Digital cooperation

New AI agent helps organise your day

Google Labs has introduced CC, an experimental AI productivity agent designed to help users stay organised and improve daily efficiency. The agent connects with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, and the wider web to gain an understanding of each user’s day.

Each morning, CC delivers a ‘Your Day Ahead’ briefing to users’ inboxes, summarising schedules, key tasks, and updates. It can draft emails, generate calendar links, and highlight next steps, making it easier to manage appointments, bills, and other responsibilities.

Users can interact with CC directly by replying to emails or sending custom requests, allowing the AI to learn personal preferences, store ideas, and remember tasks. The interactive approach helps the AI agent become more tailored to individual workflows over time.

CC is available in early access for Google consumer accounts aged 18 and over in the US and Canada, initially for Google AI Ultra and paid subscribers. Those interested can join the waitlist via the Google Labs website to gain early access.

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Local experts highlight AI’s potential for regional development

A panel of local business leaders, educators and policymakers in the Columbia Basin convened to discuss how AI can be harnessed to benefit the region’s economy, workforce and public services.

Participants highlighted AI’s potential to streamline government operations, enhance training programs and support small-business growth through data analysis and automation.

Speakers emphasised the importance of investing in workforce education and upskilling, so residents can capitalise on AI-related opportunities rather than being displaced by automation. Partnerships between local schools, employers and community organisations were cited as key to building ‘real-world readiness’ for AI integration across sectors such as agriculture, healthcare and manufacturing.

Panellists also emphasised ethical considerations and the need for community engagement in governance frameworks to ensure AI tools are adopted responsibly and equitably.

They argued that thoughtful regional planning can attract high-quality jobs and help the Columbia Basin carve out a competitive place in the broader digital economy.

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BioTechEU aims to close Europe’s biotech funding gap

The European Commission and the European Investment Bank Group have launched BioTechEU, a new initiative to mobilise €10 billion in investment for biotechnology and life sciences between 2026 and 2027.

The programme targets Europe’s biotech funding gap, seeking to strengthen global competitiveness by channelling public and private capital into health innovation, including gene therapies, mRNA treatments, personalised medicine and AI-enabled medical technologies.

BioTechEU will operate under the EIB Group’s TechEU framework and draw on instruments such as the InvestEU guarantee. The initiative aligns with broader EU efforts to retain strategic health innovation within Europe and reduce reliance on external markets.

European Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi said under-investment continues to constrain biotech startups, adding that the European Commission sees BioTechEU as a way to help promising treatments scale and reach patients more efficiently across the EU.

EIB President Nadia Calviño said Europe has strong scientific talent and ideas, but deeper capital markets are needed. She described BioTechEU as a catalyst for enabling EU-based biotech companies to grow and compete globally.

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Generative AI use grows across the EU

In 2025, nearly a third of people aged 16–74 across the European Union reported using generative AI tools, according to Eurostat. Most respondents used AI for personal tasks, while fewer applied it for work or education.

The survey data illustrate how generative AI is becoming a part of daily life for millions of Europeans, offering new ways to interact with technology and access creative tools that were once limited to specialists.

Generative AI tools are capable of producing new content, including text, images, videos, programming code, or other forms of data, based on patterns learned from existing examples. Users provide input or prompts, such as instructions or questions, which the AI then uses to generate tailored outputs.

This accessibility is helping people across the EU experiment with technology for both practical and recreational purposes, from drafting documents to designing visuals or exploring creative ideas, demonstrating the growing influence of AI on digital culture and personal productivity.

Adoption of generative AI varies significantly across the EU. Denmark, Estonia, and Malta recorded the highest usage, with nearly half of residents actively engaging with these tools, while Romania, Italy, and Bulgaria showed the lowest uptake, with fewer than a quarter of the population using AI.

These differences may reflect variations in digital infrastructure, education, and public awareness, as well as cultural attitudes toward emerging technologies.

Overall, the Eurostat data provide a snapshot of a digital landscape in transition, reflecting how Europeans are adapting to a new era of intelligent technology.

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Vietnam expands 5G and strengthens digital trust

Vietnam’s 5G network now reaches approximately 59 percent of the population, slightly over one year after commercial services launched in October 2024.

Government data presented at Internet Day 2025 show that Vietnam ranks 10th globally for fixed broadband speed and 15th for mobile broadband, reflecting rapid improvements in national connectivity.

Officials described the Internet as a second living space for citizens, with nearly 80 million users spending an average of seven hours online each day for work, education and social interaction.

Authorities highlighted that expanded 5G coverage supports the development of a digital economy, e-government services and a more connected digital society.

Alongside infrastructure growth, policymakers stressed the need for stronger digital trust.

