In an announcement, Elon Musk's AI company xAI unveiled a new tool called "Halftime" which "dynamically weaves AI-generated ads into the scenes you're watching." Instead of cutting to an ad break, Halftime manipulates the characters onscreen into deviating from the script and prominently brandishing a product of a marketer's choice. The tool is meant to make ad "breaks feel like part of the story instead of interruptions," the company said.
It has been noted that some individuals who engage with AI tools report symptoms of psychosis-especially delusions-resulting from their interactions with AI. 1,2 It may not only be the AI interaction, but exposure to its products, such as deep fakes, that are implicated. In fact, any AI-generated doubt concerning the bedrock or background belief system that stops a cascade of delusional thinking from starting 3 may be implicated.
As AI continues lowering the barrier to malicious identity spoofing and fraud, Oscar Rodriguez, LinkedIn's vice president of product for Trust,told ZDNET that the program is designed to drive more trustworthy internet experiences and user-to-user engagement. "It is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between what is real and what's fake," Rodriguez noted. "That, for us, was the driver because LinkedIn is about trust and authentic connections."
Across Europe we are witnessing an escalation in hybrid threats - from physical through to cyber - designed to weaken critical national infrastructure, undermine our interests and interfere in our democracies all for the advantage of malign foreign states,
It worries me that it's so normalised. He obviously wasn't hiding it. He didn't feel this was something he shouldn't be doing. It was in the open and people saw it. That's what was quite shocking. A headteacher is describing how a teenage boy, sitting on a bus on his way home from school, casually pulled out his phone, selected a picture from social media of a girl at a neighbouring school and used a nudifying app to doctor her image.
As today's technology and political divisions continue to evolve, "fake news" and AI-generated deepfakes continue to blur the lines between fact and fiction. Companies face growing pressure to take a stand on truth and transparency, especially when their own brand is being misrepresented. However, determining how proactive to be-and when to step back-can be a delicate balancing act. To help, Forbes Communications Council members explain how companies can responsibly engage in the fight against misinformation while protecting credibility, trust and brand integrity.
The latest object of Musk's obsession? According to new reporting by the Wall Street Journal, he's been personally overseeing the developing of xAI's chatbot Ani - which, tellingly, comes in the form of a super-sexualized pigtail-wearing woman that removes her clothing in response to flirtation. Since his very public spat with president DonaldTrump and his subsequent departure from DOGE and government in May, Musk has reportedly developed a fixation on xAI's chatbot efforts generally, and Ani in particular.
"The people who push these kinds of ads are persistent, they are well funded, and they are constantly evolving their deceptive tactics to get around our systems," Leathern told Reuters at the time.
Deepfakes are like someone putting on a perfect Halloween mask of your face, not just to trick your friends, but to walk into your bank, say 'it's me,' and get handed your money. The scary part? Those masks are now cheap, realistic, and anyone can buy one. Deepfake technology has entered a dangerous new era that is no longer confined to internet jokes or social media stunts - or Halloween mask analogies.
Once a fringe curiosity, the deepfake economy has grown to become a $7.5 billion market, with some predictions projecting that it will hit $38.5 billion by 2032. Deepfakes are now everywhere, and the stock market is not the only part of the economy that is vulnerable to their impact. Those responsible for the creation of deepfakes are also targeting individual businesses, sometimes with the goal of extracting money and sometimes simply to cause damage.
We found 410,592 total mentions of the keywords between 9 June 2020 and 3 July 2025, and used Brandwatch's ability to separate mentions by source in order to find which sources hosted the highest volumes of mentions,
OpenAI is working with actor Bryan Cranston and other Hollywood groups to limit deepfakes made with its Sora 2 video app, the company said Monday in a joint statement. The "Breaking Bad" actor voiced concerns to SAG-AFTRA after his voice and likeness were replicated in the video generator, following its invite-only launch this fall. "I was deeply concerned not just for myself, but for all performers whose work and identity can be misused in this way," Cranston said in the statement.
