Most recent instance of department integrating with AI comes amid Anthropic standoff, concern over use in Iran war.
Remote-controlled weapons have been used for some time, but AI is now on the cusp of making battlefield decisions.
Vigloo, a South Korean micro drama production company, has gone all-in on artificial intelligence this year, betting that automation can fundamentally reshape how content is made. The company has begun spending roughly 30 per cent of its budget on AI-driven workflows, and the change is already having a dramatic impact. It can now produce a show in just one month rather than three, and at one-fifth of the cost. That is not only allowing Vigloo to release far more shows, but also to experiment...
A Chinese actor who is well-known for playing dominant bosses in miniseries and has taken part in 200 such productions has become unemployed due to the impact of AI technology. In March, to make ends meet, Zhang Xiaolei, 28, began doing farm work in the northwestern province of Qinghai, Red Star News reported. Starting with some basic dancing skills, Zhang was introduced by his friend to a miniseries filming crew at the end of 2023. Since then, he has become a familiar face to viewers of...
Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has sought to reassure workers amid concerns about the AI revolution, vowing that the city state will carve out fresh opportunities even as the new technology renders some jobs obsolete. In the annual May Day rally on Friday, Wong acknowledged the anxieties but urged workers and firms to build artificial intelligence capabilities and harness its benefits. Demand would rise for AI-savvy workers, and new doors would open as global companies expanded their...
Beijing’s decision to block Meta Platforms’ proposed acquisition of artificial intelligence firm Manus should not be seen as a restriction on foreign investment, Chinese state media said, urging companies in the sector to “go global when ready” and “pursue partnerships where appropriate”. “What stands out from Meta’s Manus deal is that the AI industry is transcending simple commercial logic,” Yuyuan Tantian, the influential social media account run by state broadcaster CCTV, said on Wednesday in...
Artificial intelligence investments by US tech giants continue to soar, dwarfing those of Chinese AI firms, but China’s rising appetite for AI applications will compel its tech companies to increase their AI spending this year, according to analysts. The largest US tech companies are on track for more than US$700 billion in AI capital expenditures this year, driven in part by rising memory costs and continuously growing demand for AI applications. Google and Microsoft on Thursday both said that...
A project to improve water resilience in two Rajasthan districts strengthened existing government efforts by using AI to improve last-mile responsiveness. The application was also lightweight enough to sit inside any large program that depends on frontline behaviour change and local coordination
Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has added multimodal capabilities to its flagship chatbot for the first time – meaning that it can process images and video in addition to text – bringing it in line with rivals that already offer the function. The limited release to select users comes just days after the Hangzhou-based company released its new flagship model V4, which was followed by extensive price cuts. According to DeepSeek multimodal team leader Chen Xiaokang, who made the...
The system currently supports more than 10 languages — Indian languages such as Bengali, Gujarati, Odia, Manipuri, Kashmiri, Nepali and Assamese, along with international languages like Spanish, French and Arabic.
The impact of artificial intelligence on cybersecurity has emerged as a “very real threat” and it has come up in “very real terms” with the release of Mythos by Anthropic: MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan
The project, Google’s biggest investment in India, is expected to generate ample high-value jobs in data science, cybersecurity, and AI, reinforcing State’s vision of building a 6.5 GW digital ecosystem
The 1-Gigawatt hyperscale AI data centre, coming up on 601.4 acres at Tarluvada at an investment of ₹1.35 lakh crore, is one of the largest single FDI projects in India and forms part of Google’s $15 billion commitment to Andhra Pradesh
DeepSeek has slashed prices on its artificial intelligence models, including its latest V4 which now costs 97 per cent less than OpenAI products, potentially triggering a price war in the highly competitive AI market. DeepSeek said on Sunday that it would reduce prices for “input cache hits” – where previously processed context was reused – for application programming interface (API) users to one-tenth of the original level, bringing the minimum input cost down to about US$0.14 per million...
