Tech Pulse: ChatGPT Pulse & Cisco ASA Deadline

🎯 Key Takeaways

✓ ChatGPT Pulse: OpenAI launches proactive AI morning briefs for $200/month Pro users with predictive insights
✓ OpenAI Teen Controls: Comprehensive parental controls including screen time limits, content filters, and activity monitoring
🚨 Cisco ASA Deadline TODAY: Federal agencies must disconnect Cisco ASA devices by 11:59 PM EDT per CISA Emergency Directive 25-02
✓ CrowdStrike API Change: Detects API decommissioned October 7, migrate to Alerts API immediately
✓ Huawei Ascend AI: China's AI chip output doubling to challenge NVIDIA amid US sanctions

⏰

DEADLINE TODAY: Cisco ASA Disconnect Required by 11:59 PM EDT

All federal agencies MUST disconnect Cisco ASA devices by September 30, 2025 11:59 PM EDT per CISA Emergency Directive 25-02. Private sector organizations strongly urged to follow immediately.

🚨 Final Day Action Items:

1. Federal Agencies: Complete ASA disconnection and report compliance to CISA by midnight EDT
2. Private Sector: Immediately apply patches or implement alternative VPN solutions
3. Verification: Scan network for remaining ASA devices and confirm patched version 9.18.4.42+
4. Incident Response: Check ASA logs for IOCs from September 15-30 indicating compromise

Cisco ASA Zero-Days: Final Hours of CISA Emergency Directive

As of September 30, 2025, federal agencies face the final hours to comply with CISA Emergency Directive 25-02, requiring complete disconnection of all Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) devices from federal networks. The directive follows confirmation of CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20362 zero-day exploits actively used by nation-state actors since September 15, 2025.

📊 Compliance Update (as of 6:00 AM PST): CISA reports 78% of federal agencies have completed ASA disconnection or patching. Remaining 22% must complete remediation within 18 hours to meet the September 30 deadline. OMB authorized emergency weekend work for non-compliant agencies.

For organizations unable to immediately patch, CISA recommends complete network isolation of ASA devices and migration to alternative VPN solutions including Palo Alto GlobalProtect, Fortinet FortiGate, or cloud-native VPN services from AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.

🔍 Private Sector Impact: Security firm Censys identifies 68,000+ internet-facing Cisco ASA devices still vulnerable as of September 29, 2025. Organizations in finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure sectors report $50-200 million remediation costs for ASA replacement.

☀️ OpenAI ChatGPT Pulse: Proactive AI Morning Briefs for $200/Month

AI That Anticipates Your Needs Before You Ask

OpenAI announced ChatGPT Pulse, a premium feature for ChatGPT Pro subscribers ($200/month) that delivers proactive daily briefings based on users' calendar, email patterns, browsing history, and conversational context. Unlike reactive AI assistants, Pulse generates morning insights before users request them, predicting information needs based on upcoming meetings, project deadlines, and personal interests.

☀️ ChatGPT Pulse Features:

• Morning Brief: Delivered at 6:00 AM local time with personalized insights (news, tasks, priorities)
• Meeting Prep: Automatically researches attendees, topics, and relevant documents before calls
• Project Monitoring: Tracks project mentions across Slack, email, and documents for status updates
• Market Intelligence: Curates industry news, competitor updates, and market trends relevant to user's role
• Personal Assistant: Suggests optimal task prioritization based on calendar and deadline analysis

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated: "ChatGPT Pulse represents the future of AI assistance—systems that don't wait for commands but actively support your workflow by understanding context and anticipating needs. It's like having a chief of staff who's always three steps ahead."

$200/mo

ChatGPT Pro Subscription

Includes Pulse + Advanced Features

10,000+

Early Access Users

Beta since August 2025

🔒 Privacy & Data: Pulse requires opt-in access to calendar (Google/Outlook), email metadata (not content), and browsing history. All data processing occurs with user consent and can be disabled per-service. OpenAI emphasizes data is used solely for personalization and never for model training without explicit permission.

ChatGPT Pulse launches October 15, 2025 for ChatGPT Pro subscribers in the US, with international rollout planned for Q1 2026. The feature directly competes with Microsoft Copilot's proactive insights and Google's AI-powered Workspace suggestions.

ChatGPT Pulse morning briefing interface showing personalized insights and tasks — ChatGPT Pulse's proactive morning briefing displays AI-generated insights tailored to user's schedule, projects, and interests

👨‍👩‍👧 OpenAI Launches Comprehensive Teen Parental Controls for ChatGPT

Safety-First Approach for Teens 13-17 Using ChatGPT

Following September 17's age verification announcement, OpenAI has launched comprehensive parental control features for teens aged 13-17 using ChatGPT. Parents can now set screen time limits, content filters, conversation monitoring, and activity reports through a dedicated Family Link dashboard.

👪 Parental Control Features:

• Screen Time Limits: Daily usage caps (15 min to 4 hours) with auto-lockout
• Content Filtering: Block adult themes, violence, profanity, and sensitive political topics
• Conversation Monitoring: Parents receive weekly summaries of conversation topics (not full transcripts)
• Homework Helper Mode: Limits responses to educational assistance, prevents essay writing
• Activity Reports: Usage patterns, most-discussed topics, time-of-day analytics
• Approved Use Cases: Parents can whitelist specific use cases (math help, language learning, coding)

OpenAI VP of Safety Lilian Weng emphasized: "We've designed these controls with input from child psychologists, educators, and parents. The goal is to empower families to use ChatGPT safely while respecting teen autonomy and privacy within appropriate boundaries."

