ChatGPT is about to get a lot more visual, thanks to a new feature that OpenAI calls Intelligent UI. The new interface, which is being rolled out with a new GPT-6 model, will integrate a significant amount of visuals into users’ conversations.

OpenAI says many of those visuals will be interactive. In other words, instead of just flat, cartoonish pictures, the chatbot will frequently include things like tappable buttons, a customized calculator for a specific task, interactive charts, editable graphs, and other elements the user can work with directly.

The big goal here, according to OpenAI is to make “learning complex topics easier.” It may also make ChatGPT friendlier and more accessible and help bring in a wider audience, though OpenAI didn’t say so directly.

In a call with journalists, OpenAI staff gave a brief demonstration of Intelligent UI’s capabilities, showing how the new chatbot can instantaneously whip up various diagrams and visuals that help users understand more abstract topics.

Aarush Selvan, a product manager at the company, said that while “ChatGPT has predominantly been a text-based interface,” the company really that to help users “get things done — from everyday things like planning a recipe or a trip or even trying to learn something — the most helpful answers aren’t just text.”

Selvan gave the example of a college student wanting to know how an airplane wing functions. He asked ChatGPT to “explore how an airplane wing generates lift” and the chatbot quickly spun up a number of illustrative diagrams designed to show the dynamics behind how planes take flight.

Other examples provided by the company include things like visuals for recipes, a diagram to understand bicycle mechanics, a map for a multi-day hiking excursion, a personal savings calculator, and other.

This new feature will be customizable — so, like other aspects of ChatGPT’s personality, if users don’t want so many visuals in their responses, they’ll be able to dial them back. Intelligent UI rolls out globally with GPT-6 for Pro, Plus, Business, and Enterprise users, and will roll out for Free and Go users the next day.

How clean is the air in your workplace? That’s the question Tanvi Thombre and Lakshya Saraf began investigating when they were engineering students who worked in their university makerspace.

In fact, Thombre said via email that, while working in the space, they were “unknowingly exposed to toxic fumes from laser cutters, 3D printers, and soldering irons,” but they didn’t realize it until her best friend fainted and had to go to the hospital.

After that, Thombre said, “We began investigating indoor air pollution and realized it was an invisible but dangerous health risk — especially in schools, offices, hotels, salons, and any commercial buildings where air-conditioning prevents windows from being opened.”

Those issues persist even when a building is equipped with air purifiers, as their makerspace was. The problem, according to Saraf, is that although purifiers are good at cleaning out particulate matter like dust and pollen, they are less effective at removing toxic gases such as carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, and benzine (many of which are classified as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs — chemicals that evaporate easily into the air).

Thombre said that VOCs are linked to chronic disease and “sick building syndrome,” a condition in which occupants experience health effects and discomfort after spending time in a building, even though no specific cause or illness has been identified. She also pointed to Harvard research showing that improving indoor air quality improved cognitive function and productivity.

That’s why the pair is targeting toxic gases in the workplace with their startup Greenairy, which will be at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt as part of the Startup Battlefield 200.

Greenairy’s approach centers on building plant towers that are supposed to draw in air, break down toxic gases, and then release the purified air. As Saraf put it, “A plant in a pot cleans air slowly. But, when we change the conditions around the plant, it cleans air much faster and better than these conventional methods.”

Sara also said that while some air purifier filters can remove “a narrow range of VOCs,” those filters need to be changed frequently to be effective. In contrast, plants are “a natural solution, no harmful byproducts are formed, and no filter replacement is required.”

Greenairy has already conducted short-term pilots at locations around Singapore. Saraf said that in the startup’s own testing using RESET-certified air monitors, it compared three offices: one with Greenairy plant towers, one that had a medical-grade ionizer (a device that uses an electrical charge to make dust and other particles clump together and fall out of the air), and a third with a HEPA air purifier that traps very small particles.

“Our tower had the lowest VOC levels and removed VOCs the fastest,” she said. “The office staff also grew fond of the natural ‘fresh’ aroma of the tower and the natural vibe it brought.”

Thombre added that they saw an “immediate” improvement within regular office hours, with a 50% reduction in both the daily VOC average and peak levels. She said the results improved even more “as the plants and microbes mature and the gases are prevented from accumulating.”

Greenairy has also had its results validated by the German testing and certification firm TÜV SÜD and will be publishing them soon. (Results are available upon request in the meantime.) The pair plans to begin large-scale manufacturing after the results are certified.

The startup’s founders are currently based on opposite sides of the world, with Saraf in Berkeley, Calfornia, and Thombre in Singapore. It’s an arrangement that Saraf said “works well at this stage,” allowing one founder to focus on testing in Singapore while the other can fundraise in the Bay Area.

“If things go to plan, both of us will be in Singapore by the first half of 2027,” she added. “That’s when we expect to launch our first mass-produced towers and install them for our first customers” in Singapore.

Join us next week in San Francisco to learn more about the company and the dozens of other teams pitching to VCs at Disrupt.

A now-former officer with the Central Intelligence Agency has pleaded guilty to stealing almost $200 million, including hundreds of gold bars, as part of a fraudulent scheme masquerading as a top secret government program.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday confirmed that David J. Rush, a Virginia resident, admitted to one count of wire fraud linked to running the fabricated operation and defrauding the government while he was a CIA officer. In a statement, prosecutors said that Rush lied about his education and military experience to gain a position at the CIA, and used his access as an employee to set up the top secret and highly compartmentalized program with the intention of using it to funnel U.S. government funds into his possession.

During his arrest, law enforcement found more than $46 million worth of gold bars in Rush’s house linked to the long-running fraud scheme, along with cars, watches, and over $2 million in cash.

The plea deal means that Rush escapes trial, as much as the U.S. government likely avoids having to explain in open court how Rush evaded vetting scrutiny to join the U.S. intelligence agency, and how actions went undetected for more than a year.

Rush was until recently a senior CIA officer, who according to earlier reports worked for a division of the CIA since 2010 that develops hacking tools and techniques for carrying out espionage. Per court filings, Rush had significant authority over government intelligence programs and spending.

Over the course of 2025, Rush used his position to fabricate a so-called special access program, which are surveillance or intelligence-gathering operations so sensitive that only a few people are read into them. Special access programs, or SAPs, require special clearance that not even the most cleared individuals in government are granted access to. According to The Washington Post, Rush constructed the compartmentalized program under the guise of a fake “continuity of government” plan, aimed at keeping the government functioning in the event of a war, natural disaster, or some other destructive catastrophe. As part of the scheme, Rush used the program and fake government contract to trick an unnamed defense contractor into buying large amounts of gold that Rush then pocketed.

According to The Post, the case astounded officials as Rush’s duties at the CIA involved work with one of the government’s “most sensitive intelligence-gathering programs,” with details so sensitive that only a few senior U.S. intelligence officials and lawmakers know of its existence. The Post withheld details of that program from publication as its disclosure could “jeopardize ongoing intelligence-gathering operations.”

Court filings said that by virtue of his position, Rush “effectively acted as his own approving official, enabling him to expend substantial amounts of United States government money without meaningful scrutiny.”

Rush is scheduled to be sentenced in late January 2027 and faces up to 20 years in prison.