The Global Cyber Conference returns for its 4th edition, once again gathering senior cybersecurity stakeholders, decision-makers, public authorities, and academia from across the globe. It provides a robust networking and learning platform to gain a shared understanding of what must be done to strengthen cyber resilience. The program is now structured around four main steps: Global Risks, Governance, Hands-on Resilience, and Future-ready Strategies. Each step is covered in depth to offer attendees comprehensive knowledge, practical use cases, and critical tools to effectively address the challenges facing their organizations.
To attend the conference and for further details, please follow: https://globalcyberconference.com/#book_tickets
Google’s upgraded AI Mode in Google Search now supports conversational queries and image uploads, delivering highly relevant visual results. Launched in the US in English, the feature allows users to refine searches naturally, perfect for finding inspiration or specific items effortlessly.
AI Mode simplifies shopping; users describe items like ‘barrel jeans, not too baggy,’ to get tailored, shoppable results. Google’s Shopping Graph, boasting over 50 billion product listings, provides details like reviews, deals, and availability, with 2 billion listings refreshed hourly.
The update harnesses Gemini 2.5’s advanced multimodal capabilities and a ‘visual search fan-out’ technique, enabling deeper image analysis. The approach identifies subtle details and secondary objects, ensuring results align closely with the user’s intent and the image’s full context.
On mobile, users can dive deeper by searching within specific images, asking follow-up questions to explore creative ideas or pinpoint exact items. The intuitive experience transforms how users seek inspiration or shop online, making searches more natural and precise.
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Imgur has cut off access for UK users after regulators warned its parent company, MediaLab AI, of a potential fine over child data protection.
Visitors to the platform since 30 September have been met with a notice saying that content is unavailable in their region, with embedded Imgur images on other sites also no longer visible.
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) began investigating the platform in March, questioning whether it complied with data laws and the Children’s Code.
The regulator said it had issued MediaLab with a notice of intent to fine the company following provisional findings. Officials also emphasised that leaving the UK would not shield Imgur from responsibility for any past breaches.
Some users speculated that the withdrawal was tied to new duties under the Online Safety Act, which requires platforms to check whether visitors are over 18 before allowing access to harmful content.
However, both the ICO and Ofcom stated that Imgur decided on a commercial choice. Other MediaLab services, such as Kik Messenger, continue to operate in the UK with age verification measures in place.
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OpenAI has launched Instant Checkout, a feature that lets users make direct purchases within ChatGPT. The initial rollout applies to US Etsy sellers, with Shopify merchants to follow.
The system is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol, which OpenAI co-developed with Stripe, and currently supports single-item purchases. Future updates will add multi-item carts and expand to more regions.
According to OpenAI, product results in ChatGPT are organic and ranked for relevance. The e-commerce framework will be open-sourced to accelerate integrations for merchants and developers. Users can pay using cards already on file, and transactions involve explicit confirmation steps, scoped payment tokens, and limited data sharing to build trust.
Michelle Fradin, OpenAI’s product lead for ChatGPT commerce, said the goal is to move beyond information retrieval and support real-world actions. Stripe’s president for technology and business, Will Gaybrick, described the partnership as laying economic infrastructure for AI.
Merchants will pay a small fee on completed purchases, while users are not charged extra and product prices remain unchanged.
Reuters reported that Etsy and Shopify’s stocks rose significantly following the announcement, with Etsy closing up nearly 16 percent and Shopify more than 6 percent. The company plans to extend the system to more merchants and payment types over time.
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Anthropic has released Claude Sonnet 4.5, featuring a suite of new upgrades designed to enhance coding, automation, and creativity. The update enhances Claude Code, extends Computer Use, and introduces experimental tools to boost productivity and facilitate real-world applications.
Claude Code now features checkpoints, allowing developers to roll back projects to earlier versions. The Claude API has also been expanded, supporting longer-running agents to generate files such as slides, spreadsheets, and documents directly within chats.
The model’s Computer Use function has been strengthened, enabling agents to operate applications for up to 30 hours autonomously. Anthropic says Claude Sonnet 4.5 built a Slack-style app with 11,000 lines of code in one session.
