Singapore AI News & Daily Briefing

Rising interest rates and a market sell-off are making investors more cautious about financing AI data centres, with several listings paused or withdrawn even as major deals continue. Tighter funding could slow the build-out of computing capacity and limit future price cuts for AI and cloud services.

Donald Trump says he will raise AI with Xi Jinping but wants to leave US-China AI policy unchanged. The message signals continuity rather than a new agreement, so there is no immediate shift in chip export controls or the broader AI rivalry.

Google researchers used the Antigravity AI workbench to scan vast protein libraries and shortlist a new antimicrobial peptide that may fight respiratory-infection pathogens. The candidate is only entering wet-lab testing, so it is not yet a treatment or proven antibiotic.

Nearly all 94 US nuclear reactors have been offered AI tools to search decades of operating records, prepare compliance paperwork and flag inspection concerns. The AI advises workers rather than controls plants, helping ageing facilities run more efficiently while keeping people in charge of safety decisions.

Meta has released Muse Spark Open, a downloadable AI model that can read code, images, audio and video, then use tools to complete multi-step coding jobs. It gives developers more control than a closed chatbot, but its size makes it practical mainly for well-resourced teams; consumers are unlikely to interact with it directly.

Gemini 3.8 Live can hold a spoken conversation while showing a lip-synced digital avatar, switch across 97 languages and fetch information mid-chat. It is aimed at services such as hotel check-ins and customer support, making automated conversations feel more human while raising fresh impersonation concerns.

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Sep 03, 2026 | Our flagship AI weather forecasting model now includes real-time satellite data, hourly refreshes, higher resolution, precise precipitation forecasting, and clean energy variables. It’s now integrated across Search, Gemini, Maps, Google Maps Platform, and Cloud. * * * The WeatherNext team * * *  [Audio 3](https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/media/tts_audio_86138_umbriel_2026_09_04_18_14_01.mp3) Listen to article [[duration]] minutes This content is generated by Google AI. Generative AI is experimental Every day, the weather influences billions of decisions. Some are

OpenAI has bought Orchestra Bio, which builds AI agents that coordinate drug-development work such as clinical-trial schedules, budgets and experiment analysis. Its team will join OpenAI’s Rosalind life-sciences tools, with the aim of reducing administrative delays in research.

Cloudflare is adding OpenAI’s Daybreak models to a new service that checks customer-approved code for vulnerabilities, compares findings with live traffic and prepares suggested fixes. People still review the proposed patches and protections before anything is applied.

CGH, SGH and NUH were named leaders in AI innovation in Newsweek’s World’s Best Smart Hospitals 2027 ranking, with 14 Singapore hospitals in the top 50, showing strong digital growth and AI adoption in healthcare.

Singapore-based DayOne will invest more than US$7 billion in Malaysia by end-2026 to expand AI-ready data centres and train staff. The build-out supports thousands of jobs and strengthens Singapore's regional role, while making power supply and planning more pressing.

Nimbly AI uses wearable and checkout devices to record staff-customer conversations, check whether promotions were offered and flag missed sales. It could help retailers recover revenue, but automatic voice monitoring raises privacy and staff-trust concerns.

Aspire’s data from more than 10,000 businesses suggests AI is creating smaller core teams, more contract work and more solo founders rather than simply eliminating jobs. The trade-off is a narrower entry-level ladder for workers trying to begin their careers.

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_With additional reporting by Elyssa Lopez, Miguel Cordon, and Scott Shuey_ Rising oil prices triggered by the ongoing [war in the Middle East](https://www.techinasia.com/war-exposes-risks-gulfs-ai-infrastructure-push) could quickly drive up operating costs within Southeast Asia’s tech industry. Energy markets have surged since the [closure](https://www.npr.org/2026/03/12/nx-s1-5744978/iran-effectively-closes-strait-of-hormuz-as-u-s-israel-strikes-continue) of the [Strait of Hormuz](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78n6p09pzno), a key shipping route for global oil supply. Some analysts [warn](https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/international/asean/oil-shocks-triggered-middle-east-war-ripple-through-south-east-asia) that benchmark prices could continue to climb, raising the prospect of [US$2

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Google Cloud is previewing AI agents that hunt threats, test detection rules and check outside sources, while expanding Wiz tools across rival cloud platforms. It will also scan AI code and prompts for weaknesses before deployment, as attackers can now move from a first breach to follow-on activity in just 22 seconds.

