This week’s stories are about tech, AI and legaltech, coming from Chile, UK and USA

1-OpenAI reaches 3 million paying business users

OpenAI,  the company behind ChatGPT,  announced it has surpassed 3 million paying business users, marking a 50% jump since February, as the artificial intelligence company launched a suite of new workplace tools aimed at competing with Microsoft’s enterprise offerings.

I saw this story at Venturebeat and the announcement highlights OpenAI’s expanding push into the corporate sector with AI-powered products tailored for productivity and integration. The company introduced “connectors” that link ChatGPT to services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and SharePoint, as well as Record Mode, a meeting transcription feature, according to the story.  Enhanced versions of its Deep Research and Codex coding tools were also revealed, as the story put it.

The new capabilities arrive amid growing competition from Microsoft and Google, which have leveraged existing enterprise relationships to roll out their own workplace AI features, the story underlined. Still, OpenAI says businesses are choosing ChatGPT for direct access to its advanced models and built-in security features, claimed the story.

The new connectors represent OpenAI’s most direct challenge to Microsoft yet, allowing employees to search and use company data from third-party platforms within ChatGPT, the story emphasized.

Sam Altman (CEO at OpenAI)

2-Google, Chile partner on trans-Pacific undersea cable project

Google signed an agreement with Chile to build a trans-Pacific undersea fiber optic cable that will link South America with Asia and Oceania, marking a major step toward establishing Chile as a digital gateway for the region.

I saw this story at Abcnews and the project involves deploying the Humboldt Cable — a 14,800-kilometer (9,200-mile) submarine data line connecting the Chilean port city of Valparaíso with Sydney, Australia, via French Polynesia. The cable is expected to be operational by 2027, as the story noted.

Chile, which hosts one of Google’s largest data centers in Latin America, is currently connected to the United States and other countries in the Americas through existing undersea links. The Humboldt Cable would shorten the path to Asia and help diversify the nation’s internet infrastructure, according to the story.

Officials said the cable will not be exclusive to Google. Other users — including global technology firms, mining companies and financial institutions in Chile and Australia — will also have access to the network.(By the way I have story here about Google in Turkey)

While Google did not disclose the full cost of the project, Patricio Rey, General Manager of Chilean state-owned infrastructure firm Desarrollo País, estimated the total investment between $300 million and $550 million. Chile is expected to contribute around $25 million, the story claimed.

Analysts note that undersea cables have increasingly become geopolitical flashpoints, and the Chilean initiative may draw attention amid ongoing U.S.-China tensions, particularly around digital infrastructure and security.

Google, Chile partner on trans-Pacific undersea cable project

3-UK High Court to lawyers: harsh penalties for misusing AI in legal filings

Lawyers who submit false or unverified legal citations generated by artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT could face serious penalties, the High Court of England and Wales warned in a recent ruling.

I read this story at Techcrunch and in a judgment addressing two separate cases, Judge Victoria Sharp said generative AI systems are incapable of conducting reliable legal research and often produce confidently written but inaccurate or entirely false information.

“Such tools can produce apparently coherent and plausible responses to prompts, but those coherent and plausible responses may turn out to be entirely incorrect,” Sharp wrote.

While the court did not ban the use of AI, Sharp emphasized that lawyers have a professional duty to verify the accuracy of AI-assisted research using authoritative legal sources. Failure to do so, she said, could lead to disciplinary action, according to the story.

The ruling cited two recent incidents where attorneys filed documents containing references to non-existent legal cases. In one case, 18 out of 45 cited cases were fabricated; in another, five cases cited did not appear to exist. One lawyer denied using AI directly but admitted relying on possibly AI-generated summaries found online.

Although the court declined to initiate contempt proceedings in these instances, Sharp stressed that decision should not be interpreted as precedent. She added that her ruling will be sent to professional bodies including the Bar Council and the Law Society to reinforce ethical standards.

“Lawyers who do not comply with their professional obligations in this respect risk severe sanction,” Sharp wrote, noting that consequences may include public reprimand, fines, contempt proceedings, or police referrals.