TimesOfAI

Silicon Valley Publicly Challenges AI‑Safety Advocates Amid Rising Tensions Industry heavyweights from OpenAI and other Silicon Valley firms openly criticised non‑profit AI‑safety organisations last week, accusing them of self‑serving motives and regulatory capture rather than altruistic oversight. David Sacks alleged that Anthropic is orchestrating fear‑driven campaigns to push laws that favour its interests, while Jason Kwon of OpenAI referenced subpoenas issued to safety groups in the context of company‑restructuring litigation as part of a broader concern about hidden agendas. Safety‑focused nonprofit leaders say the mounting public criticism is pressuring them into silence or anonymity, a development they regard as an intimidation tactic. The situation underscores growing friction between the drive to rapidly commercialise AI and the push to regulate its potential systemic risks. #TOAINews2025 #AISafety #SiliconValley #TechRegulation #AIIndustry #StartupCulture

WhatsApp Bans General‑Purpose Chatbots Via Updated Business API Terms WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, announced a policy change this week that will prevent developers of large‑scale AI models and generative assistants from distributing their tools via WhatsApp’s Business API. Meta clarified the policy does not affect businesses using AI for customer care or support. Instead, the aim is to preserve the intended business‑to­‑customer usage of the API, rather than turning the platform into a generic AI‑agent distribution channel. The change follows a surge of high‑volume bot traffic and unanticipated workloads on the system. #TOAINews2025 #WhatsApp #Meta #AIpolicy #Chatbots #BusinessAPI #TechRegulation

Meta’s AI Now Suggests Edits to Your Photos, Right On Your Phone Meta Platforms has rolled out a new feature in its photo apps where its built-in AI can now suggest edits for the photos stored on your device, everything from lighting tweaks and color enhancements to alternative crop suggestions. The feature is currently limited to iOS in the U.S. with an English language rollout, but Meta says wider availability and “creator tools” are on the roadmap. By embedding this capability, Meta is positioning itself as more than just a social network, it’s aiming to become an everyday photo editor with AI inside. Watch for two key angles: one, how users react to AI having access to “stored” images; and two, how this could integrate with monetization (think filters, premium edit packs, or creator marketplaces). #TOAINews2025 #MetaAI #PhotoEditing #MobileAI #AItools #ImageEnhancement #DigitalPhotography #CreatorEconomy

ChatGPT Mobile App Shows Signs of Maturation as Download Growth and Daily Use Slow Down ChatGPT’s mobile application appears to be entering a more mature phase according to recent data from Apptopia. While the app continues to rack up millions of daily installations globally, the growth in new downloads has already begun to taper off, October is currently set to record an 8.1 % decrease in month-over-month installs. OpenAI is also seeing signs of reduced engagement among U.S. users: since July, the average time spent per daily active user has dropped by 22.5% and sessions per user are down 20.7%. With novelty fading, analysts suggest OpenAI will need to rely on fresh features, expanded localization, and strategic marketing to sustain momentum and expand beyond its core base. #TOAINews2025 #ChatGPT #OpenAI #MobileApps #UserGrowth #AppEngagement #TechTrends #AIapps

SK Telecom’s AI Unit Offers Voluntary Retirement Program Just Weeks After Launch In a surprising move, SK Telecom’s newly formed AI division has introduced a voluntary retirement program for employees, mere weeks after its official launch. The decision highlights potential structural and staffing challenges as the company rapidly pivots toward building out generative-AI capabilities. #TOAINews2025 #SKTelecom #AIUnit #WorkforceRestructure #TechPivot #CorporateStrategy

Meta Previews New Parental Controls for AI Experiences Meta Platforms has unveiled upcoming parental control tools for its AI-powered features, allowing parents to regulate how teens interact with AI characters and chatbots. The new controls will enable parents to disable teen access to AI character chats entirely, block specific characters, and receive insights on the topics their teens are discussing with both Meta AI and in-platform AI characters. These controls roll out early next year on Instagram in English across the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. Given growing concerns about the impact of social media and AI on teen mental health, Meta’s move aligns with its new policy to limit teen-facing AI experiences to PG-13-equivalent content, excluding extreme violence, nudity or drug depiction. #TOAINews2025 #Meta #ParentalControls #AIExperiences #TeenSafety #TechPolicy #AIethics

Reddit Expands AI-Powered Search to Five New Languages Reddit has rolled out its AI-powered search feature in French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, bringing question-and-answer style interactions to users in Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, Mexico, and Italy. The platform uses a Google AI model to power the experience, which is part of Reddit Answers and lives alongside its traditional search interface. #TOAINews2025 #Reddit #AISearch #MultilingualAI #TechInnovation #SearchEngine #AI #Languages

Claude Now Fully Integrates with Microsoft 365 for Enhanced Enterprise Collaboration Anthropic has rolled out full Claude integration with Microsoft 365, connecting the AI assistant to Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive for enterprise users. This lets teams query and summarize internal data, from emails to documents, without switching apps, streamlining collaboration and decision-making. The new enterprise search and shared project features enable organization-wide insights while maintaining admin control over access and governance. The move strengthens Claude’s role in AI-driven workplace productivity and positions Anthropic in direct competition with Microsoft’s own Copilot offerings as enterprises race to unify knowledge workflows under intelligent systems. https://lnkd.in/gdWa7AZF #TOAINews2025 #AI #EnterpriseTools #Claude #Microsoft365 #Collaboration #Anthropic #AIAssistants

Jack & Jill Raises $20M to Apply Conversational AI in Job Search Jack & Jill, a London‑based startup, has secured $20 million in seed funding led by Creandum to revolutionize job hunting through conversational AI. The platform splits into two components: “Jack,” which handles the applicant side by conducting a 20‑minute AI interview to generate a dynamic profile and suggest fitting roles; and “Jill,” which works with employers by structuring role profiles and surfacing matching candidates. Already active in London with around 50,000 users, Jack & Jill plans to expand to the U.S. using the new capital. The founders argue that while platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed have remained largely unchanged over two decades, conversational bots can bring more meaningful matching and streamline recruiter workflows. #TOAINews2025 #AI #Recruitment #ConversationalAI #JobTech #StartupFunding

Eightfold Founders Launch Viven with $35M Seed to Build AI “Digital Twin” for Unavailable Colleagues Ashutosh Garg and Varun Kacholia, co‑founders of the AI recruiting firm Eightfold, have unveiled Viven, a startup that assigns each employee a personalized LLM‑based “digital twin” built from their internal documents (email, Slack, Google Docs, etc.). Viven enables team members to query a colleague’s twin when the person is unavailable, while privacy is guarded via “pairwise context” that limits which data is shared and with whom. Backed by $35 million in seed funding from investors including Khosla Ventures, Foundation Capital, and FPV Ventures, Viven is already in use at enterprise clients such as Genpact and Eightfold itself. The founders argue there’s currently no direct competition in the digital twin space for enterprises and believe their approach could ease coordination bottlenecks in workplaces, so long as privacy safeguards hold. #TOAINews2025 #AI #DigitalTwin #EnterpriseTech #WorkplaceInnovation