Cloud computing

AI-powered home cinema and smart appliances unveiled by Hisense at IFA 2025

Hisense will debut AI-powered innovations at IFA 2025 under the theme ‘AI Your Life,’ showcasing entertainment, smart homes, and climate-friendly technologies. The company aims to make AI seamless and personal.

Entertainment highlights include the 116-inch RGB-MiniLED UX TV with 8,000 nits brightness, plus new laser projectors offering IMAX-level clarity and portability for home cinema and gaming.

Appliances get smarter with the PureFlat refrigerator, featuring a 21-inch screen for cooking, streaming, and AI art. ConnectLife agents will optimise chores and energy use in daily routines.

The U8 S Pro Air Conditioner brings presence detection, AI voice controls, and air purification, while Hisense expands into smart buildings, energy systems, and automotive climate solutions.

Combining advanced display technologies with next-gen appliances, Hisense says its innovations will empower people to live more freely and confidently across global markets.

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Amazon rolls out Lens Live for real-world AI shopping

Amazon has introduced Lens Live, an AI-powered feature that lets shoppers identify and buy products by pointing their phone camera at real-world items.

The tool builds on Amazon Lens by adding a live, real-time element to product discovery.

Lens Live is integrated with Amazon’s AI assistant Rufus, which provides AI-generated product summaries, suggested questions and insights to help users make informed decisions.

It is powered by Amazon SageMaker and AWS-managed OpenSearch, enabling machine learning at scale.

The feature has launched on the Amazon Shopping app for iOS, initially available to tens of millions of US shoppers, with no word yet on an international rollout.

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Statsig to be acquired by OpenAI in £1.1bn deal

OpenAI has agreed to acquire the product development startup Statsig in an all-stock deal valued at £1.1 billion, marking one of the most significant acquisitions in the company’s history.

Statsig, founded in 2021, provides tools for developers to test and manage new features. Upon completion of the deal, Statsig’s founder and CEO, Vijaye Raji, will join OpenAI as the new chief technology officer (CTO) for applications.

Raji will report to OpenAI Applications CEO Fidji Simo and lead product engineering for key products such as ChatGPT.

The acquisition is part of a broader trend of significant deals for the AI company this year, which recently concluded a £6.5 billion all-stock acquisition of an AI device startup. OpenAI’s expanding valuation, which reached £300 billion following a March funding round, has supported this growth.

The company is reportedly discussing a further share sale that could increase its valuation to £500 billion. The completion of the Statsig deal is subject to regulatory approval, after which the company will continue to operate independently from its Seattle office, with its employees joining the OpenAI team.

Other leadership changes at OpenAI include the appointment of Srinivas Narayanan as CTO for B2B applications and Kevin Weil’s move to a new team focused on AI for Science.

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Privacy concerns arise as Google reportedly expands gaming data sharing

Google may roll out a Play Games update on 23 September adding public profiles, stat tracking, and community features. Reports suggest users may customise profiles, follow others, and import gaming history, while Google could collect gameplay and developer data.

The update is said to track installed games, session lengths, and in-game achievements, with some participating developers potentially accessing additional data. Players can reportedly manage visibility settings, delete profiles, or keep accounts private, with default settings applied unless changed.

The EU and UK are expected to receive the update on 1 October.

Privacy concerns have been highlighted in Europe. Austrian group NOYB filed a complaint against Ubisoft over alleged excessive data collection in games like Far Cry Primal, suggesting that session tracking and frequent online connections may conflict with GDPR.

Ubisoft could face fines of up to four percent of global turnover, based on last year’s revenues.

Observers suggest the update reflects a social and data-driven gaming trend, though European players may seek more explicit consent and transparency.

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Microsoft to supply AI tools to federal agencies in a cost-saving pact

The US General Services Administration (GSA) has agreed on a significant deal with Microsoft to provide federal agencies with discounted access to its AI and cloud tools suite.

Instead of managing separate contracts, the government-wide pact offers unified pricing on products including Microsoft 365, the Copilot AI assistant, and Azure cloud services, potentially saving agencies up to $3.1 billion in its first year.

The arrangement is designed to accelerate AI adoption and digital transformation across the federal government. It includes free access to the generative AI chatbot Microsoft 365 Copilot for up to 12 months, alongside discounts on cybersecurity tools and Dynamics 365.

Agencies can opt into any of the offers through September next year.

The deal leverages the federal government’s collective purchasing power to reduce costs and foster innovation.

It delivers on a White House AI action plan and follows similar arrangements the GSA announced last month with other tech giants, including Google, Amazon Web Services, and OpenAI.

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Gemini upgrade for Google Home coming soon

An upcoming upgrade for Google Home devices is set to bring a new AI assistant, Gemini, to the smart home ecosystem. A recent post by the Made by Google account on X revealed that more details will be announced on 1 October.

The move follows months of user complaints about Google Home’s performance, including issues with connectivity and the assistant’s failure to recognise basic commands.

