Nitrous oxide is emerging as a surprisingly fast-acting option for people with major or treatment-resistant depression. New research shows that even a single inhaled dose can ease symptoms within a day, while repeated sessions may create longer-lasting improvements. Nitrous Oxide Shows Potential for Fast Depression Relief Patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder, including many who […]
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Multivitamins showed no broad effect on blood pressure in older adults, but they offered small, meaningful benefits for those with poorer diets or normal baseline BP. New findings from Mass General Brigham investigators indicate that taking a daily multivitamin over a long period may help lower the risk of developing hypertension and may also reduce […]
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Work pressure might be simmering down worldwide as the holidays approach, but at OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman has declared “code red”. Mr. Altman, 40, stressed the need for the company to improve user experience with ChatGPT by enhancing its speed, reliability, ability to answer more questions, and its personalisation — even if that means holding back other products, according to a report. OpenAI in October reached a valuation of $500 billion, so what could have caused this urgent shift? One answer is Google, which in November introduced its “most intelligent model” yet: Gemini 3.
From a child who experimented with his Macintosh computer to announcing a partnership with Apple decades later, the CEO of one of the world’s most famous tech companies has always juggled both tech and business aspirations.
Samuel Harris Altman, born in Chicago on April 22, 1985, grew up with his younger siblings, two brothers and a sister, in a Jewish family. He lived in Missouri and studied computer science at Stanford University but dropped out in 2005, according to Forbes. Mr. Altman went on to co-found Loopt, a social mapping service designed to help people discover more about their location. He later sold Loopt and became closely involved with Y Combinator and had been the start-up launcher’s president between 2014 and 2019.
Though best known for his work in the generative AI space, Mr. Altman was active in the blockchain sector. He is a co-founder of Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project introduced in 2021 and launched in 2023 that aims to collect people’s biometric data in exchange for giving them an ID and some digital currency simply for “being human”.
Activists allege that the project was used to harvest biometric data without informed consent from people in poverty-struck regions, while Mr. Altman’s initiative was also publicly criticised by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit artificial intelligence research company. Billionaire Elon Musk was part of the organisation but left its Board three years later over differences over how to operate the company. Since the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022, Microsoft has invested billions in OpenAI to leverage generative AI technology for its own products. The two companies — and their CEOs — gradually drifted apart as they became competitors.
Furthermore, Mr. Musk and Mr. Altman’s relationship has soured badly since 2018, with Mr. Musk suing OpenAI multiple times over alleged violations of business regulations, while the ChatGPT-maker claimed it was being harassed by the billionaire who now has his own AI company: xAI.
There were also internal conflicts. In November 2023, Mr. Altman was suddenly fired from OpenAI, with the company noting that “he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board”. Soon, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Mr. Altman would join the software giant to lead its AI team. In a surprising turn, however, Mr. Altman returned as the CEO of OpenAI, with Board members Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley, and OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever later being removed. The tech world keenly observed the chaotic series of events, which highlighted Mr. Altman’s influence over his peers. A string of employees left the company soon after, with former researcher Jan Leike claiming that “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products”.
In the months following ChatGPT’s viral fame, Mr. Altman faced criticism over OpenAI’s approach to training its AI models, with authors and creators alleging that the company illegally scraped their copyrighted works, possibly from piracy databases, to feed AI models with high-quality information. The New York Times joined the fray as it sued OpenAI over alleged copyright infringements.
OpenAI and Mr. Altman are facing a lawsuit filed by two U.S. parents regarding a far more serious matter. Matthew and Maria Raine in August alleged that ChatGPT helped “coach” their 16-year-old son Adam Raine into dying by suicide. The Raine family said that ChatGPT taught their teenager about various self-harm and suicide methods that he later used to take his life, and that the chatbot reportedly discouraged the child from seeking human support. OpenAI expressed its sympathies and has since rolled out safety settings for children, but intends to defend ChatGPT. Mr. Altman, meanwhile, has defended user freedom for adult users of ChatGPT.
Concerns over child safety caused ripples even as OpenAI moved to redefine its non-profit structure. In October, the company announced that the non-profit was the OpenAI Foundation, while the for-profit was a public benefit corporation called OpenAI Group PBC; the foundation controls the group and their mission is the same, says the company. Microsoft now holds around 27% of the OpenAI Group.
Mr. Altman married his partner Oliver Mulherin in January 2024, and announced the arrival of his son this year by sharing the baby’s photo on the Musk-owned social media platform X. While there were congratulatory messages, the comments on X were also teeming with anti-Semitic and homophobic hate speech.
Mr. Altman does not frequently post about his family on social media, but his personal life made headlines after a family member alleged that he sexually abused her for years when she was a child, and filed a lawsuit against him. In January, Mr. Altman issued a public statement denying all allegations, calling them “utterly untrue” and expressing concern about the woman’s well-being.