AI coding startup Lovable is expanding its Google Cloud partnership, using about five times more cloud capacity and gaining wider access to Claude and Gemini. With 1 million new projects created each week, the company is scaling fast while adding Wiz tools to spot security issues in the code it generates.

Tesla cut its 2026 spending plan by a fifth while reporting better-than-expected cash flow and a 43% drop in net income. The move raises questions about whether its robotaxi, humanoid robot and AI plans will be delayed as it explores a merger with SpaceX.

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The United States has approved a subsidiary of Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE and other firms to purchase advanced artificial intelligence chips from Nvidia and AMD under specific compliance guidelines. This move relaxes previous strict export bans on a case-by-case basis for eligible Chinese tech companies.

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has hired underwriters to prepare for an initial public offering on Shanghai's Star Market. The company is also working to complete a pre-IPO funding round that could push its valuation to around US$74 billion.

Nvidia says Siemens, Synopsys and Applied Materials are adopting its CUDA-X tools for chip design and manufacturing. The software speeds up materials simulations, pattern refinement and inspection preparation, though some features remain in early access.

Nvidia and Cisco are designing a new pluggable format for moving data between AI chips in data centres. It aims to increase capacity without expanding network equipment and cut power use, potentially making future AI services more efficient.

_Welcome to Tech in Asia’s daily newsletter, your essential dose of Asia’s tech and startup buzz. Not yet a subscriber? [Register here](https://www.techinasia.com/subscription?utm\_source=web&utm\_medium=article&utm\_campaign=dailynewsletter). Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]._ ## In focus * Why ​MoneySmart is expecting a [tougher 2026](https://www.techinasia.com/moneysmart-grows-revenue-26-2025-ai-threatens-margins) * ​​SEA’s digital economy grows, but AI adoption is still shallow * Data center [volatility](https://www.techinasia.com/news/dayone-considers-delaying-shrinking-planned-ipo) continues * * * Hello reader, Many companies spent years optimizing for how visibly their websites appear on search engines like Google. Then, large language models (LLMs) upended everyth

The AI startup Recursive is unveiling Flint, its first language model, a 40-billion-parameter MoE for local coding developed by former DeepMind researchers. It was created in four months using the company's in-house AI system, "Eureka Machine," which independently tests and optimizes architectures. Recursive has yet to prove whether this approach will actually lead to self-improving AI. The article Recursive shows first result of its AI-driven research process with Flint appeared first on The Decoder .

It was a busy summer for AI lobbyists. Anthropic, OpenAI, and Nvidia each had their highest-spending lobbying quarter between July and September, federal disclosures show. Nvidia spent the most of the group at $2.2 million, followed by Anthropic's $2.1 million and OpenAI's $1.5 million. Compared to other Big Tech companies with long-established presences in Washington, […]

Hugging Face has released an open-source model that lets people ask plain-language questions about DNA and runs on a laptop without sending data to the cloud. It could help researchers investigate disease-causing mutations, but its predictions have not yet been verified in laboratory experiments.

Symantec researchers say an autonomous cyber agent can hijack exposed language models and use them to attack servers, steal databases and install cryptocurrency mining software. Model owners could be billed for the abuse.

Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has reportedly raised $15 billion in funding just days after the U.S. government ordered federal agencies to remove its technology over security concerns. The massive investment highlights intense global competition and massive capital inflows into AI development in China despite Western restrictions.

Thousands of OpenAI agents analysed millions of mouse brain cells in 32 minutes, a task researchers said would take humans months. This could speed up early-stage neuroscience and drug research, though results in mice do not mean treatments for people are ready.

AI shopping assistants designed to buy products for users are running into roadblocks as major e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Target block them to protect customer data and prevent automated bot traffic. Even when they work, these tools can be clunky, hard-to-control personal shoppers that take the fun out of browsing.

Spotify had a strong [third quarter](https://s29.q4cdn.com/175625835/files/content_files/Q3-2026-Shareholder-Deck-FINAL.pdf), reaching 788 million monthly active users and generating nearly €5 billion (around $5.6 billion USD) in revenue. But the more interesting takeaway from its earnings call was how the company sees people listening to music in the future, and why the rise of AI agents could be good news for its business. Co-CEO Gustav Söderström thinks the music streaming giant is particularly well suited to this shift. “Spotify is in one of the few categories that actually stands to thrive in the agentic age,” Söderström tells investors. “This is because agents excel at replacing and taking care of things people would rather not do. People love getting rid of chores. But entertainment

David’s Bridal plans to separate Pearl, its AI-powered wedding-planning business, into a public company valued at about US$350 million. The move, expected in the first half of 2027, could help Pearl expand while giving couples access to more personalised planning tools.

