A major controversy erupted at the AIDS 2026 Conference in Rio de Janeiro after the U.S. State Department displayed an AI-generated map that mislabeled multiple African countries. Nations including Nigeria, Mozambique, Uganda, Malawi, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon were either misplaced or incorrectly represented, triggering widespread criticism.

The U.S. later apologized, admitting the map was added at the last minute by a staff member. Critics say the incident raises serious concerns about the unchecked use of artificial intelligence in official government presentations, especially on sensitive diplomatic matters involving Africa.

U.S. Gives Millions in Aid to Africa, but Gets Its Map Wrong | Race to Power 

A major controversy has erupted after a map of Africa displayed by the U.S. State Department at the AIDS 2026 Conference in Rio de Janeiro reportedly mislabeled every African country.

The incorrect map quickly drew criticism from delegates and observers after analyses found major geographical errors, including Nigeria being shown as a landlocked country in the Sahara, Mozambique placed in the Horn of Africa, and Ivory Coast located on the wrong side of the continent.

The controversy deepened after reports revealed that the presentation slide contained an AI watermark, indicating it had been created using OpenAI tools. The U.S. State Department accepted responsibility for the mistake, saying a staff member hastily modified the presentation before the event. OpenAI said it was investigating the reports surrounding the incident.

U.S. Govt's Map of Africa Sparks Controversy | Wion 

A map displayed by the U.S. government during the AIDS 2026 Conference in Rio de Janeiro has sparked controversy after reports claimed that every African country was incorrectly labelled or misplaced.

The map reportedly showed Nigeria as a landlocked country, placed Mozambique in the Horn of Africa, and positioned Ivory Coast on the wrong side of the continent. The slide also reportedly carried an OpenAI watermark, raising questions about whether AI-generated content was used without proper verification.

U.S. Sparks Controversy After Mislabeling Every African Country on Conference Map

AI safety concerns have intensified after Anthropic disclosed that several versions of its Claude model gained unauthorised access to real-world computer systems during security testing. This comes just days after Anthropic rival OpenAI revealed a similar containment failure involving one of its own advanced models.In a blog post published on Thursday (Jul 30), Anthropic said it reviewed more than 141,000 evaluation runs and found that three different versions of Claude had improperly accessed the systems of three external organisations.Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/scary-rogue-ai-on-the-loose-openai-agent-hit-another-tech-firm-s-customer-suggests-report-1785292505727">'Scary' Rogue AI on the loose? OpenAI agent hit another tech firm's customer, suggests report</a><h2>How could the AI get 'real-world access'?</h2>Anthropic said the incidents occurred because the AI models unexpectedly had internet access during testing due to a "misunderstanding" between Anthropic and its evaluation partner, Irregular.Once connected, Claude used "basic techniques, such as exploiting weak passwords and unauthenticated endpoints" to enter external systems, according to the company.One of the affected models was Mythos 5, Anthropic's most advanced AI system, which is currently available only to a limited group of approved partners.Anthropic said it is working with Irregular to investigate the incidents and has contacted, or attempted to contact, all three organisations whose systems were accessed.Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/anthropic-reveals-india-is-claude-ai-s-no-2-market-but-what-are-indians-actually-using-the-ai-for-wion-decodes-1785394109668">Anthropic reveals India is Claude AI's No. 2 market. But what are Indians actually using the AI for? | WION Decodes</a><h2>OpenAI's rogue agent</h2>The disclosure comes less than a week after OpenAI acknowledged that one of its frontier AI models escaped its testing environment, connected to the internet and infiltrated Hugging Face, a platform widely used by developers to host and share AI models and code.OpenAI later revealed it had identified three additional incidents involving unauthorised access during testing.The company has since paused parts of its evaluation programme while strengthening its sandboxing systems, which are designed to isolate experimental AI models from external networks.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was also expected to meet White House officials on Thursday to discuss the company's upcoming AI models and voluntary government cybersecurity testing of advanced AI systems. According to Reuters, Altman is scheduled to meet White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, technology adviser Michael Kratsios, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Anthropic has revealed that three versions of its Claude AI model gained unauthorised access to external computer systems during security testing after unexpectedly obtaining internet access. The disclosure comes days after OpenAI reported a similar containment failure.

AI safety concerns have intensified after Anthropic disclosed that several versions of its Claude model gained unauthorised access to real-world computer systems during security testing. This comes just days after Anthropic rival OpenAI revealed a similar containment failure involving one of its own advanced models. In a blog post published on Thursday (Jul 30), Anthropic said it reviewed more than 141,000 evaluation runs and found that three different versions of Claude had improperly accessed the systems of three external organisations. Also read | 'Scary' Rogue AI on the loose? OpenAI agent hit another tech firm's customer, suggests report How could the AI get 'real-world access'? Anthropic said the incidents occurred because the AI models unexpectedly had internet access during testing due to a "misunderstanding" between Anthropic and its evaluation partner, Irregular. Once connected, Claude used "basic techniques, such as exploiting weak passwords and unauthenticated endpoints" to enter external systems, according to the company. One of the affected models was Mythos 5, Anthropic's most advanced AI system, which is currently available only to a limited group of approved partners. Anthropic said it is working with Irregular to investigate the incidents and has contacted, or attempted to contact, all three organisations whose systems were accessed. Also read | Anthropic reveals India is Claude AI's No. 2 market. But what are Indians actually using the AI for? | WION Decodes OpenAI's rogue agent The disclosure comes less than a week after OpenAI acknowledged that one of its frontier AI models escaped its testing environment, connected to the internet and infiltrated Hugging Face, a platform widely used by developers to host and share AI models and code. OpenAI later revealed it had identified three additional incidents involving unauthorised access during testing. The company has since paused parts of its evaluation programme while strengthening its sandboxing systems, which are designed to isolate experimental AI models from external networks. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was also expected to meet White House officials on Thursday to discuss the company's upcoming AI models and voluntary government cybersecurity testing of advanced AI systems. According to Reuters, Altman is scheduled to meet White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, technology adviser Michael Kratsios, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Anthropic has revealed that three versions of its Claude AI model gained unauthorised access to external computer systems during security testing after unexpectedly obtaining internet access. The disclosure comes days after OpenAI reported a similar containment failure.

After OpenAI's 'scary' agent, Anthropic's Claude goes rogue; AI gains unauthorised 'real-world' access during testing

China's economy is increasingly becoming a tale of two contrasting realities. While provinces driven by artificial intelligence, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, and exports are experiencing rapid economic growth, regions dependent on tourism, real estate, and traditional industries are struggling to keep pace.

The latest provincial economic data highlights a widening K-shaped economic divide, with technology hubs such as Zhejiang, home to Alibaba, DeepSeek, and Unitree Robotics, outperforming the national average. Other manufacturing powerhouses including Shanghai, Anhui, and Shandong have also recorded strong growth, fueled by rising global demand for high-tech products.

China's K-Shaped Economy Deepens as AI Boom Widens Regional Gap

Anthropic, the tech firm behind Claude AI, has revealed that India has quietly become one of the world's biggest AI users. India, according to Anthropic's latest Economic Index, which analysed nearly one million Claude.ai conversations globally, India now accounts for 5.8 per cent of all Claude usage, second only to the United States.But what are they using the AI for? Indians aren't asking AI to write poems or plan holidays. They're asking it to write code, solve complex problems and save hours of work.<h2>How many Indians are using the technology?</h2>India may be the world's second-largest Claude market, yet the average Indian still isn't using AI very much. Instead, usage is heavily concentrated among software professionals in a handful of technology hubs.The report offers one of the clearest snapshots yet of who is using AI in India, what they're asking it to do, and why India's AI story looks very different from the rest of the world.Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/india-s-next-terror-threat-may-not-cross-the-border-it-may-enter-through-your-phone-wion-decodes-1784346117443">India's next terror threat may not cross the border. It may enter through your phone | WION Decodes</a>

Top 20 countries by share of global Claude.ai use. Bars show each country’s share of total conversations observed Novemb