The trial’s outcome could sway the balance of power in AI, and jury selection starts on Monday.
Archaeologists at the ancient Roman site of Pompeii have used artificial intelligence for the first time to digitally reconstruct the face of a victim of the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius that smothered the city, offering a new way to understand one of history’s most famous natural disasters. The digital portrait represents an older man who was among two victims discovered as they attempted to flee the city towards the coast of what is now Italy during the volcanic eruption. Researchers...
The webinar discussed challenges from infectious diseases to NCDs, climate-linked risks, and the growing role of AI and policy in building resilient healthcare systems
The tools and techniques behind Iran’s push in the battle of narratives.
The idea of a token economy is gaining traction. The concept is still nascent, loosely defined and easy to dismiss as just another piece of artificial intelligence jargon. It is no surprise Chinese policymakers are quick to jump on the bandwagon. But in the Chinese context, there is a more concrete policy logic that deserves attention. It reflects an emerging attempt to reframe how energy, infrastructure and digital services interact, and in doing so, how China positions itself in the next phase...
Research Day event receives 574 research abstracts spanning fields such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy and robotics
The administration of Donald Trump has threatened action to shield the US artificial intelligence industry from being “distilled” by Chinese rivals, in a move analysts say could weed out weaker players in China’s AI sector within a year. In a memo released on Thursday, Michael Kratsios, the science and technology adviser to the US president, warned that “surreptitious, unauthorised distillation campaigns” were enabling foreign entities – mainly in China – to release models that appear to match...
Shortlisted through the MedTech Innovation Challenge, the startups have been piloting their technologies across 18 government hospitals; the best performers will be awarded cash prizes and a ₹1 crore work order.
In the battle of propaganda, fake videos and images of female victims of Iran's government are going viral.
Chinese startup says DeepSeek-V4-Pro beats all rival open models for maths and coding.
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] AI-enabled solution providers and corporate gathered at Hong Kong Science Park on March 24 to examine real-world use cases of AI as it shifts from experimental pilots into connected, operational systems across multiple sectors. The “Connected Intelligence: AI & Robotics Across Industries” event featured candid exchanges on workforce preparation, customer engagement and the challenges of scaling AI. In the panel...
In Germany, the Minister explores potential for industrial partnerships and technological collaboration
In the second of a three-part series on Anthropic’s powerful Mythos artificial intelligence model, we examine the effect it has had on China’s cybersecurity and finance industries. US start-up Anthropic’s new AI model, Claude Mythos Preview, has drawn global attention for its ability to autonomously identify and exploit cybersecurity vulnerabilities at a level that appears to surpass conventional tools used in enterprise and financial systems. The model has not been made publicly available, with...
Mainland Chinese investors have slowed their purchases of Hong Kong-listed shares this year after last year’s record inflows, as more artificial intelligence investment opportunities have emerged in mainland markets, according to BNP Paribas. Southbound inflows via the Stock Connect cross-border system have reached about US$30 billion so far this year, a slower pace than 2025, when they hit US$180 billion for the full year, according to the French bank. The deceleration reflected changing market...
Alibaba Group Holding has struck its first external partnership for its flagship consumer artificial intelligence app, linking it with China Eastern Airlines in a move that pushes its agentic capabilities beyond the company’s own ecosystem and into real-world services. The company said the fresh collaboration allowed users of the Qwen app to manage the full flight booking process – from search and ticket purchase to seat selection and check-in – within a single natural-language chat interface....
75 ITI institutions in the state will be developed as state-of-the-art skill training centres; students will be taught modern, in-demand courses such as AI, semiconductors, sales and retail
China has launched what it calls the world’s first “panoramic” carbon accounting system, a model that revises down the country’s emissions compared to other estimates and raises them for the United States. Unlike other models that assign responsibility for emissions based on total carbon output from facilities such as power plants and factories, the new model gives greater weight to the consumers of products. Developed by the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of...
