Aug 11, 2025

AI as force nudifier suggests parents should rethink sharing kids’ photos online

Parents are increasingly avoiding posting photos of their children on social media due to AI-powered "nudifier" apps that can generate fake nude images from any photograph. The shift comes as these deepfake tools have become widely accessible and cheap, with some offering free trials and costing as little as 8 cents per fake image. The big picture: AI nudifier apps have transformed the landscape of online child safety, making it possible for anyone to create convincing fake nude images with minimal technical skill or cost. These apps generate roughly $36 million annually in revenue and are being widely used in...

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On-premises GPU servers cost same as 6-9 months of cloud

A new analysis reveals that on-premises GPU servers cost roughly the same as six to nine months of equivalent cloud capacity, yet most AI executives remain unaware of this stark mathematical reality. This hidden cost structure means companies could save hundreds of thousands of dollars over three to five years by reconsidering their cloud-first AI infrastructure strategies. The big picture: While cloud computing promised flexible, pay-as-you-go scaling, AI workloads break these traditional assumptions in ways that make cloud economics misleading for sustained GPU-intensive operations. Key cost comparisons: The financial gap between cloud and on-premises becomes stark when examined closely. A...

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AI model training could consume 4 gigawatts by 2030

AI model training could consume more than 4 gigawatts of power by 2030—enough to power entire cities—as energy demands for frontier AI development continue doubling annually, according to a new report from Epoch AI, a research institute investigating AI trajectory, and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), an independent nonprofit. This exponential growth in power consumption poses significant challenges for utility companies and could derail tech giants' climate commitments, even as companies explore distributed training and flexible power solutions to manage the unprecedented energy demands. What you should know: Recent AI training runs like Elon Musk's Grok AI already require...

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Legal scholar proposes “right to delete” dead relatives’ digital data

Legal scholar Victoria Haneman is proposing that families of deceased individuals should have the right to delete their loved ones' digital data to prevent AI-powered "digital resurrection." Her argument, published in the Boston College Law Review, addresses a growing concern as AI technology increasingly enables the recreation of dead people's voices, personalities, and likenesses without family consent. Why this matters: Current privacy and publicity laws offer inadequate protection against unauthorized AI recreation of deceased individuals, leaving families vulnerable to potentially distressing digital resurrections of their loved ones. The legal gaps: Existing laws fail to address AI-based recreation of the deceased...

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TD Securities launches AI assistant for equity teams using OpenAI tech

TD Securities has launched the TD AI Virtual Assistant, powered by OpenAI's GPT models and developed with Layer 6, a Canadian AI company acquired by TD Bank in 2018, to deliver real-time equity insights to its institutional sales, trading, and research teams. The assistant, which went live on July 8, represents a significant step forward for AI adoption in the highly regulated financial services sector, where banks have traditionally taken a cautious approach to implementing AI agents. What you should know: The TD AI Virtual Assistant serves as a sophisticated knowledge management system designed specifically for front-office equity professionals. The...

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Claude gets 4 new personalization features to remember your work style

Anthropic has rolled out a comprehensive personalization upgrade for Claude, its AI assistant, marking a significant shift from generic chatbot interactions toward truly adaptive AI partnerships. The company, which competes directly with OpenAI's ChatGPT in the enterprise AI market, introduced four major features designed to make Claude remember your preferences, maintain project continuity, and adapt its communication style to match your specific needs. This upgrade addresses one of the most persistent frustrations with AI assistants: the need to repeatedly provide context and preferences in every conversation. Instead of treating each interaction as a blank slate, Claude now builds understanding over...

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Still not getting it: Apple delays Siri overhaul to 2026 amid App Intents struggles

Apple's ambitious plan to transform Siri into a truly intelligent assistant is facing significant technical hurdles, with the company now targeting spring 2026 for a comprehensive overhaul that could finally deliver on promises made nearly two years ago. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, a respected Apple analyst who frequently reports on the company's internal developments, Apple is making progress on what it calls an "overhauled" Siri experience. However, engineers are struggling with a critical component called App Intents—a feature designed to let Siri take meaningful actions across different applications on behalf of users. The stakes couldn't be higher for Apple....

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Men report severe addiction to AI-generated adult content with impossible anatomies

A growing number of men are reporting severe addiction to AI-generated adult content, with users describing how the technology's ability to create impossible anatomical features has hijacked their brains and escalated their consumption patterns. The phenomenon highlights emerging concerns about how AI-generated content could create more addictive and extreme forms of digital dependency than traditional adult material. What you should know: Self-described "gooners" in online communities are warning others about AI-generated adult content's addictive potential. A 26-year-old man named Kyle told Wired his addiction began after encountering an AI-generated Instagram Reel depicting a woman with "extremely large breasts the size...