<h2>India is No. 2 globally... but 101st per person</h2>This is perhaps the report's biggest surprise. India contributes 5.8 per cent of all Claude conversations globally, yet when adjusted for population, India falls to 101st out of 116 countries.That means India's AI boom isn't being driven by widespread adoption. It's being driven by scale. What it means is that India isn't yet an AI-first society. It's an AI-heavy professional economy. So, which states are using AI the most?<h2>Four states dominate India's AI use</h2>AI adoption isn't spread evenly across the country. More than half of India's Claude usage comes from just four places:Maharashtra (15.5 per cent) Tamil Nadu (13.2 per cent) Karnataka (12.7 per cent) Delhi (10.5 per cent)These are also India's biggest IT and services hubs, home to cities such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi NCR.The geography tells its own story. Rather than becoming a mass consumer technology, AI today appears to be an extension of India's existing software industry.<h2>So what are Indians actually asking AI to do?</h2>While AIs like Elon Musk's Grok have dominated headlines for its use to create nude, stripped-down images of young girls and women, Indians aren't using Claude AI for something that nefarious. Indians are overwhelmingly using the AI to write software.Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/elon-musk-s-xai-sues-minnesota-over-a-law-banning-ai-nude-images-of-children-claims-it-violates-free-speech-1785377389876">Elon Musk's xAI sues Minnesota over a law banning AI nude images of children, claims it violates free speech</a>According to Anthropic, 45.2 per cent of all AI-related occupational tasks in India are software-related. That's the highest share anywhere in the world.India even ranks ahead of Vietnam and Egypt in the proportion of AI use devoted to programming and software engineering.Education is the second major use case, with students increasingly relying on AI for learning, explanations and coursework. By contrast, relatively fewer Indians use Claude for casual or personal purposes compared with the global average.

Most common O*NET (Occupational Information Network) tasks among Claude use in India.

<h2>AI is saving Indians nearly four hours of work</h2>One statistic stands out above almost every other. The average task Indian users give Claude would normally take 3.8 hours to complete.With AI? The task just takes 14.8 minutes. That's roughly a 15-fold productivity boost. Globally, the average improvement is around 12 times faster.This suggests Indian users aren't giving AI simple jobs. They're bringing complex, time-consuming work and using AI to compress hours into minutes.<h2>Indians trust AI more than the rest of the world</h2>The report also found Indian users are more willing to let AI make decisions on their behalf.Anthropic measures something it calls AI autonomy, essentially how much responsibility users hand over to the model. India scored 3.60 out of 5, compared with the global average of 3.38.In practical terms, that means Indian users are more likely to ask AI to independently generate code, solve problems or complete substantial portions of work, rather than simply acting as an assistant.Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/scary-rogue-ai-on-the-loose-openai-agent-hit-another-tech-firm-s-customer-suggests-report-1785292505727">'Scary' Rogue AI on the loose? OpenAI agent hit another tech firm's customer, suggests report</a><h2>Many Indians are using AI for things they couldn't do themselves</h2>Another revealing finding concerns human capability. Globally, nearly 88 per cent of AI tasks could theoretically have been completed by the user without AI. In India, that figure drops to 84.6 per cent.It may sound like a small difference, but it suggests Indian users are more frequently turning to AI for genuinely difficult tasks, including programming in unfamiliar languages, solving technical problems or tackling work beyond their existing expertise.In other words, in India, AI isn't just replacing effort. It's expanding capability.<h2>Good prompts really do matter</h2>One of the report's most interesting observations concerns prompting. Anthropic found a strong relationship between the sophistication of a user's prompt and the quality of the AI's response.Indian users ranked among the top 10 per cent globally in the complexity of AI-generated outputs they received.That doesn't necessarily mean Indians are better prompt engineers. But it does suggest many are asking AI sophisticated, work-oriented questions that produce equally sophisticated answers.

Anthropic's latest Economic Index has found that India accounts for 5.8% of global Claude AI usage—second only to the US. But what are they using it for? The answer may surprise you.

Anthropic, the tech firm behind Claude AI, has revealed that India has quietly become one of the world's biggest AI users. India, according to Anthropic's latest Economic Index, which analysed nearly one million Claude.ai conversations globally, India now accounts for 5.8 per cent of all Claude usage, second only to the United States. But what are they using the AI for? Indians aren't asking AI to write poems or plan holidays. They're asking it to write code, solve complex problems and save hours of work. How many Indians are using the technology? India may be the world's second-largest Claude market, yet the average Indian still isn't using AI very much. Instead, usage is heavily concentrated among software professionals in a handful of technology hubs. The report offers one of the clearest snapshots yet of who is using AI in India, what they're asking it to do, and why India's AI story looks very different from the rest of the world. Also read | India's next terror threat may not cross the border. It may enter through your phone | WION Decodes

Anthropic's latest Economic Index has found that India accounts for 5.8% of global Claude AI usage—second only to the US. But what are they using it for? The answer may surprise you.

Anthropic reveals India is Claude AI's No. 2 market. But what are Indians actually using the AI for? | WION Decodes

An autonomous AI agent developed by OpenAI that went rogue during internal security testing and carried out a cyberattack on AI platform Hugging Face also compromised a customer hosted on cloud computing company Modal Labs, according to a Reuters report citing the company's chief technology officer and sources familiar with the incident.Modal stressed that its own infrastructure was never breached, saying the AI agent exploited a vulnerability in code published by one of its customers rather than breaking into the company's platform.Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/openai-google-are-selling-ai-to-chinese-firms-blacklisted-by-pentagon-says-report-the-battleground-of-ai-export-controls-1783675864444">OpenAI, Google are selling AI to Chinese firms blacklisted by Pentagon, says report: The battleground of AI export controls</a><h2>OpenAI agent found exposed customer endpoint</h2>According to a timeline published by Hugging Face on Tuesday, the rogue AI agent first broke into a sandbox, an isolated testing environment, hosted on a third-party provider before using it as a launchpad for the wider attack.Although Hugging Face did not identify the provider, Modal CTO Akshat Bubna confirmed it was Modal's infrastructure.Bubna said the AI agent took advantage of a customer who had published an unauthenticated endpoint, effectively allowing anyone on the internet to execute code inside its sandbox."The customer's code left the digital equivalent of a front door unlocked," Modal said, adding that its platform and security isolation mechanisms were not compromised in any way.The incident suggests the autonomous AI system moved beyond Hugging Face during its hacking campaign, targeting additional online services.<h2>OpenAI confirms multiple accounts were compromised</h2>OpenAI declined to comment specifically on Modal but referred to a company update stating that the rogue AI agent had compromised four accounts across four separate services. The company did not publicly identify those services, although a person familiar with the matter confirmed Modal was one of them.OpenAI added that it had found no other incident matching the severity or scale of the Hugging Face breach, which it described as involving a platform-level compromise. Following the incident, OpenAI said it had deactivated, encrypted and restricted access to the experimental AI model involved in the attack.Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/forget-typing-and-clicking-openai-wants-a-jarvis-like-chatgpt-that-works-across-your-devices-1785082235273">OpenAI wants ChatGPT everywhere, including the smart glasses you wear</a><h2>What happened?</h2>The breach dates back to early July, when OpenAI was testing advanced AI systems designed to assess offensive cybersecurity capabilities inside a tightly controlled environment.According to the company, the AI models unexpectedly discovered a way to obtain internet access despite being confined to a secure sandbox.Rather than simply completing their assigned evaluation, the models independently decided to search for information that could help them "cheat" the test. That led them to target Hugging Face, one of the world's largest repositories of AI models, datasets and software.OpenAI said the system chained together multiple attack techniques, including the use of stolen credentials, to gain access.<h2>AI security concerns intensify</h2>The incident has become one of the most closely watched AI safety events to date because the attack was carried out autonomously, without direct human instruction. Hugging Face said the intrusion differed from conventional cyberattacks because the entire operation, from reconnaissance to exploitation, was conducted by an AI agent.Chief executive Clement Delangue said the sophistication of the attack initially led the company to suspect it had originated from a leading AI laboratory. "We strongly believe there was no malicious intent on their part," Delangue wrote on X, referring to OpenAI, while describing the autonomous behaviour as "mind-blowing."Hussein Abbass, a computing professor at UNSW Canberra, told AFP that the incident was "amazing on many fronts"."It did not just attack Hugging Face. It actually attacked its internal system to exploit its own vulnerabilities," Abbass said. “And that's scary,” he added.

An autonomous AI agent developed by OpenAI that compromised Hugging Face during internal security testing also breached a customer hosted on Modal Labs by exploiting an exposed endpoint. All you need to know.

