Development Archives | Page 233 of 562 | Digital Watch Observatory

Production restarts after cyber incident as JLR launches supplier financing

JLR has begun restarting its manufacturing operations after a cyber incident in early September disrupted production. The phased return started on 8 October at the Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre and the Battery Assembly Centre in the West Midlands.

Staff are also returning to stamping facilities in Castle Bromwich, Halewood, and Solihull, as well as the body shop, paint shop, and Logistics Operations Centre in Solihull. Vehicle production in Nitra, Slovakia, and the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport lines in Solihull are resuming this week, with further updates expected for other sites, including Halewood.

JLR has introduced a new financing scheme to support suppliers during the restart and ease cashflow pressures. The programme allows qualifying suppliers to receive the bulk of their payment shortly after orders are placed, with the remainder settled upon invoice.

The move accelerates payments by as much as 120 days compared with the company’s standard 60-day terms. JLR will cover the financing costs for suppliers participating during the restart phase.

The new scheme builds on earlier measures to assist suppliers following the cyberattack, such as setting up a dedicated help desk, creating a manual payment system for pending invoices, and recently restoring automated payment systems. Initially focused on suppliers critical to restarting production, the programme will expand to include some non-production suppliers as operations stabilise.

JLR also took steps to bolster liquidity in September to support the phased recovery and ensure its supply chain remains robust as full production resumes.

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Policy hackathon shapes OpenAI proposals ahead of EU AI strategy

OpenAI has published 20 policy proposals to speed up AI adoption across the EU. Released shortly before the European Commission’s Apply AI Strategy, the report outlines practical steps for member states, businesses, and the public sector to bridge the gap between ambition and deployment.

The proposals originate from Hacktivate AI, a Brussels hackathon with 65 participants from EU institutions, governments, industry, and academia. They focus on workforce retraining, SME support, regulatory harmonisation, and public sector collaboration, highlighting OpenAI’s growing policy role in Europe.

Key ideas include Individual AI Learning Accounts to support workers, an AI Champions Network to mobilise SMEs, and a European GovAI Hub to share resources with public institutions. OpenAI’s Martin Signoux said the goal was to bridge the divide between strategy and action.

Europe already represents a major market for OpenAI tools, with widespread use among developers and enterprises, including Sanofi, Parloa, and Pigment. Yet adoption remains uneven, with IT and finance leading, manufacturing catching up, and other sectors lagging behind, exposing a widening digital divide.

The European Commission is expected to unveil its Apply AI Strategy within days. OpenAI’s proposals act as a direct contribution to the policy debate, complementing previous initiatives such as its EU Economic Blueprint and partnerships with governments in Germany and Greece.

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Brazil advances first national cybersecurity law

Brazil is preparing to pass its first national cybersecurity law, aiming to centralise oversight and strengthen protection for citizens and companies. The Cybersecurity Legal Framework would establish a new National Cybersecurity Authority to coordinate defence efforts across government and industry.

The legislation comes after a series of high-profile cyberattacks disrupted hospitals and exposed millions of personal records, highlighting gaps in Brazil’s digital defences. The authority would create nationwide standards, replacing fragmented rules currently managed by individual ministries and agencies.

Under the bill, public procurement will require compliance with official security standards, and suppliers will share responsibility for incidents. Companies meeting the rules could be listed as trusted providers, potentially boosting competitiveness in both public and private sectors.

The framework also includes incentives: financing through the National Public Security Fund and priority for locally developed technologies. While the bill still awaits approval in Congress, its adoption would make Brazil one of Latin America’s first countries with a comprehensive cybersecurity law.

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Anthropic’s Claude to power Deloitte’s new enterprise AI expansion

Deloitte entered a new enterprise AI partnership with Anthropic shortly after refunding the Australian government for a report that included inaccurate AI-generated information.

The A$439,000 (US$290,618) contract was intended for an independent review but contained fabricated citations to non-existent academic sources. Deloitte has since repaid the final instalment, and the government of Australia has released a corrected version of the report.

Despite the controversy, Deloitte is expanding its use of AI by integrating Anthropic’s Claude chatbot across its global workforce of nearly half a million employees.

A collaboration will focus on developing AI-driven tools for compliance, automation and data analysis, especially in highly regulated industries such as finance and healthcare.

The companies also plan to design AI agent personas tailored to Deloitte’s various departments to enhance productivity and decision-making. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

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ChatGPT reaches 800 million weekly users as OpenAI’s value hits $500 billion

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has announced that ChatGPT now reaches 800 million weekly active users, reflecting rapid growth across consumers, developers, enterprises and governments.

The figure marks another milestone for the company, which reported 700 million weekly users in August and 500 million at the end of March.

Altman shared the news during OpenAI’s Dev Day keynote, noting that four million developers are now building with OpenAI tools. He said ChatGPT processes more than six billion tokens per minute through its API, signalling how deeply integrated it has become across digital ecosystems.

The event also introduced new tools for building apps directly within ChatGPT and creating more advanced agentic systems. Altman states these will support a new generation of interactive and personalised applications.

OpenAI, still legally a nonprofit, was recently valued at $500 billion following a private stock sale worth $6.6 billion.

Its growing portfolio now includes the Sora video-generation tool, a new social platform, and a commerce partnership with Stripe, consolidating its status as the world’s most valuable private company.

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India’s competition watchdog urges AI self-audits to prevent market distortions

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has urged companies to self-audit their AI systems to prevent anti-competitive practices and ensure responsible autonomy.