A high-profile test meant to prove that Anthropic's Claude AI could revolutionize drug development by inventing scorpion antivenom ultimately fell short, generating only promising starting points rather than a working drug.

Eiliko’s bag-hanging robot charm uses AI conversations, but hackers could access owners’ complete transcripts. The maker is hiring an independent security firm to investigate and address the flaws.

1Password is introducing a new feature that allows AI agents to to your accounts without actually seeing or handling your passwords. The aptly named 1Password for Agents doesn't give bots free reign to access all of your connected accounts - you'll still need to grant approval for sign-in requests - but should make it […]

The AI world is flooded with [personal and productivity-based assistants](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/10/all-the-ai-agents-that-can-live-in-your-text-messages/), with new ones launching every week. Now, Anthropic is entering this battle in the hopes of gaining user attention with a new app called Claude Duet, aimed at rivaling [Meta Muse](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/21/meta-says-muse-has-over-10m-users-with-shopping-a-top-activity/), [OpenAI Dots](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/29/openai-launches-dots-its-bubbly-agentic-avatar/), [Hark](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/06/hark-releases-an-ai-personal-assistant-with-a-focus-on-privacy/), [Instinct](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/instincts-powerful-ai-assistant-is-raising-privacy-and-security-concerns/), [Grok Bot](https://x.ai/bot),

An earnings briefing on Wednesday revealed ad revenue has slowed since the European Union introduced the Less-Personalized Ads model at the beginning of this year.

Tesla has started early production of its humanoid robot, Optimus, but CEO Elon Musk admits the robot still needs major improvements in its hands, AI capabilities, safety, and reliability before it can actually do useful work.

Today, I’m talking to Bill Gates, cofounder and former CEO of Microsoft and chairman of the Gates Foundation. You may have noticed Bill in the news more lately — he’s been on something of a tour for the past few months, ever since publishing an essay in late August titled “The turbulent AI era is […]

Ask most executives to picture the cost of AI and they’ll likely see GPUs—racks of accelerators with gigawatts of power—and a waitlist for silicon. But that picture leaves something out: Data storage costs. What happens to data after a model responds? Much of the back-end data that’s generated—from billions of daily prompts, images, and videos—needs to be stored. But data storage is one of the harder infrastructure costs to plan for, and it’s often overlooked in initial AI infrastructure planning. ### **As inference scales, the data footprint grows with it** Traditionally, AI infrastructure conversations have centered on the compute-intensive process of training a model. Training is finite: a run starts, burns through compute, and ends. But inference runs continuously, every time a model a

Companies need to connect AI agents to their workflows, rules and data, or the tools may make costly mistakes. Celonis argues that starting with one clear decision, keeping humans in the loop and training staff can turn AI trials into useful everyday tools.

Social Media - [x] On They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools. * * * Essential - [x] On This website uses essential cookies and services to enable core website features and provide a seamless user experience. These cookies and services are used to facilitate features such as navigation, remember user preferences, and ensure the security of the website. * * * Targeted - [x] On These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites.

Development platform [Railway](https://railway.com/) has confirmed that a cyberattack allowed hackers to access some customer secrets, prompting the company to urge all users to rotate their API and cloud keys amid fears of a broader breach of customer data. The company, which allows customers to build apps and services on its cloud development platform, said in [a blog post on Wednesday](https://blog.railway.com/p/security-disclosure-wednesday-october-21st) that the unidentified hackers “may have accessed encrypted environment variables and, for some of them, obtained the decrypted contents.” These environment variables are typically lists of passwords and API keys that are used by the developer’s apps to access other services, such as cloud data storage and databases. With these customer

Engineers are increasingly visiting lawmakers on Capitol Hill to provide technical expertise and lobby for research funding, STEM education, and open-source AI policies.

Social Media - [x] On They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools. * * * Essential - [x] On This website uses essential cookies and services to enable core website features and provide a seamless user experience. These cookies and services are used to facilitate features such as navigation, remember user preferences, and ensure the security of the website. * * * Targeted - [x] On These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites.

