Development Archives | Page 273 of 540 | Digital Watch Observatory

Autonomous vehicles fuel surge in 5G adoption

The global 5G automotive market is expected to grow sharply from $2.58 billion in 2024 to $31.18 billion by 2034, fuelled by the rapid adoption of connected and self-driving vehicles.

A compound annual growth rate of over 28% reflects the strong momentum behind the transition to smarter mobility and safer road networks.

Vehicle-to-everything communication is predicted to lead adoption, as it allows vehicles to exchange real-time data with other cars, infrastructure and even pedestrians.

In-car entertainment systems are also growing fast, with consumers demanding smoother connectivity and on-the-go access to apps and media.

Autonom ous driving, advanced driver-assistance features and real-time navigation all benefit from 5G’s low latency and high-speed capabilities. Automakers such as BMW have already begun integrating 5G into electric models to support automated functions.

Meanwhile, the US government has pledged $1.5 billion to build smart transport networks that rely on 5G-powered communication.

North America remains ahead due to early 5G rollouts and strong manufacturing bases, but Asia Pacific is catching up fast through smart city investment and infrastructure development.

Regulatory barriers and patchy rural coverage continue to pose challenges, particularly in regions with strict data privacy laws or limited 5G networks.

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North Korea turns to Russia for AI development help

North Korea is dispatching AI researchers, interns and students to countries such as Russia in an effort to strengthen its domestic tech sector, according to a report by NK News.

The move comes despite strict UN sanctions that restrict technological exchange, particularly in high-priority areas like AI.

Kim Kwang Hyok, head of the AI Institute at Kim Il Sung University, confirmed the strategy in an interview with a pro-Pyongyang outlet in Japan. He admitted that international restrictions remain a major hurdle but noted that researchers continue developing AI applications within North Korea regardless.

Among the projects cited is ‘Ryongma’, a multilingual translation app supporting English, Russian, and Chinese, which has been available on mobile devices since 2021.

Kim also mentioned efforts to develop an AI-driven platform for a hospital under construction in Pyongyang. However, technical limitations remain considerable, with just three known semiconductor plants operating in the country.

While Russia may seem like a natural partner, its own dependence on imported hardware limits how much it can help.

A former South Korean diplomat told NK News that Moscow lacks the domestic capacity to provide high-performance chips essential for advanced AI work, making large-scale collaboration difficult.

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Spotify under fire for AI-generated songs on memorial artist pages

Spotify is facing criticism after AI-generated songs were uploaded to the pages of deceased artists without consent from estates or rights holders.

The latest case involves country singer-songwriter Blaze Foley, who died in 1989. A track titled ‘Together’ was posted to his official Spotify page over the weekend. The song sounded vaguely like a slow country ballad and was paired with AI-generated cover art showing a man who bore no resemblance to Foley.

Craig McDonald, whose label manages Foley’s catalogue, confirmed the track had nothing to do with the artist and described it as inauthentic and harmful. ‘I can clearly tell you that this song is not Blaze, not anywhere near Blaze’s style, at all,’ McDonald told 404 Media. ‘It has the authenticity of an algorithm.’

He criticised Spotify for failing to prevent such uploads and said the company had a duty to stop AI-generated music from appearing under real artists’ names.

‘It’s kind of surprising that Spotify doesn’t have a security fix for this type of action,’ he said. ‘They could fix this problem if they had the will to do so.’ Spotify said it had flagged the track to distributor SoundOn and removed it for violating its deceptive content policy.

However, other similar uploads have already emerged. The same company, Syntax Error, was linked to another AI-generated song titled ‘Happened To You’, uploaded last week under the name of Grammy-winning artist Guy Clark, who died in 2016.

Both tracks have since been removed, but Spotify has not explained how Syntax Error was able to post them using the names and likenesses of late musicians. The controversy is the latest in a wave of AI music incidents slipping through streaming platforms’ content checks.

Earlier this year, an AI-generated band called The Velvet Sundown amassed over a million Spotify streams before disclosing that all their vocals and instrumentals were made by AI.

Another high-profile case involved a fake Drake and The Weeknd collaboration, ‘Heart on My Sleeve’, which gained viral traction before being taken down by Universal Music Group.

