Digital cooperation

Study shows how AI can uncover hidden biological mechanisms

Researchers in China have used AI to reveal how different species independently develop similar traits when adapting to shared environments. The study focuses on echolocation in bats and toothed whales, two distant groups that created this ability separately despite their evolutionary differences.

The Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences team found that high-order protein features are crucial to adaptive convergence. Convergent evolution is the independent emergence of similar traits across species, often under similar ecological pressures.

Led by Zou Zhengting, the researchers developed a framework called ACEP, which utilises a pre-trained protein language model to analyse amino acid sequences. This method reveals hidden structural and functional information in proteins, shedding light on how traits are formed at the molecular level.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveal how AI can detect deep biological patterns behind convergent evolution. The study demonstrates how combining AI with protein analysis provides powerful tools for understanding complex evolutionary mechanisms.

Zou said the work deepens the understanding of life’s evolutionary laws and highlights the growing role of AI in biology. The team in China hopes this approach can be applied to other evolutionary questions, broadening the use of AI in decoding life’s hidden patterns.

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Study explores AI’s role in future-proofing buildings

AI could help design buildings that are resilient to both climate extremes and infectious disease threats, according to new research. The study, conducted in collaboration with Charles Darwin University, examines the application of AI in smart buildings, with a focus on energy efficiency and management.

Buildings account for over two-thirds of global carbon emissions and energy consumption, but reducing consumption remains challenging and costly. The study highlights how AI can enhance ventilation and thermal comfort, overcoming the limitations of static HVAC systems that impact sustainability and health.

Researchers propose adaptive thermal control systems that respond in real-time to occupancy, outdoor conditions, and internal heat. Machine learning can optimise temperature and airflow to balance comfort, energy efficiency, and infection control.

A new framework enables designers and facility managers to simulate thermal scenarios and assess their impact on the risk of airborne transmission. It is modular and adaptable to different building types, offering a quantitative basis for future regulatory standards.

The study was conducted with lead author Mohammadreza Haghighat from the University of Tehran and CDU’s Ehsan Mohammadi Savadkoohi. Future work will integrate real-time sensor data to strengthen building resilience against future climate and health threats.

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Spotify links with ChatGPT to enhance personalised listening experiences

Spotify and OpenAI have combined music and podcast discovery into ChatGPT conversations. Free and Premium users can now link their Spotify accounts to ChatGPT and receive personalised recommendations directly within chat.

Once connected, users can prompt ChatGPT with queries like ‘play something mellow for reading’ or ‘recommend a science podcast’, and Spotify will surface results inline. Tapping a track or episode directs the user to the Spotify app for playback.

Spotify emphasises that this feature is optional and user consent is required. No audio or video content from Spotify will be shared with OpenAI for model training purposes.

Free users will still draw from Spotify’s existing playlists (such as Discover Weekly or New Music Friday). In contrast, Premium users will gain access to more refined, bespoke suggestions based on richer prompts.

The integration is available in English across 145 countries and works on desktop and mobile for ChatGPT Free, Plus and Pro users.

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Anthropic launches Bengaluru office to drive responsible AI in India

AI firm Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI chatbot, is opening its first office in India, choosing Bengaluru as its base.

A move that follows OpenAI’s recent expansion into New Delhi, underlining India’s growing importance as a hub for AI development and adoption.

CEO Dario Amodei said India’s combination of vast technical talent and the government’s commitment to equitable AI progress makes it an ideal location.

The Bengaluru office will focus on developing AI solutions tailored to India’s needs in education, healthcare, and agriculture sectors.

Amodei is visiting India to strengthen ties with enterprises, nonprofits, and startups and promote responsible AI use that is aligned with India’s digital growth strategy.

Anthropic plans further expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, following its Tokyo launch, later in the year.

Chief Commercial Officer Paul Smith noted the rising demand among Indian companies for trustworthy, scalable AI systems. Anthropic’s Claude models are already accessible in India through its API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud Vertex AI.

The company serves more than 300,000 businesses worldwide, with nearly 80 percent of usage outside the US.

India has become the second-largest market for Claude, with developers using it for tasks such as mobile UI design and web app debugging.

Anthropic also enhances Claude’s multilingual capabilities in major Indic languages, including Hindi, Bengali, and Tamil, to support education and public sector projects.

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OpenAI unveils AgentKit for faster AI agent creation

OpenAI has launched AgentKit, a new suite of developer tools designed to simplify AI-powered agents’ creation, deployment, and optimisation. The platform unifies workflows that previously required multiple systems, offering a faster and more visual way to build intelligent applications.