Ambient AI is having a moment. Amazon [launched a new wrist-worn device](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/15/amazons-bee-launches-two-new-personal-ai-devices-starting-at-75/) with Bee; a former Plaud exec [launched ambient apps](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/12/former-plaud-exec-raises-26m-for-ai-app-that-listens-to-you-in-the-background/) through a startup called Ambi, which aims to also build its own hardware; and Apple [launched Voice Intelligence features](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/apple-watchs-new-ai-features-are-normalizing-the-idea-that-technology-is-always-listening/) during its iPhone launch in September. Now, a company called [Nirva](https://www.nirva.life/) is betting on a jewelry-like pendant and its ability to listen only to the wearer. The startup today announced a new

### ZDNET’s key takeaways * The new version of PowerToys adds two handy mouse helpers. * Mouse Button Lock helps you more easily select a large chunk of text. * CursorHide hides the mouse cursor until you start typing or move the mouse. * * * Ever have trouble using your mouse? Sometimes selecting a large block of text proves to be a challenge. Other times, your mouse cursor may get in the way of what you’re trying to type or see. Now Microsoft can help you resolve both issues via the latest version of its free PowerToys utility. **Also: [5 apps I always install on new Windows PCs – and most are free](https://www.zdnet.com/tech/my-top-5-windows-apps-for-pcs/)** Popping up in the [official release of PowerToys version 0.102](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/powertoys-0-102-is-here

OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering team works with customers to turn AI capabilities into practical, repeatable solutions, cutting custom code and speeding up adoption across sectors.

October 22, 2026 Research Maxim Neumann and Charlotte Stanton A new 10-meter resolution map shows which of the world's forests are natural, planted, or farmed, and how they are changing over time Protecting the planet's forests starts with a simple question: what type of forest are we looking at? From space, an old-growth rainforest, a eucalyptus plantation, and an oil palm estate can look like the same patch of green. But they hold very different amounts of carbon and biodiversity. Telling them apart, and knowing how each patch has changed over time, shows us where conservation is working and where natural forests are being converted into plantations and farms. Today, Google DeepMind and Google Research, together with the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the International Institute for

OpenAI is buying Orchestra Bio and merging it with its Rosalind life-sciences platform to build AI agents that track drug trials, flag problems and coordinate development teams. The aim is to shorten a process that usually takes 10 to 15 years in the US.

Aspire’s data from more than 10,000 businesses suggests AI is creating smaller core teams, more contract work and more solo founders rather than simply eliminating jobs. The trade-off is a narrower entry-level ladder for workers trying to begin their careers.

Tesla cut its 2026 spending plan by a fifth while reporting better-than-expected cash flow and a 43% drop in net income. The move raises questions about whether its robotaxi, humanoid robot and AI plans will be delayed as it explores a merger with SpaceX.

Nvidia and Cisco are designing a new pluggable format for moving data between AI chips in data centres. It aims to increase capacity without expanding network equipment and cut power use, potentially making future AI services more efficient.

_Welcome to Tech in Asia’s daily newsletter, your essential dose of Asia’s tech and startup buzz. Not yet a subscriber? [Register here](https://www.techinasia.com/subscription?utm\_source=web&utm\_medium=article&utm\_campaign=dailynewsletter). Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]._ ## In focus * Why ​MoneySmart is expecting a [tougher 2026](https://www.techinasia.com/moneysmart-grows-revenue-26-2025-ai-threatens-margins) * ​​SEA’s digital economy grows, but AI adoption is still shallow * Data center [volatility](https://www.techinasia.com/news/dayone-considers-delaying-shrinking-planned-ipo) continues * * * Hello reader, Many companies spent years optimizing for how visibly their websites appear on search engines like Google. Then, large language models (LLMs) upended everyth

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Nvidia says Siemens, Synopsys and Applied Materials are adopting its CUDA-X tools for chip design and manufacturing. The software speeds up materials simulations, pattern refinement and inspection preparation, though some features remain in early access.

Singapore-based DayOne will invest more than US$7 billion in Malaysia by end-2026 to expand AI-ready data centres and train staff. The build-out supports thousands of jobs and strengthens Singapore's regional role, while making power supply and planning more pressing.

The United States has approved a subsidiary of Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE and other firms to purchase advanced artificial intelligence chips from Nvidia and AMD under specific compliance guidelines. This move relaxes previous strict export bans on a case-by-case basis for eligible Chinese tech companies.

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has hired underwriters to prepare for an initial public offering on Shanghai's Star Market. The company is also working to complete a pre-IPO funding round that could push its valuation to around US$74 billion.

OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering team works with customers to turn AI capabilities into practical, repeatable solutions, cutting custom code and speeding up adoption across sectors.

