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Institutions across Balkan nation help maintain supply of doctors and dentists in BritainView the full article

UK-based lender reports $2.3bn fourth-quarter profit and aims to cut $1.5bn in costs by end of 2026View the full article

President Donald Trump's new executive order could have dramatic implications for bank regulation by subjecting agencies to White House political control. View the full article

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) has announced the launch of the 2025 ROG Flow Z13, a compact yet powerful 2-in-1 gaming tablet now available for pre-order. The device features AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ 395 Processor with Radeon 8060S Graphics, a high-refresh ROG Nebula Display, and upgraded cooling and memory systems designed for high-performance gaming and multitasking. Equipped with 16 Zen 5 CPU cores and 40 RDNA 3.5 GPU compute units, the ROG Flow Z13 is built to handle demanding games and multitasking workloads while maintaining power efficiency. The unified memory structure allows the CPU and GPU to dynamically share RAM, providing up to 128GB of LPDDR5X 8000MHz RAM and enabling up to 96GB of VRAM allocation for intensive gaming and AI tasks. The Flow Z13’s cooling system has been redesigned with a stainless steel and copper vapor chamber, covering 54% more of the mainboard than previous models. Dual 2nd Gen Arc Flow Fans and ultra-thin 0.1mm heatsink fins help maintain airflow efficiency. The tablet’s standing design naturally enhances heat dissipation, keeping internal temperatures low during extended gaming sessions. The 13-inch ROG Nebula Display boasts a 2.5K resolution with a 180Hz refresh rate, ensuring fluid motion and crisp visuals. The touchscreen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and offers 100% DCI-P3 color coverage, a 16:10 aspect ratio, and 500 nits peak brightness, making it an ideal display for gaming and content creation. Expanded Connectivity and Features Despite its compact size, the Flow Z13 offers extensive connectivity options, including: Dual USB-C ports with USB4 and DisplayPort 1.4 support Dedicated HDMI 2.1 port for external displays USB Type-A port and microSD card reader Audio combo jack for seamless headset integration The tablet also introduces a new Command Center button for quick access to system functions, an enlarged touchpad and keycaps, and a 70Wh battery, providing extended power efficiency when paired with AMD’s Ryzen AI processors. The 2025 ROG Flow Z13 is now available for pre-order via the ASUS e-shop and select retailers, including Amazon, B&H Photo Video, and Newegg. Best Buy will offer the device at launch but is not currently accepting pre-orders. Image: ASUS This article, "ASUS Republic of Gamers Unveils 2025 ROG Flow Z13 Gaming Tablet" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) has announced the launch of the 2025 ROG Flow Z13, a compact yet powerful 2-in-1 gaming tablet now available for pre-order. The device features AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ 395 Processor with Radeon 8060S Graphics, a high-refresh ROG Nebula Display, and upgraded cooling and memory systems designed for high-performance gaming and multitasking. Equipped with 16 Zen 5 CPU cores and 40 RDNA 3.5 GPU compute units, the ROG Flow Z13 is built to handle demanding games and multitasking workloads while maintaining power efficiency. The unified memory structure allows the CPU and GPU to dynamically share RAM, providing up to 128GB of LPDDR5X 8000MHz RAM and enabling up to 96GB of VRAM allocation for intensive gaming and AI tasks. The Flow Z13’s cooling system has been redesigned with a stainless steel and copper vapor chamber, covering 54% more of the mainboard than previous models. Dual 2nd Gen Arc Flow Fans and ultra-thin 0.1mm heatsink fins help maintain airflow efficiency. The tablet’s standing design naturally enhances heat dissipation, keeping internal temperatures low during extended gaming sessions. The 13-inch ROG Nebula Display boasts a 2.5K resolution with a 180Hz refresh rate, ensuring fluid motion and crisp visuals. The touchscreen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and offers 100% DCI-P3 color coverage, a 16:10 aspect ratio, and 500 nits peak brightness, making it an ideal display for gaming and content creation. Expanded Connectivity and Features Despite its compact size, the Flow Z13 offers extensive connectivity options, including: Dual USB-C ports with USB4 and DisplayPort 1.4 support Dedicated HDMI 2.1 port for external displays USB Type-A port and microSD card reader Audio combo jack for seamless headset integration The tablet also introduces a new Command Center button for quick access to system functions, an enlarged touchpad and keycaps, and a 70Wh battery, providing extended power efficiency when paired with AMD’s Ryzen AI processors. The 2025 ROG Flow Z13 is now available for pre-order via the ASUS e-shop and select retailers, including Amazon, B&H Photo Video, and Newegg. Best Buy will offer the device at launch but is not currently accepting pre-orders. Image: ASUS This article, "ASUS Republic of Gamers Unveils 2025 ROG Flow Z13 Gaming Tablet" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Attorney-general accuses hard-right politician in connection with plan to assassinate rival LulaView the full article

US president threatens to intensify trade war with levies on drugs and semiconductors, tooView the full article