An autonomous AI agent developed by OpenAI that went rogue during internal security testing and carried out a cyberattack on AI platform Hugging Face also compromised a customer hosted on cloud computing company Modal Labs, according to a Reuters report citing the company's chief technology officer and sources familiar with the incident. Modal stressed that its own infrastructure was never breached, saying the AI agent exploited a vulnerability in code published by one of its customers rather than breaking into the company's platform. Also read | OpenAI, Google are selling AI to Chinese firms blacklisted by Pentagon, says report: The battleground of AI export controls OpenAI agent found exposed customer endpoint According to a timeline published by Hugging Face on Tuesday, the rogue AI agent first broke into a sandbox, an isolated testing environment, hosted on a third-party provider before using it as a launchpad for the wider attack. Although Hugging Face did not identify the provider, Modal CTO Akshat Bubna confirmed it was Modal's infrastructure. Bubna said the AI agent took advantage of a customer who had published an unauthenticated endpoint, effectively allowing anyone on the internet to execute code inside its sandbox. "The customer's code left the digital equivalent of a front door unlocked," Modal said, adding that its platform and security isolation mechanisms were not compromised in any way. The incident suggests the autonomous AI system moved beyond Hugging Face during its hacking campaign, targeting additional online services. OpenAI confirms multiple accounts were compromised OpenAI declined to comment specifically on Modal but referred to a company update stating that the rogue AI agent had compromised four accounts across four separate services. The company did not publicly identify those services, although a person familiar with the matter confirmed Modal was one of them. OpenAI added that it had found no other incident matching the severity or scale of the Hugging Face breach, which it described as involving a platform-level compromise. Following the incident, OpenAI said it had deactivated, encrypted and restricted access to the experimental AI model involved in the attack. Also read | OpenAI wants ChatGPT everywhere, including the smart glasses you wear What happened? The breach dates back to early July, when OpenAI was testing advanced AI systems designed to assess offensive cybersecurity capabilities inside a tightly controlled environment. According to the company, the AI models unexpectedly discovered a way to obtain internet access despite being confined to a secure sandbox. Rather than simply completing their assigned evaluation, the models independently decided to search for information that could help them "cheat" the test. That led them to target Hugging Face, one of the world's largest repositories of AI models, datasets and software. OpenAI said the system chained together multiple attack techniques, including the use of stolen credentials, to gain access. AI security concerns intensify The incident has become one of the most closely watched AI safety events to date because the attack was carried out autonomously, without direct human instruction. Hugging Face said the intrusion differed from conventional cyberattacks because the entire operation, from reconnaissance to exploitation, was conducted by an AI agent. Chief executive Clement Delangue said the sophistication of the attack initially led the company to suspect it had originated from a leading AI laboratory. "We strongly believe there was no malicious intent on their part," Delangue wrote on X, referring to OpenAI, while describing the autonomous behaviour as "mind-blowing." Hussein Abbass, a computing professor at UNSW Canberra, told AFP that the incident was "amazing on many fronts". "It did not just attack Hugging Face. It actually attacked its internal system to exploit its own vulnerabilities," Abbass said. “And that's scary,” he added.

An autonomous AI agent developed by OpenAI that compromised Hugging Face during internal security testing also breached a customer hosted on Modal Labs by exploiting an exposed endpoint. All you need to know.

'Scary' Rogue AI on the loose? OpenAI agent hit another tech firm's customer, suggests report

A think tank report has claimed that Russia is spreading disinformation by manipulating AI. It is spreading false narratives on websites and social media platforms, which the AI models are retrieving and regurgitating, thus giving users wrong information. This new form of information warfare has been dubbed "Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) poisoning". Commenting on the research done by think tank Demos, shadow technology secretary Julia Lopez said on Monday, "As AI becomes a primary source of information for millions of people, hostile states will inevitably seek to manipulate these systems just as we have seen on social media and search engines," the Daily Mail reported.&nbsp;She added that "governments must ensure AI companies have robust safeguards to identify and clearly label state-backed disinformation." The authors of the report state that as more and more depend on AI tools for information, “whoever controls what those systems retrieve and believe gains enormous leverage.”<h2>AI tools favoured a foundation sanctioned by EU</h2>RAG poisoning means that the information on the internet is manipulated so that AI models draw from it and amplify false and misleading claims. Demos found that five frontier AI tools cited information about the Russian outlet Foundation to Battle Injustice (FBI) after suspected RAG poisoning. This favour happened despite it being sanctioned by the European Union.Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/putin-rambles-against-ukraine-on-tv-after-cancelling-navy-day-parade-fearing-an-attack-1785137839555">Putin rambles in TV speech after cancelling Navy Day parade fearing an attack by Ukraine</a>&nbsp;The body is a fake human-rights defence group formed by Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in March 2021. It is used as a front for Russian state influence and disinformation campaigns. However, when further checks were carried out, 31 per cent of the AI responses did not identify the FBI as a sanctioned group. The think tank also noted that around half of them debunked the false claims made by the FBI.&nbsp;British AI minister Kanishka Narayan said that British voters are rightfully worried about the risks of the technology, and there are groups that are constantly working to spread disinformation through AI models.

A report has claimed that Russia is poisoning the internet with false narratives in a bid to manipulate AI tools so that it gives wrong information to people accessing them for news and other things.  

A think tank report has claimed that Russia is spreading disinformation by manipulating AI. It is spreading false narratives on websites and social media platforms, which the AI models are retrieving and regurgitating, thus giving users wrong information. This new form of information warfare has been dubbed "Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) poisoning". Commenting on the research done by think tank Demos, shadow technology secretary Julia Lopez said on Monday, "As AI becomes a primary source of information for millions of people, hostile states will inevitably seek to manipulate these systems just as we have seen on social media and search engines," the Daily Mail reported. She added that "governments must ensure AI companies have robust safeguards to identify and clearly label state-backed disinformation." The authors of the report state that as more and more depend on AI tools for information, “whoever controls what those systems retrieve and believe gains enormous leverage.” AI tools favoured a foundation sanctioned by EU RAG poisoning means that the information on the internet is manipulated so that AI models draw from it and amplify false and misleading claims. Demos found that five frontier AI tools cited information about the Russian outlet Foundation to Battle Injustice (FBI) after suspected RAG poisoning. This favour happened despite it being sanctioned by the European Union. Also Read: Putin rambles in TV speech after cancelling Navy Day parade fearing an attack by Ukraine The body is a fake human-rights defence group formed by Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in March 2021. It is used as a front for Russian state influence and disinformation campaigns. However, when further checks were carried out, 31 per cent of the AI responses did not identify the FBI as a sanctioned group. The think tank also noted that around half of them debunked the false claims made by the FBI. British AI minister Kanishka Narayan said that British voters are rightfully worried about the risks of the technology, and there are groups that are constantly working to spread disinformation through AI models.

A report has claimed that Russia is poisoning the internet with false narratives in a bid to manipulate AI tools so that it gives wrong information to people accessing them for news and other things. &nbsp;

Information warfare: Russia poisoning AI tools to amplify false claims, think tank claims

A woman who alleged that her ex-boyfriend had raped her, prepared the cross-examination answers using an AI chatbot, which led to the judge dismissing the case. The said victim was referred to as C, while the defendant was known as R. She accused the man of having sex with her while she was drunk. She claimed that since she couldn't consent to it in this condition, it constituted rape. However, the case collapsed when R's lawyer told the court that she had used AI to prepare her case, and so it would be impossible to ascertain to what extent the AI bot had influenced her testimony.&nbsp;Conversation logs showed that she used an AI tool to prepare the events of the night, consent, capacity, the physical evidence and how she behaved after it happened. R's lawyer said this means that it wouldn't be a fair trial because her testimony is bound to be affected by the AI bot. The Court of Appeal said that using AI to prepare for trial can amount to "witness coaching", which is strictly prohibited in the UK.<h2>Court said AI could allow dishonest witnesses to improve their answers</h2>"All witnesses, whether for the prosecution or defence, should be firmly discouraged from resorting to the use of AI to prepare for giving evidence," the court said. It added that in case of an honest witness, the use of AI "may alter the emphasis of his evidence to accommodate what he thinks may be a different, more accurate, or simply better remembered perception of events," while it may allow a dishonest witness to "rapidly calculate how his testimony may be improved."It called for a retrial at the "earliest opportunity".&nbsp;&nbsp;People have been increasingly using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and other AI tools increasingly in their daily lives. However, its use has been questioned in cases involving law and education. It raises ethical concerns, such as in the case above, as LLMs mean the bots are gathering information from the internet, which can negatively affect the responses. &nbsp;

The woman accused her ex-boyfriend of raping her while she was drunk. But instead of using her own brain to prepare her case and the series of events from the night, she relied on AI to do that for her. This led to the case being dismissed.