Eight mainland China-based companies – five of them biotech firms – passed listing hearings on the Hong Kong stock market in April, clearing the way for them to tap the city’s deep liquidity. The influx, including an AI-driven drug discovery firm, a driverless technology developer and a maker of industrial robots, comes as the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has been pushing private firms to list in Hong Kong. The market regulator has required companies that established so-called...
Hutchison Port Holdings Trust has deployed Hong Kong’s first AI-powered driverless trucks, a move the container terminal operator said could help tackle a chronic manpower shortage and improve efficiency. The trust, affiliated with Hutchison Ports – a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings, controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing’s family – on Tuesday invited media to view a fleet of six electric autonomous trucks at Kwai Tsing Container Terminal 4. The fleet was launched in January. “Hong Kong has...
Palantir's 'manifesto' has been described as an 'AI-driven threat to humanity’s existence' and 'technofascism'.
Palantir CEO Alexander Karp's book The Technological Republic advocates for Western 'hard power ... built on software'.
Hong Kong authorities have developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven flood forecasting and alert system capable of three-dimensional simulations, aimed at enabling more timely pre-emptive measures and emergency responses to flooding. The technology is the latest addition to the existing territory-wide flood risk visualisation system, which was deployed during Super Typhoon Ragasa last year. “This is to foster Hong Kong as a future-facing and climate-resilient city,” Ringo Mok Wing-cheong,...
Regulators across Asia are stepping up scrutiny of cybersecurity risks in their financial systems, as concerns over Anthropic’s latest AI model Mythos spread. Singapore’s financial regulator is urging banks to plug holes, while South Korea’s government agencies have met to review and discuss how to respond to the risks. In Australia, authorities expect lenders to be vigilant to ensure clients are not put at risk by inadequate controls. The actions around the region reflect rising global concern...
“State-of-the-art” (Sota) artificial intelligence models excel at solving complex Olympiad maths but still struggle with everyday enterprise tasks, according to an executive from a top AI unicorn in the US. David Meyer, senior vice-president of product at US data processing and analysis company Databricks, told the South China Morning Post in a recent interview that the very traits making models state-of-the-art could cause issues in basic office work. For instance, when tasked with identifying...
As the artificial intelligence race moves beyond language models into the physical world, Asia’s manufacturing and supply chain strengths could give it an edge over the US, says Granite Asia’s Jixun Foo. The veteran venture capitalist said the current wave of AI development, sparked by breakthroughs in foundation models over the past two years, had entered a new phase where physical applications – from robotics to industrial automation – were becoming increasingly important, playing to Asia’s...
Hong Kong is set to announce on Monday a new batch of “strategic enterprises” establishing a presence in the city, including several firms with market capitalisations of up to HK$100 billion (US$12.8 billion), the finance chief has revealed. Writing in his weekly blog on Sunday, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the new partners were in high-growth sectors, including life and health technology, the low-altitude economy, artificial intelligence (AI), new energy materials and...
China’s artificial intelligence model companies are unlikely to “eat up” the domestic software market because they lack the deep industry know-how and experience to meet enterprise needs, according to an HSBC analyst. Unlike the US, China’s less developed software-as-a-service (SaaS) market stands to gain even as AI models continue to improve, with the most likely outcome being a collaborative approach where model companies and legacy software firms serve enterprises in tandem, said Yiran Liu,...
144 students pass out from the Mysore University School of Engineering (MUSE) at its first graduation day
A quarter featuring multiple eye-popping deals is no longer unusual for China’s pharmaceutical industry – in fact, it may soon be considered a slow season. In recent months, companies including CSPC Pharmaceutical and RemeGen have struck out-licensing agreements worth up to US$18.5 billion and US$5.6 billion respectively, while Haisco Pharmaceutical Group has added two of its own — most recently a deal worth up to US$745 million. Under the terms of the deal, the Beijing-based Haisco granted US...
