Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek gains business traction despite security risks

Chinese AI company DeepSeek is gaining traction in global markets despite growing concerns about national security.

While government bans remain in place across several countries, businesses are turning to DeepSeek’s models for low cost and firm performance, often ranking just behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini in traffic and market share.

DeepSeek’s appeal lies in its efficiency. With advanced engineering techniques like its ‘mixture-of-experts’ system, the company has reduced computing costs by activating fewer parameters without a noticeable drop in performance.

Training costs have reportedly been as low as $5.6 million — a fraction of what rivals like Anthropic spend. As a result, DeepSeek’s models are now available across major platforms, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and even open-source repositories like GitHub and Hugging Face.

However, the way DeepSeek is accessed matters. While companies can safely self-host the models in private environments, using the mobile app or website means sending data to Chinese servers, a key reason for widespread bans on public-sector use.

Individual consumers often lack the technical control enterprises enjoy, making their data more vulnerable to foreign access.

Despite the political tension, demand continues to grow. US firms are exploring DeepSeek as a cost-saving alternative, and its models are being deployed in industries from telecoms to finance.

Even Perplexity, an American AI firm, has used DeepSeek R1 to power a research tool hosted entirely on Western servers. DeepSeek’s open-source edge and rapid technical progress are helping it close the gap with much larger AI competitors — quietly but significantly.

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Meta’s AI chatbots are designed to initiate conversations and enhance user engagement

Meta is training AI-powered chatbots that can remember previous conversations, send personalised follow-up messages, and actively re-engage users without needing a prompt.

Internal documents show that the company aims to keep users interacting longer across platforms like Instagram and Facebook by making bots more proactive and human-like.

Under the project code-named ‘Omni’, contractors from the firm Alignerr are helping train these AI agents using detailed personality profiles and memory-based conversations.

These bots are developed through Meta’s AI Studio — a no-code platform launched in 2024 that lets users build customised digital personas, from chefs and designers to fictional characters. Only after a user initiates a conversation can a bot send one follow-up, and that too within a 14-day window.

Bots must match their assigned personality and reference earlier interactions, offering relevant and light-hearted responses while avoiding emotionally charged or sensitive topics unless the user brings them up. Meta says the feature is being tested and rolled out gradually.

The company hopes it will not only improve user retention but also serve as a response to what CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls the ‘loneliness epidemic’.

With revenue from generative AI tools projected to reach up to $3 billion in 2025, Meta’s focus on more prolonged and engaging chatbot interactions appears to be as strategic as social.

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X to test AI-generated Community Notes

X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, is preparing to test a new feature allowing AI chatbots to generate Community Notes.

These notes, a user-driven fact-checking system expanded under Elon Musk, are meant to provide context on misleading or ambiguous posts, such as AI-generated videos or political claims.

The pilot will enable AI systems like Grok or third-party large language models to submit notes via API. Each AI-generated comment will be treated the same as a human-written one, undergoing the same vetting process to ensure reliability.

However, concerns remain about AI’s tendency to hallucinate, where it may generate inaccurate or fabricated information instead of grounded fact-checks.

A recent research paper by the X Community Notes team suggests that AI and humans should collaborate, with people offering reinforcement learning feedback and acting as the final layer of review. The aim is to help users think more critically, not replace human judgment with machine output.

Still, risks persist. Over-reliance on AI, particularly models prone to excessive helpfulness rather than accuracy, could lead to incorrect notes slipping through.

There are also fears that human raters could become overwhelmed by a flood of AI submissions, reducing the overall quality of the system. X intends to trial the system over the coming weeks before any wider rollout.

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Croatia turns bus stops into AI-powered health stations

Croatia has introduced a groundbreaking public health campaign that uses AI and interactive billboards to tackle undiagnosed spinal issues. The initiative, led by Croatia Poliklinika, has provided over 100,000 free posture screenings and reached nearly 78% of the country’s population.

By converting bus stops into makeshift health stations, the project enables passers-by to receive posture checks via AI-powered digital billboards. The system analyses spine alignment at eight points and offers instant feedback, encouraging users to seek specialist help through a QR code.

