Digital business models Archives | Page 418 of 571

Viral AI image trends drive up water consumption

Behind ChatGPT’s digital charm lies an increasingly concerning environmental toll, largely driven by its water consumption.

According to recent reports, OpenAI’s GPT-4 model consumes around 500 millilitres of clean, drinkable water for every 100-word response. The surge in demand, fuelled by viral trends like Studio Ghibli-style portraits and Barbie-themed avatars, has significantly amplified this impact.

Each AI interaction, especially those involving image generation, generates heat, necessitating cooling systems that rely heavily on water.

With an estimated 57 million users daily, ChatGPT’s operations result in a staggering daily water usage of over 14,800 crore litres. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, recently acknowledged server strain, urging users to reduce non-essential use.

The environmental costs extend beyond water. Many data centres supporting AI platforms are located in water-stressed regions and rely on fossil fuels, raising serious concerns about sustainability.

Experts warn that while AI promises convenience, its rapid expansion risks putting additional pressure on fragile ecosystems unless mindful practices are adopted.

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KiloEX loses $7.5 million in oracle hack

A hacker has exploited decentralised exchange KiloEX, draining approximately US$7.5 million by manipulating its price oracle mechanism. The breach led to an immediate suspension of the platform and sparked a cross-industry investigation involving cybersecurity firms and blockchain networks.

The vulnerability centred on KiloEX’s price feed system, which allowed the attacker to manipulate the ETH/USD feed by inputting an artificial entry price of 100 and closing it at 10,000.

According to cybersecurity firm PeckShield, this simple flaw enabled the attacker to steal millions across multiple chains, including $3.3 million from Base, $3.1 million from opBNB, and $1 million from BNB Smart Chain.

KiloEX is working with various security experts and blockchain networks such as BNB Chain and Manta Network to recover the stolen assets.

Funds are reportedly being routed through cross-chain protocols like zkBridge and Meson. Co-founder of Fuzzland, Chaofan Shou, described the breach as stemming from a ‘very simple vulnerability’ in oracle verification, where only intermediaries were validated rather than the original transaction sender.

The attack caused KiloEX’s token price to plummet by over 29% and came just one day after the platform announced a strategic partnership with DWF Labs, aimed at fuelling growth. KiloEX has promised a full incident report and a bounty programme to encourage asset recovery.

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Siri AI overhaul delayed until 2026

Apple has revealed plans to use real user data, in a privacy-preserving way, to improve its AI models. The company has acknowledged that synthetic data alone is not producing reliable results, particularly in training large language models that power tools like Writing Tools and notification summaries.

To address this, Apple will compare AI-generated content with real emails from users who have opted in to share Device Analytics. The sampled emails remain on the user’s device, with only a signal sent to Apple about which AI-generated message most closely matches real-world usage.

The move reflects broader efforts to boost the performance of Apple Intelligence, a suite of features that includes message recaps and content summaries.

Apple has faced internal criticism over slow progress, particularly with Siri, which is now seen as falling behind competitors like Google Gemini and Samsung’s Galaxy AI. The tech giant recently confirmed that meaningful AI updates for Siri won’t arrive until 2026, despite earlier promises of a rollout later this year.

In a rare leadership shakeup, Apple CEO Tim Cook removed AI chief John Giannandrea from overseeing Siri after delays were labelled ‘ugly and embarrassing’ by senior executives.

The responsibility for Siri’s future has been handed to Mike Rockwell, the creator of Vision Pro, who now reports directly to software chief Craig Federighi. Giannandrea will continue to lead Apple’s other AI initiatives.

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Trump-backed WLFI boosts crypto portfolio with SEI token acquisition

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a cryptocurrency project backed by the Trump family, has added 4.89 million SEI tokens to its portfolio. The purchase, valued at approximately $775,000, was made by using USDC transferred from the project’s main wallet.

The move increases WLFI’s growing collection of altcoins, which includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Tron (TRX). WLFI’s total portfolio now includes 11 different tokens, amounting to over $346 million in investments.

Despite this large accumulation, the project has yet to realise any profits, with its portfolio currently down by $145.8 million. Its Ethereum holdings have suffered a particular blow, with losses exceeding $114 million.

The SEI acquisition comes amid growing speculation surrounding the Trump family’s involvement in the crypto market. WLFI’s proposal for a USD1 stablecoin has raised concerns among lawmakers about its potential to replace the US dollar in federal transactions.

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Elon Musk’s Grok moves closer to ChatGPT

Grok, the AI chatbot from Elon Musk’s xAI, is reportedly gaining a memory feature that allows it to recall previous conversations, bringing it in line with rivals like ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

The feature, spotted by users in the web app, appears as a ‘Personalise with Memories’ toggle in settings and promises to help Grok retain useful context across chats. Users will have the ability to manage what Grok remembers and delete memories when needed, a growing standard in user-controlled AI tools.

The memory update is part of a broader wave of improvements rolling out to Grok, which aims to evolve from a novelty chatbot into a serious digital assistant.

Vision support for voice mode is in development, allowing users to point their camera at objects and receive spoken analysis, while image editing tools are being enhanced to allow stylistic changes to uploaded pictures.

Grok is also preparing to integrate with Google Drive and introduce a new collaborative ‘Workspaces’ feature for larger projects.

These upgrades arrive ahead of the expected release of Grok 3.5, with version 4 planned by year’s end. While the chatbot has carved a niche with its sarcastic tone, xAI appears to be refocusing Grok on practical tasks and creative support.

Whether it can rival the maturity and coherence of more established competitors remains to be seen, but Grok is clearly evolving — and now, it finally remembers who you are.

