 years old. The iPhone 12 has a 12-megapixel dual camera system, while the iPhone 12 Pro includes a third camera with a telephoto lens. Check out our iPhone 12 review to see how the cameras held up when CNET put them through the paces.

It’s worth remembering that you get more noticeable upgrades with the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. These include everything that’s new in the 14, as well as an upgraded main camera with a larger 48-megapixel sensor, an ultrawide camera that allows you to take Macro photos and a third camera with a telephoto lens. If you can get a good trade-in deal that significantly knocks down the iPhone 14 Pro’s price, upgrading from the regular iPhone 12 is a decent step-up.

The bottom line: You should wait for the iPhone 15 since the iPhone 14 isn’t dramatically different. However, the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max bring more significant changes that could be worthwhile if you can snag a good trade-in deal.

Read more: All The “New” iPhone Features That Have Been on Android For Years

iPhone 14 vs. iPhone 11, 11 Pro

If you’re using an iPhone 11, we recommend upgrading. Since Apple’s new iPhones may be right around the corner, you should still wait a little longer if you can. But if you do need a new phone right now and can get the iPhone 14 at a solid trade-in discount, there are plenty of improvements to look forward to.

In the last three or so years, Apple has made enough changes to features including battery life, performance, screen quality, cameras and durability to merit buying a new iPhone.

Upgrading to the iPhone 14 will get you 5G support, more storage (128GB at the base level versus 64GB) a better main camera with a wider aperture lens, new video shooting options like Action mode and Cinematic mode, a better selfie camera with Night mode and Apple’s Photonic Engine processing, compatibility with Apple’s MagSafe accessories, longer battery life and faster performance. That’s in addition to car-crash detection and Apple’s new emergency satellite messaging feature.

Most of the photography and videography improvements are dramatic changes compared to the iPhone 11. And the longer battery life and additional storage space are welcomed upgrades that you’ll notice on a daily basis.

As previously mentioned, if you go for the 14 Pro instead, you get a new 48-megapixel main camera, a closer 3x optical zoom versus the 11 Pro Max’s 2x zoom, the Dynamic Island instead of the notch and numerous other upgrades like an always-on display.

The bottom line: The iPhone 14 lineup includes enough changes to justify upgrading from the iPhone 11. But if your phone is still in good condition and you’re satisfied with it, wait a little while longer for the iPhone 15 (or a newly discounted iPhone 14).

iPhone 14 vs. iPhone XS, XS Max, XR

If you bought the iPhone XS, XS Max or XR at launch, that means your phone is almost 5 years old and is probably starting to feel sluggish. That alone makes a strong case for upgrading, but you should probably still wait for the iPhone 15 if you can.

However, if you need a new phone right now, there’s plenty to gain from upgrading. Compared to the iPhone XS, the iPhone 14 provides six hours of additional battery life (according to Apple’s estimates). In addition to everything that’s new in the iPhone 14 specifically, you’ll also get other upgrades Apple has added to the iPhone over the past few years.

Those include 5G support, more storage (again, you get 128GB versus 64GB), faster performance and a better camera. The iPhone XS generation lacks Night mode for taking clearer pictures in the dark, and it also doesn’t have Deep Fusion, which is Apple’s name for its image processing technique that improves detail and clarity in darker environments. The XS’s front camera has a lower 7-megapixel resolution compared to the larger and newer 12-megapixel sensor on the iPhone 14. If you’re upgrading from an iPhone XR, you’ll also get an additional camera with an ultrawide lens for taking broader group shots for the first time.

The iPhone 14 also has a larger 6.1-inch screen compared to the iPhone XS’ 5.8-inch display (the iPhone XS Max has a 6.5-inch screen, while the XR’s screen is also 6.1 inches). The design has also changed quite a bit over the past four years; newer models have flat edges, a slightly smaller notch, different finishes and a new “squircle”-shaped camera module that replaces the pill-shaped rear camera cutout. So your phone will not only feel more modern, but it’ll look newer, too.

