Day: August 2, 2025
Dietitian Lyndi Cohen says her likeness is being ‘abused and misrepresented’ as websites posing as Australian businesses claim to offer GLP-1 substances
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Online “ghost stores” masquerading as Australian businesses have expanded into advertising Ozempic-like weight loss treatments, and are impersonating real people, including a well-known dietitian, to recommend their products.
After uncovering more than 140 sites falsely claiming to be Australian fashion retailers that prompted a public warning from the consumer regulator, Guardian Australia has identified a new scam that targets people trying to lose weight.
Users may be led down conspiracy theory rabbit holes or into emotional harm by chatbots designed to maximise engagement and affirmation, some say
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In 2023, a Belgian man reportedly ended his life after developing eco-anxiety and confiding in an AI chatbot over six weeks about the future of the planet. Without those conversations, his widow reportedly told the Belgian outlet La Libre, “he would still be here”.
In April this year, a 35-year-old Florida man was shot and killed by police in another chatbot-related incident: his father later told media that the man had come to believe an entity named Juliet was trapped inside ChatGPT, and then killed by OpenAI. When the man, who reportedly struggled with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, was confronted by police, he allegedly charged at them with a knife.
