Development

Microsoft builds the world’s most powerful AI data centre in Wisconsin

US tech giant, Microsoft, is completing the construction of Fairwater in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, which it says will be the world’s most powerful AI data centre. The facility is expected to be operational in early 2026 after a $3.3 billion investment, with an additional $4 billion now committed for a second site.

The company says the project will help shape the next generation of AI by training frontier models with hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs, offering ten times the performance of today’s fastest supercomputers.

Beyond technology, Microsoft is highlighting the impact on local jobs and skills. Thousands of construction workers have been employed during the build, while the site is expected to support around 500 full-time roles when the first phase opens, rising to 800 once the second is complete.

The US giant has also launched Wisconsin’s first Datacentre Academy with Gateway Technical College to prepare students for careers in the digital economy.

Microsoft is also stressing its sustainability measures. The data centre will rely on a closed-loop liquid cooling system and outside air to minimise water use, while all fossil-fuel power consumed will be matched with carbon-free energy.

A new 250 MW solar farm is under construction in Portage County to support the commitment. The company has partnered with local organisations to restore prairie and wetland habitats, further embedding the project into the surrounding community.

Executives say the development represents more than just an investment in AI. It signals a long-term commitment to Wisconsin’s economy, education, and environment.

From broadband expansion to innovation labs, the company aims to ensure the benefits of AI extend to local businesses, students, and residents instead of remaining concentrated in global hubs.

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Xbox app introduces Microsoft’s AI Copilot in beta

Microsoft has launched the beta version of Copilot for Gaming, an AI-powered assistant within the Xbox mobile app for iOS and Android. The early rollout covers over 50 regions, including India, the US, Japan, Australia, and Singapore.

Access is limited to users aged 18 and above, and the assistant currently supports English instead of other languages, with broader language support expected in future updates.

Copilot for Gaming is a second-screen companion, allowing players to stay informed and receive guidance without interrupting console gameplay.

The AI can track game activity, offer context-aware responses, suggest new games based on play history, check achievements, and manage account details such as Game Pass renewal and gamer score.

Users can ask questions like ‘What was my last achievement in God of War Ragnarok?’ or ‘Recommend an adventure game based on my preferences.’

Microsoft plans to expand Copilot for Gaming beyond chat-based support into a full AI gaming coach. Future updates could provide real-time gameplay advice, voice interaction, and direct console integration, allowing tasks such as downloading or installing games remotely instead of manually managing them.

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WTO report notes AI’s potential benefit to trade if divides are addressed

The WTO launched the 2025 World Trade Report, titled ‘Making trade and AI work together to benefit all’. The report argues that AI could potentially boost global trade by up to 37% and GDP by 12–13% by 2040, particularly through digitally deliverable services.

It notes that AI can lower trade costs, improve supply-chain efficiency, and create opportunities for small firms and developing countries. Still, it warns that without deliberate action, AI could deepen global inequalities and widen the gap between advanced and developing economies.

The report underscores the need for investment in digital infrastructure, energy, skills, and enabling policies, highlighting the importance of IP protection, competition frameworks, and government support.

A newly developed indicator, the WTO AI Trade Policy Openness Index (AI-TPOI), revealed significant variation in AI-related trade policies across and within income groups.

It assessed three policy areas relevant to AI diffusion: barriers to services trade, restrictions on trade in AI-enabling goods, and limitations on cross-border data flows.

Stronger multilateral cooperation and targeted capacity-building were presented as essential to ensure AI-enabled trade supports inclusive, sustainable prosperity rather than reinforcing existing divides.

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Meta and Google to block political ads in EU under new regulations

Broadcasters and advertisers seek clarity before the EU’s political advertising rules become fully applicable on 10 October. The European Commission has promised further guidance, but details on what qualifies as political advertising remain vague.

Meta and Google will block the EU’s political, election, and social issue ads when the rules take effect, citing operational challenges and legal uncertainty. The regulation, aimed at curbing disinformation and foreign interference, requires ads to display labels with sponsors, payments, and targeting.