ChatGPT recently turned three, with Mr. Altman claiming that the chatbot has more than 800 million weekly users. ChatGPT is unquestionably the chatbot that led the generative AI boom in 2023, with Microsoft and Google following with their own chatbot releases that felt rushed and spewed grave errors as a result of AI chatbot hallucination, shocking long-time customers of these legacy companies.
OpenAI greatly enjoyed its first-mover advantages, with Mr. Altman jetting around the globe to meet world leaders, discuss AI regulation, and explore expansion overseas.
However, Google’s sudden leap ahead presents a new threat for Mr. Altman, who previously exulted in his first-mover advantages. At over 25 years of age, Google is a behemoth that dominates multiple search and online technology markets and platforms. In other words, Google can likely bear larger losses for longer than OpenAI as it promotes top-of-the-line AI offerings and integrates them into products used by billions. Google announced last month that its AI Overviews has 2 billion users every month and that the Gemini app surpasses 650 million users per month.
According to the Internet search giant, its Gemini 3 Pro model beat OpenAI’s recently upgraded GPT-5.1 across a range of key AI benchmarks.
Little wonder, then, that Mr. Altman has reportedly declared “code red” at OpenAI.
Published – December 07, 2025 01:06 am IST
Scientists found that toxic air can greatly reduce the protective effects of exercise, although it doesn’t erase them completely. When PM2.5 pollution passes widely experienced thresholds, the health boost from regular activity drops noticeably and can fall to roughly half its usual strength. Toxic Air Exposure Weakens Exercise Benefits A new international study involving experts […]
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Netflix has struck a deal with Warner Bros Discovery to buy the legacy Hollywood giant’s studio and streaming business for $72 billion.
The acquisition, announced on Friday (December 5, 2025), would bring two of the industry’s biggest players in film and TV under one roof.
Beyond its namesake television and motion picture division, Warner owns HBO Max and DC Studios. And Netflix has risen to dominance as a household name ubiquitous to on-demand content, while building of its own production arm to release popular titles like “Stranger Things” and “Squid Game.” The streamer has offered roughly $28 a share — largely in cash — to take over Warner Bros. Studios and the HBO Max streaming operation, outpacing parallel offers from Paramount and Comcast.
The deal came after a frantic, weeks-long auction that reshaped industry expectations and exposed deep fractures between Hollywood power players. Sources indicate a $5 billion breakup fee is included in the proposal, a sign of Netflix’s confidence in the deal’s viability.
The acquisition would be the most significant strategic leap in Netflix’s history. It would bring the studio’s vast infrastructure under the company’s control, including DC Studios, Warner Bros Television, HBO, New Line, and a library stretching from the Harry Potter franchise to the MGM pre-1986 catalog. Analysts describe the studio as a “crown jewel,” one capable of elevating Netflix’s standing beyond streaming and into broader cultural and commercial territory.
Paramount — which bid for all of WBD — has pushed back hardest, warning that Netflix’s dominant market position will face insurmountable antitrust scrutiny. In internal correspondence, the company accused WBD’s leadership of favoring Netflix and raised concerns about management conflicts tied to future roles and compensation. WBD rejected the claims as unfounded.
According to Variety, an anonymous group of A-list producers and directors circulated a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to scrutinise the merger, warning that Netflix’s control over Warner Bros. would “effectively hold a noose around the theatrical marketplace.” Their central fear is that Netflix could sharply reduce the exclusive theatrical window for Warner Bros. films, or sideline theaters altogether in favor of rapid streaming turnarounds. Some insiders claim the proposed window could shrink to two weeks, though sources close to the negotiations insist it would be longer.
The group cited Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos’ repeated remarks distancing the company from a theatrical-first philosophy, arguing that the merger risks collapsing essential revenue streams and destabilising long-standing exhibition practices.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s stock jumped to a 52-week high on news of the bid. Now as the deal closes, Netflix will not only inherit a massive library but a global theatrical distribution network that could redraw industry boundaries and spark one of the decade’s fiercest regulatory battles.
(With inputs from AP)
Published – December 05, 2025 01:03 pm IST
Meta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS
Meta is delaying the release of its Phoenix mixed-reality glasses until 2027, aiming to get the details right, Business Insider reported on Friday, citing an internal memo.
The delay from an initially planned release in the second half of 2026 is because the company wants a fully polished device, the report said.
Meta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report.
Meta executives Gabriel Aul and Ryan Cairns said moving the release date back is “going to give us a lot more breathing room to get the details right,” the report added.
The goggles, previously code-named Puffin, weigh around 100 grams (3.5 ounces) and have lower-resolution displays and weaker computing performance than high-end headsets like Apple’s Vision Pro, the Information reported in July.
