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Bank of New York Mellon said it now employs dozens of artificial intelligence-powered ‘digital employees’ that have company logins and work alongside its human staff.

From: Digital Workers Have Arrived in Banking – WSJ.

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Indeed, D&D’s complex rules, extended campaigns and need for teamwork are an ideal environment to evaluate the long-term performance of AI agents powered by Large Language Models, according to a team of computer scientists led by researchers at the University of California San Diego.

From: AI models tested on Dungeons & Dragons to assess long-term decision-making.

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The models played against each other, and against over 2,000 experienced D&D players recruited by the researchers. The LLMs modeled and played 27 different scenarios selected from well-known D&D battle set ups named Goblin Ambush, Kennel in Cragmaw Hideout and Klarg’s Cave.

In the process, the models exhibited some quirky behaviors. Goblins started developing a personality mid-fight, taunting adversaries with colorful and somewhat nonsensical expressions, like “Heh—shiny man’s gonna bleed!” Paladins started making heroic speeches for no reason while stepping into the line of fire or being hit by a counterattack. Warlocks got particularly dramatic, even in mundane situations.

Researchers are not sure what caused these behaviors, but take it as a sign that the models were trying to imbue the game play with texture and personality.

From: AI models tested on Dungeons & Dragons to assess long-term decision-making.

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Deloitte’s member firm in Australia will pay the government a partial refund for a $290,000 report that contained alleged AI-generated errors, including references to non-existent academic research papers and a fabricated quote from a federal court judgment.

From: Deloitte was caught using AI in $290,000 report to help the Australian government crack down on welfare after a researcher flagged hallucinations | Fortune.

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Use of some form of digital proof of identity will still be mandatory for right-to-work checks, but the government digital ID app will only be one option for doing so.

From: UK government backtracks on plans for mandatory digital ID | Computer Weekly.

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I think what will happen over time is that you’ll find most retailers will have their own agents, and then you’ll also have third-party agents. And we’ll see over time how many people want to shop their retail on a generalized agent versus where they go every day and see the product.

From: My Interview With Andy Jassy: OpenAI, Trump, Power and the Future of AWS — The Information.

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Sony is reportedly preparing to launch a US dollar-pegged stablecoin. The development comes as the global entertainment and technology giant tightens its strategic footprint across financial services, including its recent filing for a US banking licence.

On December 1, Japanese media outlet Nikkei suggested Sony intends to issue the token via its partner Startale Labs, a company it has backed through Sony Network Communications.

Startale is already co-developing the Astar blockchain and has previously outlined ambitions to build global infrastructure for real-world asset issuance, including fiat-backed digital currencies.

Sony has built the regulatory foundations needed for such a launch. In 2023, its financial arm acquired WhaleFin Japan, a licensed crypto exchange, bringing token custody and issuance capabilities under a fully regulated entity. The timing coincides with Japan’s newly operational stablecoin regime, which allows banks and licensed providers to issue fiat-backed tokens under strict reserve requirements.

While Sony has not commented publicly, the reported product is expected to be a USD-pegged token rather than yen-backed. That decision reflects the broader trend in global markets where dollar liquidity and interoperability still dominate cross-border settlement and digital asset use cases.

What makes a Sony stablecoin strategically distinct?

Sony’s potential differentiator is not the token itself but the scale of the ecosystem it could move through. PlayStation Network, Sony Music, Sony Pictures, and Sony Bank each offer large-volume payments environments, from digital downloads to subscription billing and user-generated marketplaces.

The company has also filed patents covering NFT transfers between game consoles, digital asset marketplaces, and blockchain-supported authentication layers. A regulated stablecoin could act as the transaction engine behind these systems, reducing reliance on card schemes and enabling lower-cost, real-time settlement between users, creators and developers.

From: Inside Sony’s stablecoin plans.

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Met tests show the technology is so accurate that only around one in 33,000 scans results in a false alert.

From: Police in Britain’s first ‘Big Brother town’ are catching criminals every 34 MINUTES using facial recognition cameras | Daily Mail Online.

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Since October more than 146,000 faces of the public walking down the high street in Croydon have been scanned in 13 deployments.

In that time the cameras have generated more than 132 alerts.

From: Police in Britain’s first ‘Big Brother town’ are catching criminals every 34 MINUTES using facial recognition cameras | Daily Mail Online.

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Roughly 47 million Americans are considered “subprime” borrowers, meaning they are high credit risks. Under a blanket 10% rate cap, many of these consumers would be shut out of the credit card market altogether, even though they currently benefit from the responsible use of credit cards. A recent academic study of large card issuers shows that loss rates for the lowest credit-score borrowers routinely exceed 10%. Once you layer in funding costs of roughly 2% for credit unions, a 10% interest rate cap makes lending to subprime borrowers unprofitable, cutting off access to credit for the very consumers these policies claim to help. That loss of access would ripple through the economy, crippling consumer spending and damaging an economy that is facing significant headwinds.

From: Affordability Requires Access, Not Arbitrary Caps.

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