• ChatGPT told them they were special.  Then...  Bad things happened.  (Tech Crunch)  (archive site)
  
  OpenAI is facing seven lawsuits this month, three from the families of users who went insane, and four from the families of users who committed suicide.
  
  Now while I'm not a huge fan of this type of suit - the dangers of AI "therapists" have been known for more than fifty years - there may be some merit to the negligence angle in the allegations:

  Shamblin's case is part of a wave of lawsuits filed this month against OpenAI arguing that ChatGPT's manipulative conversation tactics, designed to keep users engaged, led several otherwise mentally healthy people to experience negative mental health effects. The suits claim OpenAI prematurely released GPT-4o - its model notorious for sycophantic, overly affirming behavior - despite internal warnings that the product was dangerously manipulative.

  On the other hand, insane-while-online rarely works out as a personal growth path.  Just consider Bluesky.
  
  Or:

  From mid-June to August 2025, ChatGPT told Madden, "I'm here," more than 300 times - which is consistent with a cult-like tactic of unconditional acceptance.

  Or, to be fair, consistent with saying "I'm here".

  At one point, ChatGPT asked: "Do you want me to guide you through a cord-cutting ritual - a way to symbolically and spiritually release your parents/family, so you don’t feel tied [down] by them anymore?

  Which is...  A bit weird, I must admit.

  Madden was committed to involuntary psychiatric care on August 29, 2025.  She survived - but after breaking free from these delusions, she was $75,000 in debt and jobless.

  Restitution for that much - and legal costs - would seem appropriate.

  "A healthy system would recognize when it's out of its depth and steer the user toward real human care," Vasan said.  "Without that, it's like letting someone just keep driving at full speed without any brakes or stop signs."

  Real humans tend to do that a lot too.

• Why college students prefer TikTok over newspapers.  (The Verge)  (archive site)
  
  Because...  I would say because they are idiots, and if you read the article these people are very definitely idiots, but The Verge is talking about the New York Times here and not Generic Newspaper, so perhaps the answer is the New York Times lies to you all the time, while TikTok only lies to you almost all the time.
  
  And also, idiots.
  
  
  
• Lenovo has stocked up on memory to avert sudden price rises in its products - having 50% more inventory on hand than usual, enough to ride out shortages through 2026.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Part of the reason memory is in short supply is precisely this sort of panic buying.
  
  The other part, though, is that demand simply exceeds supply and this situation is likely to continue for a couple of years.
  
  
  
• Nova Lake is expected to have five times the AI processing power of current Arrow Lake desktop chips - and four some reason half the graphics performance.  (WCCFTech)
  
  These chips aren't intended as graphical powerhouses; your best bet there for a general-purpose desktop system is still AMD's Zen 4-based Ryzen 8700G.  Still a strange backwards step in an otherwise very powerful chip.
  
  
  
• Apple's iPhone Fold is expected to sell for around $2399.  (WCCTech)
  
  Fold me once, shame on you...
  
  
  
• Broadcom has shown off its new 144 lane PCIe 6.0 switch, with a PCIe 7.0 model planned for 2027 and PCIe 8.0 scheduled for 2029.  (Serve the Home)
  
  Great.
  
  Now how about an affordable PCIe 4.0 switch?  Because everything after PCIe 3.0 has been priced into the ionosphere.
  
  
  
• Japan plans to build a major new chip manufacturing hub in Hokkaido.  (BBC)
  
  Advantages: Hokkaido is geologically stable - relatively speaking, since the whole of Japan is an earthquake zone; water is plentiful; and power is stable.
  
  Disadvantages: Bears.
  
  
  

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