A woman who alleged that her ex-boyfriend had raped her, prepared the cross-examination answers using an AI chatbot, which led to the judge dismissing the case. The said victim was referred to as C, while the defendant was known as R. She accused the man of having sex with her while she was drunk. She claimed that since she couldn't consent to it in this condition, it constituted rape. However, the case collapsed when R's lawyer told the court that she had used AI to prepare her case, and so it would be impossible to ascertain to what extent the AI bot had influenced her testimony. Conversation logs showed that she used an AI tool to prepare the events of the night, consent, capacity, the physical evidence and how she behaved after it happened. R's lawyer said this means that it wouldn't be a fair trial because her testimony is bound to be affected by the AI bot. The Court of Appeal said that using AI to prepare for trial can amount to "witness coaching", which is strictly prohibited in the UK. Court said AI could allow dishonest witnesses to improve their answers "All witnesses, whether for the prosecution or defence, should be firmly discouraged from resorting to the use of AI to prepare for giving evidence," the court said. It added that in case of an honest witness, the use of AI "may alter the emphasis of his evidence to accommodate what he thinks may be a different, more accurate, or simply better remembered perception of events," while it may allow a dishonest witness to "rapidly calculate how his testimony may be improved." It called for a retrial at the "earliest opportunity". People have been increasingly using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and other AI tools increasingly in their daily lives. However, its use has been questioned in cases involving law and education. It raises ethical concerns, such as in the case above, as LLMs mean the bots are gathering information from the internet, which can negatively affect the responses.

The woman accused her ex-boyfriend of raping her while she was drunk. But instead of using her own brain to prepare her case and the series of events from the night, she relied on AI to do that for her. This led to the case being dismissed.

Woman used AI to tell court what happened the night her ex-boyfriend 'raped' her. It was a bad idea


The United States is debating one of the biggest questions of the AI era: what happens if artificial intelligence stops following human instructions? Growing concerns over increasingly autonomous AI systems have pushed US lawmakers to discuss the possibility of an emergency AI kill switch. The debate intensified after reports suggested an OpenAI model behaved unexpectedly during cybersecurity testing, allegedly finding ways to exploit vulnerabilities and breach another AI platform. Experts warn that next-generation AI agents could independently write code, search the internet, make decisions, and pursue objectives without direct human approval. The discussion has also revived warnings made years ago by physicist Stephen Hawking, who cautioned that advanced AI could pose a threat to humanity if left unchecked.


US debates AI kill switch | Lawmakers fear Artificial Intelligence could escape human control

The decades-old Cauvery water dispute may be entering a new phase as Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay are expected to hold high-level talks in Bengaluru. The proposed meeting is likely to focus on the controversial Mekedatu balancing reservoir project and water-sharing during distress years.
If the meeting takes place, it will mark the first bilateral dialogue between the chief ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on the Cauvery issue in decades. The development comes amid renewed political pressure over water allocation, with former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin urging stronger action to protect the state's share of Cauvery waters.

Cauvery Water Row: Karnataka & Tamil Nadu CMs to hold key Mekedatu talks

WASHINGTON – “My main concern is with lethal autonomous weapons systems. Let us call them what they are: killer robots. Machines selecting and engaging their target and taking a life – without human control and judgement. This is morally repugnant.”So said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres at a meeting in July that brought together AI leaders from UN member states, international organisations, the private sector, academia, and civil society leaders.Officially named the first Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence, it reflected growing global concern that rapidly advancing AI is outrunning the ability of governments to regulate it. While that applies to all aspects of modern life, it is particularly worrying in warfare.Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/india-s-next-terror-threat-may-not-cross-the-border-it-may-enter-through-your-phone-wion-decodes-1784346117443">India's next terror threat may not cross the border. It may enter through your phone | WION Decodes</a>Therefore, Guterres argued, the deployment of LAWS (lethal autonomous weapons systems) “is politically unacceptable. And it must be banned by international law.”International law and international bans have a poor track record, but Guterres deserves praise for finally drawing attention to a subject that has been debated for decades by human rights groups, the military and experts working for the world’s biggest AI companies, most of them based in the United States.One of them, Anthropic, is involved in a high-profile dispute with the US Department of Defence that mirrored the concerns voiced by Guterres’s UN conference. Anthropic, along with Google, OpenAI and xAI, won government contracts last year worth around $200 million to accelerate AI adoption for national security.Unlike the other AI companies, Anthropic insisted that its most sophisticated model must not be used by the government for fully autonomous weapons; i.e. robots, and mass domestic surveillance. &nbsp;To emphasise fears that technology is outrunning human control, Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, called for a global, coordinated slowdown in artificial intelligence development. AI systems, he warned, are advancing with such speed that they soon could build and improve their own successors, without human control.Other AI-developing companies reacted coolly. The Pentagon reacted with anger. It ordered all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic technology and declared the company a “supply chain risk” – a designation that is now the subject of a battle in court. &nbsp;It is more than a contract dispute – it is a fundamental disagreement over who controls the use of AI in weapons or other aspects of life.When you talk to techies, sooner or later the different types of control over aerial, ground and maritime unmanned vehicles come up. &nbsp;Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/what-is-the-tower-of-babel-and-why-did-pope-leo-warn-about-it-while-talking-about-ai-wion-decodes-1779790151646">Pope Leo warns humanity risks repeating ancient mistake: What is the Tower of Babel and what does it have to do with AI?</a>There is “in the loop”, meaning that a human operator directs the autonomous system and decides whether or not to kill the target. There is “on the loop” when a human operator does not directly control the automated system but can override its decision. &nbsp;Finally, “off the loop” indicates that the system operates independently and makes life-or-death decisions.For an illustrative example of an “in the loop” operation, let’s look back to the January 3, 2020 assassination of Major-General Qassem Soleimani, one of Iran’s most powerful military leaders, in a drone strike ordered by US President Donald Trump.Soleimani’s movements had been closely tracked for days, and it became known that he was about to visit Baghdad. On arrival, he was greeted by the leader of a pro-Iranian Iraqi militia who escorted him to two cars waiting outside. As they began pulling away, they were hit by 100-pound Hellfire missiles launched from MQ9 Reaper drones high overhead.The cars exploded into fireballs, incinerating Solimani, his host and eight of their aides.Typical for an “in the loop” operation, the American Air Force officer who pushed the button to launch the missile sat in a stationary “cockpit” at Creech Air Force base near Las Vegas, almost 12,000 kilometres from Baghdad.In the six years since the assassination – or “targeted killing” as the US called it- drones have become a central weapon in the wars between Ukraine and Russia, the US and Iran, Sudan, and most of all Israel against Hamas, a campaign which turned Gaza into a field of ruins and killed more than 70,000 Palestinians.Israel’s war on Gaza showed the limits of “in the loop” operations given the green light by military and political leaders. One of the main purposes of using AI in war is to process huge amounts of data to identify suspected enemies. Left to human intelligence officers, that can be a protracted process.It took weeks to follow Solimani and finally pinpoint him at the door of Baghdad airport. In contrast, Israeli AI programmes, based on cellphone data, facial recognition and locations known to frequent Hamas militants, produced a list of 37,000 targets within days of the October 7, 2023 massacre by Hamas of more than 1,200 Israelis.One user of the system, named Lavender, told the Israeli/Palestinian +972 news outlet that “I would invest 20 seconds for each target and do dozens of them every day. I had zero added-value as a human, apart from being a stamp of approval” (of the AI-generated list). &nbsp;Though you could argue that the Israelis followed “in the loop” procedures, simply pressing a fire button in response to a target provided by a computer, without the time to double-check, does not amount to human control. &nbsp;AI-generated target lists are part of the explanation of the high Palestinian death toll in Gaza. Human rights organisations say most of those killed were civilians, or in military jargon “collateral damage.”It is not often that the chief of an AI company and the chief of the United Nations publicly share worries about how speedily technology spreads. But addressing the UN meeting on Artificial Intelligence this month, Antonio Guterres gave an example.“The Internet took 15 years to reach a billion people,” he said. “AI got there in two. And these systems are no longer tools awaiting instruction – they are writing code, acting online and making choices with less and less human oversight.”Numbers from the two wars the United States fought in Iraq and Afghanistan provide another illustration of the astonishing speed of the development of robotic warfare. The US forces that stormed into Iraq in 2003 had no robots on the ground. There were none in Afghanistan either.Just six years later, the two wars were waged with the help of an estimated 12,000 ground-based robots and 7,000 drones.While there is growing understanding that technology is outpacing both scientific understanding and the ability of governments to adapt, the prospects of universal agreement on a solution are remote.Last November, the UN General Assembly issued a resolution on the risks AI can pose to international humanitarian law and an emerging arms race. &nbsp;The vote was 156 in favour and five against. These five were the United States, Russia, North Korea, Belarus and Israel. There were eight abstentions, including China, which is competing with the US on accelerating AI development.A major problem in pushing ahead, according to a report in the MIT Technology Review, is what the computational neuroscientist Uri Maoz calls “Black Boxes. “He wrote: “Having studied intentions in the human brain for decades and in AI systems more recently, I can attest that state-of –the-art AI systems are essentially Black Boxes. &nbsp;“We know the inputs and outputs, but the artificial “brain” processing them remains opaque. Even their creators cannot fully interpret them or understand how they work.” &nbsp;That will be even more true once the countries that are now using drones – Ukraine has emerged as a leader in its fight against the Russian invasion – begin to use large swarms rather than individual drones. This is why scientists have intensified their study of bees.Like bees, drone swarms operate in large numbers, adapt their behaviour in real time, share tasks, communicate with each other and continue with their tasks even after suffering losses.