Rights groups and artists have repeatedly warned about AI-generated content misrepresenting performers and undermining creative authenticity. As AI tools become more accessible, streaming platforms face mounting pressure to improve detection and approval processes to prevent further misuse.

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Alibaba’s Qwen3 upgrade beats OpenAI and DeepSeek on benchmarks

Alibaba has unveiled a significant update to its flagship open‑source Qwen3 family, spotlighting the Qwen3‑235B‑A22B‑Instruct‑2507‑FP8 model.

However, this revision delivers enhanced capabilities across multiple domains, such as instruction understanding, logical reasoning, text analysis, mathematics, science, coding, and tool integration, and pushes Qwen3 to the top of several key benchmarks.

The upgraded model scored 70.3 on the American Invitational Mathematics Exam in competitive metrics, well ahead of DeepSeek‑V3 (46.6) and OpenAI’s GPT‑4o (26.7).

In MultiPL‑E, which evaluates coding, it achieved 87.9, beating DeepSeek (82.2) and OpenAI (82.7), though Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 edged ahead with 88.5.

A notable technical advancement is the eightfold increase in context capacity to 256k tokens, allowing it to process longer documents in non‑thinking mode.

The open‑source release on reputable platforms like HuggingFace and ModelScope reinforces Alibaba’s commitment to building a transparent, high‑performance AI ecosystem.

This update intensifies competition in China’s AI landscape, with Alibaba closing the benchmark gap versus Western leaders and rival Chinese startups such as DeepSeek, whose upgraded R1‑0528 has reportedly matched Qwen3 in some reasoning tasks.

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New AI strategy aims to attract global capital to Indonesia

Indonesia is moving to cement its position in the global AI and semiconductor landscape by releasing its first comprehensive national AI strategy in August 2025.

Deputy Minister Nezar Patria says the roadmap aims to clarify the country’s AI market potential, particularly in sectors like health and agriculture, and provide guidance on infrastructure, regulation, and investment pathways.

Already, global tech firms are demonstrating confidence in the country’s potential. Microsoft has pledged $1.7 billion to expand cloud and AI capabilities, while Nvidia partnered on a $200 million AI centre project. These investments align with Jakarta’s efforts to build skill pipelines and computational capacity.

In parallel, Indonesia is pitching into critical minerals extraction to strengthen its semiconductor and AI hardware supply chains, and has invited foreign partners, including from the United States, to invest. These initiatives aim to align resource security with its AI ambitions.

However, analysts caution that Indonesia must still address significant gaps: limited AI-ready infrastructure, a shortfall in skilled tech talent, and governance concerns such as data privacy and IP protection.

The new AI roadmap will bridge these deficits and streamline regulation without stifling innovation.

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New AI pact between Sri Lanka and Singapore fosters innovation

Sri Lanka’s Cabinet has approved a landmark Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore, through the National University of Singapore’s AI Singapore program and Sri Lanka’s Digital Economy Ministry, to foster cooperation in AI.

The MoU establishes a framework for joint research, curriculum development, and knowledge-sharing initiatives to address local priorities and global tech challenges.

This collaboration signals a strategic leap in Sri Lanka’s digital transformation journey. It emerged during Asia Tech x Singapore 2025, where officials outlined plans for AI training, policy alignment, digital infrastructure support, and e‑governance development.

The partnership builds on Sri Lanka’s broader agenda, including fintech innovation and cybersecurity, to strengthen its national AI ecosystem.

With the formalisation of this MoU, Sri Lanka hopes to elevate its regional and global AI standing. The initiative aims to empower local researchers, cultivate tech talent, and ensure that AI governance and innovation are aligned with ethical and economic goals.

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UK and OpenAI deepen AI collaboration on security and public services

OpenAI has signed a strategic partnership with the UK government aimed at strengthening AI security research and exploring national infrastructure investment.

The agreement was finalised on 21 July by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and science secretary Peter Kyle. It includes a commitment to expand OpenAI’s London office. Research and engineering teams will grow to support AI development and provide assistance to UK businesses and start-ups.

Under the collaboration, OpenAI will share technical insights with the UK’s AI Security Institute to help government bodies better understand risks and capabilities. Planned deployments of AI will focus on public sectors such as justice, defence, education, and national security.