Google Cloud is previewing AI agents that hunt threats, test detection rules and check outside sources, while expanding Wiz tools across rival cloud platforms. It will also scan AI code and prompts for weaknesses before deployment, as attackers can now move from a first breach to follow-on activity in just 22 seconds.

AI coding startup Lovable is expanding its Google Cloud partnership, using about five times more cloud capacity and gaining wider access to Claude and Gemini. With 1 million new projects created each week, the company is scaling fast while adding Wiz tools to spot security issues in the code it generates.

_With additional reporting by Elyssa Lopez, Miguel Cordon, and Scott Shuey_ Rising oil prices triggered by the ongoing [war in the Middle East](https://www.techinasia.com/war-exposes-risks-gulfs-ai-infrastructure-push) could quickly drive up operating costs within Southeast Asia’s tech industry. Energy markets have surged since the [closure](https://www.npr.org/2026/03/12/nx-s1-5744978/iran-effectively-closes-strait-of-hormuz-as-u-s-israel-strikes-continue) of the [Strait of Hormuz](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78n6p09pzno), a key shipping route for global oil supply. Some analysts [warn](https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/international/asean/oil-shocks-triggered-middle-east-war-ripple-through-south-east-asia) that benchmark prices could continue to climb, raising the prospect of [US$2

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Ask most executives to picture the cost of AI and they’ll likely see GPUs—racks of accelerators with gigawatts of power—and a waitlist for silicon. But that picture leaves something out: Data storage costs. What happens to data after a model responds? Much of the back-end data that’s generated—from billions of daily prompts, images, and videos—needs to be stored. But data storage is one of the harder infrastructure costs to plan for, and it’s often overlooked in initial AI infrastructure planning. ### **As inference scales, the data footprint grows with it** Traditionally, AI infrastructure conversations have centered on the compute-intensive process of training a model. Training is finite: a run starts, burns through compute, and ends. But inference runs continuously, every time a model a

Nimbly AI uses wearable and checkout devices to record staff-customer conversations, check whether promotions were offered and flag missed sales. It could help retailers recover revenue, but automatic voice monitoring raises privacy and staff-trust concerns.

Hugging Face has released an open-source model that lets people ask plain-language questions about DNA and runs on a laptop without sending data to the cloud. It could help researchers investigate disease-causing mutations, but its predictions have not yet been verified in laboratory experiments.

Companies need to connect AI agents to their workflows, rules and data, or the tools may make costly mistakes. Celonis argues that starting with one clear decision, keeping humans in the loop and training staff can turn AI trials into useful everyday tools.

Thousands of OpenAI agents analysed millions of mouse brain cells in 32 minutes, a task researchers said would take humans months. This could speed up early-stage neuroscience and drug research, though results in mice do not mean treatments for people are ready.

David’s Bridal plans to separate Pearl, its AI-powered wedding-planning business, into a public company valued at about US$350 million. The move, expected in the first half of 2027, could help Pearl expand while giving couples access to more personalised planning tools.

Eiliko’s bag-hanging robot charm uses AI conversations, but hackers could access owners’ complete transcripts. The maker is hiring an independent security firm to investigate and address the flaws.

An earnings briefing on Wednesday revealed ad revenue has slowed since the European Union introduced the Less-Personalized Ads model at the beginning of this year.

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Symantec researchers say an autonomous cyber agent can hijack exposed language models and use them to attack servers, steal databases and install cryptocurrency mining software. Model owners could be billed for the abuse.

AI shopping assistants designed to buy products for users are running into roadblocks as major e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Target block them to protect customer data and prevent automated bot traffic. Even when they work, these tools can be clunky, hard-to-control personal shoppers that take the fun out of browsing.

A high-profile test meant to prove that Anthropic's Claude AI could revolutionize drug development by inventing scorpion antivenom ultimately fell short, generating only promising starting points rather than a working drug.

1Password is introducing a new feature that allows AI agents to to your accounts without actually seeing or handling your passwords. The aptly named 1Password for Agents doesn't give bots free reign to access all of your connected accounts - you'll still need to grant approval for sign-in requests - but should make it […]

Tesla has started early production of its humanoid robot, Optimus, but CEO Elon Musk admits the robot still needs major improvements in its hands, AI capabilities, safety, and reliability before it can actually do useful work.

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Engineers are increasingly visiting lawmakers on Capitol Hill to provide technical expertise and lobby for research funding, STEM education, and open-source AI policies.