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Customer experience is at a tipping point. Companies are struggling to see results from AI, digital transformation, and personalization. But let’s be real: Most companies aren’t connecting the dots. Consumers want seamless, human-like engagement, but too often they’re met with fragmented systems and half-baked AI solutions. The good news? The gap between what customers expect and what brands deliver is finally starting to close—but only for the companies willing to do the hard work. This isn’t about throwing bots at every problem or chasing shiny new tools. It’s about integrating the right technologies, driving measurable outcomes, and putting the customer experience at the center of every decision. If you’re ready to leave “good enough” behind and turn customer experience (CX) into your strongest competitive advantage, here’s are five trends you need to know. Trend 1: Bridge the AI perception gap Over the last two years, consumer attitudes toward AI have markedly shifted. Research from LivePerson shows that in 2023, only 50% of consumers felt positive about using AI to interact with brands, compared to 90% of brands that embraced it. By 2024, consumer sentiment rose to 63%, signaling a closing gap. This evolution represents more than a shift in sentiment—it’s a window of opportunity. Brands that effectively integrate AI to enhance, rather than replace, human interactions are succeeding in building trust and delivering value. To capitalize, leaders must focus on using AI to create meaningful customer outcomes, like personalization at scale, proactive engagement, and actionable insights. The takeaway is clear: AI adoption should not just be about cutting costs; if the CX is right, it should be efficient while enhancing consumer experiences. Trend 2: Move from systems of record to systems of action Traditional CX platforms served as data repositories—systems of record that lacked the capability to drive real-time actions. In 2025, the paradigm has shifted. Systems of action—integrated frameworks that unify AI and human capabilities to orchestrate, automate, and personalize customer interactions across all touchpoints—enable businesses to translate data into insights and transform insights into immediate, measurable actions. These capabilities allow brands to go beyond passive data collection, using AI-driven analytics and automation to anticipate customer needs and deliver proactive engagement. For instance, integrating data streams across CRM, voice, email, and chat creates a unified view of the customer journey, breaking down organizational silos to serve customers more effectively. The key is interoperability. Brands must avoid “rip and replace” approaches that disrupt existing systems. Instead, investing in platforms that integrate seamlessly with legacy tools can create a cohesive ecosystem, driving efficiency and better customer outcomes. Trend 3: Personalization at scale The demand for hyperpersonalized experiences is transforming CX strategies. Consumers no longer tolerate fragmented interactions—they expect seamless, consistent engagement across all touchpoints. And meeting their expectations is worth it: At LivePerson, we find that brands that effectively leverage AI to blend automation with human empathy (through use of solutions such as proactive messaging or intelligent routing) report higher satisfaction scores and increased loyalty. To achieve this, brands must: Connect digital and human interactions cohesively. Use AI-powered tools to predict customer needs and recommend next best actions. Embed personalization deeply into every stage of the customer journey, from acquisition to retention. Trend 4: CX as a strategic growth driver CX has outgrown its traditional role as a support function. It’s now a strategic lever for achieving business outcomes, from revenue growth to operational efficiency. Leaders must reframe CX as a company-wide capability that drives differentiation and long-term loyalty. This involves: Customer-first metrics: Shift from siloed departmental key performance indicators to metrics like customer lifetime value and satisfaction across the entire journey. Reimagined cost centers: Transform support functions into profit centers through smart automation and efficient self-service options. Cross-functional alignment: Enable seamless collaboration between marketing, sales, and service teams by integrating shared data and insights. Trend 5: Find true AI partnerships In a crowded AI vendor market, it’s essential to choose partners that deliver real ROI. Avoid overpromises like “building a billion bots” or replacing humans entirely. Instead, prioritize partnerships that: Offer proven use cases and measurable results. Focus on enhancing human and machine collaboration. Provide flexibility and openness to integrate with your existing systems. For example, brands using LivePerson Copilot benefit from tools that amplify agent productivity and enable real-time, data-informed customer engagement. The path forward 2025 is a pivotal year for CX. As the lines between digital and human interactions blur, brands that embrace the following principles will lead the pack: Be human-centric: Let AI augment, not replace, human connections. Integrate relentlessly: Invest in platforms that bridge legacy systems and new capabilities. Focus on outcomes: Use CX to drive measurable business impact—not just operational efficiency. By focusing on these strategies, businesses can not only meet, but exceed customer expectations, turning CX into their most powerful competitive advantage. John Sabino is CEO of LivePerson. View the full article

LinkedIn study finds B2B marketers are overwhelmed with AI, though two-thirds are integrating it into their workflows. The post LinkedIn Report: AI Overwhelms 72% Of B2B Marketers appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Remarks come hours after first high-level talks between Washington and Moscow since its invasionView the full article

U.S. personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan sent an urgent email this month to its more than 1,000 lawyers: Artificial intelligence can invent fake case law, and using made-up information in a court filing could get you fired. A federal judge in Wyoming had just threatened to sanction two lawyers at the firm who included fictitious case citations in a lawsuit against Walmart. One of the lawyers admitted in court filings last week that he used an AI program that “hallucinated” the cases and apologized for what he called an inadvertent mistake. AI’s penchant for generating legal fiction in case filings has led courts around the country to question or discipline lawyers in at least seven cases over the past two years, and created a new high-tech headache for litigants and judges, Reuters found. The Walmart case stands out because it involves a well-known law firm and a big corporate defendant. But examples like it have cropped up in all kinds of lawsuits since chatbots like ChatGPT ushered in the AI era, highlighting a new litigation risk. A Morgan & Morgan spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Walmart declined to comment. The judge has not yet ruled whether to discipline the lawyers in the Walmart case, which involved an allegedly defective hoverboard toy. Advances in generative AI are helping reduce the time lawyers need to research and draft legal briefs, leading many law firms to contract with AI vendors or build their own AI tools. Sixty-three percent of lawyers surveyed by Reuters’ parent company Thomson Reuters last year said they have used AI for work, and 12% said they use it regularly. Generative AI, however, is known to confidently make up facts, and lawyers who use it must take caution, legal experts said. AI sometimes produces false information, known as “hallucinations” in the industry, because the models generate responses based on statistical patterns learned from large datasets rather than by verifying facts in those datasets. Attorney ethics rules require lawyers to vet and stand by their court filings or risk being disciplined. The American Bar Association told its 400,000 members last year that those obligations extend to “even an unintentional misstatement” produced through AI. The consequences have not changed just because legal research tools have evolved, said Andrew Perlman, dean of Suffolk University’s law school and an advocate of using AI to enhance legal work. “When lawyers are caught using ChatGPT or any generative AI tool to create citations without checking them, that’s incompetence, just pure and simple,” Perlman said. ‘Lack of AI literacy’ In one of the earliest court rebukes over attorneys’ use of AI, a federal judge in Manhattan in June 2023 fined two New York lawyers $5,000 for citing cases that were invented by AI in a personal injury case against an airline. A different New York federal judge last year considered imposing sanctions in a case involving Michael Cohen, the former lawyer and fixer for Donald Trump, who said he mistakenly gave his own attorney fake case citations that the attorney submitted in Cohen’s criminal tax and campaign finance case. Cohen, who used Google’s AI chatbot Bard, and his lawyer were not sanctioned, but the judge called the episode “embarrassing.” In November, a Texas federal judge ordered a lawyer who cited nonexistent cases and quotations in a wrongful termination lawsuit to pay a $2,000 penalty and attend a course about generative AI in the legal field. A federal judge in Minnesota last month said a misinformation expert had destroyed his credibility with the court after he admitted to unintentionally citing fake, AI-generated citations in a case involving a “deepfake” parody of Vice President Kamala Harris. Harry Surden, a law professor at the University of Colorado’s law school who studies AI and the law, said he recommends lawyers spend time learning “the strengths and weaknesses of the tools.” He said the mounting examples show a “lack of AI literacy” in the profession, but the technology itself is not the problem. “Lawyers have always made mistakes in their filings before AI,” he said. “This is not new.” —Sara Merken, Reuters View the full article

