China blocks Nvidia H200 AI chips that US government cleared for export – report

Suppliers of parts for Nvidia’s H200 have paused production after Chinese customs officials blocked shipments of the newly approved artificial intelligence processors from entering China, according to a report.Reuters could not immediately verify the report, which appeared in the Financial Times citing two people with knowledge of the matter. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment made outside regular business hours.Nvidia had expected more than one million orders from Chinese clients, the report said, adding that its suppliers had been operating around the clock to prepare for shipping as early as March.Chinese customs authorities this week told customs agents that Nvidia’s H200 chips were not permitted to enter the country, Reuters reported

Prominent PR firm accused of commissioning favourable changes to Wikipedia pages

A high-profile PR company founded by Keir Starmer’s communications chief has been accused of commissioning changes to Wikipedia pages to make them more favourable towards clients.Portland Communications, founded by Tim Allan, has been linked to the so-called black hat edits, sometimes referred to as “Wikilaundering”. Several changes were made to Wikipedia pages by a network of editors, allegedly controlled by a contractor working on Portland’s behalf.According to an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), Portland outsourced Wikipedia editing relating to some of its high-profile clients, including the state of Qatar.TBIJ said it had evidence of alleged Wikipedia edits made on behalf of Portland between 2016 and 2024

TikTok to strengthen age-verification technology across EU

TikTok will begin to roll out new age-verification technology across the EU in the coming weeks, as calls grow for an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s in countries including the UK.ByteDance-owned TikTok, and other major platforms popular with young people such as YouTube, are coming under increasing pressure to better identify and remove accounts belonging to children.The system, which has been quietly piloted in the EU over the past year, analyses profile information, posted videos and behavioural signals to predict whether an account may be belong to a user under the age of 13.As well as analysing information the account holder provides about themselves, the technology looks at behaviour such as the videos a user publishes, and “other on-platform behaviour”.TikTok said accounts flagged by the system would be reviewed by specialist moderators rather than face an automatic ban, and may then be removed

X still allowing users to post sexualised images generated by Grok AI tool

X has continued to allow users to post highly sexualised videos of women in bikinis generated by its AI tool Grok, despite the company’s claim to have cracked down on misuse.The Guardian was able to create short videos of people stripping to bikinis from photographs of fully clothed, real women. It was also possible to post this adult content on to X’s public platform without any sign of it being moderated, meaning the clip could be viewed within seconds by anyone with an account.It appeared to offer a straightforward workaround to restrictions announced by Elon Musk’s social network this week. These had been welcomed by the prime minister, Keir Starmer, who had described the photographs generated by Grok as “disgusting” and “shameful”

Mother of one of Elon Musk’s sons sues over Grok-generated explicit images

The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children is suing his company – alleging explicit images were generated of her by his Grok AI tool, including one in which she was underage.Ashley St Clair has filed a lawsuit with the supreme court of the state of New York against xAI, alleging that Grok, which is used on the social media platform X, promised to stop generating explicit images but continued to do so.She is seeking punitive and compensatory damages, claiming dozens of sexually explicit and degrading deepfake images were created by Grok.After two weeks of public outcry at the tool being used to create sexualised images of women and children, the company said on Wednesday it would “geoblock” the ability of users “to generate images of real people in bikinis, underwear, and similar attire via the Grok account and in Grok in X” in countries where it was illegal.St Clair, 27, who is estranged from Musk, is a rightwing influencer, author and political commentator

‘Not regulated’: launch of ChatGPT Health in Australia causes concern among experts

A 60-year-old man with no history of mental illness presented at a hospital emergency department insisting that his neighbour was poisoning him. Over the next 24 hours he had worsening hallucinations, and tried to escape the hospital.Doctors eventually discovered the man was on a daily diet of sodium bromide, an inorganic salt mainly used for industrial and laboratory purposes including cleaning and water treatment.He bought it over the internet after ChatGPT told him he could use it in place of table salt because he was worried about the health impacts of salt in his diet. Sodium bromide can accumulate in the body causing a condition called bromism, with symptoms including hallucinations, stupor and impaired coordination