Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) shot down a risible suggestion by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals about Groundhog Day. PETA called for officials to end the longtime tradition of using a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil to predict whether the winter will continue or end early. They said it should be replaced with a vegan cake mimicking the gender reveal trend. 'PETA is urging The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club to sprinkle some happiness into Phil’s life.' Shapiro issued a defiant challenge referring to the well-known slogan from Texas."Come and take it," he wrote on social media. PETA sent a letter to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club arguing that the club is exploiting an animal for a fake meteorological prediction. “When allowed to be themselves, groundhogs avoid humans, create intricate networks of underground burrows, communicate with one another, and even climb trees, but poor Phil is denied all of that for a tired old gimmick," read the letter from PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is urging The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club to sprinkle some happiness into Phil’s life by retiring him and giving Groundhog Day a much-needed ‘cake makeover,'" she added. The tradition held at Gobbler’s Knob goes back 138 years and says that winter will continue for another six weeks if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow but will end early if he doesn't see his shadow. PETA said that the "noisy announcer, screaming crowds, and flashing lights" of the event go against the natural instincts of a groundhog. The organization was mocked on social media by many."ITS [sic] LITERALLY A DAY FOR ANIMALS. That particular groundhog is like SUPER well taken care of. @peta the stupid, it burns," responded one user. "Phil has to be the most pampered animal on the Eastern Seaboard. Wtf are they worried about?" replied another. "The groundhog lives a life of luxury and works ONE DAY a year …. I’ll take his place," said another critic. Some bizarrely asked if Shapiro's message was a threat. PETA has previously suggested that Punxsutawney Phil be replaced with an artificial intelligence groundhog. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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On Friday, OpenAI made o3-mini, the company's most cost-efficient AI reasoning model so far, available in ChatGPT and the API. OpenAI previewed the new reasoning model last December, but now all ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users have full access to o3-mini. Although o3-mini is a small model, OpenAI says that it "advances the boundaries of what small models can achieve." For instance, the model supports function calling, Structured Outputs⁠, and developer messages, as well as streaming. Developers also have the option to choose between reasoning effort options (low, medium, and high) depending on the task. Starting today, o3-mini will replace o1-mini in the model picker for ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users. The new model not only offers higher rate limits (150 messages per day instead of 50) but lower latency, Plus, o3-mini can search the web for up-to-date answers. If you don't pay for a ChatGPT subscription, free users can test out o3-mini by picking ‘Reason’ in the message composer or by regenerating a response. As OpenAI notes, this is the first time the company has made a reasoning model available to free users. "While OpenAI o1 remains our broader general knowledge reasoning model, OpenAI o3-mini provides a specialized alternative for technical domains requiring precision and speed," OpenAI wrote in a blog post. "In ChatGPT, o3-mini uses medium reasoning effort to provide a balanced trade-off between speed and accuracy." The company notes that the new model matches o1's performance in math, coding, and science while delivering faster responses. Meanwhile, answers from the new model were more accurate and clearer than those from o1-mini. "The release of OpenAI o3-mini marks another step in OpenAI’s mission to push the boundaries of cost-effective intelligence," OpenAI concludes. "By optimizing reasoning for STEM domains while keeping costs low, we’re making high-quality AI even more accessible." Don't Miss: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responds to DeepSeek hype The post OpenAI launches cost-efficient reasoning model o3-mini appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2025: Get $500+ free Today’s deals: $679 Apple Watch Ultra 2, 30% off Ninja blender, Valentine’s chocolate sale, Nest Doorbell, more Today’s deals: $329 Apple Watch Series 10, $219 Bose soundbar, 40% off eufy video smart lock, more Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales

Employees at several federal agencies Friday were ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures after President Donald Trump signed executive orders aiming to remove diversity, equity and inclusion programs from the federal government.

The White House is demanding that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., apologize to Americans for saying Friday that his supporters plan to "fight" President Donald Trump's agenda "in the streets."

Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal health agencies are scrubbing or taking down webpages, forms and programs that reflect "gender ideology extremism" on Friday to conform with an executive order that recognizes only two sexes:...