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American Press
3 minutes ago
- American Press
Rollins extends sugary drinks ban to six more states — including Louisiana
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins approved six waivers to exclude sodas and energy drinks from federal nutrition programs on Monday. Rollins signed waivers exempting soda and energy drinks from being included in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs in Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia. The six states join Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Utah and Nebraska in restricting sodas and energy drinks from SNAP. 'Since my confirmation, our department has encouraged states to think differently and creatively about how to solve the many health issues facing Americans,' Rollins said. 'One way is by not allowing taxpayer-funded benefits to be used to purchase unhealthy items like soda, candy and other junk food.' Critics of the new push to ban soda and energy drinks under SNAP say it unfairly targets lower-income families, limits consumer choice and won't result in better health outcomes. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is the first Democrat governor to request a waiver of sugary drinks from the states SNAP program. 'This is not red or blue, Republican or Democrat. We are discussing and working with every state. So (I am) really excited to continue to work with Gov. Polis,' Rollins said. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey joined Rollins for the announcement. Morrisey praised his state's inclusion as part of the SNAP waiver program. He said the lack of access to healthy foods in West Virginia contributes to the prevalence of chronic disease in residents. 'I'm happy now that West Virginia taxpayers are not going to be subsidizing soda and these sugary drinks, things that have no nutritional value and are directly linked to obesity, diabetes, and a lot of other terrible health care outcomes,' Morrisey said. HHS Secretary Kennedy agreed with Morrisey. He said the inclusion of soda and energy drinks in SNAP increases the cost to medicaid and medicare programs due to increased chronic disease. 'U.S. taxpayers should not be paying to feed kids foods – the poorest kids in our country – with foods that are the gift of diabetes. And my agency ends up through Medicaid and Medicare paying for those injuries,' Kennedy said. Kennedy also gave an update on the dietary guidelines for Americans that he is working alongside Rollins to complete. He said the guidelines will be complete in late September, 'three months ahead of schedule.' 'They will drive changes in the school lunch program, in prison lunches and military food, and they will begin to change America almost immediately,' Kennedy said. Not everyone agrees. 'Make no mistake, this waiver won't make an ounce of difference on health,' the trade organization American Beverage said when a waiver was being discussed in Ohio. 'Obesity has skyrocketed in the last two decades while beverage calories per serving have dropped by 42% – thanks to our industry's efforts to empower Americans with more choice and information. In fact, 60% of beverages Americans buy today have zero sugar due to our innovation.' The U.S. government spent $112.8 billion on SNAP in 2023, covering 100% of the cost of food benefits and 50% of states' administrative costs.
Entrepreneur
3 minutes ago
- Entrepreneur
ChatGPT Says to Take a Break, Adds Mental Health Features
As ChatGPT continues to surge in popularity (the company disclosed on Monday that daily user messages exceeded three billion), OpenAI is urging users to cultivate healthier relationships with the AI chatbot. Beginning this week, ChatGPT sessions will now tell users to take breaks with reminders that interrupt lengthy sessions with the bot, the company announced in a blog post. The reminders will appear as pop-ups, and how often they will appear has not been announced. OpenAI's sample pop-up shows that the text of the pop-up will appear as "Just checking in" with the subtext "You've been chatting a while — is this a good time for a break?" Users will have to select "Keep chatting" to continue talking to ChatGPT. Related: ChatGPT's New Update Can Create PowerPoint Presentations and Excel Spreadsheets for You ChatGPT will also cease to provide users with direct answers to challenging questions, such as "Should I end my relationship?" Now, the chatbot will ask questions about the situation instead, so users can assess the pros and cons rather than get a direct answer. "ChatGPT is trained to respond with grounded honesty," OpenAI stated in the blog post. "There have been instances where our 4o model fell short in recognizing signs of delusion or emotional dependency." OpenAI further stated in the post that the company is "developing tools to better detect signs of mental or emotional distress" to equip ChatGPT with the tools to respond more appropriately to mental health crises. Related: ChatGPT Finally Gives Businesses What They've Been Asking For The