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The AI will take your statement now: Jersey police streamline witness interviews and boost forensics

Jersey police have successfully integrated artificial intelligence into their crime-fighting operations, with AI-powered tools now helping transcribe witness interviews and enhance digital forensics capabilities. The States of Jersey Police Authority's annual report highlights how these technological advances are delivering "long-term efficiencies and enhanced decision-making" while maintaining human oversight of all AI-assisted processes. What you should know: The Jersey police force began testing AI transcription technology in March to streamline witness interview processing and improve operational efficiency. Police Chief Robin Smith emphasized that while AI promises enhanced capabilities, all processes remain under human supervision to ensure accuracy and accountability. The technology...

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C3 AI shares plummet 30% as CEO health issues impact sales

C3 AI shares plummeted 30% after the enterprise AI company reported preliminary quarterly revenue of $70.2-70.4 million, a significant drop from $87.2 million in the same period last year. CEO Thomas Siebel called the sales performance "completely unacceptable" and attributed it to organizational restructuring and his ongoing health challenges, which have prompted the board to begin searching for his replacement. What you should know: C3 AI's financial struggles reflect deeper operational challenges beyond typical market fluctuations. The company expects to report a GAAP loss from operations between $124.7 million and $124.9 million for the quarter, nearly double the $72.59 million...

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Micron raises Q4 forecast to $11.2B on surging AI memory chip demand

Micron Technology raised its fourth-quarter revenue forecast to $11.2 billion and adjusted earnings per share to $2.85, surpassing previous estimates due to surging demand for AI memory chips. The semiconductor company's shares jumped 5% in premarket trading as investors responded to the stronger-than-expected guidance driven by increased orders from tech firms scaling their AI data center investments. What you should know: Micron significantly boosted its financial outlook for the quarter ending in August, reflecting the company's position in the AI infrastructure boom. Revenue forecast increased from $10.7 billion (plus or minus $300 million) to $11.2 billion (plus or minus $100...

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Biotech startup Tahoe raises $30M for AI cancer drug discovery platform

Biotech startup Tahoe Therapeutics has raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Amplify Partners, bringing its total funding to $42 million and valuing the company at $120 million. The Palo Alto-based company has developed breakthrough technology for generating massive biological datasets needed to train AI models that can simulate living cells, positioning it to accelerate cancer drug discovery through digital cell modeling. What you should know: Tahoe's proprietary Mosaic platform can generate unprecedented amounts of single-cell data by testing multiple patient cell types simultaneously, rather than conventional one-patient-at-a-time approaches. In February 2024, the company released Tahoe-100M, a dataset...

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Saudi Arabia deploys OpenAI’s open-source models in sovereign data centers

Saudi Arabia's AI venture Humain and chipmaker Groq have deployed OpenAI's new open-source models—gpt-oss-120B and gpt-oss-20B—within Saudi Arabia's sovereign data centers. This marks a significant step in Saudi Arabia's push for AI sovereignty, ensuring compliance with local data regulations while providing high-speed AI inference capabilities to enterprises, government institutions, and developers without requiring data to leave the Kingdom. What you should know: The deployment brings cutting-edge AI capabilities directly to Saudi infrastructure with impressive performance metrics.• The gpt-oss-120B model operates at over 500 tokens per second, while the smaller gpt-oss-20B delivers over 1,000 tokens per second on Groq's specialized hardware.•...

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Survey reveals AI agents can control computers but create massive security risks

Researchers from Zhejiang University and OPPO AI Center have published the most comprehensive survey to date of "OS Agents"—AI systems that can autonomously control computers, mobile phones, and web browsers by directly interacting with their interfaces. The 30-page academic review, accepted for publication at the Association for Computational Linguistics conference, comes as major tech companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Apple, and Google race to deploy AI agents capable of performing complex digital tasks, while highlighting significant security vulnerabilities that most organizations aren't prepared to address. The big picture: This technology represents a fundamental shift toward AI systems that can genuinely understand...

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Financial firms deploy AI to auto-generate fraud rules as UK losses hit $1.3B

Financial services firms are increasingly deploying AI-powered fraud detection systems that automatically generate and optimize rules based on historical data patterns, replacing traditional manual rule creation. This shift comes as fraud losses in the UK reached £1.1 billion in 2024, with confirmed fraud cases rising 14% to 3.13 million, driven by more sophisticated AI-enabled attacks including deepfakes and synthetic identities. The scale of the problem: Fraud has become the most common crime in the UK, accounting for 41% of all crime in England and Wales, with financial services firms facing particular challenges. Q1 2024 saw 8,374 consumer complaints about fraud...

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Evasive though persuasive: Study finds AI reasoning models produce fluent nonsense instead of logic

University of Arizona researchers have found that large language models using "chain of thought" reasoning are fundamentally flawed at logical inference, functioning more like "sophisticated simulators of reasoning-like text" than true reasoners. The study reveals that these AI systems, which the industry increasingly relies on for complex problem-solving, fail catastrophically when asked to generalize beyond their training data, producing what researchers call "fluent nonsense" with a deceptively convincing appearance of logical thinking. The big picture: The research challenges the AI industry's growing confidence in reasoning models by demonstrating that apparent performance improvements are "largely a brittle mirage" that becomes fragile...

