AI-driven tools are entering wholesale banking, with Intellect Global Transaction Banking introducing the ‘eMACH.ai Cloud’ for the sector. The platform provides banks with a comprehensive suite of services to manage their corporate clients’ complex needs across various industries, supporting both operational efficiency and business growth.
The eMACH.ai Cloud aims to streamline operations by consolidating wholesale banking requirements into one platform, reducing reliance on multiple systems. It offers scalable solutions tailored to different sectors, allowing banks to modernise their operations and meet regulatory requirements.
CEO Manish Maakan highlighted that the platform helps banks reduce costs, unlock new revenue streams, and innovate business models. He stressed the importance of agility in today’s banking landscape, explaining that eMACH.ai empowers banks to deliver greater value to clients while keeping pace with industry changes.
From liquidity management to sustainable finance initiatives, the platform offers tools to address evolving compliance demands and environmental goals. Its integrated design ensures banks can meet both financial and ESG objectives more effectively.
Oppo has revealed ColourOS 15, the latest version of its Android 15-based operating system, promising a more personalised and enhanced user experience. Advanced AI functionalities are at the core of the new software, delivering performance improvements, privacy upgrades, and refreshed design elements.
The new interface will debut with the Find X8 series, featuring updated icons, dynamic lighting effects, and natural light-inspired visuals. Oppo has integrated Aurora and Tidal Engine technology for seamless switching between apps, resulting in faster app installations and a notable 18% boost in responsiveness.
ColourOS 15 introduces several AI-powered tools, including XiaoBu Assistant and Circle to Search. Photography also gets an upgrade with AI image enhancements, offering personality-based adjustments, portrait blur removal, and image upscaling. Additional features enable users to transcribe and summarise notes and voice recordings, as well as add EIS stabilisation for live photos.
The new software will be available across multiple devices, including the Find X7 series, OnePlus 13, and Find N3 Flip. Oppo will begin rolling out the update in November and has already published a detailed roadmap, outlining the release timeline for compatible devices.
Google has enhanced its NotebookLM assistant by introducing a feature that lets users customise AI-generated audio conversations. This update shifts the platform from providing generalised audio summaries to facilitating more focused discussions based on users’ preferences. The tool allows users to guide AI dialogue using specific content, adding precision to audio overviews.
Since launching last month, NotebookLM’s audio overviews have become popular among users looking to digest complex information quickly. With these features, long documents and videos can be summarised into conversational audio snippets. NotebookLM has seen significant traction, with traffic surging by 371% in September, drawing over 3 million monthly visits.
The new ‘Guide the Conversation’ option enables users to give detailed instructions for targeted discussions, such as focusing on niche topics or adjusting the expertise level. Google also introduced a ‘Customise’ button to refine audio overviews further before the AI generates them. This ensures conversations prioritise essential content and align with user intentions.
Google assures users that custom instructions won’t be used to train its AI models, reflecting its commitment to privacy. Alongside the new tools, a ‘Background Listening’ feature allows users to play audio while working within NotebookLM. Additionally, the company has launched a business pilot program, offering select organisations access to advanced features and training.
Sri Lanka is set to amend its Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Act for the first time in 28 years, allowing third-party companies to construct telecom towers. That significant change aims to enhance competition and foster development in the telecommunications sector while promoting sustainable growth and ensuring market fairness.
The need for this amendment has arisen from financial constraints resulting from an unprecedented economic crisis, forcing telecom companies to reduce their budgets for building new towers, thereby slowing infrastructure development. By enabling independent companies to take on tower construction, the government seeks to address these challenges.
Specifically, it plans to build 276 new towers to boost connectivity and expand the digital economy from $2.3 billion in 2023 to a projected $15 billion by 2030. Furthermore, while independent firms will be responsible for tower construction, telecom companies will continue to provide other necessary equipment, ensuring a collaborative approach to improving network coverage.
Moreover, the amendment to the TRC Act will be tabled in parliament, with a debate expected to occur within the next two months. This legislative change represents a proactive step toward enhancing telecommunications infrastructure in Sri Lanka, thereby positioning the country for greater digital advancement in the coming years.
Meta has released new AI models, including a tool called the Self-Taught Evaluator, which aims to reduce human involvement in the AI development process. The company’s latest batch of models is part of its ongoing efforts to enhance AI accuracy and efficiency across complex fields.
The new tool uses a ‘chain of thought’ technique, similar to one employed by OpenAI, breaking problems into logical steps for improved accuracy in science, coding, and mathematics. Meta trained the evaluator solely with AI-generated data, eliminating the need for human input at that stage.
The ability for AI to reliably assess other AI models could eventually replace costly processes such as Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback. Meta researchers suggest that self-improving AI systems might perform better than human evaluators, marking progress toward autonomous digital assistants capable of managing complex tasks without supervision.
Meta’s latest release also includes upgrades to its Segment Anything model, tools for faster language model responses, and datasets aimed at discovering new inorganic materials. Unlike competitors Google and Anthropic, Meta makes its models accessible for public use, setting it apart in the industry.