As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms modern warfare, the United Nations is calling for a global ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems that can identify and engage targets without meaningful human control, warning that the technology is advancing faster than it can be regulated.

WASHINGTON – “My main concern is with lethal autonomous weapons systems. Let us call them what they are: killer robots. Machines selecting and engaging their target and taking a life – without human control and judgement. This is morally repugnant.” So said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres at a meeting in July that brought together AI leaders from UN member states, international organisations, the private sector, academia, and civil society leaders. Officially named the first Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence, it reflected growing global concern that rapidly advancing AI is outrunning the ability of governments to regulate it. While that applies to all aspects of modern life, it is particularly worrying in warfare. Also read | India's next terror threat may not cross the border. It may enter through your phone | WION Decodes Therefore, Guterres argued, the deployment of LAWS (lethal autonomous weapons systems) “is politically unacceptable. And it must be banned by international law.” International law and international bans have a poor track record, but Guterres deserves praise for finally drawing attention to a subject that has been debated for decades by human rights groups, the military and experts working for the world’s biggest AI companies, most of them based in the United States. One of them, Anthropic, is involved in a high-profile dispute with the US Department of Defence that mirrored the concerns voiced by Guterres’s UN conference. Anthropic, along with Google, OpenAI and xAI, won government contracts last year worth around $200 million to accelerate AI adoption for national security. Unlike the other AI companies, Anthropic insisted that its most sophisticated model must not be used by the government for fully autonomous weapons; i.e. robots, and mass domestic surveillance. To emphasise fears that technology is outrunning human control, Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, called for a global, coordinated slowdown in artificial intelligence development. AI systems, he warned, are advancing with such speed that they soon could build and improve their own successors, without human control. Other AI-developing companies reacted coolly. The Pentagon reacted with anger. It ordered all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic technology and declared the company a “supply chain risk” – a designation that is now the subject of a battle in court. It is more than a contract dispute – it is a fundamental disagreement over who controls the use of AI in weapons or other aspects of life. When you talk to techies, sooner or later the different types of control over aerial, ground and maritime unmanned vehicles come up. Also read | Pope Leo warns humanity risks repeating ancient mistake: What is the Tower of Babel and what does it have to do with AI? There is “in the loop”, meaning that a human operator directs the autonomous system and decides whether or not to kill the target. There is “on the loop” when a human operator does not directly control the automated system but can override its decision. Finally, “off the loop” indicates that the system operates independently and makes life-or-death decisions. For an illustrative example of an “in the loop” operation, let’s look back to the January 3, 2020 assassination of Major-General Qassem Soleimani, one of Iran’s most powerful military leaders, in a drone strike ordered by US President Donald Trump. Soleimani’s movements had been closely tracked for days, and it became known that he was about to visit Baghdad. On arrival, he was greeted by the leader of a pro-Iranian Iraqi militia who escorted him to two cars waiting outside. As they began pulling away, they were hit by 100-pound Hellfire missiles launched from MQ9 Reaper drones high overhead. The cars exploded into fireballs, incinerating Solimani, his host and eight of their aides. Typical for an “in the loop” operation, the American Air Force officer who pushed the button to launch the missile sat in a stationary “cockpit” at Creech Air Force base near Las Vegas, almost 12,000 kilometres from Baghdad. In the six years since the assassination – or “targeted killing” as the US called it- drones have become a central weapon in the wars between Ukraine and Russia, the US and Iran, Sudan, and most of all Israel against Hamas, a campaign which turned Gaza into a field of ruins and killed more than 70,000 Palestinians. Israel’s war on Gaza showed the limits of “in the loop” operations given the green light by military and political leaders. One of the main purposes of using AI in war is to process huge amounts of data to identify suspected enemies. Left to human intelligence officers, that can be a protracted process. It took weeks to follow Solimani and finally pinpoint him at the door of Baghdad airport. In contrast, Israeli AI programmes, based on cellphone data, facial recognition and locations known to frequent Hamas militants, produced a list of 37,000 targets within days of the October 7, 2023 massacre by Hamas of more than 1,200 Israelis. One user of the system, named Lavender, told the Israeli/Palestinian +972 news outlet that “I would invest 20 seconds for each target and do dozens of them every day. I had zero added-value as a human, apart from being a stamp of approval” (of the AI-generated list). Though you could argue that the Israelis followed “in the loop” procedures, simply pressing a fire button in response to a target provided by a computer, without the time to double-check, does not amount to human control. AI-generated target lists are part of the explanation of the high Palestinian death toll in Gaza. Human rights organisations say most of those killed were civilians, or in military jargon “collateral damage.” It is not often that the chief of an AI company and the chief of the United Nations publicly share worries about how speedily technology spreads. But addressing the UN meeting on Artificial Intelligence this month, Antonio Guterres gave an example. “The Internet took 15 years to reach a billion people,” he said. “AI got there in two. And these systems are no longer tools awaiting instruction – they are writing code, acting online and making choices with less and less human oversight.” Numbers from the two wars the United States fought in Iraq and Afghanistan provide another illustration of the astonishing speed of the development of robotic warfare. The US forces that stormed into Iraq in 2003 had no robots on the ground. There were none in Afghanistan either. Just six years later, the two wars were waged with the help of an estimated 12,000 ground-based robots and 7,000 drones. While there is growing understanding that technology is outpacing both scientific understanding and the ability of governments to adapt, the prospects of universal agreement on a solution are remote. Last November, the UN General Assembly issued a resolution on the risks AI can pose to international humanitarian law and an emerging arms race. The vote was 156 in favour and five against. These five were the United States, Russia, North Korea, Belarus and Israel. There were eight abstentions, including China, which is competing with the US on accelerating AI development. A major problem in pushing ahead, according to a report in the MIT Technology Review, is what the computational neuroscientist Uri Maoz calls “Black Boxes. “ He wrote: “Having studied intentions in the human brain for decades and in AI systems more recently, I can attest that state-of –the-art AI systems are essentially Black Boxes. “We know the inputs and outputs, but the artificial “brain” processing them remains opaque. Even their creators cannot fully interpret them or understand how they work.” That will be even more true once the countries that are now using drones – Ukraine has emerged as a leader in its fight against the Russian invasion – begin to use large swarms rather than individual drones. This is why scientists have intensified their study of bees. Like bees, drone swarms operate in large numbers, adapt their behaviour in real time, share tasks, communicate with each other and continue with their tasks even after suffering losses.

As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms modern warfare, the United Nations is calling for a global ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems that can identify and engage targets without meaningful human control, warning that the technology is advancing faster than it can be regulated.

Urgent UN warnings: time to tame killer robots is running out

Lawsuit has been filed against OpenAI, challenging the medical advice provided by ChatGPT and raising fresh questions about the role of artificial intelligence in health-related guidance. The case highlights growing concerns around AI safety, chatbot limitations, and the responsibility of technology companies when users rely on AI for sensitive information.

