Development

Reddit targets AI firm over scraped sports posts

Reddit has taken legal action against AI company Anthropic, accusing it of scraping content from the platform’s sports-focused communities.

The lawsuit claims Anthropic violated Reddit’s user agreement by collecting posts without permission, particularly from fan-driven discussions that are central to how sports content is shared online.

Reddit argues the scraping undermines its obligations to over 100 million daily users, especially around privacy and user control. According to the filing, Anthropic’s actions override assurances that users can manage or delete their content as they see fit.

The platform emphasises that users gain no benefit from technology built using their contributions.

These online sports communities are rich sources of original fan commentary and analysis. On a large scale, such content could enable AI models to imitate sports fan behaviour with impressive accuracy.

While teams or platforms might use such models to enhance engagement or communication, Reddit warns that unauthorised use brings serious ethical and legal risks.

The case could influence how AI companies handle user-generated content across the internet, not just in sports. As web scraping grows more common, the outcome of the dispute may shape future standards for AI training practices and online content rights.

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Amazon boosts AI infrastructure with $20B investment

Amazon has announced a massive $20 billion investment to build two new AI-focused data centres in Pennsylvania. The exact locations are yet to be finalised, but Salem Township and Falls Township are currently leading candidates.

The move signals Amazon’s ongoing commitment to expanding its AI infrastructure amid an increasingly competitive technology race.

Alongside the data centres, Amazon has pledged to support education and workforce development across the state. Collaborations with local institutions will bring programmes for data centre technicians, fibre optic workshops and STEM learning initiatives aimed at school-aged children.

These efforts are intended to prepare the future workforce for careers in AI and cloud computing infrastructure.

The investment is part of Amazon’s broader strategy to establish the US as a global AI leader. The company highlighted that its advanced computing infrastructure and AI hardware are designed to power the next generation of generative and agentic AI, defining digital innovation’s future.

Other tech giants are making similar moves. Amazon announced a $10 billion data centre expansion in North Carolina in June.

Meanwhile, Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft are also scaling AI operations, and crypto mining firms like Riot Platforms and Hive Digital are shifting part of their infrastructure towards high-performance computing for AI, reflecting a wider industry transformation.

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Cybersecurity alarm after 184 million credentials exposed

A vast unprotected database containing over 184 million credentials from major platforms and sectors has highlighted severe weaknesses in data security worldwide.

The leaked credentials, harvested by infostealer malware and stored in plain text, pose significant risks to consumers and businesses, underscoring an urgent need for stronger cybersecurity and better data governance.

Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered the 47 GB database exposing emails, passwords, and authorisation URLs from tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Snapchat, as well as banking, healthcare, and government accounts.

The data was left accessible without any encryption or authentication, making it vulnerable to anyone with the link.

The credentials were reportedly collected by infostealer malware such as Lumma Stealer, which silently steals sensitive information from infected devices. The stolen data fuels a thriving underground economy involving identity theft, fraud, and ransomware.

The breach’s scope extends beyond tech, affecting critical infrastructure like healthcare and government services, raising concerns over personal privacy and national security. With recurring data breaches becoming the norm, industries must urgently reinforce security measures.

Chief Data Officers and IT risk leaders face mounting pressure as regulatory scrutiny intensifies. The leak highlights the need for proactive data stewardship through encryption, access controls, and real-time threat detection.

Many organisations struggle with legacy systems, decentralised data, and cloud adoption, complicating governance efforts.

Enterprise leaders must treat data as a strategic asset and liability, embedding cybersecurity into business processes and supply chains. Beyond technology, cultivating a culture of accountability and vigilance is essential to prevent costly breaches and protect brand trust.

The massive leak signals a new era in data governance where transparency and relentless improvement are critical. The message is clear: there is no room for complacency in safeguarding the digital world’s most valuable assets.

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Samsung pilots AI coding tool Cline for internal developers

Samsung Electronics is testing a new open-source AI coding assistant called Cline, which is expected to be adopted by its Device eXperience (DX) division as early as next month, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Cline leverages Claude 3.7 Sonnet’s advanced agentic coding capabilities to autonomously handle complex software development tasks. The goal is to significantly boost developer productivity across Samsung’s mobile and home appliance units, which are both part of the DX division.

The move aligns with Samsung’s broader AI for All strategy. Last month, the company created a dedicated AI productivity innovation group within the DX division.

This follows the establishment of an AI centre within its chip business in December 2024, further underscoring the tech giant’s commitment to embedding AI across its operations.

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Rednote launches public AI model to rival Alibaba and DeepSeek

Chinese social media giant Rednote, also known as Xiaohongshu, has released its first open-source large language model, dots.llm1, marking a major step in its AI ambitions. The model is now publicly available via Hugging Face, a popular developer platform.

By joining the growing number of firms from China open-sourcing AI models—such as Alibaba and DeepSeek—Rednote aims to foster a developer community, expand global influence, and showcase its technical progress amid US-led restrictions on advanced technology exports.

Open-sourcing also enables collaboration and experimentation in contrast to proprietary models kept under wraps by some US companies.

