Journalism begins where hype ends

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The use of AI is never a purely technical matter: when it enters processes that affect people’s lives, it touches on rights, opportunities, status and freedom"

—Pope Leo XIV

MentalHealthBench: OpenAI’s Test for AI in Everyday Distress and Crisis Talks

OpenAI released MentalHealthBench following multiple wrongful death lawsuits.

OpenAI released MentalHealthBench on Sept. 23 to measure how AI models handle realistic mental health talks, from daily stress to crises. The move comes as the company faces multiple U.S. lawsuits from families who say loved ones confided in ChatGPT before suicide or, in one case, a homicide.

OpenAI Agent Hacks Australian Government Website: “Situation Unacceptable” says PM Albanese as He Explores Police Action

Australian PrimeMinister Anthony Albanese has shown his displeasure that OpenAI hi about the hack for way too long.

“Disappointed with OpenAI that that it took the company way too long to inform the Government,” says Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as he terms the OpenAI agent hacking government website as “unacceptable situation”.

AI Pricing Battle Intensifies as Anthropic and OpenAI Cut Costs with New Models

OpenAI and Anthropic are cutting prices for their latest AI models, with GPT-6 Sol and Luna 50% cheaper and Claude Opus 5.5 costing 40% less to run than Opus 5.

Anthropic and OpenAI have launched cheaper AI models as competition intensifies, highlighting lower costs alongside improvements in performance, factuality and capabilities.

OpenAI Calls for US to Lead Global AI Standards, Including Recursive Self-Improvement

Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, as the company calls for the US to lead global AI standards.

OpenAI has proposed global technical standards for frontier AI and recursive self-improvement, covering common safeguards, capability and risk assessments, incident reporting and human oversight of automated AI research.

China AI Boom: How is China Financing it? What a US-Based Research Firm Says

China’s AI buildout is drawing increasing investment as companies rely on equity, bank loans and other financing channels while AI revenues and profitability lag those of US peers.

According to a Rhodium Group report, China’s AI revenues and profitability lag those of US peers. The report says China’s AI models generated around $10.7 billion in combined annual recurring revenue, roughly 10% of recently reported levels for OpenAI and Anthropic, while Chinese AI firms rely on equity, bank loans and other funding channels to sustain investment.

OpenAI Buys Israeli AI Camera Startup Glass Imaging for Over $300 Million

OpenAI has reportedly acquired Israeli-founded camera technology startup Glass Imaging for more than $300 million.

OpenAI has reportedly acquired Israeli-founded camera startup Glass Imaging for more than $300 million, adding former Apple engineers Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop and AI-powered computational photography expertise to its growing hardware ambitions. How OpenAI plans to use Glass Imaging’s technology remains unclear.

No OpenAI IPO in 2026; What Happens to Anthropic’s IPO?

OpenAI and Anthropic CEOs at the centre of the growing debate over AI safety, frontier development and the future of their IPO plans.

Sam Altman and Dario Amodei call for a slower pace of frontier AI development, as OpenAI rules out a 2026 IPO amid mounting safety concerns and questions emerge over Anthropic’s planned listing.

Microsoft Signs AI Safety Deal with US Teachers’ Unions Amid “Grave Crisis” in Teaching

A student uses a tablet in a classroom as Microsoft, AFT and UFT announce a new AI Safety & Privacy Standard for schools, covering student data, AI oversight and privacy protections.

The framework bans the use of covered data for AI training and its sale, while requiring human oversight. AFT President Randi Weingarten said she hopes other AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, will also sign on, with discussions already underway.

Anthropic Researcher Quits Warning AI Could Kill Humanity; His Alignment Lead Agrees

Illustration representing concerns over AI safety, self-improving artificial intelligence and the potential risks of superintelligence.

Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon has resigned over concerns that AI companies are racing toward self-improving superintelligence without adequate safeguards. Anthropic alignment lead Evan Hubinger backed Coxon’s warning that AI could kill all humans and said he personally puts the risk above 10% within the next decade.

No AI Lab is Ready for Full-Speed Scaling, OpenAI’s Jakub Pachocki Warns of Machine Intelligence Dangers

OpenAI Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki warns that AI labs have yet to solve alignment and monitoring sufficiently for continued full-speed scaling

OpenAI Chief Scientist warns that no AI lab has solved alignment and monitoring sufficiently. As AI capabilities advance, systems increasingly drive their own development, challenging efforts to keep humans in control and build defensive systems against the dangers posed by other AI.