Since the moment the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was first proposed, Elon Musk’s critics have warned that the world’s richest man was at risk of making decisions that could be a conflict of interest, given his multiple business operations. With recent cuts at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), those fears are increasing. Roughly 20 employees of the FDA’s office of neurological and physical medicine devices were let go over the weekend, part of a larger series of cuts. Among those were workers overseeing the review of Musk’s Neuralink brain implant company (as well as its competitors). Reuters, which first reported the layoffs, says its sources do not believe the employees were specifically targeted due to their work on Neuralink. The FDA and Neuralink did not reply to a request from Fast Company for comment about the layoffs. The layoffs at the FDA were overseen by DOGE, Reuters reports. Reviewers who were terminated received letters saying they were being let go for performance reasons, though many had just received high rankings in the past several weeks. Supervisors of the cut employees were reportedly not consulted before the layoffs and found out about them when their direct reports contacted them. Musk announced the first brain implant, which enables paralyzed people to access digital devices via thought, in a human subject about a year ago. Earlier this month, he said the company has upgraded the devices with more electrodes, higher bandwidth, and longer battery life. Additionally, Neuralink is working on a separate implant, which it hopes will restore vision for sight-impaired people. To date, Neuralink has announced three patients who have received the brain implant and said the company hopes to implant the devices in as many as 30 more people this year. The loss of review workers could slow that larger rollout, however. (Neuralink also did not comment on whether the staff reductions at the FDA office would impact its timeline.) Industry watchdogs warn that the cuts to the FDA staff could lessen oversight of such devices, which could potentially put patients at risk. That’s particularly worrisome given the early controversy with Neuralink implants, where monkeys used in trials have reportedly died grisly deaths. “Neuralink has a well-documented history of conducting unnecessary, sloppy experiments in monkeys, pigs, sheep, and other animals that raise serious concerns about the safety of its device,” the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine told Fast Company. “A significant number of medical devices approved for clinical trials fail to ever make it to the market. As such, the public should continue to be skeptical of the safety and functionality of any device produced by Neuralink.” The group instead suggested Musk explore noninvasive methods. Musk denied that any monkeys died due the implants, saying instead that they were “terminally ill.” That prompted lawmakers to ask the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate whether those statements constituted securities fraud by misleading investors about the safety of the implants. The SEC has not brought any charges against Musk for the statement but did send him a letter last December saying the Commission had reopened an investigation into the company. With the resignation of former SEC head Gary Gensler and Trump assuming office, it’s unclear if the investigation will yield any penalties for Musk, if it’s even still open. This is not the first time DOGE actions have an impact that some might consider a potential conflict of interest (although the White House, on Tuesday, claimed Musk is not the administrator for DOGE, contradicting public evidence to the contrary). On Monday, Musk said SpaceX would review the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s systems following job cuts at the FAA. And on February 7, Musk celebrated the all-but-complete shutdown of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, posting, “CFPB RIP” on X. That came as X is working to roll out a financial services unit that would have been regulated by the CFPB under expanded oversight powers over mobile payment apps, which were finalized last year. The Trump administration has since agreed to pause layoffs and funding cuts at the CFPB, following a federal judge’s order last Friday. View the full article

Regulator’s rules are part of a broader effort to rein in the power of largest fund managersView the full article

A painting by street artist Banksy with an environmental message and an estimate of up to 5 million pounds ($6.3 million) is going up for auction, with some of the proceeds helping victims of the Los Angeles wildfires. Sotheby’s auction house said Tuesday that “Crude Oil (Vettriano)” is being sold in London next month from the collection of Mark Hoppus, bassist with California skate-punk band Blink-182, who sees Banksy as a kindred spirit. Hoppus said he was drawn to the subversion, humor and intelligence of Banksy’s work and the similarities between “skateboarding, punk rock and art.” “I feel like street art and punk rock have the same core,” Hoppus said. “The left-out and overlooked making their own reality. … Just go make art. It’s the same spirit. And I’ve loved art and especially street art ever since realizing that.” “Crude Oil (Vettriano)” is part of a 2005 series of works in which Banksy put a satirical spin on famous paintings — withering Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” and smashing the diner window in Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks.” The artist said his aim was to show that “the real damage done to our environment is not done by graffiti writers and drunken teenagers, but by big business.” The work going under the hammer is based on “The Singing Butler,” a painting by Scottish artist Jack Vettriano showing a couple in evening dress dancing on a beach as servants proffer sheltering umbrellas. Banksy has added a sinking oil liner and two figures lugging a barrel of toxic waste. “We loved this painting since the moment we saw it,” said Hoppus, who bought the artwork with his wife, Skye Everly, in 2011. He said the painting – “unmistakably Banksy, but different” – has hung in the family’s homes in London and Los Angeles. Hoppus said he would use the proceeds of the sale to buy work by upcoming artists. Some will go to the California Fire Foundation, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Cedars Sinai Hematology Oncology Research. Banksy, who has never confirmed his full identity, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has become one of the world’s best-known artists. His mischievous and often satirical images include two male police officers kissing, armed riot police with yellow smiley faces and a chimpanzee with a sign bearing the words, “Laugh now, but one day I’ll be in charge.” Several of his works have sold for multiple millions at auction. The record is almost 18.6 million pounds ($25.4 million at the time) paid at Sotheby’s in October 2021 for “Love is in the Bin” – an image of a girl with a balloon that partially self-destructed during an auction three years earlier thanks to a shredder hidden in the frame. “Crude Oil (Vettriano)” is on display at Sotheby’s in New York until Thursday and in London Feb. 26-March 4. —Jill Lawless, Associated Press View the full article

