Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Marc Benioff shared what he thinks is the darkest aspect of AI.On an episode of the “TBPN” show streamed on Wednesday, the Salesforce CEO said that he couldn’t “believe what he was watching” when he saw a “60 Minutes” documentary on chatbot-building startup Character.AI and its impact on children.”We don’t know how these models work. And to see how it was working with these children, and then the kids ended up taking their lives,” he said, “That’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”Character.AI allows users to build custom chatbots that can emulate the behaviour of a close friend or…
Former OpenAI exec Mira Murati’s startup, Thinking Machines Lab, is saying goodbye to two of its co-founders, both of whom are headed back to OpenAI. Another former OpenAI staffer who went to work for Murati’s startup is also headed back to the company. On social media on Wednesday, Murati announced the departure of Barret Zoph, the company’s co-founder and CTO. “We have parted ways with Barret,” Murati said in a post on X. “Soumith Chintala will be the new CTO of Thinking Machines. He is a brilliant and seasoned leader who has made important contributions to the AI field for…
Whole milk is heading back to school cafeterias across the country after President Trump signed a bill Wednesday overturning Obama-era limits on higher-fat milk options.Nondairy drinks such as fortified soy milk may also be on the menu in the coming months following the adoption of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which cleared Congress in the fall.The action allows schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to serve whole and 2% fat milk, along with the skim and low-fat products required since 2012.”Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, whole milk is a great thing,” Mr. Trump said…
A “super greens” dietary supplement recalled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday has been linked to at least 45 salmonella cases across 21 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Illnesses linked to the New York-based Live it Up Super Greens brand powder were reported from Aug. 22, 2025, to Dec. 30, 2025, in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, the CDC said.Twelve people have been hospitalized, according to the federal agency. Of the people interviewed…
Grok will no longer be allowed to create AI photos of real people in sexualized or revealing clothing, after widespread global backlash.”We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis,” X’s safety account said in a blog post on the platform on Wednesday. “This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers.”The change was announced hours after California’s top prosecutor, Rob Bonta, said he launched an investigation into sexualized AI deepfakes, including those of children, generated by Grok. Bonta said that there had been…
A majority of counties across the U.S. are seeing a steady rise in vaccine exemptions for religious or personal beliefs among children entering kindergarten, a trend that has accelerated since the pandemic, according to a new study.The research, published Wednesday in JAMA, is based on a data investigation by NBC News with Stanford University. Mustafa Fattah, medical fellow with NBC News, is lead author on the study.The researchers analyzed data on medical and nonmedical vaccine exemptions for kindergartners collected from 3,053 U.S. counties and jurisdictions (such as school districts and parishes) across 45 states and the District of Columbia from…
A majority of counties across the U.S. are seeing a steady rise in vaccine exemptions for religious or personal beliefs among children entering kindergarten, a trend that has accelerated since the pandemic, according to a new study.The research, published Wednesday in JAMA, is based on a data investigation by NBC News with Stanford University. Mustafa Fattah, medical fellow with NBC News, is lead author on the study.The researchers analyzed data on medical and nonmedical vaccine exemptions for kindergartners collected from 3,053 U.S. counties and jurisdictions (such as school districts and parishes) across 45 states and the District of Columbia from…
At least 171 measles cases have been confirmed in the U.S. so far this year, according to newly updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Cases have been confirmed in nine states, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia.At least one state, South Carolina, has been facing a measles outbreak since early October, with the majority of cases in Spartanburg County, which borders North Carolina.Amid growing Texas outbreak, how contagious is measles?At least 124 new measles cases have been reported in the state since last Friday, health officials announced earlier this…
As AI automates parts of the workforce, Emversity, an Indian workforce-training startup, is building talent pipelines for roles it sees AI can’t replace, and has raised $30 million in a new round to expand job-ready training in the world’s most populous market. The all-equity Series A round was led by Premji Invest, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Z47, the Bengaluru-based startup announced on Thursday. The funding values Emversity at around $120 million post-money, sources confirmed to TechCrunch, up from about $60 million in its April 2025 pre-Series A round. Total funding now stands at $46 million. India has…
On October 3, Irem Sumer signed a document that team leaders of nerdy crews worldwide dream of inking: a term sheet that raised $30 million in Series A funding for her Istanbul-based game company, Talemonster Games.Less than 24 hours later, Sumer, the startup’s CEO, was signing another important document — her marriage license.”It was the most chaotic two weeks of my life,” Sumer told Business Insider, adding that at one point, she told her then-fiancé that wedding planning would be left to him, and she’d just show up to get married.That day in October capped off two years of work…