The bottom line: If you have an iPhone XS, XS Max or XR, it’s definitely worth upgrading. You get a noticeable boost in camera quality, battery life and performance among other areas. But again, remember that the iPhone 15 and a newly discounted iPhone 14 may be arriving in just a few weeks.

iPhone 14 vs. iPhone X

The iPhone X is almost 6 years old, which means it probably feels slow and its battery life isn’t what it used to be. With an iPhone 14, you’ll notice a major upgrade in both categories, as well as design, improved durability, connectivity and camera quality. But if you’re in a position to do so, you should wait and see what the expected iPhone 15 has to offer.

If you can’t wait until September, which is when Apple typically releases new iPhones, here’s what you’ll get by upgrading to the iPhone 14. The iPhone X runs on a much older A11 Bionic chip that’s now roughly 6 years old, while the iPhone 14 runs on Apple’s much more recent A15 Bionic processor. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max run on Apple’s newer A16 Bionic chip. Both new processors are way ahead of the A11 chip, which only has a two-core neural engine compared to the A15 Bionic’s 16-core neural engine.

The iPhone’s neural engine powers tasks that rely on machine learning and artificial intelligence, which are becoming a bigger part of the iPhone experience. Things like app suggestions in the App Library and Apple’s Translate app rely on machine learning to function, which indicates that the iPhone X may struggle to keep up with newer capabilities.

The iPhone X also has a dual-lens camera similar to that of the iPhone XS, meaning it’s missing the iPhone 14’s camera hardware improvements in addition to Night mode, Deep Fusion and the ability to control depth-of-field and blur levels in Portrait mode. Like the iPhone XS, you’re only getting a 7-megapixel front camera compared to a 12-megapixel selfie camera on Apple’s newer phones.

Apple’s more than five-year-old iPhone also has shorter battery life, with Apple estimating it should last for 13 hours when playing back video compared to 20 hours on the iPhone 14. The iPhone 14’s 6.1-inch screen is bigger than the 5.8-inch display on the iPhone X, and it should also be brighter since it can reach 800 nits of max brightness compared to the iPhone X’s 625-nit screen.

The iPhone 14 supports Dolby Atmos and spatial audio playback, while the iPhone X just has stereo playback. That’s probably not a deal-breaker, but might be crucial if you watch a lot of video on your phone without headphones.

And of course, there’s the benefit of getting car-crash detection, Apple’s new emergency SOS messaging via satellite option, better water resistance (up to 6 meters for 30 minutes versus 1 meter), 5G support, more storage space, Ceramic Shield for the display, a refreshed design and the option to use MagSafe accessories on the iPhone 14.

The bottom line: If you have the iPhone X, it’s time to upgrade. The iPhone 14 will feel new in just about every way, from the camera to performance, battery life and the way it looks and feels. And the iPhone X doesn’t support Apple’s upcoming software upgrade, iOS 17, so you’ll be missing out on new features. But if you’ve waited this long, it’s a good idea to hang in there just a little longer for the expected iPhone 15.

iPhone 14 vs. iPhone 8, 8 Plus

The iPhone 8 generation has Apple’s legacy iPhone design, which is fitting for a phone that’s now almost 6 years old. If you have an iPhone 8 and are considering an upgrade, many of the reasons to do that are the same as the reasons to upgrade from the iPhone X. The processor is getting old, which could make it harder to use newer iPhone features that rely on machine learning. The cameras are outdated and lack features like Night mode (the smaller iPhone 8 doesn’t have Portrait mode either, since it only has one lens). And it doesn’t support iOS 17. By upgrading, you’ll get more storage, significantly longer battery life, new software, support for 5G connectivity and MagSafe accessories, too.

