Ethereum developer Federico Carrone, known as Fede’s Intern, was detained in Turkey over allegations of helping misuse the Ethereum network. The incident happened at Izmir airport, where authorities informed him of a pending criminal charge likely linked to his privacy protocol work.
After intervention from the Ethereum community and legal support, Carrone was released and allowed to leave. The case seems tied to blockchain privacy tools, which face rising government scrutiny.
Carrone’s team previously came under attention for Tutela, a study on Ethereum and Tornado Cash user privacy. He emphasised that creating privacy code does not make developers criminals, comparing it to blaming software creators for misuse.
Growing legal challenges face developers building privacy and self-custody tools. Tornado Cash co-founder Alexey Roman recently received a criminal conviction and may face prison.
Crypto advocates warn lawsuits against developers risk stifling innovation and highlight ongoing legal uncertainty.
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Blue Origin has opened its doors to cryptocurrency enthusiasts, allowing passengers to pay for suborbital spaceflights in Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, USDt and USDC. Partnering with Shift4 Payments, Blue Origin will take direct wallet transfers from MetaMask and Coinbase for New Shepard flights.
The move adds to a growing trend of blockchain ventures in aerospace. Past projects have ranged from NFTs sent to space to the launch of satellites hosting decentralised networks.
Spacecoin XYZ recently began building an orbital blockchain network. World Mobile is also rolling out a decentralised 5G system using hydrogen-powered drones to deliver affordable, high-speed internet to underserved regions.
Blue Origin’s ties to crypto go back years. In 2021, Tron founder Justin Sun purchased a $28 million ticket for a Blue Origin flight, with the funds benefiting 19 space-related charities.
Following the journey, Sun called for global action to protect Earth, a message that resonates as technology and space exploration continue to intersect.
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OpenAI has rolled out GPT-5 as the default AI model powering ChatGPT, bringing new features designed to boost productivity for personal and business users.
The new model seamlessly switches between quick search and in-depth reasoning, allowing more fluid and intelligent responses. Users can prompt ChatGPT to ‘think hard’ to trigger the deeper reasoning mode.
ChatGPT Plus users now benefit from double the previous message limit, with 160 messages allowed every three hours. Meanwhile, Team and Pro plan subscribers enjoy unlimited GPT-5 access unless accounts are misused.
Free users have a limit of 10 messages every five hours and one daily ‘Thinking’ mode message. Older GPT models such as GPT-4.1 and GPT-3 have been discontinued but remain accessible via web settings for paying customers.
All built-in tools are automatically enabled according to user needs, removing the need to toggle features like web search, image generation, or data analysis on and off. OpenAI also revealed plans to support third-party plugins to expand ChatGPT’s development capabilities further.
The new voice mode now follows instructions more accurately and will be available to all users.
Overall, GPT-5 marks a significant leap forward, improving reasoning, creativity, and alignment with user intent. OpenAI aims to make ChatGPT an even more powerful assistant by integrating enhanced capabilities and streamlining the user experience.
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GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke has announced his decision to step down later in the year to pursue new entrepreneurial ventures.
Instead of appointing a new CEO, Microsoft will integrate GitHub more closely into its CoreAI division. Since Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2018, the platform has operated chiefly independently, but with this change, leadership will report directly to several Microsoft executives.
Under Dohmke’s leadership since 2021, GitHub’s user base more than doubled to over 150 million developers, supporting over one billion repositories and forks.
The platform has become essential to Microsoft’s AI and developer strategy, especially with growing competition from Google, Replit, and others in the AI coding market.
GitHub recently launched advanced AI tools like Copilot, which suggest code and automate programming tasks, helping developers work more efficiently.
Microsoft’s investment in AI is shaping the future of coding, with GitHub playing a central role by providing direct access to developers worldwide.
Dohmke will remain with Microsoft until the end of the year to assist with the transition, emphasising GitHub’s importance to Microsoft’s broader ambitions in AI and cloud computing.
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Elon Musk has announced plans to sue Apple, accusing the company of unfairly favouring OpenAI’s ChatGPT over his xAI app Grok on the App Store.
Musk claims that Apple’s ranking practices make it impossible for any AI app except OpenAI’s to reach the top spot, calling this behaviour an ‘unequivocal antitrust violation’. ChatGPT holds the number one position on Apple’s App Store, while Grok ranks fifth.
Musk expressed frustration on social media, questioning why his X app, which he describes as ‘the number one news app in the world,’ has not received higher placement. He suggested that Apple’s ranking decisions might be politically motivated.
The dispute highlights growing tensions as AI companies compete for prominence on major platforms.
Apple and Musk’s xAI have not responded yet to requests for comment.
The controversy unfolds amid increasing scrutiny of App Store policies and their impact on competition, especially within the fast-evolving AI sector.
