Codi, an Andreessen Horowitz–backed startup founded by Christelle Rohaut and Dave Schuman, has launched an AI-powered platform that is said to fully automate office management.
The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2018 to help firms find flexible workspaces. It first operated as a marketplace, matching companies to buildings with flexible office arrangements but has since evolved into an AI-powered software platform. The new AI agent handles logistics such as vendor coordination, cleaning and pantry restocking for any leased office, meeting a need that, according to Rohaut, remains very manual and costly.
Chief executive Christelle Rohaut said advances in AI made the shift possible. ‘Whatever office you lease, you can use this to automate your office logistics,’ she told TechCrunch.
The product entered beta in May and officially launched this week. Codi, which has raised $23 million to date, including a $16 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz in 2022 , reported reaching $100,000 in annual recurring revenue within five weeks of the beta launch.
The company says the platform can save firms hundreds of hours in administrative work and reduce costs compared with hiring an in-house or part-time office manager. Early adopters include TaskRabbit and Northbeam.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
JLR’s cyberattack is pegged at £1.9bn, the UK’s costliest on record. Production paused for five weeks from 1 September across Solihull, Halewood, and Wolverhampton. CMC says 5,000 firms were hit, with full recovery expected by January 2026.
JLR is restoring manufacturing in phases and declined to comment on the estimate. UK dealer systems were intermittently down, orders were cancelled or delayed, and suppliers faced uncertainty. More than half of the losses fall on JLR; the remainder hits its supply chain and local economies.
The CMC classed the incident as Category 3 on its five-level scale. Chair Ciaran Martin warned organisations to harden critical networks and plan for disruption. The CMC’s assessment draws on public data, surveys, and interviews rather than on disclosed forensic evidence.
Researchers say costs hinge on the attack type, which JLR has not confirmed. Data theft is faster to recover than ransomware; wiper malware would be worse. A claimed hacker group linked to earlier high-profile breaches is unverified.
The CMC’s estimate excludes any ransom, which could add tens of millions of dollars. Earlier this year, retail hacks at M&S, the Co-op, and Harrods were tagged Category 2. Those were pegged at £270m–£440m, below the £506m cited by some victims.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
Twenty-five EU countries, joined by Norway and Iceland, recently signed a declaration supporting tougher child protection rules online. The plan calls for a digital age of majority, potentially restricting under-15s or under-16s from joining social platforms.
France and Denmark back full bans for children below 15, while others, prefer verified parental consent. Some nations argue parents should retain primary responsibility, with the state setting only basic safeguards.
Brussels faces pressure to propose EU-wide legislation, but several capitals insist decisions should stay national. Estonia and Belgium declined to sign the declaration, warning that new bans risk overreach and calling instead for digital education.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
Google has launched Google Skills, a platform helping individuals and organisations build AI and digital expertise. The platform offers nearly 3,000 courses, labs, and credentials from Google Cloud, DeepMind, Grow with Google, and Google for Education in one central hub.
Learners can gain practical experience through hands-on labs, skill badges, certificates, and certifications. Google Skills covers a wide range of learning paths- from AI Essentials and large language model research to quick 10-minute AI Boost Bites.
Gamified features, such as progress streaks and achievements, encourage engagement, while Cloud customers can personalise training for their teams with leaderboards and advanced reporting.
Google Skills also connects learners to employment opportunities. A hiring consortium of over 150 companies, including Jack Henry, uses the platform to fast-track qualified candidates through skills-based hiring initiatives.
No-cost options are available for individuals, higher education institutions, government programmes, NGOs, and Google Cloud customers, helping to bridge the growing digital skills gap.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
Datuk Pua Khein-Seng, inventor of the single-chip USB flash drive and CEO of Phison, warns that AI machines will generate 1,000 times more data than humans. He says the real bottleneck isn’t GPUs but memory, foreshadowing a global storage crunch as AI scales.
Speaking at GITEX Global, Pua outlined Phison’s focus on NAND controllers and systems that can expand effective memory. Adaptive tiering across DRAM and flash, he argues, will ease constraints and cut costs, making AI deployments more attainable beyond elite data centres.
Flash becomes the expansion valve: DRAM stays scarce and expensive, while high-end GPUs are over-credited for AI cost overruns. By intelligently offloading and caching to NAND, cheaper accelerators can still drive useful workloads, widening access to AI capacity.
Cloud centralisation intensifies the risk. With the US and China dominating the AI cloud market, many countries lack the capital and talent to build sovereign stacks. Pua calls for ‘AI blue-collar’ skills to localise open source and tailor systems to real-world applications.
