Scientists have unveiled an AI tool capable of predicting the risk of developing over 1,000 medical conditions. Published in Nature, the model can forecast certain cancers, heart attacks, and other diseases more than a decade in advance.
Developed by the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), and the University of Copenhagen, the model utilises anonymised health data from the UK and Denmark. It tracks the order and timing of medical events to spot patterns that lead to serious illness.
Researchers said the tool is exceptionally accurate for diseases with consistent progression, including some cancers, diabetes, heart attacks, and septicaemia. Its predictions work like a weather forecast, indicating higher risk rather than certainty.
The model is less reliable for unpredictable conditions such as mental health disorders, infectious diseases, or pregnancy complications. It is more accurate for near-term forecasts than for those decades ahead.
Though not yet ready for clinical use, the system could help doctors identify high-risk patients earlier and enable more personalised, preventive healthcare strategies. Researchers say more work is needed to ensure the tool works for diverse populations.
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Ireland has designated 15 authorities to monitor compliance with the EU’s AI Act, making it one of the first EU countries fully ready to enforce the new rules. The AI Act regulates AI systems according to their risk to society and began phasing in last year.
Governments had until 2 August to notify the European Commission of their appointed market surveillance authorities. In Ireland, these include the Central Bank, Coimisiún na Meán, the Data Protection Commission, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, and the Health and Safety Authority.
The country will also establish a National AI Office as the central coordinator for AI Act enforcement and liaise with EU institutions. A single point of contact must be designated where multiple authorities are involved to ensure clear communication.
Ireland joins Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and Spain as countries that have appointed their contact points. The Commission has not yet published the complete list of authorities notified by member states.
Former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has called for a pause in the rollout of the AI Act, citing risks and a lack of technical standards. The Commission has launched a consultation as part of its digital simplification package, which will be implemented in December.
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NVIDIA and the UK are accelerating plans to build the nation’s AI infrastructure, positioning the country as a hub for AI innovation, jobs and research.
The partnership, announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang earlier in the year, has already resulted in commitments worth up to £11 billion.
A rollout that includes AI factories equipped with 120,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs across UK data centres, supporting projects such as OpenAI’s Stargate UK.
NVIDIA partner Nscale will host 60,000 of these GPUs domestically while expanding its global capacity to 300,000. Microsoft, CoreWeave and other partners are also investing in advanced supercomputing facilities, with new projects announced in England and Scotland.
NVIDIA is working with Oxford Quantum Circuits and other research institutions to integrate AI and quantum technologies in a collaboration that extends to quantum computing.
Universities in Edinburgh and Oxford are advancing GPU-driven quantum error correction and AI-controlled quantum hardware, highlighting the UK’s growing role in cutting-edge science.
To prepare the workforce, NVIDIA has joined forces with techUK and QA to provide training programmes and AI skills development.
The government has framed the initiative as a foundation for economic resilience, job creation and sovereign AI capability, aiming to place Britain at the forefront of the AI industrial revolution.
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Zuckerberg’s Meta has unveiled a new generation of smart glasses powered by AI at its annual Meta Connect conference in California. Working with Ray-Ban and Oakley, the company introduced devices including the Meta Ray-Ban Display and the Oakley Meta Vanguard.
These glasses are designed to bring the Meta AI assistant into daily use instead of being confined to phones or computers.
The Ray-Ban Display comes with a colour lens screen for video calls and messaging and a 12-megapixel camera, and will sell for $799. It can be paired with a neural wristband that enables tasks through hand gestures.
Meta also presented $499 Oakley Vanguard glasses aimed at sports fans and launched a second generation of its Ray-Ban Meta glasses at $379. Around two million smart glasses have been sold since Meta entered the market in 2023.
Analysts see the glasses as a more practical way of introducing AI to everyday life than the firm’s costly Metaverse project. Yet many caution that Meta must prove the benefits outweigh the price.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg described the technology as a scientific breakthrough. He said it forms part of Meta’s vast AI investment programme, which includes massive data centres and research into artificial superintelligence.
The launch came as activists protested outside Meta’s New York headquarters, accusing the company of neglecting children’s safety. Former safety researchers also told the US Senate that Meta ignored evidence of harm caused by its VR products, claims the company has strongly denied.
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Japanese regulators are reviewing whether the social media platform X fails to comply with new content removal rules.
The law, which took effect in April, requires designated platforms to allow victims of harmful online posts to request deletion without facing unnecessary obstacles.
X currently obliges non-users to register an account before they can file such requests. Officials say that it could represent an excessive burden for victims who violate the law.
The company has also been criticised for not providing clear public guidance on submitting removal requests, prompting questions over its commitment to combating online harassment and defamation.
Other platforms, including YouTube and messaging service Line, have already introduced mechanisms that meet the requirements.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has urged all operators to treat non-users like registered users when responding to deletion demands. Still, X and the bulletin board site bakusai.com have yet to comply.
As said, it will continue to assess whether X’s practices breach the law. Experts on a government panel have called for more public information on the process, arguing that awareness could help deter online abuse.