Roasted vegetables are one of the simple pleasures in life. There's barely any preparation, their unique flavors become sweet and concentrated, and you're rewarded with a symphony of textures—crispy, chewy, juicy, and fluffy. It’s a great example of food that can actually be healthy and taste delicious, and you don’t have to be a trained chef to make them perfectly. The key is: Don’t complicate it. I have the most success using this simple treatment. Two things signal roasted veggie perfection: charred spots and wrinkles. While these might be descriptors for something “ugly,” don’t be fooled. The well-browned areas signal delicious complexity of flavor, due to the Maillard reaction, and the wrinkles signal the veggie in question expanded with steam while cooking through, and now has a soft interior and crispy exterior. All you need is high heat, a bit of oil, and a generous sprinkle of salt. I usually assemble a mélange of three to five different veggies on one sheet pan, but you can certainly roast just a single type of vegetable instead. Trim and prepare your vegetables If you're using broccoli, maybe you cut the florets from the woody stalk. If you've chosen tomatoes or small pepper, then maybe you halve them or you leave them whole. The most important thing to do is keep the size consistent so all of the pieces cook at the same rate. I like to roast big chunky vegetables, so I’ll prepare them to be inch-and-a-half rounds or hunks. Add fat and salt Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann I put all of the vegetables in a large mixing bowl, and drizzle about a tablespoon of neutral cooking oil over them (canola or corn oil is fine). Toss about a half teaspoon of salt into the bowl. Using your hands, start to toss the vegetables, scooping the bottom ones up to the top. Every time you scoop, squish and rub the veggie pieces to make sure everything is well coated in oil and salt. Roast the veggies Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Dump the contents of the bowl onto a foil-lined or unlined baking sheet. The arrangement doesn’t matter too much, but if I have any veggies with a skin—like halved potatoes or zucchini—I arrange them skin-side down so they’re less likely to stick to the pan. Pop the pan into a 400°F oven. Depending on the vegetable and its size, they’ll roast for 10 to 40 minutes. For large cuts, root vegetables, mushrooms, or squash, cook them for an initial 20 minutes. Then give the pan a shake, check on things, and bake for another 10 to 20 minutes, or until you’re satisfied with the color. Timing differs, but there's wiggle roomWhen timing roasted vegetables, practice makes perfect. Green beans might only take 12 minutes while broccoli needs a bit longer, and cauliflower longer still. When in doubt, just stick around and don’t be afraid to check their status, especially with root vegetables. You can always slice a tester to make sure it’s cooked through. Let the vegetables cool on the pan out of the oven for five to 10 minutes. This gives them time to deflate and emit some steam which will help loosen any stuck ones from the pan. Arrange them on your plates and serve. If you’re wondering whether it’s possible to roast vegetables in an air fryer, it is, and you should. It’s the same preparation method, but keep in mind that you’re limited by the size of your air fryer—you might have to work in batches if you’re cooking for a large group. View the full article

The measles outbreak in rural West Texas has grown to 58 cases as of Tuesday, and eight people in neighboring eastern New Mexico also have been diagnosed with measles. Public health officials in New Mexico have said they suspect some of the state’s cases are linked to the Texas outbreak, but haven’t confirmed it. Measles is a highly contagious disease. Here’s what you should know about how to protect yourself against measles, as well as what’s happening in Texas and New Mexico. Where are measles spreading currently? The West Texas cases are concentrated in Gaines County, which has 45 infections. Terry County to the north has nine confirmed cases, while Lubbock and Lynn counties have a case each and Yoakum County has two. The Texas Department of State Health Services said Monday that 13 people are hospitalized with measles. State health officials say this outbreak is Texas’ largest in nearly 30 years. Health department spokeswoman Lara Anton said last week that cases have been concentrated in a “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community — especially among families who attend small private religious schools or are homeschooled. At least three of the New Mexico cases are in Lea County, which borders Gaines County in Texas. The state health department has said people may have been exposed at a grocery store, an elementary school, a church, Nor-Lea Hospital and a Walgreens in Hobbs, New Mexico. What is measles? Measles a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most kids will recover from the measles if they get it, but infection can lead to dangerous complications like pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death. Is the vaccine safe? Yes, the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is safe and highly effective in preventing measles infection and severe cases of the disease. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old. The vaccine series is required for kids before entering kindergarten in public schools nationwide. Before the vaccine was introduced in 1963, the U.S. saw some 3 million to 4 million cases per year. Now, it’s usually fewer than 200 in a normal year. There is no link between the vaccine and autism, despite a now-discredited study and health disinformation. Why do vaccination rates matter? In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called “herd immunity.” But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots. The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60. Five years earlier, measles cases were the worst in almost three decades in 2019. Gaines County has one of the highest rates in Texas of school-aged children who opt out of at least one required vaccine, with nearly 14% of K-12 children in the 2023-24 school year. Health officials say that number is likely higher because it doesn’t include many children who are homeschooled and whose data would not be reported. What are public health officials doing to stop the spread? Health workers are hosting regular vaccination clinic and screening efforts in Texas. They are also working with schools to educate people about the importance of vaccination and offering shots. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. —Devi Shastri, Associated Press health writer View the full article

