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For many Character.AI users, having a space to vent about their emotions or discuss psychological issues with someone outside of their social circle is a large part of what draws them to the chatbots. “I have a couple mental issues, which I don’t really feel like unloading on my friends, so I kind of use my bots like free therapy,” said Frankie, a 15-year-old Character.AI user from California who spends about one hour a day on the platform. For Frankie, chatbots provide the opportunity “to rant without actually talking to people, and without the worry of being judged,” he said.

From: The teens making friends with AI chatbots – The Verge.

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‘Miss AI’ award

From: ‘Miss AI’ beauty pageant unveils Top 10 fake models competing for the crown | Euronews.

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Visa’s analytics show that almost all stablecoin trading is bots. 

Looking at the data, we’ve found three notable trends relating to the current state and potential of stablecoins:

Stablecoin supply is approaching all-time highs. Total demand for stablecoins has picked back up in 2024, with circulating supply approaching $150B.
Steady growth of monthly active stablecoin users. We are seeing growth in regular users of stablecoins, with 27.5M monthly active users across all chains.1
Discrepancy between total transfer volume vs. bot-adjusted transfer volume. When we apply a simple heuristic that removes inorganic data, we see that transfer volume for the last 30 days can be adjusted from $2.65T to $265B2

From: Making sense of stablecoins | Visa.

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Only a quarter of consumers trust the UK financial services industry to act in the best interests of clients, while 31 per cent distrust the industry, according to research by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

The survey, conducted with more than 2,000 adults in the UK, explored the importance of a trusted compensation scheme in raising consumer confidence in the UK financial services industry.

From: Improved consumer protection top driver of trust in financial services – FTAdviser.

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Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin talks about the “three transitions” needed to turn the platform into a mass-market service for what he calls “average users”. These are the: The scaling transition – everyone moving to rollups; The wallet transition – everyone moving to smart contract wallets; and the privacy transition – making sure privacy-preserving funds transfers are available, and making sure all of the other gadgets that are being developed (social recovery, identity, reputation) are privacy-preserving.

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At the heart of vTaiwan is Polis. This real-time system gathers, analyses, interprets and visually maps in clusters of consensus what large groups of participants think. It is used to address a host of important but generally under-the-radar issues such as copyright, bias and discrimination, due compensation, fair use, public service and broader societal impacts. Its allure lies in a simple yet profound design: people naturally gravitate towards finding common ground, rather than delving into divisive issues.

From: Democracy in the age of AI – RSA Journal – RSA.

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“A simple tap of the card can verify your identity, reducing the chances of a false decline,” Lowe said. “This also enhances experiences in call centers, where users can authenticate themselves before even speaking to an agent.”

From: Passwordless Future Key to Competing in Digital Economy.

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Circle became the first global stablecoin issuer to secure an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license, a prerequisite to offering dollar- and euro-pegged crypto tokens in the European Union (EU) under the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework. Armed with a license from the French banking regulatory authority, Circle Mint France will “onshore” the issuance of its euro-denominated EURC stablecoin to the EU and issue USDC from the same entity, the company said.

From: Stablecoin Issuer Circle Snags MiCA-Compliant Electronic Money Institution EMI License for EU.

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While Singapore already has bilateral real-time payment linkages with Thailand and India, they are separate systems and operated by distinct entities, such as PayNow-PromptPay for Thailand and PayNow-UPI for India.

Nexus, on the other hand, is designed to standardise the way domestic instant payment service providers connect to one another. Rather than an operator building custom connections for every new country to which it connects, the operator only needs to make one connection to the NSO.

From: Payment system to let S’poreans send money instantly via mobile phones to 4 countries | The Straits Times.

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The British engineering company Arup has confirmed it was the victim of a deepfake fraud after an employee was duped into sending HK$200m (£20m) to criminals by an artificial intelligence-generated video call.

From: UK engineering firm Arup falls victim to £20m deepfake scam | Engineering | The Guardian.

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