With Gemini’s superior ability to understand natural language, the upgrade is expected to improve how users interact with their smart devices significantly. Home devices should better execute complex commands with multiple actions, such as dimming some lights while leaving others on.

However, the update will also introduce ‘Gemini Live’ to compatible devices, a feature allowing for natural, back-and-forth conversations with the AI chatbot.

The Gemini for Google Home upgrade will initially be rolled out on an early access basis. It will be available in free and paid tiers, suggesting that some more advanced features may be locked behind a subscription.

The update is anticipated to make Google Home and Nest devices more reliable and to handle complex requests easily.

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Quantum and supercomputing converge in IBM-AMD initiative

IBM has announced plans to develop next-generation computing architectures by integrating quantum computers with high-performance computing, a concept it calls quantum-centric supercomputing.

The company is working with AMD to build scalable, open-source platforms that combine IBM’s quantum expertise with AMD’s strength in HPC and AI accelerators. The aim is to move beyond the limits of traditional computing and explore solutions to problems that classical systems cannot address alone.

Quantum computing uses qubits governed by quantum mechanics, offering a far richer computational space than binary bits. In a hybrid model, quantum machines could simulate atoms and molecules, while supercomputers powered by CPUs, GPUs, and AI manage large-scale data analysis.

Arvind Krishna, IBM’s CEO, said the approach represents a new way of simulating the natural world. AMD’s Lisa Su described high-performance computing as foundational to tackling global challenges, noting the partnership could accelerate discovery and innovation.

An initial demonstration is planned for later this year, showing IBM quantum computers working with AMD technologies. Both companies say open-source ecosystems like Qiskit will be crucial to building new algorithms and advancing fault-tolerant quantum systems.

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Azure Active Directory flaw exposes sensitive credentials

A critical security flaw in Azure Active Directory has exposed application credentials stored in appsettings.json files, allowing attackers unprecedented access to Microsoft 365 tenants.

By exploiting these credentials, threat actors can masquerade as trusted applications and gain unauthorised entry to sensitive organisational data.

The vulnerability leverages the OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials Flow, enabling attackers to generate valid access tokens.

Once authenticated, they can access Microsoft Graph APIs to enumerate users, groups, and directory roles, especially when applications have been granted excessive permissions such as Directory.Read.All or Mail.Read. Such access permits data harvesting across SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange Online.

Attackers can also deploy malicious applications under compromised tenants, escalating privileges from limited read access to complete administrative control.

Additional exposed secrets like storage account keys or database connection strings enable lateral movement, modification of critical data, and the creation of persistent backdoors within cloud infrastructure.

Organisations face profound compliance implications under GDPR, HIPAA, or SOX. The vulnerability emphasises the importance of auditing configuration files, storing credentials securely in solutions like Azure Key Vault, and monitoring authentication patterns to prevent long-term, sophisticated attacks.

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Alibaba shares soar on AI and cloud growth

Alibaba’s Hong Kong shares rose over 15%, their most significant single-day gain since early 2023, following strong AI revenue growth. AI-related sales surged triple digits, and the cloud division grew 26% to 33.4 billion yuan ($4.7 billion), exceeding expectations and driving expansion.

The results underline Alibaba’s transformation from a retail-heavy company into a diversified technology player. Analysts say AI is now a central growth driver, with cloud and AI offerings boosting investor confidence despite price war pressures from JD.com and Meituan.

Alibaba is investing in AI hardware and developing proprietary chips to reduce reliance on foreign semiconductors. The strategy aims to build faster, cheaper, and more secure AI systems for domestic and international markets, including Lazada and AliExpress.

Experts view this calculated self-reliance and strong cloud and AI services as a long-term growth driver.

While retail rivals continue to struggle with profit pressure, Alibaba’s leadership has emphasised AI as a core strategic focus.

CEO Eddie Wu emphasised ambitions in artificial general intelligence, with analysts noting AI could protect Alibaba from price wars and support growth across multiple business areas.

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Apple creates Asa chatbot for staff training

Apple is moving forward with its integrated approach to AI by testing an internal chatbot designed for retail training. The company focuses on embedding AI into existing services rather than launching a consumer-facing chatbot like Google’s Gemini or ChatGPT.

The new tool, Asa, is being tested within Apple’s SEED app, which offers training resources for store employees and authorised resellers. Asa is expected to improve learning by allowing staff to ask open-ended questions and receive tailored responses.

Screenshots shared by analyst Aaron Perris show Asa handling queries about device features, comparisons, and use cases. Although still in testing, the chatbot is expected to expand across Apple’s retail network in the coming weeks.

The development occurs amid broader AI tensions, as Elon Musk’s xAI sued Apple and OpenAI for allegedly colluding to limit competition. Apple’s focus on internal AI tools like Asa contrasts with Musk’s legal action, highlighting disputes over AI market dominance and platform integration.

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