The campaign has sparked immediate behavioural change, with 97% of people adjusting their posture during the scan. Since its launch, Croatia has seen a 46% rise in preventive spine check-ups, turning passive advertising spaces into tools for public well-being.

Croatia Poliklinika, which operates nine clinics nationwide, says the project demonstrates how digital infrastructure can reshape healthcare accessibility. The success is being hailed as a model for how technology can redefine public health engagement in everyday spaces.

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Amazon reaches one million warehouse robots

Amazon has reached a major milestone with over one million robots now operating in its warehouses.

The one millionth robot, recently deployed to a facility in Japan, marks 13 years since the tech giant began introducing automation through its acquisition of Kiva Systems in 2012.

The robotic presence is fast approaching parity with Amazon’s human workforce, according to The Wall Street Journal. Robots now assist in around 75% of the company’s global deliveries.

The company continues to upgrade its robotic fleet, recently unveiling Vulcan — a dual-armed model equipped with a suction grip and a sense of touch to handle items more delicately.

Amazon is also introducing DeepFleet, a new generative AI model built using Amazon SageMaker.

Designed to optimise robotic movement within fulfilment centres, DeepFleet is expected to improve fleet speed by 10%. The model is trained on Amazon’s operational data, making it highly tailored to the company’s logistical network.

The expansion comes as Amazon opens next-generation fulfilment centres featuring ten times more robots instead of relying solely on existing warehouse models. The first of these facilities opened in late 2024 in Shreveport, Louisiana, signalling a shift toward even greater automation.

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Pentagon backs $10M deal with AI firm to integrate LLMs across its command centres

Pentagon officials have awarded AI firm Ask Sage a $10 million contract to integrate large language models (LLMs) across all US Combatant Commands, the Joint Staff, and the Office of the Secretary of Defence. The collaboration seeks to harness generative AI to speed up battlefield decision‑making and streamline workflows.

Application benefits include operational planning, logistics, command and control, intelligence, cybersecurity, and weapons development. Ask Sage’s AI‑powered tools will be deployed through the US Army’s LLM workspace, seamlessly linking classified and unclassified networks.

Deployment of these models is expected to support more agile, informed military operations while navigating security and data‑sharing challenges inherent to classified environments. The deal marks a strategic continuation of the Pentagon’s wider AI and digital transformation efforts.

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Grammarly invests in email with Superhuman acquisition

Grammarly announced on Tuesday that it has acquired email client Superhuman to expand its AI capabilities within its productivity suite.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed by either company. Superhuman, founded by Rahul Vohra, Vivek Sodera and Conrad Irwin, has raised over $114 million from investors such as a16z and Tiger Global, with a last valuation of $825 million.

Grammarly CEO Shishir Mehrotra said the acquisition will enable the company to bring enhanced AI collaboration to millions more professionals, adding that email is not just another app but a crucial platform where users spend significant time.

Superhuman’s CEO Rahul Vohra and his team are joining Grammarly, promising to invest further in improving the Superhuman experience and building AI agents that collaborate across everyday communication tools.

Recently, Superhuman introduced AI-powered features like scheduling, replies and email categorisation. Grammarly aims to leverage the technology to build smarter AI agents for email, which remains a top use case for its customers.

The move follows Grammarly’s acquisition of productivity software Coda last year and the promotion of Shishir Mehrotra to CEO.

In May, Grammarly secured $1 billion from General Catalyst through a non-dilutive investment, repaid by a capped percentage of revenue generated using the funds instead of equity.

The Superhuman deal further signals Grammarly’s commitment to integrating AI deeply into professional communication.

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DDN gears up for AI boom with next-gen storage systems

DataDirect Networks (DDN) is positioning itself at the heart of the coming AI boom, projecting that enterprise adoption of AI will soon surge — and with it, demand for powerful storage systems.

