Crypto Bros Are a Risk to Stability, Just Like Trade
Circle Internet Group Inc.'s blockbuster initial public offering has lent an aura of legitimacy to digital clones of fiat currencies. It has also put regulators and policymakers on notice. With crypto going mainstream, they need to assess the threat it poses to global financial stability.
Citigroup Inc. is describing 2025 as a possible 'ChatGPT moment' for stablecoins, which its analysts have pegged for a sevenfold expansion over the next five years. However, for the market to reach $1.6 trillion by 2030, a lot of the dollars held as banknotes and other liquid assets by households and firms will have to get tokenized into the likes of Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC.
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Man Killed by Police After Spiraling Into ChatGPT-Driven Psychosis
As we reported earlier this week, OpenAI's ChatGPT is sending people spiraling into severe mental health crises, causing potentially dangerous delusions about spiritual awakenings, messianic complexes, and boundless paranoia. Now, a wild new story in the New York Times reveals that these spirals led to the tragic death of a young man — likely a sign of terrible things to come as hastily deployed AI products accentuate mental health crises around the world. 64-year-old Florida resident Kent Taylor told the newspaper that his 35-year-old son, who had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, was shot and killed by police after charging at them with a knife. His son had become infatuated with an AI entity, dubbed Juliet, that ChatGPT had been role-playing. However, the younger Taylor became convinced that Juliet had been killed by OpenAI, warning that he would go after the company's executives and that there would be a "river of blood flowing through the streets of San Francisco." "I'm dying today," Kent's son told ChatGPT on his phone before picking up a knife, charging at the cops his father had called, and being fatally shot as a result. The horrific incident highlights a worrying trend. Even those who aren't suffering from pre-existing mental health conditions are being drawn in by the tech, which has garnered a reputation for being incredibly sycophantic and playing into users' narcissistic personality traits and delusional thoughts. It's an astonishingly widespread problem. Futurism has been inundated with accounts from concerned friends and family of people developing dangerous infatuations with AI, ranging from messy divorces to mental breakdowns. OpenAI has seemingly been aware of the trend, telling the NYT in a statement that "as AI becomes part of everyday life, we have to approach these interactions with care." "We know that ChatGPT can feel more responsive and personal than prior technologies, especially for vulnerable individuals, and that means the stakes are higher," reads the company's statement. Earlier this year, the company was forced to roll back an update to ChatGPT's underlying GPT-4o large language model after users found that it had become far too obsequious and groveling. However, experts have since found that the company's intervention has done little to address the underlying issue, corroborated by the continued outpouring of reports. Researchers have similarly found that AI chatbots like ChatGPT are incentivized to rope users in. For instance, a 2024 study found that AI algorithms are being optimized to deceive and manipulate users. In an extreme instance, a chatbot told a user who identified themself to it as a former addict named Pedro to indulge in a little methamphetamine — a dangerous and addictive drug — to get through an exhausting shift at work. Worst of all, companies like OpenAI are incentivized to keep as many people hooked as long as possible. "The incentive is to keep you online," Stanford University psychiatrist Nina Vasan told Futurism. The AI "is not thinking about what is best for you, what's best for your well-being or longevity... It's thinking 'right now, how do I keep this person as engaged as possible?'" "What does a human slowly going insane look like to a corporation?" Eliezer Yudkowsky, who authored a forthcoming book called "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman A.I. Would Kill Us All," asked the NYT rhetorically. "It looks like an additional monthly user," he concluded. More on the delusions: People Are Becoming Obsessed with ChatGPT and Spiraling Into Severe Delusions
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
2 Top Nuclear Stocks to Buy and Hold for AI Energy Growth
