TL;DR — What You Need to Know

• Geoffrey Hinton warns there’s up to a 20% chance AI could take control from humans.
• He believes big tech is ignoring safety while racing ahead for profit.
• Hinton says we’re playing with a “tiger cub” that could one day kill us — and most people still don’t get it.

Geoffrey Hinton’s AI warning

Geoffrey Hinton doesn’t do clickbait. But when the “Godfather of AI” says we might lose control of artificial intelligence, it’s worth sitting up and listening.

Hinton, who helped lay the groundwork for modern neural networks back in the 1980s, has always been something of a reluctant prophet. He’s no AI doomer by default — in fact, he sees huge promise in using AI to improve medicine, education, and even tackle climate change. But recently, he’s been sounding more like a man trying to shout over the noise of unchecked hype.

And he’s not mincing his words:

That tiger cub? It’s AI.
And Hinton estimates there’s a 10–20% chance that AI systems could eventually wrest control from human hands. Think about that. If your doctor said you had a 20% chance of a fatal allergic reaction, would you still eat the peanuts?

What really stings is Hinton’s frustration with the companies leading the AI charge — including Google, where he used to work. He’s accused big players of lobbying for less regulation, not more, all while paying lip service to the idea of safety.

It gets worse. According to Hinton, companies should be putting about a third of their computing power into safety research. Right now, it’s barely a fraction. When CBS asked OpenAI, Google, and X.AI how much compute they actually allocate to safety, none of them answered the question. Big on ambition, light on transparency.

This raises real questions about who gets to steer the AI ship — and whether anyone is even holding the wheel.

Hinton isn’t alone in his concerns. Tech leaders from Sundar Pichai to Elon Musk have all raised red flags about AI’s trajectory. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: while the industry is good at talking safety, it’s not so great at building it into its business model.

So the man who once helped AI learn to finish your sentence is now trying to finish his own — warning the world before it’s too late.

Over to YOU!

Are we training the tools that will one day outgrow us — or are we just too dazzled by the profits to care?

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• Elon Musk predicts AGI by 2026
• You can learn more about Geoffrey Hinton at Wikipedia by tapping here.

TL;DR — What You Should Know:

• Social media “likes” are now fuelling the next generation of AI training data—but AI might no longer need them.
• From AI-generated influencers to personalised chatbots, we’re entering a world where both creators and fans could be artificial.
• As bots start liking bots, the question isn’t just what we like—but who is doing the liking.

AI Is Using Your Likes to Get Inside Your Head

AI isn’t just learning from your likes—it’s predicting them, shaping them, and maybe soon, replacing them entirely. What is the future of the Like button?

Let’s be honest—most of us have tapped a little heart, thumbs-up, or star without thinking twice. But Max Levchin (yes, that Max—from PayPal and Affirm) thinks those tiny acts of approval are a goldmine. Not just for advertisers, but for the future of artificial intelligence itself.

Levchin sees the “like” as more than a metric—it’s behavioural feedback at scale. And for AI systems that need to align with human judgement, not just game a reward system, those likes might be the shortcut to smarter, more human-like decisions. Training AIs with:

(RLHF) is notoriously expensive and slow—so why not just harvest what people are already doing online?

But here’s the twist: while AI learns from our likes, it’s also starting to predict them—maybe better than we can ourselves.

In 2024, Meta used AI to tweak how it serves Reels, leading to longer watch times. YouTube’s Steve Chen even wonders whether the like button will become redundant when AI can already tell what you want to watch next—before you even realise it.

Still, that simple button might have some life left in it. Why? Because sometimes, your preferences shift fast—like watching cartoons one minute because your kids stole your phone. And there’s also its hidden superpower: linking viewers, creators, and advertisers in one frictionless tap.

But this new AI-fuelled ecosystem is getting… stranger.

Meet Aitana Lopez: a Spanish influencer with 310,000 followers and a brand deal with Victoria’s Secret. She’s photogenic, popular—and not real. She’s a virtual influencer built by an agency that got tired of dealing with humans.

And it doesn’t stop there. AI bots are now generating content, consuming it, and liking it—in a bizarre self-sustaining loop. With tools like CarynAI (yes, a virtual girlfriend chatbot charging $1/minute), we’re looking at a future where many of our online relationships, interests, and interactions may be… synthetic.

Which raises some uneasy questions. Who’s really liking what? Is that viral post authentic—or engineered? Can you trust that flattering comment—or is it just algorithmic flattery?

As more of our online world becomes artificially generated and manipulated, platforms may need new tools to help users tell real from fake. Not just in terms of what they’re liking — but who is behind it.

Over to YOU:
If future of the like button is that AI knows what you like before you do, can you still call it your choice?

