Artificial intelligence

Singapore sets jobs as top priority amid global uncertainty

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said employment for citizens will remain the government’s top priority as the nation confronts global trade tensions and the rapid advance of AI.

Speaking at the annual National Day Rally to mark Singapore’s 60th year, Wong pointed to the risks created by the US–China rivalry, renewed tariff policies under President Donald Trump, and the pressure technology places on workers.

In his first primary address since the May election, Wong emphasised the need to reinforce the trade-reliant economy, expand social safety nets and redevelop parts of the island.

He pledged to protect Singaporeans from external shocks by maintaining stability instead of pursuing risky shifts. ‘Ultimately, our economic strategy is about jobs, jobs and jobs. That’s our number one priority,’ he said.

The government has introduced new welfare measures, including the country’s first unemployment benefits and wider subsidies for food, utilities and education.

Wong also announced initiatives to help enterprises use AI more effectively, such as a job-matching platform and a government-backed traineeship programme for graduates.

Looking ahead, Wong said Singapore would draw up a new economic blueprint to secure its future in a world shaped by protectionism, climate challenges and changing energy needs.

After stronger-than-expected results in the first half of the year, the government recently raised its growth forecast for 2025 to between 1.5% and 2.5%.

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GenAI app usage up 50% as firms struggle with oversight

Enterprise employees are increasingly building their own AI tools, sparking a surge in shadow AI that raises security concerns.

Netskope reports a 50% rise in generative AI platform use, with over half of current adoption estimated to be unsanctioned by IT.

Platforms like Azure OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, and Vertex AI lead this trend, allowing users to connect enterprise data to custom AI agents.

The growth of shadow AI has prompted calls for better oversight, real-time user training, and updated data loss prevention strategies.

On-premises deployment is also increasing, with 34% of firms using local LLM interfaces like Ollama and LM Studio. Security risks grow as AI agents retrieve data using API calls beyond browsers, particularly from OpenAI and Anthropic endpoints.

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Google launches AI tool offering flexible travellers cheap flights

Google has rolled out Flight Deals, a new AI‑powered tool for flexible, budget‑conscious travellers within Google Flights. It allows users to type natural‑language descriptions of their ideal trip, such as favourite activities or timeframe, and receive bargain flight suggestions in return.

Powered by Gemini, the feature parses conversational inputs and taps real‑time flight data from multiple airlines and agencies.

The tool identifies low fares and even proposes destinations users might not have considered, ranking options by percentage savings or lowest price.

Currently in beta, Flight Deals is available in the US, Canada, and India without special opt‑in. It is also accessible via the Google Flights menu.

Traditional Google Flights remains available, with a new option to exclude basic economy fares in the US and Canada.

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Researchers use AI to speed up quantum computing experiments

AI has been used to rapidly assemble arrays of atoms that could one day power quantum computers. A team led by physicist Jian-Wei Pan at the University of Science and Technology of China demonstrated how an AI model can calculate the best way to arrange neutral atoms, a long-standing challenge in the field.

The researchers showed that their system could rearrange up to 2,024 rubidium atoms into precise grid patterns in just 60 milliseconds. By comparison, a previous attempt last year arranged 800 atoms without AI but required a full second.

To showcase the model’s speed, the team even used it to create an animated image of Schrödinger’s cat by guiding atoms into patterns with laser light.

Neutral atom arrays are one of the most promising approaches to building quantum computers, as the trapped atoms can maintain their fragile quantum states for relatively long periods.

The AI model was trained on different atom configurations and patterns of laser light, allowing it to quickly determine the most efficient hologram needed to reposition atoms into complex 2D and 3D shapes.

Experts in the field have welcomed the breakthrough. Mark Saffman, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, noted that producing holograms for larger arrays usually requires intensive calculations.

The ability of AI to handle this process so efficiently, he said, left many colleagues ‘really impressed.’

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GPT-5 impresses in reasoning but stumbles in flawless coding

OpenAI’s newly released GPT-5 draws praise and criticism in equal measure, as developers explore its potential for transforming software engineering.

Launched on 7 August 2025, the model has impressed with its ability to reason through complex problems and assist in long-term project planning. Yet, engineers testing it in practice note that while it can propose elegant solutions, its generated code often contains subtle errors, demanding close human oversight.

Benchmark results showcase GPT-5’s strength. The model scored 74.9% on the SWE-bench Verified test, outperforming predecessors in bug detection and analysis. Integrated into tools such as GitHub Copilot, it has already boosted productivity for large-scale refactoring projects, with some testers praising its conversational guidance.

Despite these gains, developers report mixed outcomes: successful brainstorming and planning, but inconsistent when producing flawless, runnable code.

The rollout also includes GPT-5 Mini, a faster version for everyday use in platforms like Visual Studio Code. Early users highlight its speed but point out that effective prompting remains essential, as the model’s re-architected interaction style differs from GPT-4.

Critics argue it still trails rivals such as Anthropic’s Claude 4 Sonnet in error-free generation, even as it shows marked improvements in scientific and analytical coding tasks.

