Artificial intelligence

Google blends AI mode with Lens

Google is enhancing its experimental AI Mode by combining the visual power of Google Lens with the conversational intelligence of Gemini, offering users a more dynamic way to search.

Instead of typing queries alone, users can now upload photos or take snapshots with their smartphone to receive more insightful answers.

The new feature moves beyond traditional reverse image search. For instance, you could snap a photo of a mystery kitchen tool and ask, ‘What is this, and how do I use it?’, receiving not only a helpful explanation but links to buy it and even video demonstrations.

Rather than focusing on a single object, AI Mode can interpret entire scenes, offering context-aware suggestions.

Take a photo of a bookshelf, a meal, or even a cluttered drawer, and AI Mode will identify items and describe how they relate to each other. It might suggest recipes using the ingredients shown, help identify a misplaced phone charger, or recommend the order to read your books.

Behind the scenes, the system runs multiple AI agents to analyse each element, providing layered, tailored responses.

Although other platforms like ChatGPT also support image recognition, Google’s strength lies in its decades of search data and visual indexing. Currently, the feature is accessible to Google One AI Premium subscribers or those enrolled in Search Labs via the Google mobile app.

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OpenAI negotiates $500m deal for AI startup

OpenAI is reportedly in talks to acquire io Products, an AI hardware startup co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in a deal that could exceed $500 million.

Instead of focusing solely on software like ChatGPT and API tools, OpenAI appears to be eyeing consumer devices as a way to diversify its revenue.

io Products is said to be working on AI-powered consumer tech, including a screenless smartphone and smart home gadgets.

The company’s team includes several former Apple designers, such as Tang Tan and Evans Hankey. Instead of traditional screens, these new devices are expected to explore more ambient and context-aware ways of interaction.

Jony Ive, best known for his role in designing iconic Apple products like the iPhone and iMac, left Apple in 2019 to launch his design consultancy, LoveFrom.

His collaboration with Altman on io Products was publicly confirmed last year and has already drawn interest from high-profile backers, including Laurene Powell Jobs. Funding for the startup was projected to reach $1 billion by the end of 2024.

The move echoes Altman’s previous investments in AI hardware, such as Humane Inc., a wearable tech startup that also focused on screenless interaction. Instead of scaling that venture, however, HP acquired some of Humane’s assets for $166 million earlier this year.

OpenAI’s potential acquisition of io Products could mark a significant shift toward physical consumer products in the AI space.

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Anthropic grows its presence in Europe

Anthropic is expanding its operations across Europe, with plans to add over 100 new roles in sales, engineering, research, and business operations. Most of these positions will be based in Dublin and London.

The company has also appointed Guillaume Princen, a former Stripe executive, as its head for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. This move signals Anthropic’s ambition to strengthen its global presence, particularly in Europe where the demand for enterprise-ready AI tools is rising.

The company’s hiring strategy also reflects a wider trend within the AI industry, with firms like Anthropic competing for global market share after securing significant funding.

The recent $3.5 billion funding round bolsters Anthropic’s position as it seeks to lead the AI race across multiple regions, including the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Instead of focusing solely on the US, Anthropic’s European push is designed to comply with local AI governance and regulatory standards, which are increasingly important to businesses operating in the region.

Anthropic’s expansion comes at a time when AI firms are facing growing competition from companies like Cohere, which has been positioning itself as a European-compliant alternative.

As the EU continues to shape global AI regulations, Anthropic’s focus on safety and localisation could position it favourably in these highly regulated markets. Analysts suggest that while the US may remain a less regulated environment for AI, the EU is likely to lead global AI policy development in the near future.

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Meta faces backlash over Llama 4 release

Over the weekend, Meta unveiled two new Llama 4 models—Scout, a smaller version, and Maverick, a mid-sized variant it claims outperforms OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash across multiple benchmarks.

Maverick quickly climbed to second place on LMArena, an AI benchmarking platform where human evaluators compare and vote on model outputs. Meta proudly pointed to Maverick’s ELO score of 1417, placing it just beneath Gemini 2.5 Pro, instead of trailing behind the usual leaders.

However, AI researchers noticed a critical detail buried in Meta’s documentation: the version of Maverick that ranked so highly wasn’t the one released to the public. Instead of using the standard model, Meta had submitted an ‘experimental’ version specifically optimised for conversations.

LMArena later criticised this move, saying Meta failed to clearly indicate the model was customised, prompting the platform to update its policies to ensure future evaluations remain fair and reproducible.

Meta’s spokesperson acknowledged the use of experimental variants, insisting the company frequently tests different configurations.

While this wasn’t a violation of LMArena’s existing rules, the episode raised concerns about the credibility of benchmark rankings when companies submit fine-tuned models instead of the ones accessible to the wider community.

Independent AI researcher Simon Willison expressed frustration, saying the impressive ranking lost all meaning once it became clear the public couldn’t even use the same version.

The controversy unfolded against a backdrop of mounting competition in open-weight AI, with Meta under pressure following high-profile releases like China’s DeepSeek model.

Instead of offering a smooth rollout, Meta released Llama 4 on a Saturday—an unusual move—which CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained simply as ‘that’s when it was ready.’ But for many in the AI space, the launch has only deepened confusion around what these models can genuinely deliver.

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Southampton Airport launches AI assistant to support passengers

Southampton Airport has launched an advanced AI-powered digital assistant to enhance passenger experience and accessibility throughout its terminal. The technology, developed in collaboration with Hello Lamp Post, offers real-time flight updates, personalised navigation assistance, and tailored support, especially for those requiring special assistance.

