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 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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Argentina’s Anti-Corruption Office has concluded that President Javier Milei did not violate ethics laws when he published a now-deleted post promoting the LIBRA memecoin. The agency stated the February post was made in a personal capacity and did not constitute an official act.
The ruling clarified that Milei’s X account, where the post appeared, is personally managed and predates his political role. It added that the account identifies him as an economist rather than a public official, meaning the post is protected as a private expression under the constitution.
The investigation had been launched after LIBRA’s price soared and then crashed following Milei’s endorsement, which linked to the token’s contract and a promotional site. Investors reportedly lost millions, and allegations of insider trading surfaced.
Although the Anti-Corruption Office cleared him, a separate federal court investigation remains ongoing, with Milei and his sister’s assets temporarily frozen.
Despite the resolution, the scandal damaged public trust. Milei has maintained he acted in good faith, claiming the aim was to raise awareness of a private initiative to support small Argentine businesses through crypto.
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FIFA has launched its own blockchain using Avalanche’s Subnet technology, ending its previous partnership with Algorand. The shift allows FIFA full control over how its Web3 products—including digital collectibles, games, and fan platforms—are developed and integrated.
The move also brings improved scalability and compatibility with Ethereum-based tools.
By building on an EVM-compatible chain, FIFA now enables wallet support from widely used apps like MetaMask, lowering entry barriers for users globally. It also makes it easier for developers to build decentralised applications and connect to broader DeFi and NFT ecosystems.
The blockchain can scale independently, a key advantage during major events like the World Cup.
FIFA Collect has fully migrated to the new blockchain, offering faster transactions and new utility features, such as NFT-based perks tied to real-world events. A new arcade-style mobile game, FIFA Rivals, launches in June and will let fans trade in-game NFT cards on the Mythos chain.
FIFA’s blockchain now supports interactive and tokenised experiences, turning football fans into participants with digital ownership and direct influence.
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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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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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Switzerland’s Federal Council has approved a bill to enable automatic exchange of crypto asset information with 74 partner countries. The bill, announced on 6 June, is expected to come into effect in January 2026, with the first data exchanges likely to begin in 2027.
The move aims to improve tax transparency and crack down on cross-border tax evasion. Countries set to receive Switzerland’s crypto data include all EU member states, the United Kingdom, and most G20 nations.
However, the United States, China, and Saudi Arabia are notably excluded from the list, as confirmed by the Swiss Federal Government’s official X account.
Only countries that agree to exchange similar crypto asset data with Switzerland and comply with the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) will be included.
The framework requires service providers such as exchanges and wallets to collect users’ tax identification details and report relevant crypto transactions annually. Before the data-sharing begins, Swiss authorities will also verify that all partner states meet CARF standards.
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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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The public fallout between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has triggered a surge in memecoin activity, with trading volumes soaring to over $355 million in the past 24 hours. The top five memecoins linked to the feud accounted for 64% of the $556 million total daily volume, according to data from DEX Screener.
‘Official Trump’ led the pack, generating around $228 million in trading volume and reclaiming a $2 billion market cap. Other popular tokens included ‘Kill Big Beautiful Bill’ with nearly $131 million traded, ‘President Vs Elon’ with about $30 million, and ‘Official Musk’ at $22 million.
A newly launched memecoin, ‘new political party,’ also attracted close to $10 million on its first day.
The spike followed a sharp social media exchange where Trump threatened to end Musk’s government subsidies, and Musk fired back with allegations and calls for political change. The dispute has introduced fresh volatility to the memecoin market, with traders closely watching social platforms for further developments.
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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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