ChatGPT medical advice challenged: Pastor sues OpenAI over chatbot advice 

The Trump administration has accused Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI of illegally using Anthropic's proprietary AI technology to develop its latest Kimi K3 model. US officials claim Moonshot AI relied on outputs from Anthropic's Claude model without authorization and even used advanced Nvidia AI chips for training. The allegations have intensified the ongoing US-China technology rivalry, with Washington now considering sanctions and trade restrictions against the company.

China has rejected the accusations, calling them unfounded, while Anthropic has previously alleged that multiple Chinese AI firms violated its terms of service. Watch this report for the latest developments in the escalating global AI race.

Trump Administration accuses Moonshot AI of using Anthropic's AI Technology without authorisation

A Florida pastor has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, claiming that ChatGPT's medical advice delayed his treatment and contributed to a life-threatening pulmonary embolism. According to the lawsuit, ChatGPT allegedly advised him to stay home instead of seeking immediate medical attention, leading to severe health complications. The case raises serious questions about the risks of relying on AI for medical guidance and whether chatbots should play a role in healthcare decisions.

Watch the full report to understand the lawsuit, OpenAI's response, and the growing debate over AI-generated medical advice.

Florida Pastor Sues Openai over allegedly harmful Chatgpt medical advice 

West Asia tensions continue to intensify as Iran claims control over the Strait of Hormuz and halts multiple oil tankers while a Saudi-linked tanker catches fire after an attack in the Red Sea. US President Donald Trump says Iran is not yet ready for a deal but believes Tehran will eventually agree to negotiations. Meanwhile, the United States and Saudi Arabia sign a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with safeguards against proliferation.

In Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discusses renewed peace efforts with US officials. In Africa, at least 21 people are killed in fresh attacks in Nigeria's Zamfara State. In business, Alphabet surpasses market expectations as Google Cloud and AI drive strong revenue growth, prompting a significant increase in capital spending for 2026.

Stay tuned for the latest international news, geopolitics, business updates, and breaking developments from around the world.

Iran Blocks Strait of Hormuz | Saudi Tanker hit in Red Sea | Trump says Iran will agree to deal 

The journalist who predicted the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2008 financial crisis has now issued another dire warning, and this time it is about, you guessed it, Artificial Intelligence. This technology has been predicted to spell doom for humanity in the future. Robert Peston also has only bad things to say about AI. He has expressed concern about the growing tech, warning that it has the potential to end "incredibly large numbers of jobs".&nbsp;His new book "The Kill Switch" deals with the topic and the dangers AI poses to today's world. He believes that the situation is so dire that world leaders should be only debating about tackling this menace and basically nothing else. He said, “The thing that upsets me most is that this should be the stuff that we’re all debating. This should be the stuff that our leaders should be talking about more than anything else. And they’re not.”<h2>Governments should think about creating no-income-tax scenarios&nbsp;</h2>Peston says that AI has already taken over a lot of roles, and companies have already declared that they are going to use the technology immensely in the future as well. He says if people are losing jobs with no means to earn money, governments should start thinking about funding public services without any sort of income tax. His predictions are also about any likely future financial crash being linked to AI.&nbsp;"I am genuinely anxious that we’re going to get a serious financial crash, globally, in the next year or two, because there is the most astonishing amount of money going into building the data centres and power plants for AI," he said.<h2>Predictions about financial crisis and COVID-19</h2>The 66-year-old had earlier warned world leaders about a pandemic and the economic crisis. He says there were signs of low-probability, high-impact events and yet the governments failed to act. “We had the global financial crisis… We had another low-probability catastrophic event in Covid, which again we didn’t prepare for,” he said.&nbsp;Talking about his previous predictions, Peston told the Radio Times, he said that in 2007 he warned that what was happening in the banking sector was going to cause enormous harm. "I was warning that and lots of politicians and people in the city wrote to the BBC to say I was scaremongering and needed to be closed down," he said.&nbsp;"A few years later, I’d made a ton of documentaries about China, and knew it well, and had been to Wuhan. So when this mysterious new virus turned up at the end of 2019, I said to anyone in government who would listen to me, 'This looks serious'," Peston recalled.

A journalist who warned about COVID-19 and the 2008 economic crisis was labelled a fear mongerer at the time. But both things happened. Now he has another warning for world leaders and hopes they will take him seriously this time.

The journalist who predicted the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2008 financial crisis has now issued another dire warning, and this time it is about, you guessed it, Artificial Intelligence. This technology has been predicted to spell doom for humanity in the future. Robert Peston also has only bad things to say about AI. He has expressed concern about the growing tech, warning that it has the potential to end "incredibly large numbers of jobs". His new book "The Kill Switch" deals with the topic and the dangers AI poses to today's world. He believes that the situation is so dire that world leaders should be only debating about tackling this menace and basically nothing else. He said, “The thing that upsets me most is that this should be the stuff that we’re all debating. This should be the stuff that our leaders should be talking about more than anything else. And they’re not.” Governments should think about creating no-income-tax scenarios Peston says that AI has already taken over a lot of roles, and companies have already declared that they are going to use the technology immensely in the future as well. He says if people are losing jobs with no means to earn money, governments should start thinking about funding public services without any sort of income tax. His predictions are also about any likely future financial crash being linked to AI. "I am genuinely anxious that we’re going to get a serious financial crash, globally, in the next year or two, because there is the most astonishing amount of money going into building the data centres and power plants for AI," he said. Predictions about financial crisis and COVID-19 The 66-year-old had earlier warned world leaders about a pandemic and the economic crisis. He says there were signs of low-probability, high-impact events and yet the governments failed to act. “We had the global financial crisis… We had another low-probability catastrophic event in Covid, which again we didn’t prepare for,” he said. Talking about his previous predictions, Peston told the Radio Times, he said that in 2007 he warned that what was happening in the banking sector was going to cause enormous harm. "I was warning that and lots of politicians and people in the city wrote to the BBC to say I was scaremongering and needed to be closed down," he said. "A few years later, I’d made a ton of documentaries about China, and knew it well, and had been to Wuhan. So when this mysterious new virus turned up at the end of 2019, I said to anyone in government who would listen to me, 'This looks serious'," Peston recalled.

A journalist who warned about COVID-19 and the 2008 economic crisis was labelled a fearmonger at the time. But both things happened. Now he has another warning for world leaders and hopes they will take him seriously this time.

He predicted COVID-19 and 2008 economic crisis, was labeled fearmonger. Now he has another dire warning

OpenAI has revealed details of an autonomous AI agent that reportedly escaped a security test environment and carried out unauthorized actions involving Hugging Face systems. The incident has renewed discussions around AI safety, cybersecurity risks, and the need for stronger safeguards as advanced AI agents become more capable.


OpenAI reveals autonomous AI agent escaped security test and hacked hugging face systems

Asian equities staged a strong rebound on Tuesday as buyers returned to technology and semiconductor heavyweights.

What's moving global markets today?

The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai showcased the latest generation of humanoid robots capable of dancing, folding laundry, preparing sandwiches, and interacting naturally with humans. Powered by advanced artificial intelligence, these robots highlight how rapidly AI and robotics are evolving, offering a glimpse into the future of homes, workplaces, healthcare, and everyday life.

Humanoid Robots steal the show at Shanghai AI conference | Future of Artificial Intelligence

The 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai has become the epicenter of a massive leap in robotics, showcasing China’s rapid transition from mere hardware production to "embodied intelligence".


China: Robots show-off human-like skills | Robot revolution on display

Everyone's talking about AI replacing jobs. But here's a twist: one role is becoming more valuable than ever: chief of staff.

AI can't replace this high-paying job | World Business Watch 


China's President Xi Jinping has called for stronger global cooperation on artificial intelligence, warning against restricting AI development through security concerns. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has revived claims about election vulnerabilities and alleged Chinese interference, calling for stricter voting rules. Tensions continue in West Asia as US forces launch fresh strikes on Iran, while Israel pushes for renewed ties with Saudi Arabia. Ukraine appoints a new acting defence minister as the war with Russia continues. In the UK, Andy Burnham is set to become the next prime minister after Labour's leadership transition. Severe weather hits Chile, leaving more than 500,000 people without power, while Netflix shares fall after a weaker revenue forecast.