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The US tech giant, Google, has introduced a new experimental app for Windows that combines web search, file discovery and Google Lens in a single interface.
The tool, known as the Google app for Windows, is part of Search Labs and is designed to allow users to find information faster instead of interrupting their workflow.
An app that can be launched instantly using the Alt+Space shortcut, opening a Spotlight-like bar similar to Apple’s macOS. Users can search local files, installed applications, Google Drive content and web results. It supports multiple modes, including AI-generated answers, images, videos, shopping and news.
A dark mode is available for those who prefer night-time use, and the search bar can be resized or repositioned on the desktop instead of staying fixed.
Google has also built its Lens technology, allowing users to select and search images directly on screen, translate text or solve mathematical problems. An AI Mode offers detailed replies, though it can be disabled or customised through the settings menu.
The experimental app is currently limited to English-speaking users in the US and requires Windows 10 or Windows 11. Google has not yet confirmed when it will expand availability to more regions.
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Scaling law estimation helps organisations make better decisions about architecture, optimisers and dataset sizes before devoting extensive compute budgets.
The team assembled over 485 pre-trained models across 40 families (including Pythia, OPT, Bloom, LLaMA and others) and tracked almost 1.9 million performance metrics. Using that dataset, they fit more than 1,000 scaling laws and assessed variables such as the number of parameters, the token count, intermediate training checkpoints, and seed effects.
Practical recommendations include discarding training data from very early stages (before about 10 billion tokens), using several small models across sizes rather than only large ones, and using intermediate checkpoints rather than waiting for final model loss.
The guide also notes that a 4 percent absolute relative error (ARE) is near best-case for prediction quality, though up to 20 percent ARE remains useful depending on budget.
Because training large models can cost millions, these scaling laws also help those without huge resources to approximate outcomes more safely. AI model inference scaling laws are still under development and are flagged as important future work.
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Hong Kong will establish a new team to advance the use of AI across government departments, Chief Executive John Lee confirmed during his 2025 Policy Address.
The AI Efficacy Enhancement Team, led by Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk, will coordinate reforms to modernise outdated processes and promote efficiency.
Lee said his administration would focus on safe ‘AI+ development’, applying the technology in public services and encouraging adoption across different sectors instead of relying on traditional methods.
He added that Hong Kong had the potential to grow into a global hub for AI and would treat the field as a core industry for the city’s economic future.
Examples of AI adoption are already visible.
The government’s 1823 enquiry hotline uses voice recognition to cut response times by 30 per cent, while the Census and Statistics Department applies AI models to trade data and company reports, reducing manual checks by 40 per cent and improving accuracy.
Authorities expect upcoming censuses in 2026 and 2031 to save about $680 million through AI and data science technologies instead of conventional manpower-heavy methods.
The announcement comes shortly after China unveiled its national AI policy blueprint, which seeks widespread integration of the technology in research, governance and industry, with a target of 90 per cent prevalence by 2030.
Hong Kong’s approach is being positioned as part of a wider push for technological leadership in the region.
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The World Economic Forum (WEF) has published an article on using trade policy to build a fairer digital economy. Digital services now make up over half of global exports, with AI investment projected at $252 billion in 2024. Countries from Kenya to the UAE are positioning as digital hubs, but job quality still lags.
Millions of platform workers face volatile pay, lack of contracts, and no access to social protections. In Kenya alone, 1.9 million people rely on digital work yet face algorithm-driven pay systems and sudden account deactivations. India and the Philippines show similar patterns.
AI threatens to automate lower-skilled tasks such as data annotation and moderation, deepening insecurity in sectors where many developing countries have found a competitive edge. Ethical standards exist but have little impact without enforcement or supportive regulation.
Countries are experimenting with reforms: Singapore now mandates injury compensation and retirement savings for platform workers, while the Rider Law in Spain reclassifies food couriers as employees. Yet overly strict regulation risks eroding the flexibility that attracts youth and caregivers to gig work.
Trade agreements, such as the AfCFTA and the Kenya–EU pact, could embed labour protections in digital markets. Coordinated policies and tripartite dialogue are essential to ensure the digital economy delivers growth, fairness, and dignity for workers.
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YouTube has unveiled a new suite of AI tools designed to enhance the creation of Shorts, with its headline innovation being Veo 3 Fast, a streamlined version of Google DeepMind’s video model.
A system that can generate 480p clips with sound almost instantly, marking the first time audio has been added to Veo-generated Shorts. It is already being rolled out in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with other regions to follow instead of a limited release.
The platform also introduced several advanced editing features, such as motion transfer from video to still images, text-based styling, object insertion and Speech to Song Remixing, which converts spoken dialogue into music through DeepMind’s Lyria 2 model.
Testing will begin in the US before global expansion.
Another innovation, Edit with AI, automatically assembles raw footage into a rough cut complete with transitions, music and interactive voiceovers. YouTube confirmed the tool is in trials and will launch in select markets within weeks instead of years.
All AI-generated Shorts will display labels and watermarks to maintain transparency, as YouTube pushes to expand creator adoption and boost Shorts’ growth as a rival to TikTok and Instagram Reels.
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