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Spotify launches Ads Exchange and Gen AI ads in India

Spotify has introduced its Ads Exchange (SAX) and Generative AI-powered advertisements in India, following a successful pilot in the US and Canada.

The SAX platform aims to give advertisers better control over performance tracking and maximise reach without overloading users with repetitive ads.

Integrated with platforms such as Google DV360, The Trade Desk, and Magnite, SAX enables advertisers to access Spotify’s high-quality inventory and enhance their programmatic strategies. In addition to multimedia formats, podcast ads will soon be included.

Through Generative AI, advertisers can create audio ads within Spotify’s Ads Manager platform at no extra cost, using scripts, voiceovers, and licensed music.

An innovation like this allows brands to produce more ads in shorter intervals with less effort, making the process quicker and more efficient for reaching a broader audience. Arjun Kolady, Head of Sales – India at Spotify, highlighted the ease of scaling campaigns with these new tools.

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Samsung brings AI-powered service tool to India

Samsung, already the leading home appliance brand in India by volume, is now enhancing its after-sales service with an AI-powered support tool.

The tech company from South Korea has introduced the Home Appliances Remote Management (HRM) tool, designed to improve service speed, accuracy, and overall customer experience instead of sticking with traditional support methods.

The HRM tool allows customer care teams to remotely diagnose and resolve issues in Samsung smart appliances connected via SmartThings. If a problem can be fixed remotely, staff will ask for the user’s consent before taking control of the device.

If the issue can be solved by the customer, step-by-step instructions are provided instead of sending a technician straight away.

When neither of these options applies, the issue is forwarded directly to service technicians with full diagnostics already completed, cutting down the time spent on-site.

The new system reduces the need for in-home visits, shortens waiting times, and increases the uptime of appliances instead of leaving users waiting unnecessarily.

SmartThings also plays a proactive role by automatically detecting issues and offering solutions before customers even need to call.

Samsung India’s Vice President for Customer Satisfaction, Sunil Cutinha, noted that the tool significantly streamlines service, boosts maintenance efficiency, and helps ensure timely product support for users across the country.

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Nvidia brings AI supercomputer production to the US

Nvidia is shifting its AI supercomputer manufacturing operations to the United States for the first time, instead of relying on a globally dispersed supply chain.

In partnership with industry giants such as TSMC, Foxconn, and Wistron, the company is establishing large-scale facilities to produce its advanced Blackwell chips in Arizona and complete supercomputers in Texas. Production is expected to reach full scale within 12 to 15 months.

Over a million square feet of manufacturing space has been commissioned, with key roles also played by packaging and testing firms Amkor and SPIL.

The move reflects Nvidia’s ambition to create up to half a trillion dollars in AI infrastructure within the next four years, while boosting supply chain resilience and growing its US-based operations instead of expanding solely abroad.

These AI supercomputers are designed to power new, highly specialised data centres known as ‘AI factories,’ capable of handling vast AI workloads.

Nvidia’s investment is expected to support the construction of dozens of such facilities, generating hundreds of thousands of jobs and securing long-term economic value.

To enhance efficiency, Nvidia will apply its own AI, robotics, and simulation tools across these projects, using Omniverse to model factory operations virtually and Isaac GR00T to develop robots that automate production.

According to CEO Jensen Huang, bringing manufacturing home strengthens supply chains and better positions the company to meet the surging global demand for AI computing power.

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Zhipu AI launches free agent to rival DeepSeek

Chinese AI startup Zhipu AI has introduced a free AI agent, AutoGLM Rumination, aimed at assisting users with tasks such as web browsing, travel planning, and drafting research reports.

The product was unveiled by CEO Zhang Peng at an event in Beijing, where he highlighted the agent’s use of the company’s proprietary models—GLM-Z1-Air for reasoning and GLM-4-Air-0414 as the foundation.

According to Zhipu, the new GLM-Z1-Air model outperforms DeepSeek’s R1 in both speed and resource efficiency. The launch reflects growing momentum in China’s AI sector, where companies are increasingly focusing on cost-effective solutions to meet rising demand.

AutoGLM Rumination stands out in a competitive landscape by being freely accessible through Zhipu’s official website and mobile app, unlike rival offerings such as Manus’ subscription-only AI agent. The company positions this move as part of a broader strategy to expand access and adoption.

Founded in 2019 as a spinoff from Tsinghua University, Zhipu has developed the GLM model series and claims its GLM4 has surpassed OpenAI’s GPT-4 on several evaluation benchmarks.

In March, Zhipu secured major government-backed investment, including a 300 million yuan (US$41.5 million) contribution from Chengdu.

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Meta to use EU user data for AI training amid scrutiny

Meta Platforms has announced it will begin using public posts, comments, and user interactions with its AI tools to train its AI models in the EU, instead of limiting training data to existing US-based inputs.

The move follows the recent European rollout of Meta AI, which had been delayed since June 2024 due to data privacy concerns raised by regulators. The company said EU users of Facebook and Instagram would receive notifications outlining how their data may be used, along with a link to opt out.

Meta clarified that while questions posed to its AI and public content from adult users may be used, private messages and data from under-18s would be excluded from training.

Instead of expanding quietly, the company is now making its plans public in an attempt to meet the EU’s transparency expectations.

The shift comes after Meta paused its original launch last year at the request of Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, which expressed concerns about using social media content for AI development. The move also drew criticism from advocacy group NOYB, which has urged regulators to intervene more decisively.

Meta joins a growing list of tech firms under scrutiny in Europe. Ireland’s privacy watchdog is already investigating Elon Musk’s X and Google for similar practices involving personal data use in AI model training.

Instead of treating such probes as isolated incidents, the EU appears to be setting a precedent that could reshape how global companies handle user data in AI development.

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