As China’s artificial intelligence sector accelerates, competition for top talent has intensified among major tech companies, with firms increasingly poaching from rivals while also attracting researchers from overseas hubs such as Silicon Valley. A reported high-profile personnel move involving DeepSeek researcher Guo Daya recently drew attention to the sensitivity surrounding AI hiring in China’s tech sector. Guo, a lead researcher on DeepSeek’s R1 model, joined ByteDance’s Seed AI development...
The Trump administration and Anthropic’s CEO on Friday discussed working together for the first time since a dispute earlier this year between the Pentagon and the artificial intelligence firm over how that company’s models should be used. The meeting between CEO Dario Amodei and White House staff, which took place amid growing fears the AI start-up’s latest model will supercharge cyberattacks, suggests the two sides might be on a path to rebuilding trust. The Trump administration, central...
The global economic outlook for 2026 looks grim if the Iran war continues, but some industries are booming.
Also, a Technology & Innovation Museum will be developed in east Bengaluru under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model with a total project cost of ₹100 crore
In China’s hyper-competitive and lucrative tech industry, releasing cutting-edge artificial intelligence models for free may seem counter-intuitive – but it has become a core business strategy. At the University of Hong Kong last November, Alibaba Group Holding chairman Joe Tsai was asked why the tech giant open-sourced its AI models. Addressing a room full of students, Tsai said he believed open-source AI would bring global benefits by lowering costs, making it a natural fit for talent- and...
A wave of companies, from the start-up launched by artificial intelligence “godmother” Li Fei-Fei to the largest Chinese tech firms, are racing to introduce their latest approaches to world models – an emerging field aimed at extending AI beyond language processing to learning from and comprehending physical reality. Alibaba Group Holding on Thursday unveiled Happy Oyster, which it called an open-ended world model designed for real-time and “flowy” virtual world creation and interaction,...
China’s largest artificial intelligence computing cluster for scientific research entered operation on Tuesday, doubling its number of domestically made AI accelerator chips in just two months, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The AI acceleration cards were produced by Chinese supercomputer developer Sugon, which is affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and are running in the core node of the national supercomputing network in Zhengzhou, Henan province. The number of chips in the...
Several restaurants in eastern China are using artificial intelligence (AI) robots to cook as many as 100 dishes to cut costs, sparking a heated discussion on social media. In Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, at least three such eateries have been operating for months, Zhejiang TV reported. One of them, 24 Jieqi Robot Restaurant in the Xihu district uses eight robots which handle ordering, serving, cleaning and cooking. They have shared 60 per cent of the total workload of kitchen workers, the...
China’s world models are benefiting from early integration with the country’s strong industrial base, which gives the domestic ecosystem greater momentum than that of the US, according to an executive at a leading Chinese world model start-up. World models simulate 3D environments and physical dynamics, and are expected to help train the next generation of physical artificial intelligence applications, including robots and autonomous vehicles. Wang Xiaofeng, an algorithm partner at GigaAI, said...
Hong Kong authorities have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with mainland China’s top internet regulator to promote the digital economy, with the city’s leader pledging to contribute to building a strong technological nation. The MOU was signed on Sunday by Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong and Wang Jingtao, deputy director of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), and covers topics including artificial intelligence (AI) promotion, cross-boundary data...
A Chinese company has tried to use AI analysis to track US aerial refuelling missions to detect the strike patterns of bombers over Iran. MizarVision, a private geospatial intelligence firm, published a report earlier this month analysing the activities of US KC-135 and KC-46 tankers during Operation Epic Fury. The report detailed critical links between known tanker movements and strikes against Iranian targets. Analysts said the tankers could be tracked through Automatic Dependent...
An open-source artificial intelligence project aimed at harvesting human capabilities into reusable AI “skills” has gone viral in China, gaining traction as a meme among the country’s uneasy young workers as they face growing job insecurity amid rapid AI advances. Supposedly, certain skills of luminaries such as Steve Jobs, spiritual figures like Gautama Buddha and ordinary office workers have been extracted into digital form and uploaded online, making these skills – such as Jobs’ product...