A call came as part of the CCI’s market study on AI, emphasising the risks of opacity and algorithmic collusion while highlighting AI’s potential to enhance innovation and productivity.

The study warned that dominant firms could exploit their control over data, infrastructure, and proprietary models to reinforce market power, creating barriers to entry. It also noted that opaque AI systems in user sectors may lead to tacit algorithmic coordination in pricing and strategy, undermining fair competition.

The regulatory approach of India, the CCI said, aims to balance technological progress with accountability through a co-regulatory framework that promotes both competition and innovation.

Additionally, the Commission plans to strengthen its technical capacity, establish a digital markets think tank and host a conference on AI and regulatory challenges.

A report recommended a six-step self-audit framework for enterprises, requiring evaluation of AI systems against competition risks, senior management oversight and clear accountability in high-risk deployments.

It also highlighted AI’s pro-competitive effects, particularly for MSMEs, which benefit from improved efficiency and greater access to digital markets.

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OpenAI and AMD strike 6GW GPU deal to power next-generation AI infrastructure

AMD and OpenAI have announced a strategic partnership to deploy up to six gigawatts of AMD GPUs, marking one of the largest AI compute collaborations.

The multi-year agreement will begin with the rollout of one gigawatt of AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs in the second half of 2026, with further deployments planned across future AMD generations.

A deal that deepens a long-standing relationship between the two companies began with AMD’s MI300X and MI350X series.

OpenAI will adopt AMD as a core strategic compute partner, integrating its technology into large-scale AI systems and jointly optimising product roadmaps to support next-generation AI workloads.

To strengthen alignment, AMD has issued OpenAI a warrant for up to 160 million shares, with tranches vesting as the partnership achieves deployment and share-price milestones. AMD expects the collaboration to deliver tens of billions in revenue and boost its non-GAAP earnings per share.

AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su called the deal ‘a true win-win’ for both companies, while OpenAI’s Sam Altman said the partnership will ‘accelerate progress and bring advanced AI benefits to everyone faster’.

The collaboration positions AMD as a leading hardware supplier in the race to build global-scale AI infrastructure.

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AI-designed proteins surpass nature in genome editing

Researchers in Barcelona have developed synthetic proteins using generative AI that outperform natural ones at editing the human genome. The breakthrough, published in Nature Biotechnology, could transform treatments for cancer and rare genetic diseases.

The team from Integra Therapeutics, UPF and the CRG screened over 31,000 eukaryotic genomes, identifying more than 13,000 previously unknown PiggyBac transposase sequences. Experimental tests revealed ten active variants, two matching or exceeding current lab-optimised versions.

In the next phase, scientists trained a protein large language model on the newly discovered sequences to create entirely new proteins with improved genome-editing precision. The AI-generated enzymes worked efficiently in human T cells and proved compatible with Integra’s FiCAT gene-editing platform.

The Spanish researchers say the approach shows AI can expand biology’s own toolkit. By understanding the molecular ‘grammar’ of proteins, the model produced novel sequences that remain structurally and functionally sound.

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OpenAI backs policy push for Europe’s AI uptake

OpenAI and Allied for Startups have released Hacktivate AI, a set of 20 ideas to speed up AI adoption across Europe ahead of the Commission’s Apply AI Strategy.

The report emerged from a Brussels policy hackathon with 65 participants from EU bodies, governments, enterprises and startups, proposing measures such as an Individual AI Learning Account, an AI Champions Network for SMEs, a European GovAI Hub and relentless harmonisation.

OpenAI highlights strong European demand and uneven workplace uptake, citing sector gaps and the need for targeted support, while pointing to initiatives like OpenAI Academy to widen skills.

Broader policy momentum is building, with the EU preparing an Apply AI Strategy to boost homegrown tools and cut dependencies, reinforcing the push for practical deployment across public services and industry.

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A new AI strategy by the EU to cut reliance on the US and China

The EU is preparing to unveil a new strategy to reduce reliance on American and Chinese technology by accelerating the growth of homegrown AI.

The ‘Apply AI strategy’, set to be presented by the EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen, positions AI as a strategic asset essential for the bloc’s competitiveness, security and resilience.

According to draft documents, the plan will prioritise adopting European-made AI tools across healthcare, defence and manufacturing.

Public administrations are expected to play a central role by integrating open-source EU AI systems, providing a market for local start-ups and reducing dependence on foreign platforms. The Commission has pledged €1bn from existing financing programmes to support the initiative.

Brussels has warned that foreign control of the ‘AI stack’ (the hardware and software that underpin advanced systems) could be ‘weaponised’ by state and non-state actors.

These concerns have intensified following Europe’s continued dependence on American tech infrastructure. Meanwhile, China’s rapid progress in AI has further raised fears that the Union risks losing influence in shaping the technology’s future.

Several high-potential AI firms have already been hosted by the EU, including France’s Mistral and Germany’s Helsing. However, they rely heavily on overseas suppliers for software, hardware, and critical minerals.

The Commission wants to accelerate the deployment of European AI-enabled defence tools, such as command-and-control systems, which remain dependent on NATO and US providers. The strategy also outlines investment in sovereign frontier models for areas like space defence.

President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc aims to ‘speed up AI adoption across the board’ to ensure it does not miss the transformative wave.

Brussels hopes to carve out a more substantial global role in the next phase of technological competition by reframing AI as an industrial sovereignty and security instrument.

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