🐢 Great apes can imagine and pretend

In the last 4 days ChatGPT read 114775 top news stories. After removing previously covered events, there are 11 articles with a significance score over 5.5.

[5.5] Great apes can imagine and pretend, challenging human uniqueness — laopiniondemalaga.es (Spanish) (+10)

A landmark study in Science confirms great apes possess the ability to imagine and pretend, debunking the long-held belief that these complex cognitive skills are exclusive to the human species.

Through controlled experiments, a bonobo named Kanzi successfully tracked imaginary juice and grapes. He correctly identified the location of pretend items in a shared fiction while demonstrating he could distinguish between these mental representations and physical reality without needing any external rewards.

This discovery suggests that the evolutionary roots of symbolic thought date back millions of years. Kanzi’s extensive training in symbolic communication likely helped researchers identify this sophisticated, previously hidden cognitive trait.

[5.5] EU orders TikTok to change addictive design or face fines — bbc.com (+40)

The European Union has warned TikTok to redesign features deemed addictive or face fines reaching 6% of its global turnover following findings that the platform violated online safety regulations.

Preliminary findings from a two-year investigation highlight failures to mitigate risks from autoplay and infinite scroll on children's wellbeing. The Commission suggests implementing screen time breaks and altering algorithms to comply with the Digital Services Act's strict user protection requirements.

TikTok maintains the allegations are meritless and plans a legal challenge. While the platform has been invited to respond, non-compliance could lead to multi-billion dollar penalties under European Union legislation.

Highly covered news with significance over 5.5

[6.2] US transfers command of two NATO headquarters to European officers — nos.nl (Dutch) (+10)

[5.8] Palestinians say new Israeli measures in West Bank amount to de facto annexation — bbc.com (+36)

[5.8] Sanae Takaichi secures supermajority in Japan's parliament — newyorker.com (+278)

[5.7] Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai receives 20-year prison sentence — abcnews.go.com (+95)

[5.7] UK regulator secures app store changes from Apple and Google — bbc.com (+7)

[5.7] Dow crosses 50,000 for the first time ever — abcnews.go.com (+35)

[5.6] Defense Department ends academic ties with Harvard University — nytimes.com (+22)

[6.0] Sixteen AI agents build a C compiler that compiles a Linux kernel — arstechnica.com (+3)

[5.7] NASA allows astronauts to use personal smartphones on missions — techradar.com (+3)

Thanks for reading!

— Vadim

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