Vietnam is shifting towards clearer legal frameworks instead of reliance on voluntary self-regulation, while prioritising cybersecurity, data governance and protection against online fraud, deepfakes and AI-driven deception to sustain long-term digital transformation.

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Language models impress but miss real-world understanding

Leading AI researcher Yann LeCun has argued that large language models only simulate understanding rather than genuinely comprehending the world. Their intelligence, he said, lacks grounding in physical reality and everyday common sense.

Despite being trained on vast amounts of online text, LLMs struggle with unfamiliar situations, according to LeCun. Real-world experience, he noted, provides richer learning than language alone ever could.

Drawing on decades in AI research, LeCun warned that enthusiasm around LLMs mirrors earlier hype cycles that promised human-level intelligence. Similar claims have repeatedly failed to deliver since the 1950s.

Instead of further scaling language models, LeCun urged greater investment in ‘world models’ that can reason about actions and consequences. He also cautioned that current funding patterns risk sidelining alternative approaches to AI.

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UK launches taskforce to boost women in tech

The UK government has formed a Women in Tech taskforce to help more women enter, remain and lead across the technology sector. Technology secretary Liz Kendall will guide the group alongside industry figures determined to narrow long-standing representation gaps highlighted by recent BCS data.

Members include Anne-Marie Imafidon, Allison Kirkby and Francesca Carlesi, who will advise ministers on boosting diversity and supporting economic growth. Leaders stress that better representation enables more inclusive decision-making and encourages technology built with wider perspectives in mind.

The taskforce plans to address barriers affecting women’s progression, ranging from career access to investment opportunities. Organisations such as techUK and the Royal Academy of Engineering argue that gender imbalance limits innovation, particularly as the UK pursues ambitious AI goals.

UK officials expect working groups to develop proposals over the coming months, focusing on practical steps that broaden the talent pool. Advocates say the initiative arrives at a crucial moment as emerging technologies reshape employment and demand more inclusive leadership.

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Private surveillance raises concerns in New Orleans

New Orleans has become the first US city to use real time facial recognition through a privately operated system. The technology flags wanted individuals as they pass cameras, with alerts sent directly to police despite ongoing disputes between city officials.

A local non profit runs the network independently and sets its own guard rails for police cooperation. Advocates claim the arrangement limits bureaucracy, while critics argue it bypasses vital public oversight and privacy protections.

Debate over facial recognition has intensified nationwide as communities question accuracy, fairness and civil liberties. New Orleans now represents a major test case for how such tools may develop without clear government regulation.

Officials remain divided over long term consequences while campaigners warn of creeping surveillance risks. Residents are likely to face years of uncertainty as policies evolve and private systems grow more influential.

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Oracle and Google Cloud launch AI database service in India

The US tech company, Oracle, has expanded Oracle Database@Google Cloud to India, making the service available through Google Cloud’s Mumbai region.

Enterprises can access Oracle Exadata, Autonomous AI Database and AI Lakehouse services while keeping data in the region to meet sovereignty and regulatory requirements.

The multicloud offering allows organisations to combine Oracle enterprise data with Google Cloud analytics and AI tools, including BigQuery, Vertex AI and Gemini models.

Customers can modernise applications and migrate mission-critical workloads without sacrificing performance, security or low-latency access.

Oracle Database@Google Cloud is available through the Google Cloud Marketplace, enabling customers to procure services via trusted partners instead of navigating complex contracting models.

Oracle and Google Cloud partners can also integrate the service into broader multicloud solutions.

The launch reflects growing demand for flexible multicloud architectures in India, supporting AI-driven innovation, advanced analytics and accelerated IT modernisation across regulated and data-intensive industries.

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Open-source scheduler Slurm moves under NVIDIA ownership

NVIDIA has announced the acquisition of SchedMD, the developer of Slurm, a widely used open-source workload manager for high-performance computing and AI environments.

The company stated that Slurm will continue to be developed and distributed as open-source, vendor-neutral software, with support maintained across a broad range of hardware and software platforms used by the HPC and AI communities.

Slurm plays a central role in managing complex workloads on large computing clusters, handling job scheduling, queuing, and resource allocation. It is used by more than half of the top 10 and top 100 systems on the TOP500 supercomputer list, reflecting its widespread adoption and significant impact.

NVIDIA stated that the software is also critical infrastructure for generative AI, helping developers manage large-scale model training and inference. The company has collaborated with SchedMD for over a decade and plans to increase investment in Slurm’s ongoing development.

SchedMD said the deal will enable Slurm to evolve in tandem with accelerated computing demands while remaining open source. NVIDIA said it will continue to provide support, training, and development to existing customers across various use cases, including research, industry, and public sectors.

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