A new feature, Imagine with Claude, focuses on generating creative software. The system produced a Shakespeare-themed desktop with customised scripts and performance schedules from a single prompt, highlighting its versatility.
Anthropic has maintained steady pricing for free and premium users, positioning Sonnet 4.5 as its most practical and feature-rich release yet, combining reliability with expanded creative and developer-friendly tools.
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The 2025 Athens Democracy Forum opened in Athens with a dedicated session on AI, ethics and democracy, co-organised by Kathimerini in partnership with The New York Times.
Held at the Athens Conservatoire, the event placed AI at the heart of discussions on the future of democratic governance.
Speakers underlined the urgency of addressing systemic challenges created by AI.
Achilleas Tsaltas, president of the Democracy & Culture Foundation, described AI as the central concern of the era. At the same time, Greece’s minister of digital governance, Dimitris Papastergiou, warned that AI should remain a servant instead of becoming a master.
Axel Dauchez, founder of Make.org, pointed to the conflict between democratic and authoritarian governance models and called for stronger civic education.
The opening panel brought together academics such as Oxford’s Stathis Kalyvas and Yale’s Hélène Landemore, who examined how AI affects liberal democracies, global inequalities and political accountability.
Discussions concluded with a debate on Aristotle’s ethics as a framework for evaluating opportunities and risks in AI development, moderated by Stephen Dunbar-Johnson of The New York Times.
The session continues with panels on the AI transformation blueprint of Greece, regulation of AI, and the emerging concept of AI sovereignty as a business model.
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A global survey commissioned by Yubico suggests that younger workers are more vulnerable to phishing scams than older generations. Gen Z respondents reported the highest level of interaction with phishing messages, with 62 percent admitting they engaged with a scam in the past year.
The study gathered responses from 18,000 employed adults in nine countries, including the UK, US, France, and Japan. In the past twelve months, 44 percent of participants admitted to clicking on or replying to a phishing message.
AI is raising the stakes for cybersecurity. Seventy percent of those surveyed believe phishing has become more effective due to AI, and 78 percent said the attacks seem more sophisticated. More than half could not confidently identify a phishing email when shown one.
Despite growing risks, cyber defences remain patchy. Only 48 percent said their workplace used multi-factor authentication across all services, and 40 percent reported never receiving cybersecurity training from their employer.
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During the same period, OpenAI reportedly burned around $2.5 billion due to heavy research, development investments, and operational costs tied to ChatGPT. Total R&D spending for H1 2025 is reported to have reached $6.7 billion, and the company held about $17.5 billion in cash and securities at period’s close.
OpenAI is targeting full-year revenue of $13 billion and aims to cap annual cash burn at $8.5 billion. Meanwhile, in August, the company was reportedly in early discussions about a potential stock sale to allow employee access to liquidity and possibly reach a valuation near $500 billion.
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Under the new “Instant Checkout” feature, US ChatGPT users can purchase products directly from US Etsy sellers within the chatbot interface. OpenAI plans to bring more merchants, such as Shopify sellers, into the system soon.
The juxtaposition of AI and e-commerce signalled to markets a leap in monetisation potential for ChatGPT. Investors viewed the move as shifting ChatGPT from a content tool into a transactional platform. Shopify’s shares also saw gains.
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Rapid growth in AI data centres is raising global energy use and emissions, prompting MIT scientists to cut the carbon footprint through more intelligent computing, greater efficiency, and improved data centre design.
Innovations include cutting energy-heavy training, using optimised or lower-power processors, and improving algorithms to achieve results with fewer computations. Known as ‘negaflops,’ these efficiency gains can dramatically lower energy consumption without compromising AI performance.
Adjusting workloads to coincide with periods of higher renewable energy availability also helps cut emissions.
Location and infrastructure play a significant role in reducing carbon impact. Data centres in cooler climates, flexible multi-user facilities, and long-duration energy storage systems can all decrease reliance on fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, AI is being applied to accelerate renewable energy deployment, optimise solar and wind generation, and support predictive maintenance for green infrastructure.
Experts stress that effective solutions require collaboration among academia, companies, and regulators. Combining AI efficiency, more innovative energy use, and clean energy aims to cut emissions while supporting generative AI’s rapid growth.
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