According to the UK government, all applications will follow national standards and guidelines to improve taxpayer-funded services. Peter Kyle described AI as a critical tool for national transformation. ‘AI will be fundamental in driving the change we need to see across the country,’ he said.

He emphasised its potential to support the NHS, reduce barriers to opportunity, and power economic growth. The deal signals a deeper integration of OpenAI’s operations in the UK, with promises of high-skilled jobs, investment in infrastructure, and stronger domestic oversight of AI development.

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AI-powered app revolutionizes blight prevention

Researchers at Aberystwyth University have launched the DeepDetect project, an AI-driven mobile app designed to forecast potato blight before symptoms appear.

The app combines machine learning with real-time geolocation, delivering targeted alerts to farmers and enabling timely intervention.

Blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, is a significant agricultural threat, accounting for about 20% of global potato yield losses and costing £3.5 billion annually.

Unlike traditional detection methods that rely on manual inspection and broad pesticide application, DeepDetect aims to reduce environmental impact and costs by offering precision alerts.

The development team is co-designing the interface and functionality with farmers and agronomists through focus groups and workshops, supported by a feasibility study funded under the Welsh Government’s Smart Flexible Innovation Support (SFIS) program.

The goal is to build a national early-warning system that could extend to other crops and regions.

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Replit revamps data architecture following live database deletion

Replit is introducing a significant change to how its apps manage data by separating development and production databases.

The update, now in beta, follows backlash after its coding AI deleted a user’s live database without warning or rollback. Replit describes the feature as essential for building trust and enabling safer experimentation through its ‘vibe coding’ approach.

Developers can now preview and test schema changes without endangering production data, using a dedicated development database by default. The incident that prompted the shift involved SaaStr.

AI CEO Jason M Lemkin, whose live data was wiped despite clear instructions. Screenshots showed the AI admitted to a ‘catastrophic error in judgement’ and failed to ask for confirmation before deletion.

Replit CEO Amjad Masad called the failure ‘unacceptable’ and announced immediate changes to prevent such incidents from recurring. Following internal changes, the dev/prod split has been formalised for all new apps, with staging and rollback options.

Apps on Replit begin with a clean production database, while any changes are saved to the development database. Developers must manually migrate changes into production, allowing greater control and reducing risk during deployment.

Future updates will allow the AI agent to assist with conflict resolution and manage data migrations more safely. Replit plans to expand this separation model to include services such as Secrets, Auth, and Object Storage.

The company also hinted at upcoming integrations with platforms like Databricks and BigQuery to support enterprise use cases. Replit aims to offer a more robust and trustworthy developer experience by building clearer development pipelines and safer defaults.

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Iran’s digital economy suffers heavy losses from internet shutdowns

Iran’s Minister of Communications has revealed the country’s digital economy shrank by 30% in just one month, losing around $170 million due to internet restrictions imposed during its recent 12-day conflict with Israel.

Sattar Hashemi told parliament on 22 July that roughly 10 million Iranians rely on digital jobs, but widespread shutdowns caused severe disruptions across platforms and services.

Hashemi estimated that every two days of restrictions inflicted 10 trillion rials in losses, totalling 150 trillion rials — an amount he said rivals the annual budgets of entire ministries.

While acknowledging the damage, he clarified that his ministry was not responsible for the shutdowns, attributing them instead to decisions made by intelligence and security agencies for national security reasons.

Alongside the blackouts, Iran endured over 20,000 cyberattacks during the conflict. Many of these targeted banks and payment systems, with platforms for Bank Sepah and Bank Pasargad knocked offline, halting salaries for military personnel.

Hacktivist groups such as Predatory Sparrow and Tapandegan claimed credit for the attacks, with some incidents reportedly wiping out crypto assets and further weakening the rial by 12%.

Lawmakers are now questioning the unequal structure of internet access. Critics have accused the government of enabling a ‘class-based internet’ in which insiders retain full access while the public faces heavy censorship.

MP Salman Es’haghi warned that Iran’s digital future cannot rely on filtered networks, demanding transparency about who benefits from unrestricted use.

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