OpenAI says a small share of ChatGPT users show possible signs of mental health emergencies each week, including mania, psychosis, or suicidal thoughts. The company estimates 0.07 percent and says safety prompts are triggered. Critics argue that small percentages scale at ChatGPT’s size.
A further 0.15 percent of weekly users discuss explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent. Updates aim to respond more safely and empathetically, and to flag indirect self-harm signals. Sensitive chats can be routed to safer models in a new window.
More than 170 clinicians across 60 countries advise OpenAI on risk cues and responses. Guidance focuses on encouraging users to seek real-world support. Researchers warn vulnerable people may struggle to act on on-screen warnings.
External specialists see both value and limits. AI may widen access when services are stretched, yet automated advice can mislead. Risks include reinforcing delusions and misplaced trust in authoritative-sounding output.
Legal and public scrutiny is rising after high-profile cases linked to chatbot interactions. Families and campaigners want more transparent accountability and stronger guardrails. Regulators continue to debate transparency, escalation pathways, and duty of care.
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Pinterest is giving boards an AI upgrade, adding smarter recommendations, fresher layouts, and built-in shopping to help users move from ideas to action worldwide over the coming months.
New tabs tailor each board: Make it yours for fashion and some home decor, More ideas for categories like beauty or recipes, and All saves as a single place to find everything previously pinned.
In the US and Canada, Styled for you creates dynamic AI collages from saved fashion Pins, letting people mix and match apparel and accessories, preview outfits, and shop items that fit their taste.
Pinterest is also testing Boards made for you, personalised boards curated with editorial input and AI picks, delivered to home feeds and inboxes, featuring trending styles, weekly outfit ideas, and shoppable looks.
Executives say boards remain central to Pinterest’s experience; the new AI features aim to act like a personal shopping assistant while keeping curation simple and privacy-respecting by design.
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The FCA has lifted the ban on retail access to certain crypto exchange trade notes (cETNs), effective 8 October. UK consumers can now invest in cETNs listed on the Official List and traded on a Recognised Investment Exchange.
Firms offering cETNs must meet strict requirements. Products are categorised as Restricted Mass Market Investments (RMMIs), meaning financial promotions cannot include incentives, and firms must carry out appropriateness assessments, client categorisation, and risk disclosures.
Compliance with the Consumer Duty is also required, including acting in good faith, avoiding foreseeable harm, and ensuring products meet the needs of the target market.
The FCA emphasises that cETNs are complex products, and firms should have the correct permissions to offer them. Those seeking authorisation or new permissions can request pre-application support meetings.
The regulator is also advancing its crypto roadmap to integrate crypto assets more fully into its regulatory framework, with ongoing consultations on applying Handbook rules to crypto activities.
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AI could shorten the workweek, says Zoom’s Eric Yuan. At TechCrunch Disrupt, he pitched AI ‘digital twins’ that attend meetings, negotiate drafts, and triage email, arguing assistants will shoulder routine tasks so humans focus on judgement.
Yuan has already used an AI avatar on an investor call to show how a stand-in can speak on your behalf. He said Zoom will keep investing heavily in assistants that understand context, prioritise messages, and draft responses.
Use cases extend beyond meetings. Yuan described counterparts sending their digital twins to hash out deal terms before principals join to resolve open issues, saving hours of live negotiation and accelerating consensus across teams and time zones.
Zoom plans to infuse AI across its suite, including whiteboards and collaborative docs, so work moves even when people are offline. Yuan said assistants will surface what matters, propose actions, and help execute routine workflows securely.
If adoption scales, Yuan sees schedules changing. He floated a five-year goal where many knowledge workers shift to three or four days a week, with AI increasing throughput, reducing meeting load, and improving focus time across organisations.
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IBM has introduced Digital Asset Haven, a unified platform designed for banks, corporations, and governments to securely manage and scale their digital asset operations. The platform manages the full asset lifecycle from custody to settlement while maintaining compliance.
Built with Dfns, the platform combines IBM’s security framework with Dfns’ custody technology. The Dfns platform supports 15 million wallets for 250 clients, providing multi-party authorisation, policy governance, and access to over 40 blockchains.
IBM Digital Asset Haven includes tools for identity verification, crime prevention, yield generation, and developer-friendly APIs for extra services. Security features include Multi-Party Computation, HSM-based signing, and quantum-safe cryptography to ensure compliance and resilience.
According to IBM’s Tom McPherson, the platform gives clients ‘the opportunity to enter and expand into the digital asset space backed by IBM’s level of security and reliability.’ Dfns CEO Clarisse Hagège said the partnership builds infrastructure to scale digital assets from pilots to global use.