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Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has reportedly raised $15 billion in funding just days after the U.S. government ordered federal agencies to remove its technology over security concerns. The massive investment highlights intense global competition and massive capital inflows into AI development in China despite Western restrictions.

The AI world is flooded with [personal and productivity-based assistants](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/10/all-the-ai-agents-that-can-live-in-your-text-messages/), with new ones launching every week. Now, Anthropic is entering this battle in the hopes of gaining user attention with a new app called Claude Duet, aimed at rivaling [Meta Muse](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/21/meta-says-muse-has-over-10m-users-with-shopping-a-top-activity/), [OpenAI Dots](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/29/openai-launches-dots-its-bubbly-agentic-avatar/), [Hark](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/06/hark-releases-an-ai-personal-assistant-with-a-focus-on-privacy/), [Instinct](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/instincts-powerful-ai-assistant-is-raising-privacy-and-security-concerns/), [Grok Bot](https://x.ai/bot),

Today, I’m talking to Bill Gates, cofounder and former CEO of Microsoft and chairman of the Gates Foundation. You may have noticed Bill in the news more lately — he’s been on something of a tour for the past few months, ever since publishing an essay in late August titled “The turbulent AI era is […]

Ambient AI is having a moment. Amazon [launched a new wrist-worn device](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/15/amazons-bee-launches-two-new-personal-ai-devices-starting-at-75/) with Bee; a former Plaud exec [launched ambient apps](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/12/former-plaud-exec-raises-26m-for-ai-app-that-listens-to-you-in-the-background/) through a startup called Ambi, which aims to also build its own hardware; and Apple [launched Voice Intelligence features](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/apple-watchs-new-ai-features-are-normalizing-the-idea-that-technology-is-always-listening/) during its iPhone launch in September. Now, a company called [Nirva](https://www.nirva.life/) is betting on a jewelry-like pendant and its ability to listen only to the wearer. The startup today announced a new

The AI startup Recursive is unveiling Flint, its first language model, a 40-billion-parameter MoE for local coding developed by former DeepMind researchers. It was created in four months using the company's in-house AI system, "Eureka Machine," which independently tests and optimizes architectures. Recursive has yet to prove whether this approach will actually lead to self-improving AI. The article Recursive shows first result of its AI-driven research process with Flint appeared first on The Decoder .

Development platform [Railway](https://railway.com/) has confirmed that a cyberattack allowed hackers to access some customer secrets, prompting the company to urge all users to rotate their API and cloud keys amid fears of a broader breach of customer data. The company, which allows customers to build apps and services on its cloud development platform, said in [a blog post on Wednesday](https://blog.railway.com/p/security-disclosure-wednesday-october-21st) that the unidentified hackers “may have accessed encrypted environment variables and, for some of them, obtained the decrypted contents.” These environment variables are typically lists of passwords and API keys that are used by the developer’s apps to access other services, such as cloud data storage and databases. With these customer

October 22, 2026 Research Maxim Neumann and Charlotte Stanton A new 10-meter resolution map shows which of the world's forests are natural, planted, or farmed, and how they are changing over time Protecting the planet's forests starts with a simple question: what type of forest are we looking at? From space, an old-growth rainforest, a eucalyptus plantation, and an oil palm estate can look like the same patch of green. But they hold very different amounts of carbon and biodiversity. Telling them apart, and knowing how each patch has changed over time, shows us where conservation is working and where natural forests are being converted into plantations and farms. Today, Google DeepMind and Google Research, together with the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the International Institute for

CGH, SGH and NUH were named leaders in AI innovation in Newsweek’s World’s Best Smart Hospitals 2027 ranking, with 14 Singapore hospitals in the top 50, showing strong digital growth and AI adoption in healthcare.

It was a busy summer for AI lobbyists. Anthropic, OpenAI, and Nvidia each had their highest-spending lobbying quarter between July and September, federal disclosures show. Nvidia spent the most of the group at $2.2 million, followed by Anthropic's $2.1 million and OpenAI's $1.5 million. Compared to other Big Tech companies with long-established presences in Washington, […]

Spotify had a strong [third quarter](https://s29.q4cdn.com/175625835/files/content_files/Q3-2026-Shareholder-Deck-FINAL.pdf), reaching 788 million monthly active users and generating nearly €5 billion (around $5.6 billion USD) in revenue. But the more interesting takeaway from its earnings call was how the company sees people listening to music in the future, and why the rise of AI agents could be good news for its business. Co-CEO Gustav Söderström thinks the music streaming giant is particularly well suited to this shift. “Spotify is in one of the few categories that actually stands to thrive in the agentic age,” Söderström tells investors. “This is because agents excel at replacing and taking care of things people would rather not do. People love getting rid of chores. But entertainment

