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Artificial Intelligence

AI Startup ComplexChaos Aims to Bridge Divides and Foster Cooperation in Negotiations

ComplexChaos, founded by Tomy Lorsch and Maya Ben Dror, is developing AI-powered tools to help groups reach consensus faster and more effectively. Their tool, incorporating Google's Habermas Machine and OpenAI's ChatGPT, facilitates cooperation by generating questions, defining goals, and summarizing documents. A trial with young delegates from nine African nations preparing for climate negotiations showed a 60% reduction in coordination time and a high rate of participants gaining new perspectives. ComplexChaos envisions its tool being used in climate negotiations, corporate strategic planning, and other complex challenges to simplify processes and promote cooperation.

AI and Search Technology

Brave Enhances AI Search with Detailed Answers and Privacy Focus

Brave has introduced a new feature, AskBrave, to its AI-powered search suite, offering detailed answers to user queries. This complements their existing AIAnswers feature, which provides summarized responses. AskBrave delivers report-like answers with links, videos, and image carousels, similar to ChatGPT or Perplexity. Users can also engage with an AI chatbot for follow-up questions or format conversions.

Brave emphasizes privacy by encrypting user chats and deleting them after 24 hours of inactivity. The company utilizes its own API for grounding search results and ensuring accuracy. This update positions Brave alongside Google in the AI-powered search space, but with a strong focus on user privacy.

Social Media

X to Appeal Indian Court Ruling on Content Takedown System, Citing Free Speech Concerns

Social network X has announced its intention to appeal a recent Indian court ruling that supports a government-run content takedown system. X argues that the system, known as Sahyog, is secretive, lacks legal basis, and allows for arbitrary content removal orders without judicial review. The company claims that Sahyog circumvents the IT Act, violates Supreme Court rulings, and infringes on Indian citizens' constitutional rights to freedom of speech. Despite the court's rejection of X's free speech argument, X maintains that it contributes significantly to public discourse in India and will continue to defend free expression. This legal battle coincides with Elon Musk's efforts to expand his business ventures in India.

Artificial Intelligence

ChatGPT Enhances Safety with New Routing System and Parental Controls

OpenAI has introduced a new safety routing system in ChatGPT, designed to detect emotionally sensitive conversations and switch to GPT-5-thinking for safer interactions. This comes in response to incidents where previous models validated harmful delusions.

The company also rolled out parental controls, allowing parents to customize their teen's experience by setting quiet hours, disabling voice mode and memory, and opting out of image generation and model training. Teen accounts will receive additional content protections, including reduced graphic content and a detection system for potential signs of self-harm.

While some welcome these features, others criticize them as overly cautious, potentially degrading the service. OpenAI plans a 120-day period of iteration and improvement to refine these safety measures.

Social Media

Bluesky Implements Age Verification in Ohio to Comply with State Regulations

Bluesky is implementing age verification for users in Ohio starting September 29, using Kids Web Services' (KWS) age verification solution to comply with new state regulations aimed at protecting children from online risks. Ohio's law requires users to verify their age before accessing adult content, including that found on social networks.

KWS offers multiple verification methods, including facial scans and payment cards, in addition to government-issued IDs. This move follows similar implementations in South Dakota and Wyoming. Previously, Bluesky suspended services in Mississippi due to overly broad language in their age verification law, highlighting the challenges for smaller startups in complying with varying state regulations.

These legal requirements could potentially hinder smaller platforms like Bluesky, diverting resources and potentially deterring new users. This change comes shortly after Bluesky committed to more aggressive content moderation.

Artificial Intelligence

AI Startup Aims to Bridge Divides in Climate Negotiations and Beyond

Complex Chaos, a startup founded by Tommy Lorsch and Maya Ben Dror, is developing AI-powered tools to foster cooperation and accelerate consensus-building among groups. Their initial focus involves climate negotiations, where they aim to help delegates reach agreements more efficiently.

The startup's tool, incorporating Google's Habermas Machine and OpenAI's ChatGPT, was trialed with young delegates from nine African nations preparing for climate negotiations. Results indicated a 60% reduction in coordination time and a 91% agreement among participants that the AI tool helped them consider different perspectives.

Complex Chaos envisions applications beyond climate talks, pitching their tool to companies for strategic planning and other collaborative processes. Their goal is to streamline negotiations and decision-making, ultimately addressing significant global challenges.

Business & Finance

UK Government Backs Jaguar Land Rover with £1.5 Billion Loan Following Cyberattack

The U.K. government is providing a £1.5 billion loan guarantee to Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) after a cyberattack forced the company to halt production. The loan aims to support JLR's supply chain, which has been heavily affected by the shutdown.

The cyberattack, carried out by a financially motivated hacking group, led to data theft and significant disruption. JLR reportedly lost £50 million due to the production halts. The government's decision to bail out JLR has sparked debate, with some experts warning it could encourage future cyberattacks on U.K. organizations.

JLR's cybersecurity practices, including outsourcing to Tata Consulting Services, have also faced scrutiny. The company plans to resume car production soon.

AI & Startups

Marissa Mayer Shuts Down Sunshine, Shifts Focus to New AI Venture Dazzle

Marissa Mayer, former Yahoo CEO, is shutting down her consumer software startup, Sunshine, and selling its assets to her new AI startup, Dazzle. The decision follows limited success with Sunshine's contact management app and later additions of event management and photo sharing features.

Dazzle aims to develop an AI personal assistant, with all Sunshine employees transitioning to the new company. The deal has been approved by most of Sunshine's investors, including Norwest Venture Partners, Felicis Partners, and SV Angel. Sunshine, founded in 2018, struggled to gain traction despite raising $20 million and being largely self-funded.

Data Science & Open Source

Polars Secures $21M to Scale Open-Source Data Processing

Polars, an Amsterdam-based company known for its open-source data processing tool, has raised $21 million in a Series A round led by Accel, with participation from Bain Capital Partners. The funding will support the development of Polars Distributed, a distributed engine aimed at handling petabyte-scale datasets and challenging Apache Spark.

Founded by Ritchie Vink as a pet project during Covid, Polars gained popularity for its ability to process data faster than Pandas. The company launched Polars Cloud, a managed data platform, in February and aims to bridge the gap between Pandas and Spark with its products.

Accel partner Zhenya Loginov highlighted Polars' success in addressing a significant problem in data processing. Polars is currently used in finance, life sciences, and logistics, with Polars Cloud and Polars Distributed marking a new phase for the company.

Social Media

Instagram Tests Reels-First Interface in India and South Korea

Instagram is testing a new interface in India and South Korea that prioritizes the Reels page. The redesign places the Reels tab in a prominent position, allowing users to easily access short videos. The DM button has been moved to the navigation bar. The Following tab offers three feed options: 'All,' 'Friends,' and 'Latest.' Meta reports significant growth due to the popularity of short videos.