Experts suggest GPT-5 will redefine developer roles rather than replace them, shifting focus toward oversight and validation. By acting as a partner in ideation and review, the model may reduce repetitive coding tasks while elevating strategic engineering work.

For now, OpenAI’s most advanced system sets a high bar for intelligent assistance but remains a tool that depends on skilled humans to achieve reliable outcomes.

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Claude AI gains power to end harmful chats

Anthropic has unveiled a new capability in its Claude AI models that allows them to end conversations they deem harmful or unproductive.

The feature, part of the company’s more exhaustive exploration of ‘model welfare,’ is designed to allow AI systems to disengage from toxic inputs or ethical contradictions, reflecting a push toward safer and more autonomous behaviour.

The decision follows an internal review of over 700,000 Claude interactions, where researchers identified thousands of values shaping how the system responds in real-world scenarios.

By enabling Claude to exit problematic exchanges, Anthropic hopes to improve trustworthiness while protecting its models from situations that might degrade performance over time.

Industry reaction has been mixed. Many researchers praised the step as a blueprint for responsible AI design. In contrast, others expressed concern that allowing models to self-terminate conversations could limit user engagement or introduce unintended biases.

Critics also warned that the concept of model welfare risks over-anthropomorphising AI, potentially shifting focus away from human safety.

The update arrives alongside other recent Anthropic innovations, including memory features that allow users to maintain conversation history. Together, these changes highlight the company’s balanced approach: enhancing usability where beneficial, while ensuring safeguards are in place when interactions become potentially harmful.

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Geoffrey Hinton warns AI could destroy humanity

AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has warned that AI could one day wipe out humanity if its growth is unchecked.

Speaking at the Ai4 conference in Las Vegas, the former Google executive estimated a 10 to 20 percent chance of such an outcome and criticised the approach taken by technology leaders.

He argued that efforts to keep humans ‘dominant’ over AI will fail once systems become more intelligent than their creators. According to Hinton, powerful AI will inevitably develop goals such as survival and control, making it increasingly difficult for people to restrain its influence.

In an interview with CNN, Hinton compared the potential future to a parent-child relationship, noting that AI systems may manipulate humans just as easily as an adult can bribe a child.

He suggested giving AI ‘maternal instincts’ to prevent disaster so that the technology genuinely cares about human well-being.

Hinton, often called the ‘Godfather of AI’ for his pioneering work in neural networks, cautioned that society risks creating beings that will ultimately outsmart and overpower us without embedding such safeguards.

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Employees of OpenAI eye multi-billion dollar stock sale

According to a source familiar with the talks, OpenAI employees are preparing to sell around $6 billion worth of shares to major investors, including SoftBank Group and Thrive Capital.

The deal, still at an early stage, would push the company’s valuation to $500 billion, up from its current $300 billion.

SoftBank, Thrive and Dragoneer Investment Group are already among OpenAI’s backers, and their participation in the secondary share sale would further strengthen ties with the Microsoft-supported AI company.

Reports suggest the size of the sale could still change as discussions continue.

The planned deal follows SoftBank’s leadership role in OpenAI’s $40 billion primary funding round earlier this year. Employee share sales often reflect strong investor demand and highlight the rapid growth of companies in competitive markets.

OpenAI has seen user numbers and revenues soar in 2025, with weekly active ChatGPT users climbing to about 700 million, up from 400 million in February.

The company doubled its revenue in the first seven months of the year, hitting an annualised run rate of $12 billion, and is expected to reach $20 billion by the end of the year.

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New Gemini update remembers your preferences, until you tell it not to

Google has begun rolling out a feature that enables its Gemini AI chatbot to automatically remember key personal details and preferences from previous chats, unless users opt out. However, this builds upon earlier functionality where memory could only be activated on request.

The update is enabled by default on Gemini 2.5 Pro in select countries and will be extended to the 2.5 Flash version later. Users can turn off the setting under Personal Context in the app to deactivate it.

Alongside auto-memory, Google is introducing Temporary Chats, a privacy tool for one-off interactions. These conversations aren’t saved to your history, aren’t used to train Gemini, and are deleted after 72 hours.

Google is also renaming ‘Gemini Apps Activity’ to ‘Keep Activity’, a setting that, when enabled, lets Google sample uploads like files and photos to improve services from 2 September, while still offering the option to opt out.

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UK estate agents adopt AI tools to offset hiring challenges

UK property agents are increasingly leveraging AI and automation to tackle a growing skills shortage in the sector, according to an analysis by PropTech provider Reapit.

Reapit’s Property Outlook Report 2025 shows that although agencies continue hiring, most face recruitment difficulties: more than half receive fewer than five qualified applicants per vacancy. Growth in payrolled employees is minimal, and the slowest year-on-year rise since May 2021 reflects wider labour market tightness.

In response, agencies are turning to time-saving technologies. A majority report that automation is more cost-effective than expanding headcount, with nearly 80 percent citing increased productivity from these tools.

This shift towards PropTech and AI reflects deeper structural pressures in the UK real estate sector: high employment costs, slower workforce growth, and increasing demands for efficiency are reshaping the role of technology in agency operations.

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