Again, remember that the iPhone 15 could debut next month, meaning it’s a good idea to wait if you can. But if you need a new phone immediately, the biggest difference you’ll notice by upgrading to the iPhone 14 comes down to design, which is much more than just an aesthetic upgrade. Phones with Apple’s more modern edge-to-edge screen trade Touch ID for Face ID, which lets you unlock your phone and authenticate payments just by looking at your device. If you prefer Touch ID over Face ID, especially since it’s difficult to use Face ID while wearing a mask, you might want to at least consider upgrading to the $429 iPhone SE, since it has the same processor as the iPhone 13, 5G compatibility and plenty of photography improvements inside a similar body to the iPhone 8.

Upgrading to the iPhone 14 has a noticeably large jump in display size and quality. Since newer phones like the iPhone 14 don’t have a home button, there’s more room for Apple to expand the screen without making the device feel cumbersome. The iPhone 14’s screen is even larger than the iPhone 8 Plus’ 5.5-inch screen despite the device itself feeling more compact. (And for more perspective, consider that the iPhone 13 Mini has a 5.4-inch display). If you go for the 14 Pro you get another big change: the Dynamic Island, which transforms the notch area into an area for viewing alerts, system notifications and apps running in the background like Spotify or Apple Music.

From personal experience, switching from an iPhone 8 (which has a 4.7-inch screen) to the iPhone 12’s 6.1-inch display makes reading, checking email and watching videos much more comfortable. The screen isn’t only larger, but it’s also more vibrant with better contrast since it uses an OLED display rather than LCD.

The bottom line: The iPhone 14 is a huge jump from the iPhone 8. Everything about this phone will feel fast and new: the much larger and bolder screen, Face ID, the speedier processor, its longer battery life and of course the substantially upgraded cameras. Of note however, if you really want to get a newer iPhone but keep the iPhone 8’s design, trade up to the current 2022 iPhone SE. And remember that the iPhone 15 and a newly discounted iPhone 14 could be arriving soon, so it’s wise to wait a little longer if possible.

iPhone 14 vs. iPhone 7, 7 Plus

If you have an iPhone 7, it’s time to upgrade. It’s almost 7 years old, and it shows in everything from the processor to the camera and storage space. The iPhone 7 doesn’t support iOS 17, providing another incentive for acquiring a newer device. If you can’t afford to wait for the iPhone 15, which is expected to debut in September, here’s what you’ll get by upgrading to the iPhone 14.

While we generally recommend choosing the iPhone 14 Pro over the iPhone 14 in most cases, coming from a phone this old, means you’ll find plenty that’s new in the iPhone 14.

The iPhone 7 runs on an aging A10 Fusion processor, which doesn’t even have a neural engine and is years behind Apple’s latest technology. It has a single-lens camera without Portrait mode, while the 7 Plus has two cameras. But those cameras lack many modern features like Night mode and Portrait Lighting, which adds specific lighting effects to your portraits.

Similar to the iPhone 8, the iPhone 7 series includes Touch ID and comes in either 4.7- or 5.5-inch screen sizes. But since the iPhone 7 is a year older than the iPhone 8, it’s also missing wireless charging, which means you must plug it in to charge.

If you’ve owned an iPhone 7 for several years, it’s probably bursting at the seams since it has substantially less storage space. The entry-level iPhone 7 only came with 32GB of space, which is a quarter of capacity available on the cheapest iPhone 14.

The iPhone 14 brings major gains in nearly every aspect. The standard model has a larger, bolder and brighter bezel-free 6.1-inch screen that still feels compact since it doesn’t have a home button. It runs on Apple’s A15 Bionic processor, which is better equipped to handle newer iOS features. And it has a drastically improved dual-lens camera with a larger main camera sensor and advanced features like the new Cinematic mode for video and Night mode. Plus, Apple’s estimates indicate it’ll offer seven hours of additional battery life during video playback, which is a huge bump.

The bottom line: If you’re still holding onto your iPhone 7, there’s no question that you’re due for an upgrade. A better screen, compatibility with iOS 17, longer battery life and more advanced cameras are just a few of the gains the iPhone 14 has to offer over the iPhone 7. And similar to my recommendation with the iPhone 8, if you really want to keep the home button and save some money, consider the iPhone SE. It gives you more recent performance upgrades while keeping a similar phone style. Just remember that the iPhone 15 is expected to arrive in just a few weeks, which also means the iPhone 14 might see a price cut soon. So it’s worth waiting just a bit longer if you can.