IBM plans to roll out Digital Asset Haven via SaaS and hybrid models in late 2025, with on-premises deployment expected in 2026.
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Citi and Coinbase have announced a strategic partnership to enhance digital asset payment capabilities for institutional clients. The collaboration will begin by streamlining fiat transactions and strengthening links between traditional banking and digital assets via Coinbase’s on/off-ramps.
Both firms plan to introduce further initiatives in the coming months aimed at simplifying global access to crypto payments.
According to Citi’s Head of Payments, Debopama Sen, the partnership supports Citi’s goal of creating a ‘network of networks’ that enables borderless payments. Operating across 94 markets and 300 networks, Citi sees the move as progress towards integrating blockchain into mainstream finance.
Coinbase’s Brian Foster said the partnership merges Citi’s payments expertise with Coinbase’s digital asset leadership. Together, they aim to build next-generation infrastructure enabling seamless, round-the-clock access to crypto services for institutional clients.
The partnership builds on Citi’s ongoing investment in digital finance, including its Citi Token Services and 24/7 USD Clearing system. By aligning with Coinbase, the bank reinforces its commitment to innovation and positions itself at the forefront of the evolving digital money landscape.
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Deepfake videos powered by AI are spreading across social media at an unprecedented pace, but their popularity carries a hidden environmental cost.
Creating realistic AI videos depends on vast data centres that consume enormous amounts of electricity and use fresh water to cool powerful servers. Each clip quietly produced adds to the rising energy demand and increasing pressure on local water supplies.
Apps such as Sora have made generating these videos almost effortless, resulting in millions of downloads and a constant stream of new content. Users are being urged to consider how frequently they produce and share such media, given the heavy energy and water footprint behind every video.
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Elon Musk has launched Grokipedia, an AI-driven online encyclopedia developed by his company xAI. The platform, described as an alternative to Wikipedia, debuted on Monday with over 885,000 articles written and verified by AI.
Musk claimed the early version already surpasses Wikipedia in quality and transparency, promising significant improvements with the release of version 1.0.
Unlike Wikipedia’s crowdsourced model, Grokipedia does not allow users to edit content directly. Instead, users can request modifications through xAI’s chatbot Grok, which decides whether to implement changes and explains its reasoning.
Musk said the project’s guiding principle is ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,’ acknowledging the platform’s imperfections while pledging continuous refinement.
However, Grokipedia’s launch has raised questions about originality. Several entries contain disclaimers crediting Wikipedia under a Creative Commons licence, with some articles appearing nearly identical.
Musk confirmed awareness of the issue and stated that improvements are expected before the end of the year. The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, responded calmly, noting that human-created knowledge remains at the heart of its mission.
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Qualcomm unveiled AI200 and AI250 data-centre accelerators aimed at high-throughput, low-TCO generative AI inference. AI200 targets rack-level deployment with high performance per pound per watt and 768 GB LPDDR per card for large models.
AI250 introduces a near-memory architecture that boosts adequate memory bandwidth by over tenfold while lowering power draw. Qualcomm pitches the design for disaggregated serving, improving hardware utilisation across large fleets.
Both arrive as full racks with direct liquid cooling, PCIe for scale-up, Ethernet for scale-out, and confidential computing. Qualcomm quotes around 160 kW per rack for thermally efficient, dense inference.
A hyperscaler-grade software stack spans apps to system software with one-click onboarding of Hugging Face models. Support covers leading frameworks, inference engines, and optimisation techniques to simplify secure, scalable deployments.
Commercial timing splits the roadmap: AI200 in 2026 and AI250 in 2027. Qualcomm commits to an annual cadence for data-centre inference, aiming to lead in performance, energy efficiency, and total cost of ownership.
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Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, have developed a generative AI model designed to prevent sports injuries and assist rehabilitation.
The system, named BIGE (Biomechanics-informed GenAI for Exercise Science), integrates data on human motion with biomechanical constraints such as muscle force limits to create realistic training guidance.
BIGE can generate video demonstrations of optimal movements that athletes can imitate to enhance performance or avoid injury. It can also produce adaptive motions suited for athletes recovering from injuries, offering a personalised approach to rehabilitation.
The model merges generative AI with accurate modelling, overcoming limitations of previous systems that produced anatomically unrealistic results or required heavy computational resources.
To train BIGE, researchers used motion-capture data of athletes performing squats, converting them into 3D skeletal models with precise force calculations. The project’s next phase will expand to other types of movements and individualised training models.
Beyond sports, researchers suggest the tool could predict fall risks among the elderly. Professor Andrew McCulloch described the technology as ‘the future of exercise science’, while co-author Professor Rose Yu said its methods could be widely applied across healthcare and fitness.
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