Kanishk Rungta and Krishaa Rungta, Class 12 students at Jayshree Periwal International School in Jaipur, have developed the app ‘Veer Sahara’
Alibaba Group Holding’s cloud and artificial intelligence unit is expected to remain a prime engine for the March quarter, with the growth rate forecast to accelerate as the company steps up AI monetisation and reshuffles its AI businesses, according to analysts. Cloud revenue growth was projected to increase to around 40 per cent during the period, up from 36 per cent in the December quarter, analysts said. The growth momentum was expected to be supported by “a robust surge in token usage”,...
Taiwan can learn from the way mainland China uses artificial intelligence, Taiwanese opposition leader Cheng Li-wun said during her visit to Shanghai. The Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman visited the headquarters of Meituan on Wednesday, where she was welcomed by founder and CEO Wang Xing. The company, which goes by Keeta outside the mainland, operates China’s biggest online takeaway platform, as well as offering grocery delivery, bike rental and other services. The company uses AI extensively to...
Special lecture on AI, Machine Learning and future careers organised at women’s college in Jamkhandi
Global imbalances are once again taking shape, albeit differently than how they manifested before the financial crisis of the late 2000s. Back then, the story was simple: some countries, led by China and Germany, saved too much, while the United States consumed too much. The answer, at least in theory, was also simple: surplus countries should rely more on domestic demand while deficit countries should save more; exchange rates should adjust. While that framework still matters, it no longer...
As artificial intelligence (AI) adoption accelerates worldwide, Hong Kong is sharpening its focus on applying AI technologies across various domains to make life easier, more efficient and more connected for citizens and businesses alike. Building on Hong Kong’s smart city strategy and its role within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), the Government and local industry are working together to turn pilot projects into practical AI-driven solutions that support long-term...
We examine how emerging military tech is used in war zones and how Palestinians try to use tech to their advantage.
As the global memory industry rides an unprecedented “super cycle” fuelled by AI demand, China’s leading memory chipmakers are leveraging lower pricing and expanding production to capture a bigger market share, according to analysts. “Chinese manufacturers often enjoy a price advantage of more than 15 per cent for products of the same specifications, which is highly attractive to the price-sensitive general-purpose server and consumer markets,” said Arisa Liu, chief director and research fellow...
Studios in India are responding by deploying AI at a scale unseen elsewhere: creating full-fledged AI-generated films; using AI dubbing to release movies in numerous languages; and recutting endings of older titles to eke out additional sales
Before autonomous driving freed up the hands of Beijing’s middle class, thousands of workers some 1,500km (930 miles) away in China’s southwestern Guizhou province clicked away at computer screens to teach AI about navigating traffic. In the mountainous city of Tongren, where incomes are less than half those in Beijing, the work of data labelling – marking residential buildings, pavements, roadways and traffic lights – shaped the artificial intelligence guiding those vehicles. The job required...
Financial experts advise graduates and postgraduates of the Indian Institute of Management-Shillong to adapt beyond what they learn
The system enables real-time tracking of critical dialysis parameters, allowing healthcare teams to closely monitor patients during treatment and respond quickly to any variations
Chinese companies including Alibaba Cloud and Zhipu AI have opted not to open-source some of their latest artificial intelligence models as they look to capture the full value of their usage through official revenue generating channels. While none of the companies have said that they are moving away from their open-source strategies, the development reflects an industry trend where the most powerful models are growing in size, making them increasingly difficult to host on local hardware. This...
Less than a year after US artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic called out China as an “adversarial nation” and vowed to restrict the country’s access to its technologies, the company inadvertently released coding secrets, triggering a frenzy among Chinese developers. The leak occured after an Anthropic employee accidentally included the modified source code of Claude Code, the company’s sensational AI coding tool popular among developers worldwide, in a file within a software package...