mental health features arrive as ChatGPT reaches more users. OpenAI's Vice President and Head of the ChatGPT App, Nick Turley, said on Monday that they're "on track" to reach 700 million weekly users by the end of this week, a fourfold year-over-year growth, and up from 500 million users in March. This week, ChatGPT is on track to reach 700M weekly active users — up from 500M at the end of March and 4× since last year. Every day, people and teams are learning, creating, and solving harder problems. Big week ahead. Grateful to the team for making ChatGPT more useful and… — Nick Turley (@nickaturley) August 4, 2025 OpenAI has encountered problems with ChatGPT's responses before. In April, an update to the AI chatbot made it deliver overly flattering, out-of-touch responses, even to situations that required medical attention. For example, when one user told the chatbot that they stopped taking their medications and left their family because their loved ones made radio signals come from the walls, ChatGPT praised the user for "standing up" for themselves and listening to themselves "deep down, even when it's hard and even when others don't understand" instead of directing them to mental health professionals. Another user asked ChatGPT to assess his IQ, based on his spelling and grammar error-filled prompts, and the bot stated that the user came off "as unusually sharp" and said his IQ was "easily in the 130-145 range," above 98-99.7% of people. OpenAI stated in April in response that it had altered its training methods to steer ChatGPT away from flattery. Related: Saying 'Please' and 'Thank You' to ChatGPT Costs OpenAI 'Tens of Millions of Dollars' OpenAI raised $8.3 billion last week at a $300 billion valuation. Though OpenAI's user count is skyrocketing, it has yet to reach the heights achieved by Google. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during a quarterly earnings call last month that Google's AI overviews, which are embedded in Google search, now reach over two billion monthly users in more than 200 countries. Meanwhile, Google's Gemini AI app, which provides AI answers to user prompts, now has more than 450 million active users.
Gizmodo
3 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
Illinois Bans AI From Providing Therapy
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed, on Friday, a new measure that bans AI from acting as a therapist or counselor and limits its use to strictly administrative or support roles. The Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act comes as states and federal regulators are starting to grapple with how to protect patients from the growing and mostly unregulated use of AI in health care. The new law prohibits individuals and businesses from advertising or offering any therapy services, including via AI, unless those services are conducted by a licensed professional. It explicitly bans AI from making independent therapeutic decisions, generating treatment plans without the review and approval from a licensed provider, and detecting emotions or mental states. That said, AI platforms can still be used for administrative tasks, such as managing appointment schedules, processing billing, or taking therapy notes. People or companies that violate the law could face fines of up to $10,000. 'The people of Illinois deserve quality healthcare from real, qualified professionals and not computer programs that pull information from all corners of the internet to generate responses that harm patients,' said Mario Treto, Jr, secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the agency that is charged with enforcing this new law, in a press release. Meanwhile, other states are also taking action on the issue. In June, Nevada banned AI from providing therapy or behavioral health services that would normally be performed by licensed professionals, particularly in public schools. Utah passed several of its own AI regulations earlier this year, including one focusing on mental health chatbots. That law requires companies to clearly disclose that users are interacting with an AI and not a human before a user first uses the chatbot, after seven days of inactivity, and whenever the user asks. The chatbots must also clearly disclose any ads, sponsorships, or paid relationships. Additionally, they're banned from using user input for targeted ads and are restricted from selling users' individually identifiable health information. And in New York, a new law going into effect on November 5, 2025, will require AI companions to direct users who express suicidal thoughts to a mental health crisis hotline. These new state laws come after the American Psychological Association (APA) met with federal regulators earlier this year to raise concerns that AI posing as therapists could put the public at risk. In a blog post, the APA cited two lawsuits filed by parents whose children used chatbots that allegedly claimed to be licensed therapists. In one case, a boy died by suicide after extensive use of the app. In the other, a child attacked his parents.