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After Elon Musk accused Apple of favouring OpenAI’s ChatGPT over other AI applications on the App Store, there was a strong response from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Altman alleged that Musk manipulates the social media platform X for his benefit, targeting competitors and critics. The exchange adds to their history of public disagreements since Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018.
Musk’s claim centres on Apple’s refusal to list X or Grok (XAI’s AI app) in the App Store’s ‘Must have’ section, despite X being the top news app worldwide and Grok ranking fifth.
Although Musk has not provided evidence for antitrust violations, a recent US court ruling found Apple in contempt for restricting App Store competition. The EU also fined Apple €500 million earlier this year over commercial restrictions on app developers.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT currently leads the App Store’s ‘Top Free Apps’ list for iPhones in the US, while Grok holds the fifth spot. Musk’s accusations highlight ongoing tensions in the AI industry as big tech companies battle for app visibility and market dominance.
The situation emphasises how regulatory scrutiny and legal challenges shape competition within the digital economy.
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Indonesia is urgently working to secure strategic autonomy in AI as Huawei rapidly expands its presence in the country’s critical infrastructure. Officials are under pressure to swiftly adopt enforceable safeguards to balance innovation and security. The aim is to prevent critical vulnerabilities from emerging.
Huawei’s telecom dominance extends into AI through 5G infrastructure, network tools, and AI cloud centres. Partnerships with local telecoms, along with government engagement, position the company at the heart of Indonesia’s digital landscape.
Experts warn that concentrating AI under one foreign supplier could compromise data sovereignty and heighten security risks. Current governance relies on two non-binding guidelines, providing no enforceable oversight or urgent baseline for protecting critical infrastructure.
The withdrawal of Malaysia from Huawei’s AI projects highlights urgent geopolitical stakes. Indonesia’s fragmented approach, with ministries acting separately, risks producing conflicting policies and leaving immediate gaps in security oversight.
Analysts suggest a robust framework should require supply chain transparency, disclosure of system origins, and adherence to data protection laws. Indonesia must act swiftly to establish these rules and coordinate policy across ministries to safeguard its infrastructure.
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Four Ghanaian nationals have been extradited to the United States over an international cybercrime scheme that stole more than $100 million, allegedly through sophisticated romance scams and business email compromise (BEC) attacks targeting individuals and companies nationwide.
The syndicate, led by Isaac Oduro Boateng, Inusah Ahmed, Derrick van Yeboah, and Patrick Kwame Asare, used fake romantic relationships and email spoofing to deceive victims. Businesses were targeted by altering payment details to divert funds.
US prosecutors say the group maintained a global infrastructure, with command and control elements in West Africa. Stolen funds were laundered through a hierarchical network to ‘chairmen’ who coordinated operations and directed subordinate operators executing fraud schemes.
Investigators found the romance scams used detailed victim profiling, while BEC attacks monitored transactions and swapped banking details. Multiple schemes ran concurrently under strict operational security to avoid detection.
Following their extradition, three suspects arrived in the United States on 7 August 2025, arranged through cooperation between US authorities and the Economic and Organised Crime Office of Ghana.
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Small language models are emerging as a serious challenger to large, general-purpose AI in translation, offering faster turnaround, lower costs, and greater accuracy for specific industries and language pairs.
Straker, an ASX-listed language technology firm, claims its Tiri model family can outperform larger systems by focusing on domain-specific understanding and terminology rather than broad coverage.
Tiri delivers higher contextual accuracy by training on carefully curated translation memories and sector-specific data, cutting the need for expensive human post-editing. The models also consume less computing power, benefiting finance, healthcare, and law industries.
Straker integrates human feedback directly into its workflows to ensure ongoing improvements and maintain client trust.
The company is expanding its technology into enterprise automation by integrating with the AI workflow platform n8n.
It adds Straker’s Verify tool to a network of over 230,000 users, allowing automated translation checks, real-time quality scores, and seamless escalation to human linguists. Further integrations with platforms like Microsoft Teams are planned.
Straker recently reported record profitability and secured a price target upgrade from broker Ord Minnett. The firm believes the future of AI translation lies not in scale but in specialised models that deliver translations that are both fluent and accurate in context.
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A recent report by Chainstory analysed 80,000 crypto news articles across five leading sites, revealing that 48% of them disclosed some form of AI use during 2025. Investing.com and The Defiant led in AI-generated or assisted content among the sites studied.
The extent of AI use across the broader industry may vary, as disclosure practices differ.
Editors interviewed for the report highlighted AI’s strengths and limitations. While AI proves valuable for research tasks such as summarising reports and extracting data, its storytelling ability remains weak.
Articles entirely written by AI often lack a genuine human tone, which can feel unnatural to audiences. One editor noted that readers can usually tell when content isn’t authored by a person, regardless of disclosure.
Afik Rechler, co-CEO of Chainstory, stated that AI is now an integral part of crypto journalism but has not replaced human reporters. He emphasised balancing AI help with human insight to keep readers’ trust, since current AI can’t manage complex, nuanced stories.
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