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Uber and OpenAI announced an expansion of their partnership on Thursday, with the ride-share giant telling TechCrunch that its entire global workforce — some 30,000 people — will now be using ChatGPT Work. ChatGPT Work was introduced in July as an enterprise-focused AI agent that corporate teams could deploy for various workflows. Uber originally piloted ChatGPT Work with 1,000 employees earlier this year but has now scaled up its usage to the entire company. That earlier pilot was deployed to workers from across Uber’s various departments, including finance, operations, and product. Indeed, a majority of the early adopters — some 80% — were non-engineers, Sumanth Sukumar, Uber’s VP of engineering, told TechCrunch. “They used it for a wide range of tasks: analyzing complex data from our op

### ZDNET’s key takeaways * The new version of PowerToys adds two handy mouse helpers. * Mouse Button Lock helps you more easily select a large chunk of text. * CursorHide hides the mouse cursor until you start typing or move the mouse. * * * Ever have trouble using your mouse? Sometimes selecting a large block of text proves to be a challenge. Other times, your mouse cursor may get in the way of what you’re trying to type or see. Now Microsoft can help you resolve both issues via the latest version of its free PowerToys utility. **Also: [5 apps I always install on new Windows PCs – and most are free](https://www.zdnet.com/tech/my-top-5-windows-apps-for-pcs/)** Popping up in the [official release of PowerToys version 0.102](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/powertoys-0-102-is-here

Hackers attempted to exploit severe PHP security flaws days before official fixes were released, according to a security report from Amazon. This highlights the intense race between defenders patching critical systems and malicious actors weaponizing new vulnerabilities almost instantly.

A new Gartner survey of top technology leaders reveals that only 13 percent of companies are seeing actual financial returns from their artificial intelligence investments. Moreover, over half of executives expect AI to drive up operating costs, even as chief executives continue pushing to increase tech budgets.

State-sponsored hackers from China breached IT management giant ConnectWise and stole credentials to spy on over 2,000 corporate networks. The attackers used automated AI agents to execute thousands of unauthorized sign-in attempts per minute, overwhelming standard security defenses.

The director of animation studio Laika has spoken out strongly against using artificial intelligence, calling it completely contrary to their hands-on stop-motion filmmaking process. The studio spent five years crafting physical puppets and sets for their latest film without relying on automated generation tools.

Google has launched the Agent Compute Engine, a system that gives every AI agent its own secure, isolated virtual machine. This helps companies safely run multiple autonomous AI assistants without risking data leaks or system interference.

The Browser Company is shutting down its popular Arc browser on December 22nd to fully focus on its new AI-powered Dia browser. Users will need to find an alternative web browser and export their data before the deadline.

Major U.S. banks including Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan are blocking AI assistants from logging into customer accounts using personal credentials. Banks are stepping in to protect user security and prevent unauthorized access, planning to restrict third-party bots strictly to read-only views.

Microsoft’s AI system MAI-DxO matched or exceeded specialist doctors in complex medical case simulations, scoring 83% accuracy versus 36% for generalist physicians, aiming to address doctor shortages and improve healthcare delivery.

OpenAI released its Decisions API, a fast, low‑cost AI model for making choices, competing with TypeSafe’s Jev decision model and expanding options for developers.

A new startup called Warp Sciences has launched with $215 million in funding to automate laboratory work using robots for drug discovery. Founded by a former OpenAI science lead, the company aims to replace manual lab tasks and reduce reliance on overseas contractors, helping accelerate how new medicines are developed.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg envisions a future where autonomous AI bots handle daily tasks like shopping, working, and even talking to other people's bots on your behalf. This means everyday users might soon interact with digital proxies rather than doing chores themselves.

Many software engineers are facing unrealistic expectations from management who assume AI can build complex systems in minutes just because it can generate a basic demo. Experts argue that engineering teams remain vital because writing code is only a fraction of the challenge compared to integration, security, and maintenance.

Canva has launched its first custom image generation model called Canva Craft, designed specifically for graphic layout and posters rather than just artistic photos. Everyday creators can now generate precise images with legible text and easily make edits directly inside their designs.

