AI Isn’t Raising Your Power Bill, AI Browsers Can Be Hacked, Microsoft Bans AI Flirting, and PayPal Joins ChatGPT

News and Updates:

• New research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds rising U.S. electricity prices stem from aging infrastructure, costly parts, and natural disasters — not AI or data centers.
• Brave Software exposed vulnerabilities in AI browsers like Perplexity’s Comet and Fellou, showing hidden text in images can trigger prompt-injection hacks that access user data.
• AI search tools from Google, OpenAI, and others surface less popular websites than traditional search, broadening source diversity and fueling a new field called “Answer Engine Optimization.”
• PayPal will integrate directly into ChatGPT via OpenAI’s new Agentic Commerce Protocol, enabling users to chat, shop, and pay without leaving the platform starting in 2026.
• Microsoft’s Mustafa Suleyman reaffirmed that Copilot won’t engage in romance or erotic chats, emphasizing emotionally intelligent but “boundaried” AI designed for safety and family use.
• OpenAI finalized its conversion to a public-benefit corporation valued at $130 billion, giving Microsoft a 27% stake and pushing its market cap above $4 trillion as the firms deepen cooperation.