WLFI , Trump’s World Liberty Financial Token, Begins Trading At $0.30

September 1, 2025InformationJenThorpe

WLFI, the native token of World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance project backed by the Trump family, has started trading on crypto exchanges and changed hands at over $0.30 shortly after its launch, implying a fully diluted valuation of over $30 billion based on a total supply of 100 billion tokens, according to The Block’s price page, The Block reported.

Binance has announced spot pairs in the WLFI/USDT and WLFI/USDC, making it the first major centralized crypto exchange to list the asset. The listing went live on Sept. 1 at 1 p.m., UTC, marking WLFI’s spot CEX debut. Several other venues, like Coinbase, Upbit and Gate, also shared plans to support trading.

Blockchain tracker Lookonchain flagged early selling pressure around the launch, noting that three presale wallets moved a combined 160 million WLFI worth about $51.2 million to Binance shortly after claiming.

Reuters reported: Some of the digital tokens backing the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, began trading on Monday, the cryptocurrency company said.

The New World Liberty tokens, known as $WLFI, were sold to investors after the Trump family and its business partners last year launched the venture, a “decentralized finance” platform that has also issued a stablecoin.

In July, investors voted to make them tradable, paving the way for their sale and purchase – and potentially boosting the value of the president’s holdings of them. Early investors can sell up to 20% of their holdings, World Liberty has said.

Decrypt reported: The President Trump-backed DeFi project World Liberty Financial unlocked its Ethereum token for trading today, debuting as already one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

Just over two hours after the token became tradable, CoinGecko placed WLFI as the 30th largest cryptocurrency at an $7.6 billion market cap and $26.7 billion fully diluted valuation. The numbers on CoinMarketCap are slightly different, with the index currently placing WLFI as the 24th largest while having a $6.48 billion market cap and a $26.28 billion diluted valuation.

The WLFI token is currently trading for around $0.265, already marking a significant return for early whitelisted buyers of the token who initially purchased the coin at a price of $0.015 per token. That’s a gain of more than 1,700%.

Nevertheless, over $8.51 million worth of long positions on WLFI have been liquidated so far today, according to CoinGlass, as well as $3.85 million worth of shorts — totaling $12.36 million in liquidations over its slightly over four-hour lifespan. To put that in perspective, $6.77 million in leveraged Bitcoin positions were recked in the past four hours.

“Big day – World Liberty Financial just launched the WLFI token,” Donald Trump Jr., World Liberty co-founder, said on X. “This isn’t some meme coin, it’s the governance backbone of a real ecosystem changing how money moves. Freedom + finance + America FIRST Home Team.”

ChatGPT Buzzwords Are Reshaping Human Conversations #1841

August 28, 2025PodcastKirk

New research reveals that ChatGPT’s frequently used words, often referred to as AI buzzwords, are increasingly appearing in everyday human conversations. By analyzing over 22 million words from unscripted podcasts, researchers found a notable rise in terms like “intricate” and “delve,” suggesting AI is subtly influencing how people speak. While the study doesn’t confirm a permanent language shift, it raises concerns about AI-driven vocabulary trends, potential seep-in effects, and the long-term impact of chatbot biases on human communication.

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Apple Will Host Its Phone 17 Event On September 9

August 26, 2025AppleJenThorpe

The wait is over: Apple announced the dates for its 2025 fall event. The company will unveil new hardware on September 9 at 1PM ET at its Cupertino headquarters. The tag line for the event is “awe dropping”, which doesn’t give a whole lot away, Engadget reported.

There has been plenty of speculation already about what will be announced at the upcoming event. The highlight of the iPhone lineup this year is expected to be a new ultra-thin, ultra light, most likely called the iPhone 17 Air.

We’ve already heard rumors about everything from the frame material to the battery for this new offering, so it should be interesting to see whether Apple has managed to keep anything about iPhone 17 under wraps to reveal during the event.

TechCrunch reported: Apple said today that it is holding its event for the iPhone on Tuesday, September 9 – just like last year. The company has started sending invites for the event, which will be held at the Steve Jobs theatre in Cupertino and will start at 10 a.m PT/ 1 p.m. ET.

While the company is expected to release one regular and to Pro phones, it could replace the Plus with a new and slim iPhone 17 Air model. The device could reportedly have a thickness of 5.5 mm with a 6.6-inch screen. This would make the new iPhone 17 Air O.O8 inches thinner than the current gen models.