A new artificial intelligence company from one of the cofounders of OpenAI is quickly becoming one of the most highly valued AI firms in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence (SSI) is in the process of raising in excess of $1 billion with a valuation topping $30 billion. Bloomberg reports San Francisco-based Greenoaks Capital Partners is leading the deal and plans to invest $500 million itself. Greenoaks did not reply to a request for comment about the investment. $30 billion might be well short of the $340 billion valuation OpenAI boasts, but it’s still well above many others in the space, including Perplexity, which has a $9 billion valuation. The new figure is significantly higher than SSI’s $5 billion valuation in its last round, held this past September, when it raised $1 billion from investors including Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. SSI was founded by Ilya Sutskever, Daniel Gross, and Daniel Levy last June, just one month after Sutskever departed OpenAI. Very little is known about the company so far, aside from its stated goal of building . . . well, a “safe superintelligent” AI system. The company does not yet have a product on the market. “We approach safety and capabilities in tandem as technical problems to be solved through revolutionary engineering and scientific breakthroughs,” the company’s website reads. “We plan to advance capabilities as fast as possible while making sure our safety always remains ahead. . . . We have started the world’s first straight-shot SSI lab, with one goal and one product: a safe superintelligence.” Ilya Sutskever, born in Russia but raised in Jerusalem, studied with AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, who has warned about the dangers of AI. A short stint at Google led to his meeting and ultimately working with cofounders Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Elon Musk, on the organization that would become OpenAI. (Musk would later call Sutskever the “linchpin” to OpenAI’s success.) Sutskever was one of the board members who led the push to remove Altman from the CEO role at OpenAI for a short period at the end of 2023. Sutskever and Altman reportedly clashed over the pace at which generative AI is being commercialized. Days after helping orchestrate the coup, Sutskever reversed course, signing onto an employee letter demanding Altman’s return and expressing regret for his “participation in the board’s actions.” He was removed from the board after Altman returned. (Sutskever isn’t the only OpenAI alum working on his own AI project. On Tuesday, former chief technology officer Mira Murati officially announced Thinking Machines Lab, her AI startup.) When Sutskever left OpenAI, he posted on X that he was working on a new project “that is very personally meaningful to me about which I will share details in due time.” Even with the subsequent announcement about SSI’s creation last June, those details remain scant. SSI and Sutskever have dropped a few hints, however, saying that they plan on creating a single product with one focus and one goal. And SSI has made it clear that it plans to ignore pressure from markets or investors to release its product. “Our singular focus means no distraction by management overhead or product cycles, and our business model means safety, security, and progress are all insulated from short-term commercial pressures,” the website reads. Sutskever is widely respected as one of the world’s top AI researchers, which makes this possible funding round less surprising (even if the company’s valuation is higher than expected). Despite that, he has eschewed the spotlight for much of his career, not doing many interviews, but speaking about AI’s potential for both good and bad when he does. “AI is a great thing. It will solve all the problems that we have today. It will solve unemployment . . . disease . . . poverty,” he said in a documentary titled, iHuman, from filmmaker Tonje Hessen Schei, which came out in 2020. “But it will also create new problems,” Sutskever continued. “The problem of fake news is going to be a million times worse. Cyberattacks will become much more extreme. We will have totally automated AI weapons. I think AI has the potential to create infinitely stable dictatorships.” View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. I teach a handful of cycling classes every week, and after each one, I grab a spray bottle of cleaner and a paper towel from the back of the studio and give my stationary bike a wipe-down. It only makes sense: The whole point of being on it is to get all sweaty and gross, and it's inevitable some of that sweat will wind up on the bike. I have no idea what's in the bottle of cleaner, as I trust the gym's cleaning team to provide me with the right tools to keep the equipment in good shape. But when it comes to my Peloton at home, I am the cleaning team, which means I have to be much more on top of things. Here's what I've learned about how to clean every part of the machine after four years of ownership. Clean your Peloton after every rideFirst, keep a microfiber cloth or roll of Clorox wipes nearby so as soon as you dismount, you can wipe down your seat and handlebars. There isn't a ton of space on the bike itself to hang a cloth, and it's my duty as a spin teacher to gently suggest you not hang it off your handlebar when you ride, lest you go to grab the bar, accidentally yank the towel off, and lose your grip. (I don't let people in my classes cover their handlebars with sweat towels for this reason.) I keep a jumbo roll of pre-moistened Clorox wipes on hand and use those on the metal components, seat, and handlebars as soon as I finish a session. It works great. If you own a Peloton, you're probably already tired of spending extra money to buy accessories for it, but consider picking up a simple peel-and-stick hook for a nearby wall or even a shoe hanger designed to dangle off the bike itself and stashing your microfiber cloth there for easy post-ride access. Whether it makes more sense for you to use a rag or wipes, as long as you're wiping it down after each session, you're doing enough to keep it from getting too grimy between more serious cleanings. Do an occasional deeper cleanAbout once a month, I dampen a rag and use a dot of dish soap, then wipe down the whole bike, minus any of the electrical components, including the outlet cord powering the bike and the wires connected to the screen (which I just wipe down with a dry microfiber cloth). Scrub the base, wheels, various adjuster handles, and everything else, then go back over it with a dry cloth. Peloton's website suggests using baby wipes for this, but a damp towel works just as well. Notably, I tried to move my seat the other night and found that my adjuster handle was stuck. There could be two causes: It's been way too long since I cleaned it and that thing got sticky and nasty or I used too wet of a rag last time and it got gummy with dried soap. Either way, that's not good for the bike I spent so much on, nor is it good for me to have to deal with. Today, I cleaned it with a damp—but not soaked—soapy cloth, making sure to get in every nook and cranny. Then, I went over it with a dry cloth to make sure no soap remained behind. Wipe in all the nooks and crannies, like the adjustor handles. Credit: Lindsey Ellefson Take care with the screenTo clean the screen, Peloton recommends first holding down the red button on top until it powers down, then using an ammonia-free cleaner designed for use on LCD, plasma, or other flatscreen, and wiping with a microfiber cloth. Windex is a suitable option, and that's what I use once a month, or when the screen is visibly covered in dust, dry sweat, or whatever else. When powered off, the screen is incredibly reflective and difficult to photograph, so forgive me, but in the photo below you can see the improvement made with just one pass of Windex. A little before-and-after action with the Windex Credit: Lindsey Ellefson Other Peloton cleaning recommendationsIf you're feeling uneasy about using your existing cleaning products on the bike, consider investing in some designed for use on workout equipment. Wipex comes recommended by users on Reddit and is an affordable option that can ease your worries about what you're slopping all over your $1,500 device. During your monthly-or-so deeper clean, don't forget about the mat you have probably placed under the machine—wipe that down with a damp rag and a dab of dish soap or the Wipex cloths too. Finally, you should also be cleaning and deodorizing your shoes. Because the Peloton has no straps that enable you to wear regular athletic shoes, like most bikes at studios do, you have to ride using specialty cycling shoes. That's an annoying added expense, but it can also cause some stink, since those shoes are only used for sweaty activities and never get to leave the house and feel a nice breeze. Wipe down the exterior with your Wipex, Clorox, or soapy cloth, but to deodorize the interior, sprinkle some baking soda and leave them overnight before vacuuming and wiping it out. Full disclosure: I don't do that because I leave mine clipped to the pedals at all times and irrationally hate clipping and unclipping them. As a result, they're always hanging upside-down when not in use, so baking soda will fall right out. I spray the interior of mine with a mix of half vinegar, half water, then let them air dry for a day. It works great. Spritz the inside of your cycling shoes to keep them odor-free, please. Credit: Lindsey Ellefson View the full article

The government guarantor saw close to 25% of probationary employees cut. View the full article

Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, has tapped about 30 leading researchers and engineers from competitors such as OpenAI, Meta and Mistral, it said in a blog post on Tuesday. The team — roughly two-thirds of which comprises former OpenAI employees — includes Barret Zoph, a prominent researcher who left the ChatGPT maker on the same day as Murati in late September. Zoph will serve as the startup’s technology chief. OpenAI co-founder John Schulman is the startup’s chief scientist. Schulman left OpenAI for rival Anthropic in August, citing wanting to “focus on AI alignment”. AI alignment refers to a process of encoding human values into AI models to make them safer and more reliable — a key focus for Murati’s startup. Murati is among a growing list of former OpenAI executives, who are responsible for the launch of startups such as Anthropic and Safe Superintelligence. She is raising funds from venture capitalists for her new artificial intelligence startup, Reuters had reported in October. “While current systems excel at programming and mathematics, we’re building AI that can adapt to the full spectrum of human expertise and enable a broader spectrum of applications,” the startup said. The company plans to enable external research on alignment by sharing code, datasets, and model specifications, it said. After Murati joined OpenAI in June 2018, she frequently appeared alongside CEO Sam Altman as the public face of the ChatGPT maker. Her abrupt resignation had marked another high-profile exit from the company as it undergoes major governance structure changes. Prior to OpenAI, she had worked at augmented reality startup Leap Motion and Tesla. —Krystal Hu and Arsheeya Bajwa, Reuters View the full article