Mixed reality merges augmented and virtual reality and allows real-world and digital objects to interact.
Meta is expected to make budget cuts of up to 30% for its metaverse initiative, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
The metaverse group sits within Reality Labs, which produces the company’s Quest mixed-reality headsets, smart glasses made with EssilorLuxottica’s Ray-Ban and upcoming augmented-reality glasses.
Published – December 06, 2025 02:34 pm IST
India’s government is reviewing a telecom industry proposal to force smartphone firms to enable satellite location tracking that is always activated for better surveillance, a move opposed by Apple, Google and Samsung due to privacy concerns, according to documents, emails and five sources.
A fierce privacy debate erupted in India this week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was forced to rescind an order requiring smartphone makers to preload a state-run cyber safety app on all devices after activists and politicians raised concerns about potential snooping.
For years, the Modi administration has been concerned its agencies do not get precise locations when legal requests are made to telecom firms during investigations. Under the current system, the firms are limited to using cellular tower data that can only provide an estimated area location, which can be off by several meters.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents Reliance’s Jio and Bharti Airtel, has proposed that precise user locations should only be provided if the government orders smartphone makers to activate A-GPS technology, which uses satellite signals and cellular data, according to a June internal federal IT ministry email.
That would require location services to always be activated in smartphones with no option for users to disable them. Apple , Samsung and Alphabet’s Google have told New Delhi that should not be mandated, said three of the sources who have direct knowledge of the deliberations.
A measure to track device-level location has no precedent anywhere else in the world, lobbying group India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA), which represents both Apple and Google, wrote in a confidential July letter to the government, which was viewed by Reuters.
“The A-GPS network service … (is) not deployed or supported for location surveillance,” said the letter, which added that the measure “would be a regulatory overreach.”
India’s home ministry had scheduled a meeting of top smartphone industry executives to discuss the matter on Friday but it was postponed, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. On Thursday, Reuters sent questions related to this topic to the ministry.
India’s IT and home ministries, which are both analysing the telecom industry’s proposal, did not respond to Reuters queries.
Apple, Samsung, Google, Reliance and Airtel did not respond to requests for comment. Lobby groups ICEA and COAI also did not respond.
At this point, no policy decision has been made by the IT or home ministries.
Taking advantage of A-GPS technology, which is typically only turned on when certain apps are running or when emergency calls are being made, could provide authorities with location data precise enough that a user can be tracked to within about a meter, according to technology experts.
“This proposal would see phones operate as a dedicated surveillance device,” said Junade Ali, a digital forensics expert associated with Britain’s Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Cooper Quintin, a security researcher at the U.S.-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said he had not heard of any such proposal elsewhere, calling it “pretty horrifying.”
Governments worldwide routinely seek new ways to better track cellphone users’ movements or data. Russia has mandated the installation of a state-backed communications app on all mobile phones in the country.
India is the world’s second-biggest mobile market with 735 million smartphones as of mid-2025, where Google’s Android powers more than 95% of the devices, with the rest using Apple’s iOS, Counterpoint Research says.
Apple and Google’s lobby group, the ICEA, argued in their July letter that there are significant “legal, privacy, and national security concerns” with the proposal from the telecom group.
It warned their user base would include people from the military, judges, corporate executives and journalists, adding that proposed location tracking risked their security given that they hold sensitive information.
Even the old way of location tracking is becoming problematic, the telecom group said, as smartphone makers show a pop-up message to users, alerting them that their “carrier is trying to access your location.”
“A target can easily ascertain that he is being tracked by security agencies,” said the telecom group, urging the government to order phone makers to disable the pop-up features.
Privacy concerns should take priority and India should also not consider disabling the pop-ups, Apple and Google’s group argued in its July letter to the government.
This will “ensure transparency and user control over their location.”
Published – December 06, 2025 09:19 am IST
Google and Apple did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS
The House Committee on Homeland Security has asked Google and Apple to detail what steps they are taking to remove mobile applications that allow users to track federal immigration officers.
In letters sent on Friday to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple head Tim Cook, committee leaders singled out ICEBlock, an app previously used to monitor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, saying apps hosted on their app stores risk “jeopardizing the safety of DHS personnel.” Lawmakers requested a briefing by December 12.
The letters urged Google and Apple to ensure these apps cannot be used to target officers or obstruct lawful immigration enforcement.
The committee noted that while free speech is protected, it does not extend to advocacy that incites imminent lawless action, referencing a landmark Supreme Court ruling.
Google and Apple did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The letters follow concerns that these tools allow users to anonymously report and track the movements of federal agents, including those from ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
In October, Google said that ICEBlock was never available on Google’s Play Store and added it had removed similar apps due to policy violations.