🎓 Educational Partnerships: OpenAI partnered with Khan Academy, Duolingo, and Coursera to create pre-approved educational prompts and activities for teens. These verified educational interactions bypass certain content filters to support legitimate learning.

Teen accounts require parental verification via ID upload and phone number confirmation. Parents maintain control until the teen turns 18, at which point the account transitions to standard ChatGPT with no restrictions. The Family Link dashboard is accessible via web and mobile apps.

📱 Platform Comparison: OpenAI's teen controls rival Apple Screen Time, Google Family Link, and Microsoft Family Safety. Unlike those device-level controls, ChatGPT parental features are AI-specific and work across all devices where teens access ChatGPT.

🔔 CrowdStrike Detects API Decommissioned: Migrate to Alerts API by October 7

Security Teams Have 7 Days to Update Integrations

CrowdStrike announced the deprecation of the legacy Detects API effective October 7, 2025, requiring all customers to migrate to the new Alerts API for threat detection workflows. The Detects API, used by 40,000+ organizations for security orchestration and SIEM integrations, will return HTTP 410 errors after the cutoff date.

🔄 Migration Requirements:

• API Endpoint Change: Update from /detects/queries/detects/v1 to /alerts/queries/alerts/v2
• Authentication: OAuth 2.0 tokens (same as current, no changes required)
• Response Format: JSON schema updated with additional metadata fields
• Rate Limits: Increased from 200 req/min to 500 req/min on Alerts API
• Backward Compatibility: No automatic mapping; requires code updates

⏰ Action Required by October 7, 2025: Security teams must update all custom integrations, SOAR playbooks, and SIEM connectors to use Alerts API. CrowdStrike recommends testing in staging environments before production deployment. Support ticket volume expected to spike; plan migrations this week to avoid October 7 rush.

CrowdStrike provides automatic migration scripts for popular SIEM platforms including Splunk, QRadar, ArcSight, and LogRhythm. Custom integrations require manual code updates. Full migration guide and API documentation available at developer.crowdstrike.com/alerts-migration.

🇨🇳 Huawei Ascend AI Chip Output Doubling to Challenge NVIDIA in China

China's AI Chip Self-Sufficiency Push Accelerates Amid US Sanctions

Huawei announced plans to double production of its Ascend 910C AI chips by Q1 2026, aiming to reduce China's dependence on NVIDIA GPUs restricted by US export controls. The Ascend 910C, built on 7nm process technology, targets AI training and inference workloads for Chinese tech giants including ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent.

⚡ Huawei Ascend 910C Specifications:

• AI Performance: 320 TFLOPS FP16 (comparable to NVIDIA A100)
• Memory: 64GB HBM2e with 1.2TB/s bandwidth
• Process Node: SMIC 7nm FinFET (Chinese domestic production)
• Interconnect: Proprietary HiSpeed 600GB/s for multi-chip scaling
• Software: CANN AI framework (PyTorch and TensorFlow compatible)

Despite US sanctions limiting access to advanced chip manufacturing equipment, Huawei has managed to ramp up domestic production through partnerships with SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation). Industry analysts estimate Huawei will produce 200,000-300,000 Ascend 910C chips in 2026, compared to 120,000 units in 2025.

🌐 Geopolitical Context: US export controls prohibit NVIDIA from selling A100, H100, and newer GPUs to China. Chinese AI companies face severe GPU shortages, driving demand for domestic alternatives like Huawei Ascend. The Ascend 910C is priced at $12,000-15,000, compared to $30,000+ for smuggled NVIDIA H100s on Chinese black markets.

ByteDance and Alibaba have already placed large orders for Ascend 910C chips to power AI model training for Douyin (TikTok China), Qwen LLMs, and Alibaba Cloud services. However, industry experts note the Ascend 910C still lags NVIDIA's H100 and H200 by 2-3 generations in raw performance and energy efficiency.

💸 Startup Funding Roundup: September 30, 2025

Alvys Raises $40M Series B

Logistics software startup Alvys secured $40 million Series B led by Accel to expand its freight management platform for trucking companies and 3PL providers.

• 1,200+ trucking companies using the platform
• $2 billion+ in freight under management annually
• Competing with Convoy, project44, and FourKites

Paid Closes $21M Seed Round

Fintech startup Paid raised $21 million seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz to build AI-powered accounts payable automation for mid-market companies.

• Processes $500M+ in invoices monthly
• 85% reduction in manual AP processing time
• Integrates with NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero

Galactic Energy Raises $336M Series D

Chinese commercial space startup Galactic Energy secured $336 million Series D to scale production of its Ceres-1 solid-fuel rockets for small satellite launches.

• 12 successful Ceres-1 launches since 2020
• Targets 30 launches per year by 2027
• Competes with SpaceX, Rocket Lab in small-sat market

📊 Market Snapshot: September 30, 2025

💱 Currency Exchange

1 USD = ₹88.22

September 30, 2025

↑ 0.08%

Daily Change

Month Close: ₹88.22

🪙 Cryptocurrency Markets

₿

Bitcoin

$117,200

↑ Continues ATH

💎

Ethereum

$4,600

↑ 7.2%

🐕

Dogecoin

$0.440

↑ 11.5%

🦴

Shiba Inu

$0.0000178

↑ 8.9%

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Tech Pulse Daily

ChatGPT Pulse: OpenAI's Proactive AI Morning Briefs as Cisco ASA Deadline Arrives

Dillip Chowdary