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• Or try the free version of ChatGPT by tapping here.

TL;DR — What You Need to Know

• ChatGPT and Perplexity AI are now available on WhatsApp; add their numbers to start chatting like any other contact.
• Perplexity’s CEO has signalled plans to monetise user data, raising clear privacy concerns.
• AI is now embedded in your messaging habits — convenient, but potentially costly in terms of control.

AI Assistants Are Now Just a Message Away — But Not All Come Without Strings Attached

In a move that brings AI one step closer to your daily digital routine, both ChatGPT and Perplexity AI are now officially available inside WhatsApp. It’s the kind of integration that feels obvious—why wouldn’t you want intelligent assistance inside your messaging app? But as this shift blurs the line between private chats and persistent AI surveillance, the rollout isn’t without controversy.

Let’s unpack what’s new, how to use these tools, and why this seemingly helpful update deserves a closer look—especially if you care about your data.

How to Chat with ChatGPT or Perplexity on WhatsApp

If you’ve ever wanted to casually message ChatGPT as if it were just another friend, it’s now entirely possible. Here’s how:

• To talk to ChatGPT, add +1 (800) 242-8478 to your WhatsApp contacts.
• To use Perplexity AI, add +1 (833) 436-3285.

Once added, you can ask questions, generate summaries, search with sources, and even request image edits or creations—right from within a familiar chat window.

This isn’t a new app or integration through a web wrapper. These bots appear in your WhatsApp chat list, just like any contact. The interface feels native, frictionless, and a little too comfortable.

So What Can They Actually Do?

The functionality varies slightly between the two AIs, but both are impressively capable inside WhatsApp:

✅ ChatGPT

• Powered by OpenAI (most likely GPT-4-turbo depending on the provider setup)
• Offers intelligent conversation, summarisation, translation, code help, and more
• Integrates image generation where supported
• Responses are typically fast, contextual, and conversational

✅ Perplexity AI

• Designed around answering questions with cited sources
• Can generate images based on prompts and photos you upload
• Leans into search-style responses, useful for research, fact-checking, and recommendations
• Their team has teased more features coming soon, including multi-modal capabilities

In a launch video shared on X, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas uploaded a selfie and asked the AI what he’d look like bald. The chatbot responded with a cleanly edited (and slightly dystopian) version of the same photo—with Srinivas minus his hair.

It’s silly, yes, but it also shows how deeply AI is becoming embedded in our everyday tools—combining search, generation, and personalisation in real-time.

Why It’s a Big Deal

This is more than just a novelty. It marks a turning point in how we interact with AI:

1. Mainstream meets machine learning: WhatsApp is one of the most widely used apps across Southeast Asia and the world. Embedding AI here is a huge leap in accessibility and adoption.
2. Interface convergence: We no longer need separate apps for search, chat, and image generation. This is AI collapsing use cases into a single, everyday environment.
3. Habit formation: Messaging-style AI makes it feel natural to ask for help, brainstorm ideas, or even delegate thinking. It turns AI into a co-pilot—one emoji tap away.

But with this convenience comes a new set of questions.

Privacy Watch: Perplexity’s Data Dilemma

Despite the cool factor, not everyone is thrilled about these integrations—especially after recent comments from Perplexity’s CEO.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Srinivas shared that Perplexity is working on a new AI browser called Comet that could track detailed user data and sell that data to the highest bidder. The statement drew immediate backlash. It contradicts what many expect from modern AI—personalised help without surveillance.

It’s not just a hypothetical. If Comet shares infrastructure with Perplexity’s chatbot, there’s every reason to be cautious. While no WhatsApp-specific tracking has been confirmed, the company’s broader business intentions are clear: data = dollars.

Meanwhile, Meta—which owns WhatsApp—has already added its own AI assistant, Meta AI, as a persistent button in the lower-right corner of the app. You can’t remove or hide it. That, too, has raised concerns around accidental activation and constant data processing.

When you stack all these elements together, a clearer trend emerges: AI is becoming ambient—but at a cost to control.

Trade-Offs: Utility vs. Transparency

This table says it all: even when the functionality is strong, the trust gap is growing. AI in messaging apps has powerful upside—but it should come with transparent boundaries.

Final Thoughts

AI is now fully embedded in the most personal app we own—our chat inbox. It’s no longer a tool you visit. It’s one you live with. That brings incredible convenience, yes, but also ongoing trade-offs in how our data is used, monetised, and protected.

For users in Asia, where WhatsApp is central to business, family, and education, this evolution means it’s time to get smarter about smart assistants. Use them, experiment, and enjoy — but stay alert to what’s happening beneath the interface.

Over to you!

When AI knows everything you’ve typed — are you still the one in control?

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• Or visit WhatsApp to try this now by tapping here.