Technologies

LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer apologizes over team sanctions

Ballmer said that the team is complying with the penalties, has paid the fines, and is “moving forward.”

Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has apologized almost two weeks after a broad array of sanctions was slapped on the team by the National Basketball Association.

In a statement posted on X, Ballmer called this a “difficult time” and apologized to the team’s fans, employees, and “my fellow NBA team owners for the distraction and distress this matter has caused.”

Earlier this month, the Clippers were hit with sanctions for violating the league’s salary cap circumvention rules related to star player Kawhi Leonard and four companies that did business with the team.

The team will also forfeit five first-round draft picks, with one each year beginning in 2029, as well as pay a fine of $30 million, the largest in NBA history.

Ballmer said that the team is complying with the penalties, has paid the fines and is “moving forward.”

He added, however, that “while there are still disagreements concerning the findings in the report, this is not where I want to focus. Team owners should support, not distract.”

When the penalties were disclosed, the Clippers had “vehemently” rejected the NBA’s findings. The team said it intended to challenge the report, adding that the report’s findings “are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence.”

The NBA said Ballmer “knowingly” sought to help Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities worth millions of dollars, among other violations.

Leonard, on his part, said that he had “no knowledge of any intent on anyone’s part to circumvent the salary cap.”

Ballmer went on to say that the Clippers will continue to build the team and invest in their community, adding he is “certain that we will compete at the highest level and be an organization our fans can be proud of.”

— CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.

Technologies

What Amodei’s AI slowdown could mean for Anthropic’s imminent IPO

As Anthropic meets with prospective investors ahead of its potentially historic market debut, CEO Dario Amodei is pushing for a slowdown in AI.

Anthropic’s road to an IPO just got a lot bumpier.

While the Claude creator meets with prospective investors ahead of its potentially historic debut, co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei is pushing a concept that would seem to contradict those ambitious efforts: a slowdown.

Anthropic, valued at $965 billion earlier this year, confidentially filed its IPO prospectus in June, and has been widely expected to list its shares as soon as next month. Meanwhile, concerns about the power of advanced AI models has been intensifying for weeks, spilling into the mainstream as more researchers warn of potential threats of human extinction.

With that backdrop, Amodei wrote an essay over the weekend urging the AI industry to slow the pace of model development, proposing a three-step plan to temper how quickly model capabilities improve without “sacrificing commercial advantage or the United States’ lead in AI.”

It’s the latest challenge facing public market investors who are trying to determine what they’re willing to pay for a piece of a five-year-old company that’s already among the most valuable in the world and could seek a $2 trillion valuation in its IPO. Though Anthropic may have to accept a hit to revenue growth, some experts say an intentional slowdown could help Anthropic frame itself as a responsible actor, avoid future liability and address the public backlash towards AI that’s been brewing across the country.

“I don’t know that investors are necessarily going to see it as a negative,” Gil Luria, an equity analyst at D.A. Davidson, said in an interview. “Unless the companies are genuine and say, ‘OK, we’re not going to IPO, we’re not going to use any more compute, we’re not going to train any more models.’ That’s not what they’re saying.”

Anthropic has picked the Nasdaq as the exchange for its potential IPO, CNBC confirmed after Business Insider first reported the selection.

Amodei on Saturday proposed that model companies open up to third-party evaluators, frontier companies establish “common safety standards,” and that democratic countries coordinate with authoritarian governments “to the extent this is possible.”

His essay came after several industry researchers issued stern warnings last week about the technology’s growing potential to cause catastrophic harms.

