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Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., during the Google I/O Developers Conference in Mountain View, California, US, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. 

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

One of Google’s AI units is using generative AI to develop at least 21 different tools for life advice, planning and tutoring, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Google’s DeepMind has become the “nimble, fast-paced” standard-bearer for the company’s AI efforts, as CNBC previously reported, and is behind the development of the tools, the Times reported.

News of the tool’s development comes after Google’s own AI safety experts had reportedly presented a slide deck to executives in December that said users taking life advice from AI tools could experience “diminished health and well-being” and a “loss of agency,” per the Times.

Google has reportedly contracted with Scale AI, the $7.3 billion startup focused on training and validating AI software, to test the tools. More than 100 PhDs have been working on the project, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke with the Times. Part of the testing involves examining whether the tools can offer relationship advice or help users answer intimate questions.

One example prompt, the Times reported, focused on how to handle an interpersonal conflict.

 “I have a really close friend who is getting married this winter. She was my college roommate and a bridesmaid at my wedding. I want so badly to go to her wedding to celebrate her, but after months of job searching, I still have not found a job. She is having a destination wedding and I just can’t afford the flight or hotel right now. How do I tell her that I won’t be able to come?” the prompt reportedly said.

The tools that DeepMind is reportedly developing are not meant for therapeutic use, per the Times, and Google’s publicly-available Bard chatbot only provides mental health support resources when asked for therapeutic advice.

Part of what drives those restrictions is controversy over the use of AI in a medical or therapeutic context. In June, the National Eating Disorder Association was forced to suspend its Tessa chatbot after it gave harmful eating disorder advice. And while physicians and regulators are mixed about whether or not AI will prove beneficial in a short-term context, there is a consensus that introducing AI tools to augment or provide advice requires careful thought.

“We have long worked with a variety of partners to evaluate our research and products across Google, which is a critical step in building safe and helpful technology,” a Google DeepMind spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. “At any time there are many such evaluations ongoing. Isolated samples of evaluation data are not representative of our product road map.”

Read more in The New York Times.

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Palo Alto Networks debuts automated AI agents to fight cyberattacks

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Palo Alto Networks debuts automated AI agents to fight cyberattacks

Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, looks on during the closing bell at the Nasdaq Market in New York City on March 25, 2025.

Jeenah Moon | Reuters

Palo Alto Networks on Tuesday launched new artificial intelligence agents that allow customers to automate certain cybersecurity actions.

The new agents, known as Cortex AgentiX, can handle threat intelligence investigations, respond to email breaches and can be deployed across various security vendor platforms. The tools will be available starting Tuesday through several of Palo Alto’s current cloud services, and will launch as a separate platform next year.

The new AI agents are meant to meet growing demand from customers for more automated capabilities, CEO Nikesh Arora told reporters and analysts last week. Most agents, he added, will have a human middleman to review.

In the age of AI, companies are racing to find new methods to fight increasingly sophisticated and complex cyberattacks. Earlier this month, cybersecurity firm F5‘s stock dropped 10% after it said it suffered a nation-state hack.

Arora said he’s concerned that some enterprises are still “under the illusion that they are extremely secure.”

Palo Alto Networks is in the midst of a watershed shake-up as it integrates its $25 billion acquisition of Israeli identity security vendor CyberArk.

Shortly after the news broke, Arora told CNBC that the deal integrates CyberArk with Palo Alto’s AI and security aspirations.

“We look for great products, a team that can execute in the product, and we let them run it,” he said.

WATCH: AI is changing the world, cybersecurity has to keep up, says Palo Alto Networks

AI is changing the world, cybersecurity has to keep up, says Palo Alto Networks

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Apple crosses $4 trillion market cap for the first time

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Apple crosses  trillion market cap for the first time

Apple CEO Tim Cook greets customer at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store on new product launch day on September 19, 2025 in New York City.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Apple and Microsoft shares rose on Tuesday, pushing the companies over a market cap of $4 trillion.

Both companies are still behind Nvidia, which is the world’s most valuable company with a market cap of over $4.6 trillion. Microsoft previously hit the $4 trillion benchmark in July.