After OpenAI, Perplexity AI is joining the "deep research" bandwagon. And it's doing it in a fairly interesting way. Following in the footsteps of DeepSeek's "reasoning" model, Perplexity is the first major AI provider that's offering a Deep Research feature for free users, too. By comparison, OpenAI's Deep Research feature is only available in the $200/month Pro subscription. Deep Research is an upcoming AI feature that takes a bit of time, but performs dozens of related searches, goes over hundreds of resources, and uses a reasoning model to logic out each prompt in a step-by-step process. You can get similar results from tools like Copilot's "Think Deeper" feature, sure, but what sets Deep Research apart is that it puts all of the info it's collected together into a comprehensive, white paper style report. Deep Research is free for all logged-in users, though you're limited to just five queries a day. But if you're paying for Perplexity Pro (which costs $20/month or $200/year), you get up to 500 queries a month. OpenAI's Deep Research feature is limited to 100 queries a month for now. Although, it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. ChatGPT's Deep Research feature takes a lot of time. Up to 20 minutes. It asks follow up questions, shows all the complex steps involved in its process, and spits out a very long report at then end. Perplexity's Deep Research feature is kind of a lite version of that. You get a response in 2-4 minutes, so your results will naturally rely more in searching the web and data collation than deep interpretation on the part of the AI. OpenAI is using its upcoming o3 reasoning model for Deep Research, but Perplexity hasn't mentioned any details about the model it's using. Credit: Perplexity In Humanity's Last Exam, a commonly used AI benchmark consisting of over 3,000 questions across a number of topics, Perplexity's Deep Research scored a 21.1% on accuracy, which is much higher than DeepSeek R1 (8.6%), and Gemini (7.2%). OpenAI's Deep Research still has the lead with a 26.6% completion score, but a silver medal is respectable here given the tool's much lower barrier to entry. So, how does this change how you might use Perplexity? So far, AI chatbots have been all about multiple prompts. You ask a question and prompt again and again to get to detailed answers. But with Deep Research, you can ask a single question and be done with it. The more specific and verbose your prompt, the better the bot's research and report will be, but the AI can now give you pages of info in response to much less prompting. And once your report is generated, you can download it as a PDF. Credit: Perplexity Over on its blog, Perplexity has highlighted multiple examples of the kind of difference Deep Research can make. Where the default model might givee an overview with bullet-point answers, Deep Research will instead come back with multiple paragraphs, detailed reports, and more expanded formatting. View the full article

The Trump administration is giving America’s schools and universities two weeks to eliminate diversity initiatives or risk losing federal money, raising the stakes in the president’s fight against “wokeness” and sowing confusion as schools scramble to comply. In a memo Friday, the Education Department gave an ultimatum to stop using “racial preferences” as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring or other areas. Schools are being given 14 days to end any practice that treats students or workers differently because of their race. Educators at colleges nationwide were rushing to evaluate their risk and decide whether to stand up for practices they believe are legal. The sweeping demand threatens to upend all aspects of campus operations, from questions on college applications to classroom lessons and campus clubs. It’s meant to correct what the memo described as rampant discrimination in education, often against white and Asian students. “Schools have been operating on the pretext that selecting students for ‘diversity’ or similar euphemisms is not selecting them based on race,” said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights. “No longer. Students should be assessed according to merit, accomplishment and character.” The guidance drew sharp backlash from civil rights groups and university groups. Some believe its vague language is meant to have a chilling effect, pressuring schools to eliminate anything touching on the topic of race even if it may be defensible in court. “Creating a sense of risk around doing work that might promote diverse and welcoming campuses is much more of the goal than a clear statement of existing law,” said Jonathan Fansmith, senior vice president of government relations at the American Council on Education, an association of college presidents. The memo is an extension of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs. It essentially reflects a change in the federal government’s interpretation of antidiscrimination laws. As legal justification, it cites the 2023 Supreme Court decision barring race as a factor in college admissions. Although the ruling applied only to admissions, the memo says it “applies more broadly.” “Put simply, educational institutions may neither separate or segregate students based on race, nor distribute benefits or burdens based on race,” it said. On Monday the Education Department announced it also cut $600 million in grants for organizations that train teachers. The programs promoted “divisive” concepts like DEI, critical race theory and social justice activism, the department said. The new guidance seeks to remove race from areas including financial aid, housing, graduation ceremonies, hiring and promotion. It also takes aim directly at college admissions, suggesting colleges have sought to work around the Supreme Court’s decision. Using non-racial information “as a proxy for race” will now be viewed as a violation of federal law, the memo said. As an example, it said it’s unlawful for colleges to eliminate standardized testing requirements “to achieve a desired racial balance or to increase racial diversity.” Dozens of colleges across the U.S. have dropped SAT and ACT requirements in recent years for a variety of factors. The guidance reaches beyond the scope of the Supreme Court’s decision and is almost certain to be challenged in court, said Angel B. Pérez, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. While the Supreme Court decision bans race as a factor in evaluating applicants, the memo aims to ban race even in the recruitment of potential students, he said. Practices that have long been commonplace could suddenly become legal liabilities, Pérez said, including recruiting in underrepresented areas or buying lists of potential students with certain academic and demographic information. Companies including the College Board and ACT have long sold lists of students to colleges, acting as a matchmaker and providing a pool of potential applicants who meet certain criteria. “Colleges and universities are going to find themselves between a rock and a hard place,” Pérez said. “They know that what they’re doing is not illegal, but they are worried that if they do not comply, not having federal funding will decimate them.” College application essays are targeted by the memo, raising questions about how far colleges can go in inviting students to share their personal experiences, including their race. The guidance says colleges can’t use essays as a way of predicting a student’s race. In the Supreme Court decision, Chief Justice John Roberts said nothing in the ruling prevents colleges “from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life,” though he warned that colleges couldn’t simply use essays as an indirect workaround to consider applicants’ race. In a campus letter at the University of Michigan, President Santa J. Ono said leaders are working to understand the implications. Some colleges said they expect little change from the memo. At Oregon State University, a legal review concluded that its programs “are fully compliant with all state and federal laws,” according to a campus message from Rob Odom, vice president of university relations and marketing. The department memo appears to take aim at scholarships reserved for students from certain racial backgrounds. There’s been legal debate about whether the Supreme Court decision extends to financial aid, with some schools and institutions deciding to scrap racial requirements for certain scholarships. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators said there’s no consensus on the question, and the group is trying to understand how the memo could affect student aid. “What we do know, however, is that 14 days is insufficient time for schools to assess and implement any necessary changes to be in compliance,” the group said in a statement. “The last thing students need when making plans about how to pay for college is uncertainty over when or whether they will receive financial aid they’ve been relying on.” The confusion around Trump’s order was apparent at last week’s confirmation hearing for education secretary nominee Linda McMahon. Asked whether classes on African American history would run afoul of the president’s order, McMahon said she wasn’t quite certain. —Collin Binkley, AP education writer The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. View the full article