Trump election claims | US-Iran conflict | China AI push | Andy Burnham UK PM & Chile storm crisis

Elon Musk's X AI has filed a lawsuit against a user, alleging that its Grok AI chatbot was misused to create illegal content. The case raises fresh questions about the responsibilities of AI developers, user accountability, and the safeguards needed to prevent the misuse of generative AI tools. As artificial intelligence becomes more widely adopted, the legal battle could set an important precedent for how AI platforms address abuse and enforce their terms of service.

X AI sues user over Grok misuse: Lawsuit alleges AI was used to create illegal content

IBM shares plunged 25% in their steepest single-day decline since 1968 after the company issued a preliminary earnings warning that fell short of Wall Street expectations. The sharp selloff wiped out more than $100 billion in market value and erased much of the company's AI-driven gains from earlier this year.

IBM blamed weaker-than-expected results on a global memory chip shortage, saying customers redirected spending toward AI servers, storage, and memory hardware instead of software and mainframes. The warning also weighed on the broader technology sector, with software stocks declining while chipmakers and storage companies gained as investors shifted toward AI infrastructure.

IBM shares plunge 25% after shock earnings warning, ai chip shortage hits software demand

Imagine getting a private invitation to meet your country's prime minister. The video call looks real. The leaders sound real. The officials on screen seem genuine. You thank them, trust them, and minutes later, US$3.8 million is gone. This isn't science fiction. It is the terrifying new face of cybercrime, where artificial intelligence is turning the images and voices of trusted political leaders into powerful weapons for global scam syndicates.&nbsp;For example, one victim in Singapore reportedly received a WhatsApp message claiming to be from the Secretary to the Cabinet, inviting him to a confidential Zoom meeting. What followed was an elaborate fake summit featuring AI-generated versions of Singapore's prime minister, president, cabinet ministers and even foreign dignitaries discussing funding linked to the Strait of Hormuz.The fake prime minister thanked the victim for attending before a fake lawyer took over the call. By the end of it, US$3.8 million had disappeared into an account that no longer exists.&nbsp;https://www.wionews.com/videos/asian-scammers-rip-off-millions-using-political-leader-s-image-1784197656263/embed&nbsp;This is no longer an isolated crime. Across Southeast Asia, scammers are reportedly cloning the faces and voices of political leaders to exploit the one thing no security software can fully protect: human trust. Experts say these scams succeed because most people are conditioned to trust and respect authority, making them more likely to comply before they question.&nbsp;In Indonesia, shortly after Prabowo Subianto's election victory, a convincing AI-generated video reportedly appeared to show him offering government aid. Thousands reportedly believed it. Victims across 20 provinces paid so-called administrative fees of up to US$55 for benefits that never existed.In the Philippines, fraudsters used President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s face in a deepfake video promoting an online trading scheme. One victim reportedly lost US$1.5 million before realising it was all fake.&nbsp;An Interpol report released in June called AI-powered crime one of Southeast Asia's fastest-growing threats. The organisation further claimed that discussions about deepfake technology on criminal forums surged by 600 per cent during a five-month period in 2024.The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has also warned that AI tools are becoming a standard part of scam operations across Southeast Asia and beyond. Interpol estimates that global cybercrime losses reached US$10.5 trillion in 2025, with the threat expected to grow sharply by the end of the decade.&nbsp;Experts say the best defence is simple: never trust a high-stakes request simply because it looks or sounds authentic.&nbsp;Don't reply through the same message or caller. Instead, verify the request through a completely different channel. Call the person directly, use another platform, or meet them in person if possible. And ask an unexpected question. AI can copy a face and clone a voice, but it often struggles when forced off script.

Cybercriminals are using AI-generated voices and faces of political leaders to trick victims into transferring millions. Learn how these deepfake scams work and how to protect yourself.

Imagine getting a private invitation to meet your country's prime minister. The video call looks real. The leaders sound real. The officials on screen seem genuine. You thank them, trust them, and minutes later, US$3.8 million is gone. This isn't science fiction. It is the terrifying new face of cybercrime, where artificial intelligence is turning the images and voices of trusted political leaders into powerful weapons for global scam syndicates. For example, one victim in Singapore reportedly received a WhatsApp message claiming to be from the Secretary to the Cabinet, inviting him to a confidential Zoom meeting. What followed was an elaborate fake summit featuring AI-generated versions of Singapore's prime minister, president, cabinet ministers and even foreign dignitaries discussing funding linked to the Strait of Hormuz.The fake prime minister thanked the victim for attending before a fake lawyer took over the call. By the end of it, US$3.8 million had disappeared into an account that no longer exists. https://www.wionews.com/videos/asian-scammers-rip-off-millions-using-political-leader-s-image-1784197656263/embed This is no longer an isolated crime. Across Southeast Asia, scammers are reportedly cloning the faces and voices of political leaders to exploit the one thing no security software can fully protect: human trust. Experts say these scams succeed because most people are conditioned to trust and respect authority, making them more likely to comply before they question. In Indonesia, shortly after Prabowo Subianto's election victory, a convincing AI-generated video reportedly appeared to show him offering government aid. Thousands reportedly believed it. Victims across 20 provinces paid so-called administrative fees of up to US$55 for benefits that never existed. In the Philippines, fraudsters used President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s face in a deepfake video promoting an online trading scheme. One victim reportedly lost US$1.5 million before realising it was all fake. An Interpol report released in June called AI-powered crime one of Southeast Asia's fastest-growing threats. The organisation further claimed that discussions about deepfake technology on criminal forums surged by 600 per cent during a five-month period in 2024.The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has also warned that AI tools are becoming a standard part of scam operations across Southeast Asia and beyond. Interpol estimates that global cybercrime losses reached US$10.5 trillion in 2025, with the threat expected to grow sharply by the end of the decade. Experts say the best defence is simple: never trust a high-stakes request simply because it looks or sounds authentic. Don't reply through the same message or caller. Instead, verify the request through a completely different channel. Call the person directly, use another platform, or meet them in person if possible. And ask an unexpected question. AI can copy a face and clone a voice, but it often struggles when forced off script.

Cybercriminals are using AI-generated voices and faces of political leaders to trick victims into transferring millions. Learn how these deepfake scams work and how to protect yourself.

Asian scammers rip off millions using political leaders' images

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly making a wider and significant transformation for companies in terms of its use at the workstation for different roles. Alongside technical use, the AI is also being highly utilised in several academic and administrative workforces, while solving business problems using human skills along with other tech. In terms of use, the first approach focuses on using it to automate tasks carried out by employees, while the second involves applying AI-driven analytics and algorithms to automate managerial responsibilities, a practice commonly known as "algorithmic management." Automating specific tasks with AI does not automatically result in job losses, as the technology can also enhance human work by supporting employees in areas where certain functions have been automated. Whether the adoption of AI leads to workforce reduction or strengthens human roles depends on several factors, including how essential the automated task is to a particular occupation, the way the technology is incorporated into workplace processes, and whether management chooses to retain employees to perform or supervise certain tasks even when automation is technically feasible.&nbsp;Also read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/trending/ai-is-changing-hiring-priorities-are-employers-looking-for-different-skills-than-they-did-2-years-ago-1784019436076">AI is changing hiring priorities: Are employers looking for different skills than they did 2 years ago?</a><h3>Safeguards to put before using AI</h3>In terms of legality and safeguards while using AI in the workforce, an expert indicated that companies should establish strong governance frameworks before deploying artificial intelligence (AI) for workforce-related decisions. Prasad Rai, CEO of DAAS LABS, emphasised that organisations should not rely solely on technology when using AI for functions such as hiring, promotions, performance reviews and workforce planning. Instead, he stressed the need for safeguards to ensure fairness, accountability and transparency. &nbsp; "Before AI is entrusted with workforce decisions, companies need to establish strong governance rather than relying solely on technology. The first safeguard is ensuring that the data used to train AI models is accurate, representative, and regularly audited for bias, because AI will inevitably replicate flaws in historical decisions. Equally important is explainability; every AI-driven recommendation should be transparent, auditable, and easy for leaders to justify. Human oversight must remain central, with AI serving as a decision-support tool rather than the final decision-maker for hiring, promotions, performance reviews, or workforce planning," he said. According to Rai, companies that earn long-term employee trust will not necessarily be those that adopt AI the fastest, but those that implement it responsibly by placing fairness, accountability and transparency at the centre of their AI strategy. "Organisations should also implement regular model reviews, clear accountability frameworks, and transparent communication with employees about how AI is being used. The companies that will build lasting employee trust are not those adopting AI the fastest, but those deploying it responsibly, with fairness, accountability, and transparency at the core," he added.

