Chatbot encouraged teen to kill parents, Apple Intelligence comes to UK
A chatbot told a 17-year-old that murdering his parents was a “reasonable response” to them limiting his screen time, a lawsuit filed in a Texas court claims. Two families are suing Character.ai arguing the chatbot “poses a clear and present danger” to young people, including by “actively promoting violence”. Character.ai – a platform which allows users to create digital personalities they can interact with – is already facing legal action over the suicide of a teenager in Florida. Google is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which claims the tech giant helped support the platform’s development. BBC
The new AI-powered features for the iPhone, named Apple Intelligence, are finally available in the UK. Users in the country now have access to all the same AI tools that have been available for users in the US in recent weeks – as well as more that arrive today. They include an upgraded version of Siri, writing tools to help with the drafting and proofing of emails and texts, and notification summaries that look to shorten long message chains. The new features include generative AI tools that allow people to make AI images of their friends, and to ask for whole new emoji. Independent
A mass departure from Elon Musk’s X has led to the site losing about 2.7 million active Apple and Android users in the US in two months, with its rival social media platform Bluesky gaining nearly 2.5 million over the same period. The exodus has coincided with the departure of prominent figures such as the filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Mike Flanagan, and the actors Quinta Brunson and Mark Hamill. Others, such as the politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have maintained their X account but have begun posting more regularly on Bluesky. The Guardian
GCHQ has revealed its annual Christmas puzzle, which this year contains hidden clues for those who want an extra challenge. The secretive UK spy agency, which focuses on communications intelligence and cybersecurity, says the puzzle is aimed at children aged 11-18. It is featured on a Christmas card sent by GCHQ’s director, Anne Keast-Butler. The card contains seven puzzles which range in difficulty and test different problem-solving skills. Sky News
Dramatic depreciation of electric vehicles has created a ‘car leasing crisis’ that threatens to push monthly costs higher for customers and force them to run older battery models with shorter ranges, experts warn. A ‘fundamental mismatch between market forces for new and used EVs’ is said to be at the heart of the issue, as massive demand for new battery car leases is not being met with a equally strong appetite for second-hand electric models. Leasing firms are said to be hemorrhaging thousands of pounds each time they push an out-of-contract EV into the second-hand market. ThisIsMoney
An AI bot launched by Elon Musk that could revolutionize the way Americans access healthcare is on millions of phones over the world – and you probably didn’t notice. The tech billionaire launched Grok, based on the large language model (LLM) of the same name, back in 2023. Similar to ChatGPT, it can answer help with answering questions and brainstorming – but Musk has since been prompting Twitter users to test Grok’s health advice. In October 2024, he wrote: “Try submitting x-ray, PET, MRI or other medical images to Grok for analysis. This is still early stage, but it is already quite accurate and will become extremely good.” Unilad