Following a successful trial at Glasgow Airport with Connected Places Catapult, the AI platform demonstrated a 50% reduction in customer service queries and supported over 12,000 additional passengers annually. Passenger satisfaction during the pilot reached 86%, prompting Southampton to expand the tool for all travellers. The assistant is accessible via QR codes placed throughout the terminal, effectively acting as a virtual concierge.

The initiative forms part of the airport’s broader commitment to inclusive and efficient travel. Southampton Airport recently received the Civil Aviation Authority’s top ‘Very Good’ rating for accessibility. Airport Managing Director Gavin Williams praised the new tool’s ability to enhance customer journeys, while Hello Lamp Post’s CEO, Tiernan Mines, highlighted the value in easing pressure on staff by handling routine queries.

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New Jersey criminalises AI-generated nude deepfakes of minors

New Jersey has become the first US state to criminalise the creation and sharing of AI-generated nude images of minors, following a high-profile campaign led by 14-year-old Francesca Mani. The US legislation, signed into law on 2 April by Governor Phil Murphy, allows victims to sue perpetrators for up to $1,000 per image and includes criminal penalties of up to five years in prison and fines of up to $30,000.

Mani launched her campaign after discovering that boys at her school had used an AI “nudify” website to target her and other girls. Refusing to accept the school’s minimal disciplinary response, she called for lawmakers to take decisive action against such deepfake abuses. Her efforts gained national attention, including a feature on 60 Minutes, and helped drive the new legal protections.

The law defines deepfakes as media that convincingly depicts someone doing something they never actually did. It also prohibits the use of such technology for election interference or defamation. Although the law’s focus is on malicious misuse, questions remain about whether exemptions will be made for legitimate uses in film, tech, or education sectors.

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AI tool boosts accuracy of cancer treatment predictions

A Slovenian-US biotech company, Genialis, is harnessing AI to revolutionise cancer treatment by tackling a major obstacle: the lack of reliable biomarkers to predict how patients will respond to therapy. Using an AI-driven model developed from over a million global samples, the company aims to personalise treatment with far greater accuracy.

Founded nine years ago as a spin-off from the University of Ljubljana, Genialis is now headquartered in Boston but maintains strong ties to Slovenia, employing 22 local experts. Initially focused on tools for biologists, the firm shifted towards personalised medicine six years ago, now offering diagnostic insights that predict whether a patient is likely to respond to a specific cancer drug or treatment.

Genialis’ proprietary “Supermodel” analyses RNA data from a diverse range of patients using machine learning, boosting the likelihood of treatment success from 20–30% to as high as 65% when paired with their biomarkers. While the software is already used in research settings, the ultimate goal is to integrate it into routine clinical care. Despite the promise, challenges remain, including securing quality data and investment. Co-founders Rafael Rosengarten and Miha Štajdohar remain optimistic, believing AI-powered precision medicine is the future of effective cancer therapy.

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Llama 4 Maverick and Scout challenge top AI benchmarks

Meta has officially launched two of its new Llama 4 AI models, Maverick and Scout, following reported delays earlier in the year.

The release forms part of Meta’s wider ambition to build and open-source the world’s most powerful AI systems. Llama 4 Behemoth, another model announced alongside them, has yet to become available.

The newly released models go head-to-head with Google’s latest AI offerings. According to Meta, Llama 4 Maverick surpasses Gemini 2.0 (Flash) in benchmarks such as coding, reasoning, and image tasks, while Llama 4 Scout outperforms both Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite and Gemma 3 in summarisation and code analysis.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai offered unexpected congratulations to the Llama 4 team on social media, reflecting the high-profile nature of the launch.

Llama 4 Maverick features 17 billion active parameters and 128 experts, making it a versatile choice for general-purpose AI assistants and creative tasks.

Llama 4 Scout shares the same number of active parameters but with a leaner expert setup, tailored for more focused tasks like document summarisation and code reasoning. Meta plans to release additional advanced models, including Llama Behemoth and Llama Reasoning, in the near future.

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DeepSeek unveils new approach to improve AI reasoning

Chinese AI firm DeepSeek has unveiled a new method to improve LLM reasoning skills, claiming it offers more accurate and faster responses than current technologies. The approach, developed with researchers from Tsinghua University, combines generative reward modeling (GRM) with a self-principled critique tuning technique.

The method aims to refine how AI LLMs respond to general queries by better aligning their outputs with human preferences. According to a paper published on the arXiv scientific repository, the resulting DeepSeek-GRM models showed stronger performance than existing methods and proved competitive against widely accepted public reward models.

DeepSeek has announced intentions to release these models as open source, though no release date has been set. The move follows increased global interest in the company, which had earlier gained attention for its V3 foundation model and R1 reasoning model.

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Digital Morocco 2030 strategy focuses on tech-driven transformation

Morocco has set ambitious goals to boost its economy through investment in emerging technologies, aiming for a 10% increase in GDP by 2030. As part of its Digital Morocco 2030 strategy, the government is committing over 11 billion dirhams ($1.1 billion) by 2026 to drive digital transformation, create more than 240,000 jobs, and train 100,000 young people annually in digital skills.

The roadmap prioritises digitising government services through a Unified Administrative Services Portal, with the long-term goal of placing Morocco among the world’s top 50 tech nations. Blockchain plays a central role in this vision, being adopted to improve transparency and efficiency in public services, and already undergoing trials in private sectors like healthcare and finance.

Despite an ongoing official ban, digital asset ownership has surged, more than six million Moroccans now hold such assets, representing over 15% of the population. In parallel, the country is rapidly expanding its use of AI. Notably, Morocco has introduced AI into its judiciary, launched an AI-powered university learning system, and trained over 1,000 small- and medium-sized businesses in AI adoption through partnerships with LinkedIn and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

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