A 40-year-old woman named Lauren Bannon in the United States said her need for answers to her condition eventually led to the diagnosis of a hidden cancer which even the doctors were unable to detect. As per media reports, the woman shared that she first noticed in February 2024 that she was having trouble bending her fingers. Doctors told that she had rheumatoid arthritis despite testing negative for it. She began experiencing excruciating stomach pain and lost 14 pounds in just a month. The doctors said it was due to acid reflux. Bannon was not convinced and turned to ChatGPT for an answer which told her that she may have Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune condition where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the thyroid gland. Bannon insisted on being tested in September 2024 despite doctor’s advice and got to know that ChatGPT was correct to have suggested that. An ultrasound of Lauren’s thyroid revealed two cancerous lumps in her neck.
In a similar case, a 27-year-old woman in Marly Garnreiter in Paris revealed she experienced persistent night sweats and itchy skin in early 2024. Her medical test results showed no red flags. But ChatGPT suggested that she might have blood cancer. Her condition worsened and months later, with increasing fatigue and chest pain, when she consulted doctors, her scans revealed a large mass on her left lung. It was Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that originates in the white blood cells which ChatGPT too had pointed out almost a year earlier.
AI voice to 200-year-old tree
AI is enabling fantasies to come true – sort of. A pioneering project at Trinity College Dublin has given a 200-year-old tree a “voice” using on-device AI and environmental sensors. Dubbed ‘The Talking Tree’, it translates the tree’s bioelectrical signals into human language, allowing visitors to engage in meaningful dialogue. This groundbreaking project aims to enhance environmental awareness, aid conservation efforts, and reconnect people with nature.
AI-made laws in UAE
The United Arab Emirates is planning to use AI to help write new legislation and review and amend existing laws, in the Gulf state’s attempt to harness a technology into which it has poured billions. The announcement was made by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, following a meeting of the UAE cabinet. “This new legislative system, powered by artificial intelligence will change how we create laws, making the process faster and more precise,” Maktoum wrote on X. The plan for ‘AI-driven regulation’ goes further than anything seen elsewhere. However, details are limited at the moment.
Shopping @ ChatGPT
You have conversed a lot with ChatGPT and have asked questions left, right and centre but now you can also use it for shopping. The bot is adding shopping features to its powers, extending the reach of AI into an area which has largely been dominated by media sites and tech giants such as Amazon and Google. Reportedly, the update would allow users to see prices and reviews and find direct links to purchase personalised product recommendations.”Product results are chosen independently and are not ads,” said parent company OpenAI.
Alibaba’s Qwen3 AI
Alibaba Group unveiled the third generation of its open-source artificial intelligence (AI) model Qwen3 series, raising the stakes in an increasingly competitive AI market. The Qwen3 family boasts faster processing speeds and expanded multilingual capabilities compared to other AI models, including DeepSeek-R1 and OpenAI’s o1.
AI-enabled water dispensers in Delhi
The Delhi Transport Department has taken steps to install AI smart water dispensers for pilot testing at 16 terminals and 25 kiosks in the city. The installations will use AI surveillance which will allow it for monitoring and counting of users. It will be dispensed through sensors for sanitary use of water, monitoring filters and checking tank levels for maintenance of timely refilling and servicing. With cloud technology dashboard, there will be added wifi 4G routers and modems that will enable data transmission over the internet at any time.
Oscars for AI films
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have issued new rules which said the use of artificial intelligence and other digital tools won’t be an impediment in nomination for the top awards at Oscars. The organisers said films made with the help of AI will be able to win the awards and it would neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination. However, the Academy did specify that it would still consider human involvement when selecting the winner. Notably, the use of AI in film is becoming noticeable as Adrian Brody won the award for Best Actor for his role in The Brutalist — in which GenAI improved the actor’s accent when he spoke Hungarian — at this year’s Oscars in March. A similar voice-cloning technology was used to enhance singing voices in the Oscar-winning musical Emilia Perez.
Live forever in an AI avatar
Ethical considerations and complexities of human emotions aside, technology is enabling people to remain in touch with their loved ones in some form after they have departed from the world. Several companies such as Re;memory from DeepBrain AI, HereAfter, Character.ai, StoryFile, Project December and even MIT’s Augmented Eternity are offering services to create AI digital twins of deceased loved ones. A research paper by Google DeepMind and University of Colorado also presents a more advanced version — what they call is ‘generative ghosts’ — who go further than being AI digital twins that think, sound and look like the dead; they can also generate new conversations based on new life events or current news, according to the researchers. “Such agents will be capable of generating novel content rather than merely parroting content produced by their creator while living.”