President Donald Trump slammed Amodei in a post on Truth Social on Monday, writing that the only “control or ’guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”

“The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,” like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ – and we will continue to do so!,” Trump wrote. “We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies!”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed support for Amodei’s proposal, as did Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, which owns Grok creator xAI. SpaceX went public in June in the biggest IPO on record and is now valued at $2 trillion. OpenAI has confidentially filed its IPO prospectus, but has been under fire in recent months after its models escaped containment, accessed the open internet and breached open-source developer platform Hugging Face.

“Right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public,” Altman said in an interview with Fortune, reiterating that OpenAI won’t aim for an IPO until next year. Finance chief Sarah Friar told employees during an all-hands meeting last month that the AI lab “will be a public company in 2027.”

Lise Buyer, partner at IPO advisory firm Class V Group, said she doesn’t see the recent “we might obliterate you all” fears having an impact on IPO timing, but it could alter valuations, she said.

“The bet here is on the long term — now with tempering thoughts about control of the technology,” Buyer said in an email. “The dramatic growth and possibilities of these companies, now more publicly coupled with the potential very serious concerns and risks, will likely persist whether the IPO happens in Q4 or next year or whenever.”

Anthropic and OpenAI declined to comment for this story.

′Don’t see why growth would slow’

Anthropic hit $65 billion in annualized revenue in July, about a sevenfold increase from the prior year, as CNBC previously reported. The company has told some shareholders that it will generate an operating profit for a second straight quarter in the current period, according to two sources familiar who asked not to be named because the details are confidential. The Financial Times earlier reported the operating profit on Sunday.

Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures and an Anthropic investor, called the growth rate “off the charts,” and said a public listing would bring more transparency around the business.

“Don’t see why growth would slow or any other reason to wait,” Murphy told CNBC.

That transparency could also help improve what has been dismal public sentiment around the technology.

More than half of Americans say they’re more concerned than excited about the growing use of AI in daily life, up from 37% in 2021, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center. And confidence in AI executives is even worse, according to a CNBC Generation Lab survey of 18- to 34-year-olds. More than 75% of respondents said they don’t trust Amodei to act responsibly, while around 70% expressed those views about Altman.

“One could argue that sooner is better than later for a public offering as the accountability that comes with being a public company might be of a great interest to many,” Class V Group’s Buyer said.

Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner, whose firm is an investor in Anthropic and OpenAI, said in a post on X on Saturday that bringing more “transparency, scrutiny, accountability” and participation to AI companies is “crucial.” He said Anthropic will likely forge ahead with its IPO.

“The market knows how to price risk – see SpaceX,” Gerstner wrote. “There is huge appetite to invest in the AI leaders.”

Gerstner’s post came a day after he blasted public remarks from industry researchers, calling them “hyperbolic scare tactics” that are “hiding behind a political agenda,” in an interview with CNBC.

There are plenty of skeptics when it comes to Amodei’s latest positioning. One argument is that Anthropic benefits from stricter standards because it currently has the most advanced models and makes money from selling services, like Claude Code, that are powered by those models.

“That could actually favor Anthropic and OpenAI if smaller competitors cannot afford the rigorous safety, evaluation and security investments required for frontier-level models,” Arun Chandrasekaran, an analyst at Gartner, told CNBC in an email.

D.A. Davidson’s Luria agrees and said he thinks Anthropic and OpenAI are engaging in “monopolistic behavior.” OpenAI has reportedly asked members of Congress for guidance about whether a coordinated, industrywide slowdown would violate antitrust law, according to Wired.

“I’m highly suspicious of what Anthropic and OpenAI are doing,” Luria said. “It feels more and more like a ladder pull.”

What about the rest of tech?

Tech investors have other reasons to worry about the pace of development at OpenAI and Anthropic, because those companies are responsible for an outsized amount of AI infrastructure spending.

Anthropic has inked a flurry of multibillion-dollar compute deals this year, including with Nscale, Advanced Micro Devices, SpaceX, and Google. OpenAI told investors in February that it’s targeting roughly $600 billion in total compute spend by 2030. Both companies are heavy users of Nvidia’s graphics processing units.