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Amazon uses AI and synthetic data to boost “zero-touch manufacturing”

Amazon Devices & Services has deployed a groundbreaking AI-powered manufacturing solution at one of its facilities that enables robotic arms to autonomously audit devices and integrate new products into production lines using only synthetic data. The technology represents a major advancement toward "zero-touch manufacturing," where robots can handle diverse products without requiring physical prototypes or hardware changes, significantly accelerating production timelines and reducing costs. How it works: The solution combines Amazon's custom software with NVIDIA digital twin technologies to create photorealistic, physics-enabled simulations of devices and factory workstations. NVIDIA Isaac Sim generates over 50,000 synthetic images from CAD (computer-aided design)...

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House Democrats push CMS to cancel AI-driven Medicare approval program

More than a dozen House Democrats have pressed Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz to cancel a planned prior authorization pilot program that would expand AI-driven approval requirements to traditional Medicare. The program, set to begin testing in six states this January, represents a significant shift for traditional Medicare, which has historically operated without extensive prior authorization requirements. What you should know: The pilot program incorporates artificial intelligence to help make healthcare coverage decisions, marking a departure from traditional Medicare's historically streamlined approach. Representatives Suzan DelBene of Washington and Ami Bera of California led the Democratic...

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UK freelance journalism income falls 66%, concentrates in London while AI poses new threats

Freelance journalists in the UK are earning 66% less than they did 15 years ago, with average annual earnings now at just £7,000, while facing new threats from generative AI that could further undermine their profession. A recent roundtable convened by the New Statesman and the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), a UK organization that collects licensing fees for writers, explored how to create sustainable futures for freelance journalism amid these mounting economic pressures and technological disruptions. The big picture: The journalism industry is experiencing a perfect storm of declining revenues, increased reliance on freelance labor, and emerging AI...

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Reddit blocks Internet Archive to protect $200M AI licensing deals

Reddit has blocked the Internet Archive from indexing its content after discovering AI companies were circumventing Reddit's scraping restrictions by harvesting data from archived pages instead. The move effectively eliminates a key resource for researchers and users who relied on archived Reddit content to track deleted posts and preserve community discussions. What you should know: The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine can now only capture screenshots of Reddit's homepage, not individual threads, profiles, or comments. Previously, the Wayback Machine served as a comprehensive backup of Reddit content, documenting everything from deleted posts to user activity across various subreddits. Moving forward, the...

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Dim future: Microsoft Lens app shutting down beginning in fall as users directed to Copilot

Microsoft is shutting down its popular Lens PDF scanning app after nearly a decade, directing users toward its AI-powered Microsoft 365 Copilot instead. The retirement affects over 92 million users who relied on the free, straightforward document scanning tool that converted printed and handwritten notes into PDFs and other file formats. What you should know: Microsoft Lens will be completely phased out over a four-month period starting this fall. The app will be retired from iOS and Android devices on September 15, 2025, and removed from app stores on November 15. Scanning functionality will be disabled on December 15, 2025,...

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AI boom creates 498 unicorns worth $2.7T in unprecedented wealth creation

Artificial intelligence startups have created dozens of new billionaires in 2025, generating wealth at an unprecedented scale and speed that surpasses previous tech booms. This AI-driven wealth creation spree now includes 498 AI unicorns valued at a combined $2.7 trillion, with 100 of these billion-dollar companies founded since 2023 alone, marking what researchers call the fastest wealth accumulation in over a century of economic data. The big picture: The current AI boom is creating personal wealth on a scale that makes previous tech waves look modest, with combined effects from soaring private company valuations, public AI stock prices, and massive...

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Sitch dating app uses AI matchmaker to set up $160 blind dates in NYC, SF and LA

A new dating app called Sitch uses an AI matchmaker to set up users on blind dates, charging up to $160 for eight introductions. Instead of browsing profiles or messaging matches directly, users answer questions about their preferences and values, then ask the AI about potential dates before deciding whether to meet in person. How it works: The AI-powered matchmaking process replaces traditional swiping with conversational screening. Users first answer questions from the AI "matchmaker" about their interests, ideal dates, and personal values. The AI compiles this information into categories like "Non negotiables," "Red flags," and "Nice to Haves." When...

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Pot calling kettle AI-generated: Midjourney claims studios use AI while suing for copyright

Midjourney has filed its first legal response to a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Disney and Universal Studios, arguing that AI training on copyrighted works constitutes protected "fair use" under copyright law. The AI image generation startup is pushing back against claims of "vast, intentional, and unrelenting copyright infringement," while accusing the entertainment giants of hypocrisy for using AI tools themselves while simultaneously seeking to restrict AI training practices. The big picture: This case represents a pivotal moment in the ongoing legal battle over AI training rights, with Midjourney challenging the studios' ability to control how their copyrighted content is...

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