A new phenomenon is emerging as more individuals turn to artificial intelligence chatbots to act as ´trip sitters´ during psychedelic experiences. Traditionally, a trip sitter is a sober person who monitors and supports someone while they are under the influence of psychoactive substances. Now, people are experimenting with artificial intelligence chatbots in this supporting role, merging two cultural trends: the adoption of artificial intelligence for therapeutic support and the increasing use of psychedelics for mental health purposes. However, experts caution that this combination could be risky due to the lack of true human support and oversight, despite being far more affordable than professional psychedelic therapy.
Meanwhile, internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare has announced a significant policy change: it will now, by default, block artificial intelligence bots from crawling its clients´ websites. These bots, which harvest web content to train artificial intelligence systems, have become more prevalent as artificial intelligence companies seek ever-larger datasets. While web crawlers have long been standard fare for search engines, their new roles in artificial intelligence data aggregation have sparked debate. Cloudflare’s clients retain the ability to whitelist or ban individual bots and can enroll in a forthcoming ´pay-per-crawl´ program, potentially monetizing the data scraped from their web pages.
The shifting landscape of artificial intelligence regulation and data rights is also reflected in recent legal proceedings. Landmark rulings in copyright cases involving Meta and Anthropic have raised questions about whether artificial intelligence companies can freely use copyrighted works to train their models. With dozens of similar cases pending, the outcomes will shape the future boundaries of artificial intelligence development and data usage. Beyond legal challenges, industry stories highlight a rapidly changing technological world: the US Senate’s stalling of uniform artificial intelligence regulation, Apple’s potential collaboration with external artificial intelligence developers for Siri, and the intensifying arms race for artificial intelligence talent, which has sent wages soaring. These developments underscore the industrial and cultural upheaval brought forth by artificial intelligence´s rapid integration into daily life, from digital assistants to mental health applications and corporate policy shifts.
