Articles by Eric Hal Schwartz, Contributor

Eric Hal Schwartz is a freelance writer for TechRadar with more than 15 years of experience covering the intersection of the world and technology. For the last five years, he served as head writer for Voicebot.ai and was on the leading edge of reporting on generative AI and large language models. He's since become an expert on the products of generative AI models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, and every other synthetic media tool. His experience runs the gamut of media, including print, digital, broadcast, and live events. Now, he's continuing to tell the stories people want and need to hear about the rapidly evolving AI space and its impact on their lives. Eric is based in New York City.

Articles by: Eric Hal Schwartz

‘Our industry does a terrible job of marketing our benefits': Google's former CEO Eric Schmidt thinks AI has a PR problem — but maybe people understand it just fine

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 11 November 26

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt thinks AI has a marketing problem, but growing public skepticism suggests Americans may understand the technology perfectly well

OpenAI wants to build more AI data centers — but Americans are increasingly saying no

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 10 November 26

OpenAI is changing how it approaches communities amid growing opposition to AI data centers

I tried Gemini's new feature that turns handwritten notes into polished PDFs — and it's made me rethink how useful AI can be for everyday tasks

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 10 November 26

I tested Gemini's new document editing feature by turning handwritten sandwich history notes into a polished PDF.

'We can't get it back': Sam Altman warns of the two ways AI could go 'really wrong' — and one involves losing control of our future

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 5 November 26

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has warned that AI could go disastrously wrong even as he predicts enormous benefits

'Worst decision ever by OpenAI' — ChatGPT's new usage limits may test subscribers' patience

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 3 November 26

OpenAI's plan to combine ChatGPT and Codex usage limits could make subscriptions more confusing and potentially less valuable

Elon Musk tried to prove Grok could beat Christopher Nolan — instead, he proved why human filmmakers matter

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 2 November 26

Elon Musk's AI-generated Odyssey demonstrates why AI still can't match the emotional power of human filmmaking.

A hummingbird inside a bubble next to a man playing saxophone next to a light in front of the sea

Google says its new Genie 4 model is a 'key stepping stone' to AGI — but creating convincing fake worlds doesn't mean AI understands the real one

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 31 October 26

Google's Genie 4 can create astonishing interactive worlds, but claims that it represents progress toward AGI feel premature.

A still from the movie Elvis showing Austin Butler as Elvis singing on stage.

Anthropic sued for allegedly using 274 Elvis Presley songs in AI training — and it's about time AI companies faced the music

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 30 October 26

Anthropic's latest copyright lawsuit over Elvis Presley songs exposes the AI industry's troubling dependence on other people's creative work.

Google's Gemini 4 Argon just landed in the Gemini model picker — here's what it actually means for you

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 27 October 26

Google's powerful new Gemini 4 Argon model is now available to subscribers, but its practical benefits for everyday users may be harder to identify

AI agents are going rogue inside bank accounts — and this is exactly what I've been worried about

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 27 October 26

AI agents are gaining access to bank accounts, raising serious concerns about security and whether the technology industry's obsession with automation is putting people's money at unnecessary risk.

A laptop screen showing Locked Chats in ChatGPT

ChatGPT's new Locked Chats feature sounds great for privacy — until you read the fine print

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 24 October 26

ChatGPT's new Locked Chats feature can stop other people from reading your conversations, but protecting the information inside them requires additional privacy precautions.

ChatGPT has a new Chrome integration — I put it to the test to see if it really makes browsing better

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 22 October 26

OpenAI's new Chrome integration makes ChatGPT a more convenient part of everyday browsing while challenging Google's efforts to make Gemini the default AI assistant inside its own browser

Amazon's new Bee AI device can turn every conversation into a shopping opportunity — and that's deeply unsettling

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 20 October 26

Amazon's new Bee AI wearables and their shopping integrations may be more alienating than appealing

ChatGPT's new teen safety features have been branded an 'unacceptable risk' — and parents aren't getting the warnings they expect

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 15 October 26

A new investigation using more than 4,000 prompts found serious weaknesses in ChatGPT for Teens.

Split image showing Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg

AI can be dangerous without being evil — why AI's increasingly helpful agents could be a problem

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 14 October 26

AI's increasingly independent AI agents promise to make life easier, but recent incidents show how even well-intentioned AI can become dangerous when it takes too much initiative

I tested Google Gemini's new Nano Banana 2.1 image generator against ChatGPT — and I was surprised how close they are

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 13 October 26

I tested Google's new Nano Banana 2.1 against ChatGPT and discovered that the two AI generators are now surprisingly evenly matched

I made two games with Google's new AI game generator without writing a line of code — but would I actually want to play them?

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 9 October 26

I used Google Playground to create two games from descriptions alone, but the results showed why making something playable is very different from making a genuinely great game.

Elon Musk is renaming SpaceXAI to match Trump's new ‘Super Intelligence Force’ — but critics say the White House body 'isn’t the answer'

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 7 October 26

Washington is launching a new AI oversight task force while Elon Musk embraces its “Super Intelligence” branding for no real reason.

A man walking inside a data center next to a protest against AI data centers

AWS says 100 proposed AI data center bans will cause damage that ‘lasts generations’ — as US races towards $10.3 trillion buildout that will eclipse dot-com boom

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 7 October 26

Amazon is warning against efforts to slow America’s enormous AI data center boom as communities demand more control over the costs and consequences of the buildout.

OpenAI sends staggeringly casual email to Australian government wishing it the ‘best’ after AI agents hack its health insurance website

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 5 October 26

OpenAI’s breezy email about an AI agent accessing a government system looks even stranger as the full scale of the incident, and the delay in disclosing it, become clear.

AI data centers in Texas are using a permit designed for dry cleaners to run thousands of diesel generators, and critics say the state’s new crackdown won’t fix it

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 1 October 26

Texas is tightening oversight of AI data centers, but thousands of diesel generators but critics say the crackdown may not go far enough

I tried America.gov, the new AI-powered front door to the US government — it’s useful, but I’m not sure I trust where this is going

By Eric Hal Schwartz Published 30 September 26

I tried the new AI-powered America.gov and found a useful government guide whose ambitious plans raise much bigger questions about privacy, security and trust