“I would want to understand how the mix shifts between frontier training, post-training and inference as safety controls are integrated,” said Lo Toney, managing partner at Plexo Capital, and an Anthropic investor.

PitchBook analyst Harrison Rolfes is more concerned about reduced growth. He said valuations for model companies likely deserve a discount now, largely because it’s hard for investors to trust that they can safely commercialize their technology.

“Is the first thing that you want to do as a public company go handle a bunch of security issues and vulnerability issues?” Rolfes said. “No, you probably want to focus on expanding into all the markets that you promised all your investors.”

Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, told CNBC that any sort of perceived slowdown will be a negative because the market is “underwriting exponential uninterrupted improvements to the models.”

Still, Munster predicted that “nothing will change and the AI leapfrog game will continue.”

“AI’s long-term opportunity is too big for them to slow down,” Munster said. “I believe the comments were motivated to reduce the regulatory pressure.”

WATCH: Seems like Anthropic will beat OpenAI to IPO, says FirstMark’s Rick Heitzmann

Technologies

Iran says it destroyed U.S. advanced drone over Hormuz as Middle East conflict intensifies

Iran said it downed an advanced American drone over the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran and Washington trade warnings and strikes with no sign of de-escalation.

Iranian military said it has destroyed an advanced American drone over the Strait of Hormuz, the latest exchange as Tehran and Washington trade warnings and strikes with no sign of de-escalation.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday that its “new advanced aerospace defence system” intercepted and destroyed an advanced MQ-1 drone over the Hormuz strait, without providing further details on the drone’s mission. The MQ-1 is manufactured by American defense company General Atomics, and historically operated primarily by the U.S. Air Force and the CIA.

The incident followed a series of Iranian operations against U.S. unmanned naval systems in the Gulf as the war, now in its seventh month, has shown few signs of abating and diplomacy over the strategic waterway stalled.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump said the U.S. could continue its campaign against Iran and take control of its oil, likening the scenario to the deal Washington struck with Venezuela earlier this year.

“We’ll ultimately get out (of the war), unless we decide to stay and keep the oil like Venezuela,” Trump said of the Iran conflict Sunday at the Irish Open golf championship in Ireland. He added that U.S. revenue from the Venezuela arrangement, which granted Washington access to roughly a fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves, has “paid for the war many times.”

Under the agreement reached in August, Venezuela ceded majority U.S. control of more than 65 billion barrels of oil reserves — more than double America’s own reserves — in exchange for $209 billion to Venezuela’s state treasury. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the deal would also bring close to $100 billion in private investment to reinvigorate its economy.

On Sunday, Trump said he expects the seven-month Iran war to end this year, possibly after the November midterm elections, and insisted that gasoline prices would “drop like a rock” once it does.

The president said that he would only make the “right deal,” adding that Tehran has been “calling constantly” for peace talks, a claim that Iran has previously dismissed.

Stalled Hormuz talks

A meeting in Oman between Gulf countries and Iran to discuss possible agreements on the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway for global oil and gas flows, has been postponed, Omani foreign minister Badr Albusaidi said on X on Sunday, citing the need for “consensus.”

Officials from Iran and Gulf nations had been expected to meet on Monday and sign an agreement establishing an Iran-Oman shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, though no direct talks between the U.S. and Iran were ongoing.

The Strait of Hormuz has been subjected to an Iranian and later U.S. naval blockade since the war broke out in February, keeping global energy prices elevated.

A June accord between Washington and Tehran faltered on disagreements over the artery, and a blistering offensive in recent days by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has given the Tehran-allied group leverage over a second critical waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb.

Ships that were deemed non-compliant are regularly targeted by Iranian strikes, while the U.S. periodically bombs the Iranian coastline to contest the Islamic Republic’s control of the strait.

Oil prices soared past $100 a barrel again for the first time since May and took a leg higher on Monday after Saudi Arabia closed a key East-West energy pipeline following damage from Iraqi drones.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were up 2.3% to $102.39 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded 2.4% higher to $107.11 a barrel.