The new tool taps into Intercontinental Exchange's AllRegs database, which contains over a million pages of guidelines from various sources. View the full article

Do sweet and salty foods taste good to you? Is your sleep maybe not the best? Do you have some belly fat? The answer to these questions is probably yes, because you are human, but that’s not important right now! TikTok influencers would like you to consider another possibility: that your cortisol is too high, and that you should buy their supplements (link in bio!) to control it. Then you’ll be relaxed at night and energetic in the morning, you’ll enjoy the taste of kale, and—most importantly—you’ll become thin and beautiful. This cortisol dysregulation idea has become a sort of mega-phenomenon, absorbing the power and anxieties of anything it touches. If you look up cortisol on TikTok, you’ll find weight loss tips, sleep hygiene tips, massage techniques, and more. You’ll be served videos not only on cortisol, but also on gut issues, mood issues, healing from trauma, smoothie recipes, menstrual cycle syncing, when you should and shouldn’t use caffeine, and just about any other health issue a woman might search for. (Sorry, men—most of this content isn't for you. Yet.) Scroll those videos long enough, and you’ll see a claim about any symptom or inconvenience you’ve ever experienced. It’s all due to your high cortisol, they say. What is cortisol, anyway?Stepping away from TikTok-land for a moment to talk about actual physiology, cortisol is a hormone that we produce from our adrenal glands, which sit on top of our kidneys. The adrenal glands most famously produce epinephrine, which you might recognize as the “fight or flight” hormone we call adrenaline. (In the United States, epinephrine is the medical name. Both words refer to the same thing: ad + renal is the Latin way you say “on top of the kidneys,” and epi + nephro is the same in Greek.) Besides epinephrine/adrenaline, the adrenal gland also produces hormones that regulate water and electrolyte balance, and small amounts of sex hormones. And—relevant to our topic today—they also produce cortisol. Where epinephrine is involved in momentary “fight or flight” reactions, cortisol is the hormone that helps us deal with stress in the longer term, like days to weeks or longer. Your cortisol levels increase when you’re sick, pregnant, severely dehydrated, recovering from surgery, or your body is otherwise dealing with major stress. And these cortisol levels should go up—this is a good thing! People who don’t produce enough cortisol in these situations can experience an adrenal crisis, which can be deadly. In other words, cortisol helps our bodies respond appropriately to stress, especially serious, life-threatening physical stress. If you’ve ever taken a glucocorticoid medication (with a name like cortisone, prednisone, or dexamethasone), or used hydrocortisone cream on a rash, those are all variations of cortisol. There are medical conditions where your body doesn’t make enough cortisol, like Addison’s disease, and medical conditions where your body makes too much, like Cushing’s disease. Both of these are issues to discuss with your doctor, not your friendly local TikToker, but more about those in a bit. What people say about cortisol on social mediaWe’ve covered some of the claims about cortisol above, but to give you a few more examples, here are some of the things healthfluencers say are signs that your cortisol is too high: Waking up between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. at night Being tired in the morning and “wired” or overthinking at night Craving sweet and/or salty foods Having belly fat or love handles (“cortisol belly”) Round face (“moon face”) Cognitive difficulties like “brain fog” or trouble making decisions Feeling anxious or irritable Acne Swelling or fluid in the face, belly, or other areas Gut issues (any kind) Feeling shaky due to (presumed) high blood sugar What “high cortisol” symptoms actually meanIn reality, these symptoms aren’t specific enough to point to elevated cortisol, or to anything else, really. Some of these are common and minor enough that probably everybody experiences them sometimes; who doesn’t crave candy? I find it especially interesting that these symptoms are trendy among women who promote weight loss tips or who search for weight loss tips. If you’re dieting all the time, you might have a lot of these symptoms! Being low on energy (calories) is associated with poor sleep, brain fog, gut issues, feeling irritable, feeling lightheaded or shaky due to low blood sugar—and, for many people, obsessing over whatever fat they have, be it a small or large amount. Others could signal serious medical issues if they are severe enough. For example, you might think you have a “moon face” if your normal face shape is round; that’s not actually a problem. But if your face has always been thin and then becomes round over the span of a few months or years, that’s a textbook symptom of Cushing syndrome; you should go see an endocrinologist. This is “adrenal fatigue” all over againThe “high cortisol” branding for these symptoms is new, but it seems to have evolved from the exact opposite. About five years ago, adrenal fatigue was the bugbear of the day. Remember when Gwyneth Paltrow launched a vitamin packet specifically to address it? The idea behind adrenal fatigue was that your body is so stressed it has burned out and stopped producing stress hormones; the symptoms include fatigue, weight gain, and cravings for salt and sugar. Sound familiar? Adrenal fatigue has been thoroughly debunked by scientists; the symptoms don’t even match the supposed cause. On the other hand, those symptoms do match—sort of—with high cortisol. Somewhat hilariously, there are TikToks that call “adrenal fatigue” another name for “high cortisol,” which is nonsensical; both can't be true. But the high-cortisol myth collects other myths as it goes, so it seamlessly absorbed this one, too. Another phrase that’s now used, both by medical professionals and (perhaps more often) by TikTokers who are making shit up, is “HPA axis dysfunction.” Those letters refer to three parts of your body that are involved in regulating cortisol levels: The hypothalamus (H) is a part of your brain that can produce corticotropin-releasing hormone, or CRH, which signals the pituitary. The pituitary (P) gland sits just below the hypothalamus, and when it receives CRH, it produces adrenocorticotropic hormone, or ACTH, to signal the cortisol-producing portion of the adrenal gland. The adrenal (A) gland releases cortisol in response to ACTH. High cortisol causes the hypothalamus and pituitary to stop making, or to make less of, their respective cortisol-triggering hormones. If something in this system were to get screwed up—one of the components not properly responding to its signals, perhaps—that would be a problem. “HPA axis dysfunction” is an umbrella term (not a specific diagnosis) for ways that this can go wrong. On TikTok, though, it’s sometimes used as a drop-in replacement for “adrenal fatigue.” What influencers say causes high cortisolInfluencers are much bigger on spotting symptoms of high cortisol than they are at explaining why we all have this supposed hormone dysfunction. Still, there are a few scapegoats. Since cortisol is often described (legitimately) as a stress hormone, the TikTok hormone gurus seem to assume that it affects everybody who feels stressed or leads a busy life—which is basically all of us. Caffeine is also mentioned in some of these social media posts, but there isn’t any strong evidence to suggest that your morning coffee is messing with your