Vietnam is committed to ensuring universal access to fibre-optic internet by 2030, aiming to connect every city, province, industrial facility, and household nationwide. The initiative includes launching at least two new international submarine cable routes and achieving 99% coverage of the 5G broadband network by the end of 2025, with a goal for all internet users to benefit from fibre-optic connections offering speeds of at least 1 Gbps.
Additionally, each citizen will have access to one Internet of Things (IoT) connection and a digital identity, with over 70% of adults expected to possess a digital or electronic signature by 2030. To support this digital transformation, Vietnam plans to establish hyper-scale, AI-supportive, and edge data centres that meet international standards while focusing on attracting domestic and international investments in digital infrastructure.
Enhancing digital infrastructure is vital for Vietnam’s socioeconomic growth and competitiveness in the global market. The government seeks to create a robust economic foundation that supports innovation and drives sustainable development by investing in and improving its digital capabilities. As Vietnam positions itself in the digital age, these strategic initiatives will empower citizens with greater access to technology and bolster the nation’s economic resilience and global standing.
Gusto’s co-founder and head of technology, Edward Kim, believes that replacing existing teams with AI engineers is not the best approach for businesses preparing for an AI-driven future. In an interview, Kim emphasised that non-technical team members often have a deeper understanding of customer needs and challenges, making them more effective in guiding the development of AI tools.
At Gusto, non-technical customer experience team members contribute by writing “recipes” that instruct Gusto’s AI assistant, Gus, on how to interact with customers. This approach allows employees to leverage their domain expertise, even without technical skills, to create powerful AI applications. Kim highlighted the success of CoPilot, a customer support tool developed by a former support team member, Eric Rodriguez, who was later promoted to the engineering team. The tool, used by Gusto’s support team, quickly became a game-changer, enhancing efficiency by providing immediate, accurate responses based on the company’s internal knowledge base.
Kim noted that AI tools like Gus empower teams to create solutions without requiring coding knowledge, using natural language instructions. This bottom-up strategy contrasts with the trend of hiring highly specialised AI experts and reflects Gusto’s belief in leveraging domain expertise. As AI continues to evolve at the company, Kim envisions a shift in roles, with more employees focusing on writing AI recipes and fine-tuning prompts rather than direct customer interactions. This approach, he suggests, will enhance customer experiences and free up resources for Gusto to expand its services.
Japan has launched digital wage payments with PayPay, a popular QR-code payment app, becoming the first to gain approval from the government as part of its push for cashless transactions. From September, ten SoftBank companies, including PayPay, began offering employees the option to receive up to 200,000 yen of their salary via the app.
This move follows the labour ministry’s decision in 2022 to allow digital wage payments, starting in April 2023, to encourage cashless payments as a way to stimulate the economy. Employees who prefer not to be paid digitally can still opt for traditional bank transfers.
PayPay, which has over 65 million users, aims to enhance employee benefits by diversifying wage payment methods. The app’s operator cited a government survey showing that 40% of workers were open to receiving wages through payment apps.
To protect users, a 1 million yen limit has been placed on digital wallet balances, as app operators do not fall under Japan‘s deposit insurance system. Several other app providers are also seeking government approval to offer similar services.
South Korea plans to accelerate the growth of its private cloud industry to enhance competitiveness in AI. The Ministry of Science and ICT outlined a strategy to double the local cloud market to 10 trillion won (£6 billion) by 2027 through partnerships with global companies.
The government acknowledged that South Korea trails over a year behind global cloud leaders, with underdeveloped AI infrastructure. Key initiatives include encouraging the use of private cloud systems across public sectors, such as education and defence, and easing regulations to facilitate the transition. Incentives such as expanded tax benefits are also planned for AI and cloud enterprises.
A national AI computing centre with supercomputer capabilities will be established to further bolster infrastructure. In addition, an AI innovation fund will launch with an initial government investment of 45 billion won (£27 million) in 2025, encouraging private-sector contributions to the cloud ecosystem’s growth.
Plans are also underway for an AI safety research institute under the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. This initiative follows Seoul’s AI safety summit earlier this year, where global leaders agreed on collaborative efforts to promote safe and inclusive AI development.
A new AI tool created by Google DeepMind, called the ‘Habermas Machine,’ could help reduce culture war divides by mediating between different viewpoints. The system takes individual opinions and generates group statements that reflect both majority and minority perspectives, aiming to foster greater agreement.
Developed by researchers, including Professor Chris Summerfield from the University of Oxford, the AI system has been tested in the United Kingdom with more than 5,000 participants. It was found that the statements created by AI were often rated higher in clarity and quality than those written by human mediators, increasing group consensus by eight percentage points on average.
The Habermas Machine was also used in a virtual citizens’ assembly on topics such as Brexit and universal childcare. It was able to produce group statements that acknowledged minority views without marginalising them, but the AI approach does have its critics.
Some researchers argue that AI-mediated discussions don’t always promote empathy or give smaller minorities enough influence in shaping the final statements. Despite these concerns, the potential for AI to assist in resolving social disagreements remains a promising development.
