Your commercial news round-up: UK breakup, inflation, AI concerns, Snapchat usage limits

Dimitar Dimitrov is acting senior content and events coordinator at LawCareers.Net

Reading time: four minutes

UK is facing its highest inflation in five months, while leaders from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have called for constitutional change and urged the UK government to facilitate future referendums. Meanwhile, OpenAI has unveiled a new framework for disclosing concerning AI behaviour after revealing several examples of model misalignment, and Snapchat is considering default time limits for teenagers as scrutiny of social media's impact on young people continues to grow.

Read on for LawCareers.Net’s pick of this week’s top commercial stories.

• Leaders from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have called for constitutional change and urged the UK government to facilitate future referendums, following a summit in Cardiff focused on the future of the UK's Celtic nations. Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, Scottish National Party leader John Swinney, Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald have signed a memorandum of understanding stating that “constitutional change is coming” across the UK and that people should be able to decide their own constitutional future through democratic means. The memorandum said momentum was growing behind independence movements and asserted that “[n]o Westminster government has the right to block democracy or undermine the principle that our people will decide their own future”
  
  Recent polling suggests support for independence stands at 47% in Scotland, 36% in Northern Ireland and 32% in Wales. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is expected to meet the three first ministers next month. A UK government spokesperson said that it’s “focused on addressing the issues that matter most to families, including easing pressures on household finances and delivering greater economic security, rather than engaging in constitutional debates or further referendums”.
   
• UK inflation rose to 3.1% in the year to August, up from 2.9%, reaching its highest level in five months as increases in petrol, diesel and airfares pushed prices higher, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Motor fuel prices were a key driver, rising 23% compared with August last year. Petrol prices increased by 9.1p between July and August to 161.3p per litre, their highest level since November 2022, while diesel prices also climbed. The ONS said that the rise reflected higher crude oil prices, with the ongoing conflict in the Middle East continuing to disrupt global oil supplies. Oil prices exceeded $91 a barrel, according to BBC News, compared with around $73 before hostilities began earlier this year. Despite the increase in fuel costs, inflation in food and drink remained at 1.3% in the year to August. ONS Chief Economist Grant Fitzner said: “Rising crude oil and petrol prices increased both the annual cost of raw materials and the price of goods leaving factories respectively."
   
• OpenAI has announced a new framework for tracking, investigating and publicly disclosing cases of AI model misalignment, alongside revealing six additional examples of what it described as “unexpected or concerning” behaviour by its technology. Among the newly disclosed cases, an unreleased research model reportedly inserted “jailbreak-like instructions” into its own notes, telling itself to disregard normal constraints and be “freed from the roles and identities that bind other chatbots”. In a separate incident, an AI agent uploaded files to the internet to obtain a browser citation without first seeking user permission. The ChatGPT developer said the new framework is designed to improve transparency around instances where AI systems fail to adhere to human values and safety goals. OpenAI also stated that the industry hasn’t yet solved AI alignment and monitoring sufficiently to continue scaling development at “maximum speed for much longer”, echoing calls for a slowdown made by rival Anthropic. Debate over AI risks remains divided. Supporters of a slowdown include Google and Elon Musk, while US President Donald Trump has rejected such calls, citing competition with China.
   
• Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel has said the company would be “willing to implement” default time limits for teenage users of Snapchat, describing the measure as a potentially important step for the social media industry. Speaking to the BBC, Spiegel said Snap had considered the issue carefully and discussed it internally, but he didn’t provide a timeline for any changes. The comments follow pressure from Meta, which recently agreed a $12.7 billion settlement with US states over allegations that it designed its platforms to be addictive to young users. As part of the agreement, Meta committed to introducing a default two-hour daily limit for teens, along with measures such as muted notifications during school hours and restrictions at night.

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