Discord's latest update released today has a big improvement for Markdown previews: they should now render correctly instead of with "a bunch of symbols," according to the company. LLMs and AI agents often rely on Markdown files for instructions and context, so these improved previews could be helpful for people sharing information about AI projects […]

MIT Technology Review hosted a session where Vanguard’s Jing Wang explained that scalable AI needs strong data, engineering, platform, governance and trust foundations to reliably deploy AI agents in regulated settings.

Introducing the Decisions API Applications and agents make many small decisions throughout a workflow: how to classify an input, where to route a request, or which action to take next. Individually, they are simple. At scale, their latency and cost add up. Today, we’re making the Decisions API generally available. Built with [GPT‑6 Luna](https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-6-sol-and-luna/), the Decisions API focuses Luna’s intelligence on questions with bounded answers, helping applications and agents make near real-time decisions from text, images, and structured inputs up to 10x faster than GPT‑6 Luna through the Responses API. Since public beta, we’ve added a native GPT‑Live integration, prompt caching for reused context, and inference residency in the US and EU. Developers can als

1Password launched a new feature that lets AI agents log into user accounts without exposing passwords, using a secure key exchange to keep credentials safe.

Oh sure, SpaceX’s [credit risk is pretty high](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-07/spacex-credit-risk-gauge-hits-record-high-on-fundraising-reports?itm_source=record&itm_campaign=SpaceX&itm_content=Credit_Risk_Hits_a_High-2) because it’s about to borrow [another $40 billion to spend on Nvidia chips](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-06/spacex-seeking-to-raise-40-billion-to-buy-nvidia-chips-ft-says), but who cares about that? SpaceX and Tesla have formed special committees to discuss a merger! The degree to which you find this merger compelling likely has to do with the degree to which you believe Elon Musk about wanting to go to Mars, or “spread the light of consciousness,” as he put it in this week’s SpaceX earnings call (and earlier S-1). Now, a reasonably in

The Aged Intelligence Society, a Singapore‑based events startup, hosts invite‑only dinner gatherings where women use frontier tools like AI to solve midlife challenges, expanding women’s participation in AI.

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On October 13th, Brendan Carr's FCC gave itself a new power - it can block gadgets for containing any computer chip made by any company on its list of potential threats to national security. Today, it's exercising that power for the first time, blocking two gadgets because they contain "foreign surveillance chips," the FCC claims. […]

Meta has tweaked its business terms to remove language suggesting that it could freely train its AI models on news sites, like The Verge - but legal experts say these changes aren't enough to address their concerns. "This does nothing to restrict the 'associated with your products or services' [language] that would let Meta scrape […]

Canva is diving even deeper into AI with the launch of an image generation model that competes directly with those from OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. The model, called Canva Craft, uses a two-stage architecture that allows it to plan a design before generating an image, allowing for "greater precision, consistency and control," according to an […]

The next competitive advantage in enterprise AI has less to do with which model you choose than with what you build around it. That’s an important shift. For the past several years, much of the AI conversation has centered on model capability: bigger models, better reasoning, larger context windows, higher benchmark scores. Those advances have been extraordinary. But as AI moves from experimentation to production, the question facing enterprise leaders has changed—it’s no longer, “what can the model do?”—it’s now, “Can we deliver that intelligence reliably, economically, and at scale?” Increasingly, the answer depends on the serving harness—the engineering system surrounding the model, including the architecture, [memory management](https://www.exlservice.com/insights/white-paper/engineeri

EV maker Rivian has acquired Third Dimension, a UK startup founded by veterans of the gaming and autonomous vehicle industries that uses AI to turn images and videos into lifelike 3D worlds. Rivian isn’t getting into gaming, but it does want to leverage Third Dimension’s technology to turn real-world data and build 3D worlds that can accelerate the development of its advanced driver assistance features and the self-driving system for the robotaxis it plans to supply to Uber. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The 15-person team at Third Dimension, most of whom are based in the UK, will be absorbed into Rivian’s autonomy and AI team led by James Philbin. The acquisition also gives Rivian an opportunity to expand its AI hub in London, Philbin said in an exclusive interview. Third Dimensio

Every company is suddenly an AI company. Compute is an asset. Cars are flying. We’ve been promised robots — again. It’s time again to dig through earnings reports, listen to investor calls, and call out the latest wins and losses from around the tech sector and what it means for where the companies go next.

OpenAI is preparing to raise a massive $30 billion in private funding at a staggering $1.25 trillion valuation, led by investors including Coatue and groups from the UAE. This mega-round comes as the company weighs a public stock market debut, cementing its position as one of the most valuable private enterprises in history.