Storage leadership is consolidating in the US, Japan, Korea, and China, with Taiwan rising as a fifth pillar. Hardware strength alone won’t suffice, Pua says; Taiwan must close the AI software gap to capture more value in the data era.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech, and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
Chinese AI model DeepSeek V3.1 has outperformed its global competitors in a real-market cryptocurrency trading challenge, earning over 10 per cent profit in just a few days.
The experiment, named Alpha Arena, was launched by US research firm Nof1 to test the investing skills of leading LLMs.
Each participating AI was given US$10,000 to trade in six cryptocurrency perpetual contracts, including bitcoin and solana, on the decentralised exchange Hyperliquid. By Tuesday afternoon, DeepSeek V3.1 led the field, while OpenAI’s GPT-5 trailed behind with a loss of nearly 40 per cent.
The competition highlights the growing potential of AI models to make autonomous financial decisions in real markets.
It also underscores the rivalry between Chinese and American AI developers as they push to demonstrate their models’ adaptability beyond traditional text-based tasks.
Would you like to learn more aboutAI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Atlas, a web browser built around ChatGPT to help users work and explore online more efficiently. The browser lets ChatGPT operate directly on webpages, using past conversations and browsing context to assist with tasks without copying and pasting.
Early testers say it streamlines research, study, and productivity by providing instant AI support alongside the content they are viewing.
Atlas introduces browser memories, letting ChatGPT recall context from visited sites to improve responses and automate tasks. Users stay in control, with the ability to view, archive, or delete memories.
Agent mode allows ChatGPT to perform tasks such as researching, summarising, or planning events while browsing. Safety is a priority, with safeguards to prevent unauthorised actions and options to operate in logged-out mode.
The browser is available worldwide on macOS for Free, Plus, Pro, and Go users, with Windows, iOS, and Android support coming soon. OpenAI plans to add multi-profile support, better developer tools, and improved app discoverability, advancing an agent-driven web experience with seamless AI integration.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
Kenya’s AI Skilling Initiative (AINSI) is offering valuable insights for African countries aiming to build digital capabilities. With AI projected to create 230 million digital jobs across Africa by 2030, coordinated investment in skills development is vital to unlock this potential.
Despite growing ambition, fragmented efforts and uneven progress continue to limit impact.
Government leadership plays a central role in building national AI capacity. Kenya’s Regional Centre of Competence for Digital and AI Skilling has trained thousands of public servants through structured bootcamps and online programmes.
Standardising credentials and aligning training with industry needs are crucial to ensure skilling efforts translate into meaningful employment.
Industry and the informal economy are key to scaling transformation. Partnerships with KEPSA and MESH are training entrepreneurs and SMEs in AI and cybersecurity while tackling affordability, connectivity, and data access challenges.
Education initiatives, from K–12 to universities and technical institutions, are embedding AI training into curricula to prepare future generations.
Civil society collaboration further broadens access, with community-based programmes reaching gig workers and underserved groups. Kenya’s approach shows how inclusive, cross-sector frameworks can scale digital skills and support Africa’s AI-driven growth.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
YouTube has expanded its AI safeguards with a new likeness detection system that identifies AI-generated videos imitating creators’ faces or voices. The tool is now available to eligible members of the YouTube Partner Program after a limited pilot phase.
Creators can review detected videos and request their removal under YouTube’s privacy rules or submit copyright claims.
YouTube said the feature aims to protect users from having their image used to promote products or spread misinformation without consent.
The onboarding process requires identity verification through a short selfie video and photo ID. Creators can opt out at any time, with scanning ending within a day of deactivation.
YouTube has backed recent legislative efforts, such as the NO FAKES Act in the US, which targets deceptive AI replicas. The move highlights growing industry concern over deepfake misuse and the protection of digital identity.
Would you like to learn more aboutAI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
The Dutch Economy Minister has spoken with his Chinese counterpart to ease tensions following the Netherlands’ recent seizure of Nexperia, a major Dutch semiconductor firm.
China, where most of Nexperia’s chips are produced and sold, reacted by blocking exports, creating concern among European carmakers reliant on its components.
Vincent Karremans said he had discussed ‘further steps towards reaching a solution’ with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao.
Both sides emphasised the importance of finding an outcome that benefits Nexperia, as well as the Chinese and European economies.
Meanwhile, Nexperia’s China division has begun asserting its independence, telling employees they may reject ‘external instructions’.
The firm remains a subsidiary of Shanghai-listed Wingtech, which has faced growing scrutiny from European regulators over national security and strategic technology supply chains.
Would you like to learn more aboutAI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