Publishers fear they lack the technical means to comply or block non-compliant programmatic ads, risking legal exposure. They call for clear sponsor identification procedures, standardised declaration formats, and robust verification processes to ensure authenticity.

Advertisers warn that the rules’ broad definition of political actors may be hard to implement. At the same time, broadcasters fear issue-based campaigns – such as environmental awareness drives – could unintentionally fall under the scope of political advertising.

The Dutch parliamentary election on 29 October will be the first to take place under the fully applicable rules, making clarity from Brussels urgent for media and advertisers across the bloc.

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AI tool combines breast cancer and heart disease screening

Scientists from Australian universities and The George Institute for Global Health have developed an AI tool that analyses mammograms and a woman’s age to predict her risk of heart-related hospitalisation or death within 10 years.

Published in Heart on 17 September, the study highlights the lack of routine heart disease screening for women, despite cardiovascular conditions causing 35% of female deaths. The tool delivers a two-in-one health check by integrating heart risk prediction into breast cancer screening.

The model was trained on data from over 49,000 women and performs as accurately as traditional models that require blood pressure and cholesterol data. Researchers emphasise its low-resource nature, making it viable for broad deployment in rural or underserved areas.

Study co-author Dr Jennifer Barraclough said mobile mammography services could adopt the tool to deliver breast cancer and heart health screenings in one visit. Such integration could help overcome healthcare access barriers in remote regions.

Next, before a broader rollout, the researchers plan to validate the tool in more diverse populations and study practical challenges, such as technical requirements and regulatory approvals.

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New Amazon AI transforms seller experience

Amazon has unveiled a significant upgrade to its Seller Assistant, evolving the tool into an agentic AI-powered partner that can actively help sellers manage and grow their businesses.

Powered by Amazon Bedrock and using advanced models from Amazon Nova and Anthropic Claude, the AI can respond to queries and plan, reason, and act with a seller’s permission. Independent sellers now have an assistant operating around the clock while controlling them.

The upgraded AI can optimise inventory, monitor account health, and provide strategic guidance on product listings and compliance requirements.

Analysing historical trends alongside current data can suggest new product categories, forecast demand, and propose advertising strategies to improve performance. Sellers can receive actionable recommendations instead of manually reviewing reports, saving time and effort.

Creative Studio also benefits from agentic AI capabilities, enabling sellers to generate professional-quality advertising content in hours instead of weeks.

The AI evaluates products alongside Amazon’s shopping signals and produces tailored ad concepts with clear reasoning, helping sellers refine campaigns and boost engagement. Early users report faster decisions, better inventory management, and more efficient marketing.

Amazon plans to extend Seller Assistant to other countries in the coming months at no extra cost.

The evolution highlights the growing role of AI in everyday business operations. It reflects Amazon’s commitment to integrating advanced technologies into the seller experience instead of relying solely on human intervention.

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Amazon and Mercado Libre criticised for limiting seller mobility in Mexico

Mexico’s competition watchdog has accused Amazon and Mercado Libre of erecting barriers that limit the mobility of sellers in the country’s e-commerce market. The two platforms reportedly account for 85% of the seller market.

The Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE) stated that the companies provide preferential treatment to sellers who utilise their logistics services and fail to disclose how featured offers are selected, thereby restricting fair competition.

Despite finding evidence of these practices, COFECE stopped short of imposing corrective measures, citing a lack of consensus among stakeholders. Amazon welcomed the decision, saying it demonstrates the competitiveness of the retail market in Mexico.

The watchdog aims to promote a more dynamic e-commerce sector, benefiting buyers and sellers. Its February report had recommended measures to improve transparency, separate loyalty programme services, and allow fairer access to third-party delivery options.

Trade associations praised COFECE for avoiding sanctions, warning that penalties could harm consumers and shield traditional retailers. Mercado Libre has not yet commented on the findings.

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AI tool predicts risk of over 1,000 diseases years ahead

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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EU AI Act enforcement gears up with 15 authorities named in Ireland

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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UK partners with NVIDIA to drive AI growth and new jobs

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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