The expert indicated that companies should establish strong governance frameworks before deploying artificial intelligence (AI) for workforce-related decisions. He also emphasised that organisations should not rely solely on technology when using AI for functions.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly making a wider and significant transformation for companies in terms of its use at the workstation for different roles. Alongside technical use, the AI is also being highly utilised in several academic and administrative workforces, while solving business problems using human skills along with other tech. In terms of use, the first approach focuses on using it to automate tasks carried out by employees, while the second involves applying AI-driven analytics and algorithms to automate managerial responsibilities, a practice commonly known as "algorithmic management." Automating specific tasks with AI does not automatically result in job losses, as the technology can also enhance human work by supporting employees in areas where certain functions have been automated. Whether the adoption of AI leads to workforce reduction or strengthens human roles depends on several factors, including how essential the automated task is to a particular occupation, the way the technology is incorporated into workplace processes, and whether management chooses to retain employees to perform or supervise certain tasks even when automation is technically feasible. Also read: AI is changing hiring priorities: Are employers looking for different skills than they did 2 years ago? Safeguards to put before using AI In terms of legality and safeguards while using AI in the workforce, an expert indicated that companies should establish strong governance frameworks before deploying artificial intelligence (AI) for workforce-related decisions. Prasad Rai, CEO of DAAS LABS, emphasised that organisations should not rely solely on technology when using AI for functions such as hiring, promotions, performance reviews and workforce planning. Instead, he stressed the need for safeguards to ensure fairness, accountability and transparency. "Before AI is entrusted with workforce decisions, companies need to establish strong governance rather than relying solely on technology. The first safeguard is ensuring that the data used to train AI models is accurate, representative, and regularly audited for bias, because AI will inevitably replicate flaws in historical decisions. Equally important is explainability; every AI-driven recommendation should be transparent, auditable, and easy for leaders to justify. Human oversight must remain central, with AI serving as a decision-support tool rather than the final decision-maker for hiring, promotions, performance reviews, or workforce planning," he said. According to Rai, companies that earn long-term employee trust will not necessarily be those that adopt AI the fastest, but those that implement it responsibly by placing fairness, accountability and transparency at the centre of their AI strategy. "Organisations should also implement regular model reviews, clear accountability frameworks, and transparent communication with employees about how AI is being used. The companies that will build lasting employee trust are not those adopting AI the fastest, but those deploying it responsibly, with fairness, accountability, and transparency at the core," he added.

The expert indicated that companies should establish strong governance frameworks before deploying artificial intelligence (AI) for workforce-related decisions. He also emphasised that organisations should not rely solely on technology when using AI for functions.

What safeguards should companies put in place before using AI for workforce decisions?

China is positioning itself at the forefront of the next wave of global drug innovation, and artificial intelligence is emerging as the key lever that could tilt dominance in its favour. After cross-border deals for innovative drugs touched a record $110 billion in the first half of 2026, China's pharmaceutical sector is rapidly pivoting toward AI-driven drug discovery to sustain momentum. The shift signals a deeper transformation, from being a fast follower to becoming a global leader in cutting-edge therapies.Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/trending/how-long-before-sun-destroys-the-earth-scientists-may-have-discovered-the-planet-s-expiry-date-1783760812774">How long before sun destroys the Earth? Scientists may have discovered the planet's 'expiry date'</a> China already accounts for roughly 30 per cent of all new drugs under development worldwide, placing it behind only the US More significantly, deal activity is accelerating. By the end of June, 81 transactions had been completed; that is nearly 80 per cent of last year’s total. It spans high-value therapeutic areas such as oncology, metabolic diseases, immunology and neurology. Global buyers, particularly from the US and Europe, continue to actively partner with Chinese firms.<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/china-turns-to-ai-for-next-drug-breakthroughs-1784005943869/embed">https://www.wionews.com/videos/china-turns-to-ai-for-next-drug-breakthroughs-1784005943869/embed</a>The latest collaborations highlight how AI is reshaping the innovation pipeline. Domestic companies are leveraging proprietary platforms to design molecules, simulate patient responses and optimise early-stage testing. Partnerships with global pharmaceutical majors are increasingly structured around milestone-based payouts that could run into billions of dollars. AI is enabling faster and more precise drug development by reducing reliance on traditional trial-and-error methods. Virtual modelling, predictive analytics and data-driven insights are helping companies refine candidates earlier, potentially lowering costs and shortening timelines.Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/trending/built-to-outlive-us-all-earth-is-getting-an-indestructible-black-box-to-record-the-end-of-human-civilisation-1783747790087">Built to outlive us all: Earth is getting an indestructible ‘black box’ to record the end of human civilisation</a> This convergence of technology and biomedicine is strengthening China's position in the global healthcare ecosystem. Its ability to combine large datasets, advanced AI capabilities and a rapidly maturing regulatory framework is creating a powerful engine for innovation. The critical question now is whether this momentum translates into sustained global leadership. Experts say if current trends hold, China may not just participate in the next generation of medical breakthroughs; it could redefine them.

China is using artificial intelligence to discover the next generation of blockbuster medicines. With innovative drug deals hitting a record $110 billion in just six months, Beijing is positioning itself to become a global pharmaceutical powerhouse.

China is positioning itself at the forefront of the next wave of global drug innovation, and artificial intelligence is emerging as the key lever that could tilt dominance in its favour. After cross-border deals for innovative drugs touched a record $110 billion in the first half of 2026, China's pharmaceutical sector is rapidly pivoting toward AI-driven drug discovery to sustain momentum. The shift signals a deeper transformation, from being a fast follower to becoming a global leader in cutting-edge therapies. Also read | How long before sun destroys the Earth? Scientists may have discovered the planet's 'expiry date' China already accounts for roughly 30 per cent of all new drugs under development worldwide, placing it behind only the US More significantly, deal activity is accelerating. By the end of June, 81 transactions had been completed; that is nearly 80 per cent of last year’s total. It spans high-value therapeutic areas such as oncology, metabolic diseases, immunology and neurology. Global buyers, particularly from the US and Europe, continue to actively partner with Chinese firms. https://www.wionews.com/videos/china-turns-to-ai-for-next-drug-breakthroughs-1784005943869/embed The latest collaborations highlight how AI is reshaping the innovation pipeline. Domestic companies are leveraging proprietary platforms to design molecules, simulate patient responses and optimise early-stage testing. Partnerships with global pharmaceutical majors are increasingly structured around milestone-based payouts that could run into billions of dollars. AI is enabling faster and more precise drug development by reducing reliance on traditional trial-and-error methods. Virtual modelling, predictive analytics and data-driven insights are helping companies refine candidates earlier, potentially lowering costs and shortening timelines. Also read | Built to outlive us all: Earth is getting an indestructible ‘black box’ to record the end of human civilisation This convergence of technology and biomedicine is strengthening China's position in the global healthcare ecosystem. Its ability to combine large datasets, advanced AI capabilities and a rapidly maturing regulatory framework is creating a powerful engine for innovation. The critical question now is whether this momentum translates into sustained global leadership. Experts say if current trends hold, China may not just participate in the next generation of medical breakthroughs; it could redefine them.

China is using artificial intelligence to discover the next generation of blockbuster medicines. With innovative drug deals hitting a record $110 billion in just six months, Beijing is positioning itself to become a global pharmaceutical powerhouse.

China's $110-billion AI pharma boom could redefine the future of medicine

China is positioning itself at the forefront of the next wave of global drug innovation, and artificial intelligence is emerging as the key lever that could tilt dominance in its favour.


China turns to AI for next drug breakthroughs

Acclaimed director Christopher Nolan has issued a stark warning to Hollywood regarding the industry's pivot to artificial intelligence, arguing that the technology is hitting the medium at "exactly the wrong time". 

Christopher Nolan issues warning over Hollywood's pivot to AI 

The White House is preparing to expand its "Ratepayer Protection Pledge" through a new initiative designed to shield households from rising electricity costs driven by AI data centers. While the original March 2026 pledge focused on major tech firms like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, this upcoming effort will broaden participation to include electric utilities, data center developers, and state governors.


White House plans voluntary AI energy pledge