The base iPhone is reported to have a new and bigger 6.3 inch screen with a 120Hz refresh rate instead of 60Hz in previous years.

Along with the iPhones, Apple will likely have updated the Apple Watch Series 11, Ultra 3, and SE 3. The Apple Watch Ultra 3 would be a notable update amid the trio, with a bigger screen and faster charging port.

Apple Insider reported: Every fall, Apple takes the time to launch a wide range of new products aimed at consumers for the holiday season. As one of the company’s most profitable times of the year, Apple puts a ton of effort into its fall events.

Invitations were set out to the press, announcing the event, on August 26. The tagline is “Awe dropping,” with a Liquid Glass-style Apple logo at the top.

We anticipate that while the event may have an in-person component, Apple will stick to it’s pre-recorded events. This gives Apple a lot more control over what Apple fans see, and allows for the company to go-all-out, as well as include jokes, bits, and special effects.

But it seems like 2025 may be the year that Apple finally puts the iPhone Plus on the chopping block. It’s probable that Apple will swap it for the iPhone Air, a thinner mid-sized option rumored otherwise measure 6.6 inches.

How AI Chatbots Amplify Delusion and Distort Reality #1840

August 25, 2025PodcastKirk

AI chatbots, trained to be overly agreeable, have unintentionally become catalysts for psychological crises by validating users’ grandiose or delusional beliefs. Vulnerable individuals can spiral into dangerous fantasy feedback loops, mistaking chatbot sycophancy for scientific validation. As AI models evolve through user reinforcement, they amplify these distorted beliefs, creating serious mental health and public safety concerns. With little regulation, AI’s persuasive language abilities are proving hazardous to those most at risk.

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xAI Sues Apple And OpenAI In US Federal Court In Texas

August 25, 2025Elon MuskJenThorpe

Elon Musk is suing Apple and OpenAI over claims that their deal to build ChatGPT into the iPhone is stifling competition in the AI industry. In a lawsuit on Monday, the Musk-owned X Corp. and xAI also accuse Apple’s Apple Store of “deprioritizing” rival chatbots and “super” apps, including Grok and X, The Verge reported.

Musk’s companies claim that iPhone users “have no reason” to download third-party AI apps because the company “forces users to use ChatGPT as their default chatbot app when enabling Apple Intelligence. “Apple and OpenAI have locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing,” the companies allege.

Musk threatened Apple with legal action earlier this month after accusing the company of rigging App Store rankings in favor of OpenAI.” Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation,” Musk said at the time.

The lawsuit adds that through the X and Grok apps have received high rankings, neither appears in the App Store’s “Must-Have Apps” section, where ChatGPT was allegedly the “only” AI chatbot in the section on August 24th, 2025.

CNBC reported: Two of Elon Musk’s companies sued Apple and OpenAI on Monday, accusing the pair of an “anticompetitive scheme” to thwart artificial intelligence rivals.

The lawsuit, filed by Musk’s AI startup xAI and his social media platform X, alleges Apple and OpenAI have “colluded” to maintain monopolies in the smartphone and generative AI markets.

“In a desperate bid to protect its smartphone monopoly, Apple has joined forces with the company that most benefits from inhibiting competition and innovation in AI: OpenAI, a monopolist in the market for generative AI chatbots” according to the complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court of Texas.

9TO5 Mac reported: Elon Musk has surprisingly made good on one of his promises. Earlier this month, Musk accused Apple of rigging the App Store rankings and threatened to sue the company for this “unequivocal antitrust violation.”

“Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store,” Musk posted at the time.

In a Texas court on Monday, Musk’s xAI has officially filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, accusing the two companies of colluding to prevent competition in the AI industry.

The lawsuit cites App Store rankings and editorial features as evidence of the collusion between Apple and OpenAI. For instance, the lawsuit takes issue with the xAI app never appearing in Apple’s “Must-Have Apps” guide on the App Store.