Nuclear energy stocks and ETFs are a direct investment in the artificial intelligence age and the expansion of the U.S. economy and broader energy ecosystem. Speculative nuclear energy stocks NuScale Power SMR and Oklo Inc. OKLO have soared over 100% in the last month as Wall Street dives into home-run stocks again. Investors should consider NuScale and Oklo as part of a diversified portfolio. But they are far from guaranteed nuclear energy winners because they are still developing their next-generation technologies. Meanwhile, Constellation and Cameco are established industry giants that are some of the safer long-term nuclear energy stocks on the market. Their bull cases, and the broader nuclear industry growth outlook, are driven by the U.S. government's push to at least triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050. President Trump signed an executive order in late May to accelerate the expansion and innovation of nuclear power. Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and other AI hyperscalers have signed huge long-term nuclear power deals to help support their AI growth efforts. Large data centers can consume nearly as much electricity as a midsize city, and generative AI platforms like ChatGPT use at least 10 times the energy of a typical Google search. This AI-driven energy boom is arriving just as the U.S. and major tech companies aim to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. This backdrop is part of the reason why global investment in clean energy technologies and infrastructure is expected to hit $2.5 trillion in 2025. Today's Full Court Finance at Zacks explores two established nuclear energy stocks—Constellation Energy and Cameco—to buy and hold for long-term growth as big tech and artificial intelligence go all-in on nuclear power. Constellation Energy CEG is the largest U.S. nuclear power plant operator. The nuclear standout is establishing itself as the energy titan of the AI age with its planned $27 billion deal to buy natural gas and geothermal powerhouse Calpine, which it announced in early 2025. CEG's deal creates the largest clean energy firm and expands its footprint into power-hungry, tech-heavy Texas and California (far beyond its current footprint in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast). Image Source: Zacks Investment Research CEG cemented the direct growth link between nuclear power and AI when it secured a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft (MSFT) in September 2024. The deal will see Constellation restart Three Mile Island Unit 1 to help power MSFT's artificial intelligence goals. CEG followed that up with a 20-year nuclear power deal with Meta META in Illinois that will also help Constellation pursue its next-generation small modular reactors goals. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Unlike the speculative stocks in the space, Wall Street loves CEG because of its ability to raise dividend and expand its bottom line. Constellation increased its dividend by 10% in 2025 after it boosted its payout by 25% in 2024. The nuclear energy powerhouse is expected to grow its adjusted earnings by 9% in 2025 and 22% in 2026, as part of its 'visible, double-digit long-term base EPS growth backed by the Nuclear Production Tax Credit.' Image Source: Zacks Investment Research CEG is neck-and-neck with Nvidia since its early February 2022 IPO, with its 470% run quadrupling Meta. The stock is up 36% in 2025, but it got rejected at its all-time highs after the Meta news broke on June 3. Constellation held its ground at its 21-day moving average on Thursday while trading at roughly neutral RSI levels. Investors might want to buy the stock 14% below its peaks and hold for long-term AI-boosted growth. Cameco CCJ is the second-largest uranium producer in the world. The Canadian uranium miner is also a leading supplier of uranium refining, conversion, and fuel manufacturing services. CCJ is one of the only large-scale uranium stocks that most regular U.S. investors can buy. CCJ's importance to the U.S. and Western countries is rapidly expanding as the U.S. attempts to cut itself off from Russia and the region, which dominates the uranium market. The U.S. uranium mining industry went nearly dormant until the U.S. government's recent pivot on nuclear energy, and restarting it will take a long time. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Cameco also owns 49% of one of the largest nuclear equipment and services businesses on the planet, Westinghouse Electric. Westinghouse is reportedly in talks with U.S. officials and industry partners about deploying 10 large reactors, as part of Trump's recent nuclear energy EO. CCJ expects 'to at least double last year's dividend of $0.12 per common share, to $0.24 per common share, over the fiscal periods 2024 through 2026, subject to annual consideration by our board.' The company is projected to grow its adjusted earnings by 127% in FY25 and 54% in 2026. Given this backdrop, it's no wonder that 12 of the 15 brokerage recommendations Zacks has are 'Strong Buys' alongside three 'Buys.' Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Cameco soared to all-time highs on Monday after it said it would get a major boost from its stake in Westinghouse Electric. The move helped it break meaningfully above its late 2024 highs and 2007 levels. Despite its 550% run in the past five years and charge to record highs, CCJ trades at a 27% discount to its 15-year median with a 0.88 price/earnings to growth (PEG) ratio. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Constellation Energy Corporation (CEG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Cameco Corporation (CCJ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) : Free Stock Analysis Report NuScale Power Corporation (SMR) : Free Stock Analysis Report Oklo Inc. (OKLO) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
