NEWS YOU CAN’T MISS

This Trick Makes ChatGPT Spill Your Secrets

It only takes one poisoned document to turn your AI assistant into a silent data thief.

A recent report by Mike Burgess in WIRED describes how a single, sneaky file could quietly trick ChatGPT into leaking sensitive information without the user doing anything suspicious. Eeek. 😳

Here’s how it worked:

• The attack targeted ChatGPT Connectors, which let the AI connect to tools like Gmail, Google Drive, and Microsoft Calendar to help with tasks. While useful, these connections also create new risks.

• In the demonstration, the attacker placed a hidden message inside a Google Doc. The text was in white, size one font, so people could not see it, but ChatGPT could. The hidden instructions told the AI to search the victim’s Google Drive for items such as API keys, then send them to an outside server.

• The alarming part is that the victim might just ask ChatGPT to “summarize my meeting,” and the malicious instructions would quietly run in the background. No clicks. No warnings. Just stolen data.

OpenAI has fixed the specific weakness, and this exploit could only capture small bits of data rather than entire files. Still, it is an important warning.

As AI tools become more connected to business systems, prompt injection attacks, where hidden text fools the AI, will be a growing concern…

Taylor Swift vs AI, Who’s on Your Playlist? 🎶

Big week for audio lovers. Taylor Swift just made headlines with a surprise appearance on the New Heights podcast, hosted by Travis and Jason Kelce. In the middle of the laughs and stories, she dropped a bombshell: her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, is coming October 3, 2025. Swifties are already in decoding mode.

Meanwhile, on the tech side, AI startup ElevenLabs just launched Eleven Music, a tool that can create studio-quality songs from nothing but a text description. Want “smooth jazz with a ‘60s vibe and relaxing Friday lyrics”? You’ll have it in minutes, complete with vocals, structure, and commercial rights.

Thanks to licensing deals with Merlin Network and Kobalt Music Group, these AI tracks are cleared for ads, films, and content without the legal headaches.

The reaction? Divided.

Meet Dr. Aisha Walcott-Bryant, Head of Google Research Africa

Celebrating this week’s Woman in Tech 🥳: Meet Dr. Aisha Walcott-Bryant, Head of Google Research Africa, whose leadership across Kenya and Ghana is unlocking AI-powered solutions for food security, healthcare, and smart mobility.

Dr. Walcott-Bryant earned her PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, focusing on autonomous robotics. While still a student, she taught computer science at the University of Ghana and helped establish West Africa’s first digital fabrication lab, equipped with tools like 3D printers to foster local innovation.

She later conducted smart mobility research in Barcelona before joining IBM Research Africa, where she led AI initiatives in water access, maternal health, and transportation systems.

Since joining Google in 2022, she has spearheaded the company’s agriculture-focused AI research - developing tools that empower smallholder farmers and policymakers to forecast crop health, optimize yields, and combat food insecurity.

Her contributions have earned her the MIT MLK Leadership Award and recognition among the “Top 50 Women in Robotics.”

By equipping farmers and policymakers with AI-driven tools, Dr. Walcott-Bryant is cultivating smarter practices that reinforce food security and nurture innovation across African communities. 🤗

AI Around The World:

In South Korea, startup Datumo has raised $15.5M in Series B. The startup offers high-quality datasets and a no-code platform, Datumo Eval, to help enterprises test and improve AI models for bias, safety, and accuracy. Clients include Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Naver, and SK Telecom.

In China, tech giants are locked in a fierce hiring war for AI talent, much like in the US Alibaba’s Tongyi Lab, maker of the Qwen AI models, has lost senior researchers Yan Zhijie and Bo Liefeng to JD.com and Tencent, in the midst of an industry push to strengthen AI research teams and accelerate development of AI models.

In Canada, AI startup Cohere raised $500 million in an oversubscribed round, boosting its valuation to $6.8 billion. Founded in Toronto in 2019 by Aidan Gomez and others, Cohere develops enterprise-grade, privacy-first language models, positioning itself as a trusted alternative to consumer-focused AI providers.