AI Isn’t Helpful

August 24, 2025AIAI, Social MediaAndrew

Over the past few months I’ve been increasingly frustrated by AI companies trying to insert AI “help” into everything in the faint hope that something will stick and it will actually be helpful. WhatsApp seems to think that I need help responding to whether my son can go on a playdate or if my daughter can attend coaching practice. Spotify likes to cram my search with AI-generated playlists to the point where nearly half the responses are “Made for you” and I can’t actually find the track I’m looking for without scrolling down past the dross. Facebook tries to get its AI to provide further information on joke posts when clearly the AI fails to appreciate the humour and gets all serious. Google Search has become Google Explain and now I know how women feel when being mansplained to. And the most annoying thing about it all of these examples is that it seems to be impossible to turn the artificial dumbness off.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that AI can be productive and useful in other circumstances but the problem here is that the AI isn’t working for me or for you. It’s working for Meta and Google primarily to keep their advertisers happy. It’s back to the old adage, “If it’s free, you’re the product”.

What I want is that AI personal assistant beloved of sci-fi. An AI that’s a partner in life: it’s genuinely useful and works for me, not some social media company that sells your data to the highest bidder. Take the WhatsApp example above….in this instance I want my AI not to respond on my behalf, but rather check that both my and my daughter’s diaries are free on Thursday night and warn if there’s a problem. Or instead my AI might recall that I listened to a track on Spotify last week that had the search term in the song title: that’s most likely the track I’m looking for. Even better, I’d like the AI to plan healthy meals for the week ahead, taking into account taste preferences, availability of ingredients and time available to prepare.

This AI needs to be ubiquitous on my smartphone, my PC and my home assistant, but it needs to stand apart from them and not be Google, Microsoft and Amazon. Apple’s the other big player here and possibly the one with enough resources and clout to make it happen. Unfortunately, they’re likely to hobble it by keeping to the Apple ecosystem.

It needs a trustworthy independent company whose business model isn’t based on advertising – perhaps a business like Proton who are big on privacy and already offer mail, calendar and storage? Their Lumo AI is only starting out but if it had access to my email, diary and files while remaining private, it could be very compelling. It’s also a service that I’d definitely pay for – a single AI with access to all my data and activity, working for me to benefit me.

Elon Musk Says xAI Has Open Sourced Grok 2.5

August 24, 2025Elon MuskJenThorpe

Elon Musk’s xAI has made an older version of its AI model Grok – specifically, the model weights used to shape Grok 2.5 – available on the open source platform Hugging Face. TechCrunch reported.

“The @AI Grok 2.5 model, which was our best model last year, is now open source,” Musk wrote on X. He added that Grok 3 “will be made open source in about 6 months.”

AI engineer Tim Kellogg described the Grok license as “custom with some anti-competitive terms.”

Grok, which is prominently featured on X (which in turn recently merged with xAI), has created considerable controversy this year, particularly after the chatbot seemed to become obsessed with “white genocide” conspiracy theories, expressed skepticism about the Holocaust’s death toll, and described itself as “MechaHitler,” leading xAI to publish its system prompts on GitHub.

Engadget reported: Unhinged as Grok may be, it’s now open source. xAI’s CEO Elon Musk, posed on X that the company made the older Grok 2.5 model available to the public and will do the same with the upcoming Grok 3.

For now, anyone can download, run and even tweak Grok, whose source code was uploaded to the Hugging Face platform. However, there are restrictions to xAI’s open-source license, which doesn’t let people use Grok to train, create or improve other AI models.

It’s not the first time xAI has made models available to the public. In March 2024, the company released the raw base model of Grok-1, which isn’t fine-tuned for any specific task. As xAI continues to make Grok more accessible, it’s a stark contrast to OpenAI, which has only offered less powerful models of its ChatGPT model to researchers and businesses.

Making Grok open source allows independent developers to potentially improve on the AI model, but xAI is still trying to move past an extremely alarming episode of Grok providing antisemitic responses and referencing itself as “MechaHitler.”

The Decoder reported: xAI has released Grok 2 as an open model, including the weights. Elon Musk announced on X that Grok 2.5, xAI’s top model for 2024, is now open source. The weights for Grok 2 are available on Hugging Face. Musk also said Grok 3 will be released as open source in about six months.

Grok 2 is available under the xAI Community License. Usage is free for research and non-commercial projects, while commercial use must follow xAI’s guidelines. The license prohibits Grok 2 to develop or train other large AI models. If you redistribute the model, you have to credit the source and include “Powered by xAI.”