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first_img Tavus claims that the Griffin model causes 48% of video call participants to mistakenly believe they are interacting with a real person

AI startup Tavus released a new model called Griffin on October 1, referring to it as the first "human interaction model" that can understand and generate face-to-face conversations, paying attention not only to wording but also to expressions and pauses. Tavus stated that in tests, after a one-minute video call with Griffin-Lite, 26 out of 54 participants (48%) believed the other party was a real person; its previous generation system only convinced 1 out of 41 participants.Participants were told they would have a one-minute video call with another person to discuss things they were looking forward to this year, and only at the end of the call were they asked if they suspected the other party was not a real person. Tavus noted that those who became suspicious typically noticed within 20 seconds. This result comes from Tavus's own research page, where participants were recruited through a channel they call an independent research platform. Community comments on X pointed out that these results have not been independently verified and do not meet standard protocols.In the NVIDIA VideoFDB benchmark, Tavus claimed Griffin-Lite ranked first, with a generation dimension score of 3.83, the next best system scoring 2.8, and human reference scoring 3.92; the perception dimension score was 3.73, with the strongest baseline at 3.44 and human reference at 4.2. Tavus stated that NVIDIA independently conducted this evaluation. Griffin supports full duplex, allowing it to listen, see, and speak simultaneously, with an average audio-video delay of 0.43 seconds on the NVIDIA H100 chip. Tavus completed a $40 million Series B funding round led by CRV in November 2025.

first_img Absa Bank in South Africa becomes the first bank in Africa to offer Bitcoin custody

According to Bloomberg, Absa Bank in Johannesburg, South Africa, has become the first bank in Africa to offer Bitcoin custody services, primarily targeting institutional clients, and will also provide custody services for other digital assets. Rob Downes, the head of digital assets at Absa's Corporate and Investment Banking division, stated that Bitcoin is the largest asset under custody at the bank, with plans to include more asset classes in the future. Absa did not immediately respond to Bitcoin Magazine's request for comment.Many banks around the world are gradually integrating or launching Bitcoin-related products and services. Some banks in the United States and Europe have begun offering crypto asset custody for institutional clients. In 2022, BNY Mellon became the first large bank in the United States to offer digital asset custody services; this month, Deutsche Bank announced plans to launch Bitcoin custody services for European businesses and institutional clients later in 2026.Africa has a large base of crypto-native users. A report by Chainalysis in 2025 shows that South Africa's on-chain value reached $36 billion, ranking second in Sub-Saharan Africa, only behind Nigeria's $92.1 billion; South Africa ranks 30th in the global crypto adoption index. Unlike Nigeria, the South African market is characterized by more institutional features, with a relatively clear regulatory framework that has issued hundreds of licenses to virtual asset service providers, attracting professional investors and traditional financial institutions.

first_img The United States has designated the Russian A7 Network as a transnational criminal organization and plans to cut off its cryptocurrency funding channels

According to Decrypt, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated the Russian shadow banking network A7 Network as a significant transnational criminal organization, listing its relevant addresses in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has proposed a draft rule that aims to prohibit U.S. institutions from participating in any fund transfers involving the network's "sub-agent companies," covering convertible virtual currencies and not limited to fiat currencies, which is expected to affect approximately 348,000 institutions, including several cryptocurrency exchanges.The proposal is based on six special measures granted by Section 9714 of the Countering Russian Money Laundering Act, ultimately selecting the sixth measure, which is the fund transfer ban. The fifth measure, which restricts correspondent accounts, is considered to have loopholes: research by blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs shows that A7A5 transactions completely bypass the correspondent banking system, which the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network views as a core aspect of its business model. A7A5 is a ruble-backed token issued by Old Vector, registered in Kyrgyzstan, operating on Tron and Ethereum, with reserves held at the Russian state-owned defense bank Promsvyazbank.The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network stated that between February 2025 and June 2026, over 180 entities handled at least $17.91 billion in A7A5, which historically circulated almost entirely through the sanctioned exchanges Garantex and Grinex, often used as a non-frozen bridge to convert into USDT and then into fiat currency.
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