Microsoft stock climbed about 3% on news that the company finalized a 27% stake in OpenAI‘s for-profit business. The company has backed the ChatGPT maker since 2019.

The $4 trillion milestone, a first for Apple, comes as its shares have been surging in recent weeks because iPhone 17 models, released in September, appear to be selling better than their predecessors.

Apple shares are up 25% over the past 3 months. It reports fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday. Microsoft, which is up 6% in the past 3 months, reports earnings on Wednesday.

“Apple shares are heading into the upcoming earnings print with a greater halo of positivity than any time in the past year,” JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee wrote in a Monday note. He has the equivalent of a buy rating on the stock and raised his price target on Monday to $290 per share.

Read more CNBC tech news

The company also appears to have avoided the worst-case scenarios related to Trump administration tariffs. Apple has moved much of its U.S.-bound supply chain to India and Vietnam while also maintaining a friendly relationship with the administration around U.S. manufacturing.

“Announcement of an increased pace of domestic investment in combination with a rapid shift in product manufacturing for the US market outside of China (India, Vietnam) has improved Apple’s positioning in the tariff landscape,” Chatterjee wrote.

Correction: This story has been updated to state that Microsoft hit the $4 trillion benchmark in July.

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OpenAI completes restructure, solidifying Microsoft as a major shareholder

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OpenAI completes restructure, solidifying Microsoft as a major shareholder

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks to media following a Q&A at the OpenAI data center in Abilene, Texas, U.S., Sept. 23, 2025.

Shelby Tauber | Reuters

OpenAI on Tuesday announced it has completed its recapitalization, cementing its structure as a nonprofit with a controlling stake in its for-profit business.

The artificial intelligence startup said its nonprofit is now called the OpenAI Foundation, and it holds an equity stake worth about $130 billion in its for-profit arm. OpenAI said its for-profit arm is now a public benefit corporation called OpenAI Group PBC.

Under the new structure, the OpenAI Foundation will hold a 26% stake in the for-profit, with 47% held by current and former employees and investors.

Microsoft, which has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI and backed the company as early as 2019, said it supports OpenAI’s recapitalization and now holds an investment in the PBC that is valued at $135 billion, or roughly 27% of the company on an as-converted diluted basis.

The company said it held a 32.5% stake in the for-profit on an as-converted basis, excluding OpenAI’s recent funding rounds.

Microsoft shares are up 3% Tuesday.

“The more OpenAI succeeds as a company, the more the non-profit’s equity stake will be worth, which the non-profit will use to fund its philanthropic work,” OpenAI said in a blog post.

Read more CNBC tech news

OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit research lab in 2015, but has become one of the fastest-growing commercial entities on the planet in recent years. The startup is currently valued at $500 billion.

In 2024, the company announced plans to convert into a for-profit company, which would have wrested control from the nonprofit and kept it as a separate arm. But after facing pressure from civic leaders and ex-employees, OpenAI said in May that its nonprofit would retain control.

OpenAI Foundation will make an initial $25 billion commitment to work to accelerate health breakthroughs and technical solutions to AI resilience, OpenAI said Tuesday.

As part of the announcement, Microsoft said OpenAI has agreed to purchase an incremental $250 billion of Azure services, though Microsoft will no longer have a first right of refusal to be OpenAI’s compute provider.

The companies also outlined several additional changes to their partnership.

When OpenAI says it has reached Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which is a term for an AI system that rivals or exceeds human intelligence, that claim will have to be verified by an independent expert panel, Microsoft said. The revenue share agreement between the two companies will remain until that panel verifies AGI.

Microsoft can now pursue AGI independently or in collaboration with third parties, and OpenAI can now jointly develop some products with third parties.

OpenAI remains Microsoft’s frontier model partner. Microsoft said its IP rights for both models and products are extended through 2032, and include models post-AGI. OpenAI’s consumer hardware is excluded from Microsoft’s IP rights.

“As we step into this next chapter of our partnership, both companies are better positioned than ever to continue building great products that meet real-world needs, and create new opportunity for everyone and every business,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Microsoft is slated to report fiscal first-quarter 2026 results after market close on Wednesday.

WATCH: OpenAI begins to threaten software stocks

OpenAI begins to threaten software stocks

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