hormones. Where the fearmongering really goes off the rails, though, is in implicating exercise. Longtime Lifehacker readers will remember when I covered the popular TikTok myth that HIIT (interval training) and lifting weights increase your cortisol and make you fat, while Pilates keeps you lean. (This is not true.) Please indulge me while I quote myself: "Cortisol levels in the blood are elevated after high intensity exercise, but these levels return to normal within an hour. We also adapt pretty quickly to high intensity exercise, as exercise physiologist John Hough points out here: Work from his research group showed that after 11 days of high-intensity cycling, those transient cortisol spikes got a lot lower. (Other research backs this up.) In other words, we get better at handling physiological stress the more practice we get—which any athlete or trainer could have told you. The cortisol release that’s triggered by exercise is just not considered to be a significant factor in weight gain, when you talk to actual endocrinologists (hormone specialists) or scientists who study exercise or metabolism." There’s another myth connected to this one: the idea that, if you ovulate and menstruate (as many women who aren’t on hormonal birth control do), that intense exercise during certain phases of your cycle will increase your cortisol to extreme levels and cause the symptoms previously discussed. This is not true either. What actually causes high cortisolHere’s where we’ll make a brief stop in reality-land: There are medical conditions that cause high cortisol levels in the body, and these can be serious and even life-threatening. Keep in mind that cortisol is a hormone that is supposed to rise in response to stress; levels are two to four times higher than normal during pregnancy, for example. It also rises and falls each day, typically peaking in the morning around the time we wake up; it’s lowest at night. (The size of this fluctuation, and even whether you have it, varies considerably from person to person. Don’t trust a naturopath or chiropractor who wants to diagnose you with high cortisol based solely on a measurement of this curve.) So, slightly elevated cortisol as a result of normal life stresses is not usually a medical issue. But abnormally elevated cortisol is. Here’s a great example that shows both what the TikToks get right and what they get wrong. Bridget Houser, profiled in the Washington Post’s medical mysteries series, experienced headaches, anxiety, thinning hair, and a tendency toward weight gain that she managed by exercising more. Her face became round. Several doctors suggested her symptoms might be due to stress from her impending (or, as the symptoms continued, recent) wedding. Ultimately, she turned out to have cancer—a tumor in her lung was sending out ACTH, a hormone that normally is a signal from the pituitary gland (located in your head, under your brain) that adjusts levels of cortisol in the body. Rogue cancer cells can sometimes butt into that hormonal conversation, and that’s what happened to Houser. After she got surgery to remove the tumor, her cortisol levels subsided and her symptoms went away. There are other conditions besides cancer that can cause similar symptoms, but they occur under extreme stress. This review article lists several scenarios where pathologically high cortisol has been observed, including: alcohol use disorder late stage chronic kidney disease major depression, anxiety, and some other mental health diagnoses If you think you have high cortisol, to the point where it’s affecting your health, please go see a real doctor. How to lower your cortisol, according to TikTokUnscrupulous influencers, having convinced you that you have a health problem, have no shortage of answers for you. Most of these answers end up putting money in their pocket: There are dozens if not hundreds of “adrenal support” supplements out there, which TikTokers with affiliate codes will happily sell you. You can also part with your money by purchasing courses on specific types of massage or meditation, like EFT tapping (you tap on “meridian points” on your body while focusing on negative emotions) or “trauma-releasing” floor exercises. Influencers are always happy to pick you up on the “food is medicine” bandwagon, so there are plenty of video clips showing foods you should or should not eat, and “adrenal cocktails” you can mix up and drink every morning. Among the supplements you "should" take are plenty of ordinary vitamins (specific B vitamins, sometimes) and recommendations to take supplements with adaptogens like ashwagandha. There is no solid research connecting these recommendations with adrenal health, but eating veggies and protein are good for us anyway. If TikTok tells you to eat more kale, you may not need to, but it won’t necessarily hurt. Along the same lines, social media posts will call out sleep disturbances as a symptom of high cortisol, and then recommend basic sleep hygiene steps as a supposed treatment for high cortisol. Cortisol is an unnecessary middleman here, whether it’s actually involved or not; if your sleep sucks, you should try to sleep better. I’ll just add that if your sleep still sucks after setting up a no-phone bedtime routine and taking morning walks in the sunshine, maybe you should ask your doctor about getting evaluated for sleep apnea. Why you should not listen to TikTok about how to lower your cortisolAccording to TikTok, high cortisol is so significant that you must fix it, and fixing it will change your life; but it’s also minor enough that you don’t need to seek medical care for it, and you can fix it yourself. Those two ideas don’t really fit together. That combination gets dangerous when real medical issues are involved—imagine if Bridget Houser, the woman with cancer, had taken to TikTok to diagnose and treat herself. Or to take another example, there’s a corner of TikTok where women tell each other that your husband’s “short fuse” is really a sign of high cortisol. I’m sorry, but if your husband has anger management issues, the type of help you need is not a video instructing you on what supplements to tell him to take. Ultimately, if you think you have symptoms of high cortisol, it’s important that you consider how severe your symptoms are—and act accordingly. If you feel stressed and think you might benefit from some yoga or an “adrenal cocktail” of orange juice and coconut water, be my guest. Maybe it will help, and if not, no harm, no foul. On the other hand, if you’re having symptoms that are seriously affecting your life and your health, see a real doctor. An endocrinologist can diagnose hormonal problems, but you might have better luck starting with your symptoms instead of guessing at the cause. For example, if you often wake up in the night and feel groggy in the morning, you might want to consider talking to a sleep specialist. One last note: If you’re scrolling TikTok and think you might have a problem with your hormones, there are plenty of “hormone balance coaches” who will offer to take you under their wing and order a bunch of expensive tests to figure out what’s going on. This is not the same as going to a doctor who actually knows what they are doing. These hormone coaches may order the wrong kinds of tests, and usually do not have access to the types of tests used in medical diagnosis of hormone issues. Please go see a real doctor. View the full article

YouTube introduces the ability to promote Shorts videos, letting channels get short-form content in front of more viewers. The post YouTube Lets Channels Boost Shorts Videos appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article