Although dots.llm1 performs slightly behind cutting-edge models like DeepSeek-V3, its coding capabilities rival Alibaba’s Qwen 2.5 series. The launch follows Rednote’s recent AI-powered search app, Diandian, which helps users explore Xiaohongshu’s ecosystem more intuitively.

The company began investing in large language models shortly after ChatGPT’s debut and has accelerated its AI strategy in recent months.

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Google’s Pichai says AI will free coders to focus on creativity

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said AI is not a threat to human jobs—particularly in engineering—but rather a tool to make work more creative and efficient.

In a recent interview with Lex Fridman, Pichai explained that AI is already powering productivity across Google, contributing to 30% of code generation and improving overall engineering velocity by around 10%.

Far from cutting staff, Pichai confirmed Google plans to hire more engineers in 2025, arguing that AI expands possibilities rather than reducing demand.

‘The opportunity space of what we can do is expanding too,’ he said. ‘It makes coding more fun and frees you up for creativity, problem-solving, and brainstorming.’

Rather than replacing jobs, Pichai sees AI as a companion—handling repetitive tasks and enabling engineers to focus on innovation. He believes this shift will also democratise software development, empowering more people to build and create with code.

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UK teams with tech giants on AI training

The UK government is launching a nationwide AI skills initiative aimed at both workers and schoolchildren, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer announcing partnerships with major tech companies including Google, Microsoft and Amazon.

The £187 million TechFirst programme will provide AI education to one million secondary students and train 7.5 million workers over the next five years.

Rather than keeping such tools limited to specialists, the government plans to make AI training accessible across classrooms and businesses. Companies involved will make learning materials freely available to boost digital skills and productivity, particularly in using chatbots and large language models.

Starmer said the scheme is designed to empower the next generation to shape AI’s future instead of being shaped by it. He called it the start of a new era of opportunity and growth, as the UK aims to strengthen its global leadership in AI.

The initiative arrives as the country’s AI sector, currently worth £72 billion, is projected to grow to more than £800 billion by 2035.

The government also signed two agreements with NVIDIA to support a nationwide AI talent pipeline, reinforcing efforts to expand both the workforce and innovation in the sector.

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Quantum light beats AI at its own game in surprise photonic experiment

A small-scale quantum device developed by researchers at the University of Vienna has outperformed advanced classical machine learning algorithms—including some used in today’s leading AI systems—using just two photons and a glass chip.

The experiment suggests that useful quantum advantage could arrive far sooner than previously thought, not in massive future machines but in today’s modest photonic setups.

The team’s six-mode processor doesn’t rely on raw speed to beat traditional systems. Instead, it harnesses a uniquely quantum property: the way identical particles interfere. This interference naturally computes mathematical structures known as permanents, which are computationally expensive for classical systems.

By embedding these quantum calculations into a pattern-recognition task, the researchers consistently achieved higher classification accuracy across multiple datasets.

Crucially, the device operates with extreme energy efficiency, offering a promising route to sustainable AI. Co-author Iris Agresti highlighted the growing energy costs of modern machine learning and pointed to photonic quantum systems as a potential solution.

These early results could pave the way for new applications in areas where training data is limited and classical methods fall short—redefining the future of AI and quantum computing alike.

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Meta plans $10 billion investment in Scale AI

Meta Platforms is reportedly in talks to invest over $10 billion in Scale AI, a data labelling startup already backed by Nvidia, Amazon, and Meta itself.

The deal, if finalised, would mark Meta’s largest external investment in AI to date, representing a notable shift away from its prior reliance on in-house research and open-source projects.

Founded in 2016, Scale AI supports the training of AI models through high-quality labelled datasets. It also provides a platform for AI research collaboration, now with contributors in more than 9,000 locations.

The company was last valued at nearly $14 billion following a 2024 funding round involving Meta and Microsoft.

Meta’s planned investment signals an aggressive expansion of its AI ambitions. Earlier this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced up to $65 billion in AI spending for 2025. It includes Meta’s Llama chatbot, now embedded into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, reaching one billion users monthly.

The move puts Meta in closer competition with Microsoft, which has committed over $13 billion to OpenAI, and Amazon and Alphabet, which are backing rival AI firm Anthropic. Scale AI declined to comment, while Meta has yet to respond publicly.

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Nvidia and FCA open AI sandbox for UK fintechs

Financial firms across the UK will soon be able to experiment with AI in a new regulatory sandbox, launched by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in partnership with Nvidia.

Known as the Supercharged Sandbox, it offers a secure testing ground for firms wanting to explore AI tools without needing their advanced computing resources.

Set to begin in October, the initiative is open to any financial services company testing AI-driven ideas. Firms will have access to Nvidia’s accelerated computing platform and tailored AI software, helping them work with complex data, improve automation, and enhance risk management in a controlled setting.

The FCA said the sandbox is designed to support firms lacking the in-house capacity to test new technology.

It aims to provide not only computing power but also regulatory guidance and access to better datasets, creating an environment where innovation can flourish while remaining compliant with rules.

The move forms part of a wider push by the UK government to foster economic growth through innovation. Finance minister Rachel Reeves has urged regulators to clear away obstacles to growth and praised the FCA and Bank of England for acting on her call to cut red tape.

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