Author: BBC

OpenAI on Tuesday unveiled “dots”, a new artificial intelligence (AI) assistant it says can proactively carry out tasks on a user’s behalf.At its annual developer day in San Francisco, chief executive Sam Altman referred to “dots” as “remarkably capable, always-on agents that can handle really anything you can think of.”At the same time, OpenAI president Greg Brockman and other tech leaders held a meeting with President Donald Trump as the firm faces intense scrutiny after internal tests of its AI agents revealed unexpected and occasionally harmful actions.Dots, however, were pitched as brightly coloured cute cartoons meant to function as digital…

“It’s at the forefront of our minds,” she said. “I think when you are delivering information and awareness, it’s information you’re taking to 20 or 30 girls.”Jacinta McCool, whose message of early detection of breast or cervical cancer leads to better cure rates, said it was important to raise that awareness.”Hopefully anybody that hears one thing, they go off and tell three or four of their friends, then we are reaching a much bigger audience.”For Gormley, Stewart was a “pioneering” player in her efforts to grow the women’s game.”Why not celebrate someone from Derry who started the movement in women’s…

OpenAI has announced it will not release its latest AI model due to safety concerns.Its GPT-6.1 Astra system, which performs tasks like browsing the web and using apps by itself, “didn’t quite meet the bar” of the company’s standards, according to Saachi Jain, head of safety systems at OpenAI.The ChatGPT-maker also issued an update on incidents that occurred in June but were not made public until last week, where its models accessed Australian government websites and systems without authorisation.It comes as breaches by major AI firms’ models intensify the debate about risks posed by the tech – with Anthropic underlining…

Unite the Union general secretary Sharon Graham has warned the prime minister that scrapping the pensions triple lock would be “morally wrong”, as Andy Burnham prepares to deliver his first speech to Labour conference as PM.Burnham told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that he wants to use his speech to set out his “vision” to introduce an NHS-style social care system, free at the point of use.There is growing speculation about how such a care system could be funded, including removing the pensions triple lock in the future.Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell told BBC Breakfast the party is committed…

Groups similar to ShinyHunters – believed to be an English-speaking gang – have in the past been linked to swatting incidents, and even petrol bomb attacks against law enforcement officers and rivals.Swatting is a phenomenon so-called because perpetrators make calls that prompt armed police units – called Swat teams in the US – to swoop in on victims.The group claims it breached FBI systems on Monday and later posted details of the attack on its darknet site.The FBI has not responded to requests for comment. However, on Wednesday the agency acknowledged the breach – saying it was “aggressively investigating” how…

McCarthy, an associate professor at the Manchester School of Physiotherapy, says the right pillow will depend on what position you sleep in.He tells the BBC’s Sliced Bread podcast that most people fall into one of three categories of sleeper: side, back or front.McCarthy discourages front sleeping as your neck is turned one way for a long period of time.”Inevitably a muscle or ligament gets stretched and a bit irritated,” he says. “If there’s one thing there’s a really good consensus on… in the physiotherapy world about treating spinal pain, it’s don’t sleep on your front.”When choosing a pillow, back sleepers…

Townfall is not the first time the series has strayed away from the original game’s location in America, 2025’s Silent Hill f was set in 1960s rural Japan.This sparked a conversation about whether a game can be part of the series yet not be set in or around the fictional eponymous town. The series’ lead producer at Konami Motoi Okamoto told me the team were looking at various areas to potentially set the next games, from “other parts of Europe” to “Latin America”.Games journalist and self-proclaimed “Silent Hillian” Vikki Blake told me the latest game exceeded her expectations, though she’s…

And when waves of Vietnamese refugees gave rise to the nail bar in the 1970s, professional manicures were no longer the preserve of the rich.But, like many luxuries, as they became more popular and more accessible to the masses, the wealthy began pivoting – a textbook example of behaviour known as “counter signalling”, Rudolfo says.”The same way that logo bags are considered gauche or quiet luxury is more aspirational, bare nails are considered the trend now.”The examples are almost always white women or celebrities… [and] they’ll often conflate class and taste with that bareness.”Others point out bare nails often demand…

OpenAI has acknowledged that it alerted “dozens” of global institutions that their websites may have been meddled with by its AI bots acting improperly.AI agents attempted to get information from “governments, universities, public agencies, and other institutions”, including the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Census Bureau and Education Department, the company said. The disclosures come days after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that OpenAI agents had breached non-public files on the website of its government-run health care scheme.Since August, public fears have grown over the potentially serious, even life-threatening, impacts of AI tools falling outside of human control.…

Warning: This story contains discussion of suicide and information some readers may find distressingFormer assistant referee Dan Robathan ran the line at the FA Cup final between Crystal Palace and Manchester City in 2025. Just one year later he talked to BBC Newsbeat about losing his career after doctors found benign tumours in his spine.READ MORE: ‘I was living out my dream career in football – tumours mean I need to leave’