Apple also removed ICEBlock and other tracking apps from its App Store at the time.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the apps “put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs,” while Apple cited violations of its policies against content that could harm individuals or groups. The removals followed a surge in downloads of ICEBlock, which had more than a million users before being pulled.
Published – December 06, 2025 12:55 pm IST
The Times also claimed that the startup’s generative AI products created fabricated content, or “hallucinations” [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS
The New York Times filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI on Friday, claiming that the artificial intelligence startup was copying, distributing and displaying millions of its articles without permission to power its generative AI products.
The startup has become a target of multiple legal disputes and faces similar accusations from a number of publishers as it tries to aggressively carve out a share of the hyper-competitive market for generative AI tools.
The Times also claimed that the startup’s generative AI products created fabricated content, or “hallucinations,” and falsely attributed them to the newspaper by displaying them alongside its registered trademarks.
It said that Perplexity’s business model relied on scraping and copying content, including paywalled material.
“While we believe in the ethical and responsible use and development of AI, we firmly object to Perplexity’s unlicensed use of our content to develop and promote their products,” NYT spokesperson Graham James said in a statement.
The NYT is seeking damages, injunctive relief and other equitable remedies to prevent Perplexity from continuing its alleged unauthorized use of content.
Perplexity was also sued by the Chicago Tribune on Thursday.
The startup’s head of communication, Jesse Dwyer, dismissed the lawsuits, saying it was an unsuccessful tactic used by publishers against emerging technologies.
Perplexity had previously said that it was not scraping data for building foundation models, but rather indexing web pages and providing factual citations.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, comes more than a year after the NYT sent a cease and desist notice to Perplexity.
It is also the latest salvo in a bitter ongoing battle between publishers and tech companies over the use of copyrighted content without authorisation.
In October, social media company Reddit sued Perplexity in New York federal court, accusing it and three other companies of unlawfully scraping its data.
The San Francisco-based startup, which is valued at about $20 billion, is also facing lawsuits from Encyclopedia Britannica and media baron Rupert Murdoch’s Dow Jones and the New York Post.
The NYT, which has allowed Amazon.com to use its editorial content for AI products such as Alexa, is also tussling with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
Reuters reported last year that multiple AI companies were bypassing a web standard used by publishers to block the scraping of their data used in generative AI systems.
NYT shares were up 1.8%.
Published – December 06, 2025 09:34 am IST
Meta announced Friday it will integrate content from major news organisations into its artificial intelligence assistant to provide Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users with real-time information.
The social media giant said Meta AI will offer breaking news, entertainment and lifestyle stories when users ask news-related questions, drawing from partnerships with outlets including CNN, Fox News, Le Monde, People and USA Today.
The feature will allow users to access “more diverse content sources” and receive links to partner websites to dive deeper into stories, Meta said in a blog post.
Meta said the expansion aims to make its AI assistant “more responsive, accurate, and balanced” by incorporating diverse viewpoints, acknowledging that “real-time events can be challenging for current AI systems to keep up with.”
The initial partnerships span mainstream and conservative-leaning publications, including The Daily Caller and The Washington Examiner.
The company said it plans to continue adding partnerships and develop new features as competition intensifies among technology firms to enhance the capabilities of their AI assistants.
Meta AI is available across the company’s platforms, serving billions of users globally.
The announcement comes as artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, increasingly move to incorporate live web content and news feeds.
OpenAI has deals with News Corp., Le Monde, The Washington Post and Axel Springer, while The New York Times has partnered with Amazon and Google has partnered with The Associated Press. Europe’s Mistral has partnered with Agence France-Presse.
At the end of August, the startup Perplexity unveiled a subscription package called Comet Plus, named after its AI-infused internet browser, Comet, which gives access to partnered media content for $5 per month.
Perplexity has committed to redistributing 80 percent of the revenue generated by Comet Plus to news publishers.
Despite these collaborations, several lawsuits brought by media outlets against AI companies are ongoing, notably that of The New York Times against OpenAI, which the newspaper accuses of using its articles without authorization and without compensation.
In recent days The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune joined The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post with their own lawsuits against Perplexity.
Meta has had a sometimes turbulent relationship with the news media over the years.
The company founded by Mark Zuckerberg declared in 2024 that news was a very small share of user engagement on the company’s platforms and began shutting down the Facebook News tab in markets including the United States, Britain and France.
This also saw the end of multi-million-dollar deals with leading news organisations.
Zuckerberg also made the surprise decision in January to end Meta’s US fact-checking programme, as he more closely aligned with the Trump administration’s antipathy toward establishment news.
That program had employed third-party fact-checkers, many from news media organisations such as AFP, to identify misinformation disseminated on the platform.
The AI news came a day after Meta’s share price rose sharply on a report that the company is significantly cutting back on virtual reality investments as it pivots toward artificial intelligence.
Published – December 06, 2025 11:30 am IST