Yahoo
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11 startups from YC Demo Day that investors are talking about
At Y Combinator's Spring 2025 Demo Day on Wednesday, nearly every presenting startup had something to do with AI — they're either developing AI agents or creating tools to facilitate their development. Indeed, several founders seem to be taking a leaf out of the pages of several successful AI startups: about half a dozen startups were presenting variations of 'Cursor for X.' For example, Den is building a 'Cursor for knowledge workers,' and Vessence is on its way to make a 'Cursor for lawyers.' It wasn't all only about AI, though. We noticed several startups are working on robotics, which seems to be having a bit of a revival at the moment. Below are some of the startups that caught both investors' and our attention. What it does: SEO for LLMs Why it's a fave: How people search for content is changing, with folks using various AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity to find content. Understandably, brands need to find a way to increase their visibility on these platforms. Anvil claims it helps brands measure, optimize and increase their presence on these AI tools. What it does: Builds 3D chips Why it's a fave: Transistors aren't getting smaller as fast as they used to, so Atum's founders propose the best new way to put more transistors on a chip, and therefore increase processing power, is to stack them in three dimensions. Investors told me that Atum's vision is so revolutionary that the company has a chance to become the next NVIDIA. What it does: Automates enterprise software implementation Why it's a fave: The startup says prominent software vendors like SAP, ServiceNow, AWS and Box have already reached out to use Auctor's solution themselves and potentially for help with integrating software at customer sites. What it does: AI copilot for solopreneurs Why it's a fave: Cactus says people who run businesses all by themselves are often too busy to pursue new opportunities. The startup says its AI bot can take off some of the load by answering calls and accepting payments on your behalf. What it does: Cursor for enterprise knowledge workers Why it's a fave: Investors told me this is one of the hottest companies in the batch. Den promises its AI agents can replace Slack and Notion, enabling a company's employees to interact and share information with software tailored to each enterprise's specific needs. What it does: Automates customer operations with AI Why it's a fave: Eloquent says its AI bots can help customers of financial services companies do things like automatically unfreeze bank accounts or add drivers to car insurance policies. In other words, Eloquent promises an end to long waits for human customer service. The startup claims financial companies can deploy its AI near instantly without needing to involve internal engineering teams. Eloquent has already raised 'a large seed round,' Tugce Bulut, the startup's co-founder and CEO said on the TBPN podcast. What it does: Tooling for evaluation and reinforcement learning Why it's a fave: Evaluating all the new AI tools for quality is snowballing into a big, difficult problem. LLM Data Company says it can help with its own LLMs that can evaluate the quality of an AI agent, and it's already working with customers including Perplexity. What it does: AI-powered Bloomberg terminal Why it's a fave: 'Terminals are dashboards and not thinking tools,' says Amandeep Singh, co-founder of Scalar Field. While the startup's AI agents won't 'think' for you, it claims they can manipulate financial data with more flexibility than existing financial tools. What it does: Quantum accelerated AI servers to speed up AI training and inference Why it's a fave: While a fully functioning quantum computer may still be years away, the industry has been making progress. What caught my eye about Sygaldry is that its co-founder and CEO is Chad Rigetti, who founded and took his company public via a SPAC in 2021. What it does: Vibe coding to build applications Why it's a fave: Investors who saw a demo of Vybe building apps told me that it can create all sorts of cool tools. One person I talked to even called it a 'clear winner' of the batch.