The company, a veteran in high-performance computing (HPC) storage, expects orders from existing HPC clients to triple or quadruple by 2027. DDN co-founder Paul Bloch highlighted Elon Musk’s xAI cluster in Memphis, which currently uses 200,000 GPUs — a number he says could grow to one million.

DDN has upgraded its core storage systems with the AI400X3, delivering up to 140GBps read speeds and major improvements in resilience and fault tolerance. The system supports NVMe-over-TCP and integrates seamlessly with Nvidia’s SpectrumX and Blackwell GPU architectures.

The company also released Infinia 2.1, a revamped object storage platform designed for enterprise AI. It offers a 100x speed boost, supports major AI frameworks like PyTorch and TensorFlow, and is now available via Google Cloud.

DDN is already supporting 700,000 GPUs across 7,000 customers, including 4,000 focused on AI. Backed by Blackstone’s recent $300 million investment, DDN plans to expand into new enterprise markets and increase hiring by over 20% this year.

With AI adoption spreading across industries, DDN says the need for scalable, GPU-optimised storage will become mission-critical.

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Cloudflare’s new tool lets publishers charge AI crawlers

Cloudflare, which powers 20% of the web, has launched a new marketplace called Pay per Crawl, aiming to redefine how website owners interact with AI companies.

The platform allows publishers to set a price for AI crawlers to access their content instead of allowing unrestricted scraping or blocking. Website owners can decide to charge a micropayment for each crawl, permit free access, or block crawlers altogether, gaining more control over their material.

Over the past year, Cloudflare introduced tools for publishers to monitor and block AI crawlers, laying the groundwork for the marketplace. Major publishers like Conde Nast, TIME and The Associated Press have joined Cloudflare in blocking AI crawlers by default, supporting a permission-based approach.

The company also now blocks AI bots by default on all new sites, requiring site owners to grant access.

Cloudflare’s data reveals that AI crawlers scrape websites far more aggressively than traditional search engines, often without sending equivalent referral traffic. For example, OpenAI’s crawler scraped sites 1,700 times for every referral, compared to Google’s 14 times.

As AI agents evolve to gather and deliver information directly, it raises challenges for publishers who rely on site visits for revenue.

Pay per Crawl could offer a new business model for publishers in an AI-driven world. Cloudflare envisions a future where AI agents operate with a budget to access quality content programmatically, helping users synthesise information from trusted sources.

For now, both publishers and AI companies need Cloudflare accounts to set crawl rates, with Cloudflare managing payments. The company is also exploring stablecoins as a possible payment method in the future.

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Why AI won’t replace empathy at work

AI is increasingly being used to improve how organisations measure and support employee performance and well-being.

According to Dr Serena Huang, founder of Data with Serena and author of The Inclusion Equation, AI provides insights that go far beyond traditional annual reviews or turnover statistics.

AI tools can detect early signs of burnout, identify high-potential staff, and even flag overly controlling management styles. More importantly, they offer the potential to personalise development pathways based on employee needs and aspirations.

Huang emphasises, however, that ethical use is vital. Transparency and privacy must remain central to ensure AI empowers rather than surveils workers. Far from making human skills obsolete, Huang argues that AI increases their value.

With machines handling routine analysis, people are free to focus on complex challenges and relationship-building—critical skills in sales, leadership, and team dynamics. AI can assist, but it is emotional intelligence and empathy that truly drive results.

To ensure data-driven efforts align with business goals, Huang urges companies to ask better questions. Understanding what challenges matter to stakeholders helps ensure that any AI deployment addresses real-world needs. Regular check-ins and progress reviews help maintain alignment.

Rather than fear AI as a job threat, Huang encourages individuals to embrace it as a tool for growth. Staying curious and continually learning can ensure workers remain relevant in an evolving market.

She also highlights the strategic advantage of prioritising employee well-being. Companies that invest in mental health, work-life balance, and inclusion enjoy higher productivity and retention.

With younger workers placing a premium on wellness and values, businesses that foster a caring culture will attract top talent and stay competitive. Ultimately, Huang sees AI not as a replacement for people, but as a catalyst for more human-centric, data-informed workplaces.

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