AgentKit’s AI includes Agent Builder, Connector Registry, ChatKit, and advanced evaluation tools. Developers can now design multi-agent workflows on a visual canvas, manage data connections across workspaces, and integrate chat-based agents directly into apps and websites.

Early users such as Ramp and LY Corporation built working agents in just a few hours, cutting development cycles by up to 70%. Companies including Canva and HubSpot have used ChatKit to embed conversational support agents, transforming customer experience and developer engagement.

New evaluation features and reinforcement fine-tuning allow users to test, grade, and improve agents’ reasoning abilities. AgentKit is now available to developers and enterprises through OpenAI’s API and ChatGPT Enterprise, with a wider rollout expected later this year.

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Bulgaria eyes AI gigafactory partnership with IBM

Bulgaria is considering building an AI gigafactory in partnership with IBM and the European Commission, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov announced after meeting with IBM executives in Sofia. The project aims to attract large-scale high-tech investment and strengthen Europe’s AI infrastructure.

The proposed facility would feature over 100,000 advanced GPU chips and require up to 500 megawatts of power. The initial phase alone is expected to need around 70 megawatts, highlighting the scale of the planned operation.

Funding could come through a public-private partnership, with the European Commission covering up to 17 percent of capital costs and EU member states contributing additional support for this Bulgarian project.

IBM is considered a strategic technology partner, bringing expertise in cloud computing, cybersecurity, and AI systems. The first gigafactories across Europe are expected to begin operations between 2027 and 2028, aligning with the EU’s plan to mobilise €200 billion for AI development.

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AI maps over 1,300 mouse brain subregions with unprecedented precision

Researchers at UCSF and the Allen Institute have created one of the most detailed mouse brain maps. Their AI model, CellTransformer, identified over 1,300 brain regions and subregions, including previously uncharted areas. The findings were published in Nature Communications.

CellTransformer utilises spatial transcriptomics to define brain regions based on shared cellular patterns, rather than relying on expert annotation. Drawing city borders from building types reveals finer brain structures. This data-driven method provides unprecedented precision.

The model replicated known regions, such as the hippocampus, and revealed previously unknown subdivisions in the midbrain reticular nucleus. Researchers compared the leap from mapping continents to mapping states and cities. The tool provides a foundation for more targeted neuroscience studies.

Validation against the Allen Institute’s Common Coordinate Framework strongly aligned with expert-defined anatomy. The results gave researchers confidence in the biological relevance of the new subregions. Further studies will investigate their functions.

The model’s potential goes beyond neuroscience. Its methods can map other tissues, including cancers, by analysing large spatial transcriptomics datasets. However, this could support new medical research, helping uncover disease mechanisms and accelerate treatment development.

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New report finds IT leaders unprepared for evolving cyber threats

A new global survey by 11:11 Systems highlights growing concerns among IT leaders over cyber incident recovery. More than 800 senior IT professionals across North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific report a rising strain from evolving threats, staffing gaps, and limited clean-room infrastructure.

Over 80% of respondents experienced at least one major cyberattack in the past year, with more than half facing multiple incidents. Nearly half see recovery planning complexity as their top challenge, while over 80% say their organisations are overconfident in their recovery capabilities.

The survey also reveals that 74% believe integrating AI could increase cyberattack vulnerability. Despite this, 96% plan to invest in cyber incident recovery within the next 12 months, underlining its growing importance in budget strategies.

The financial stakes are high. Over 80% of respondents reported spending at least six figures during just one hour of downtime, with the top 5% incurring losses of over one million dollars per hour. Yet 30% of businesses do not test their recovery plans annually, despite these risks.

11:11 Systems’ CTO Justin Giardina said organisations must adopt a proactive, AI-driven approach to recovery. He emphasised the importance of advanced platforms, secure clean rooms, and tailored expertise to enhance cyber resilience and expedite recovery after incidents.

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Employees embrace AI but face major training and trust gaps

SnapLogic has published new research highlighting how AI adoption reshapes daily work across industries while exposing trust, training, and leadership strategy gaps.

The study finds that 78% of employees already use AI in their roles, with half using autonomous AI agents. Workers interact with AI almost daily and save over three hours per week. However, 94% say they face barriers to practical use, with concerns over data privacy and security topping the list.

Based on a survey of 3,000 US, UK, and German employees, the research finds widespread but uneven AI support. Training is a significant gap, with only 63% receiving company-led education. Many rely on trial and error, and managers are more likely to be trained than non-managers.

Generational and hierarchical differences are also evident. Seventy percent of managers express strong confidence in AI, compared with 43% of non-managers. Half believe they will be managed by AI agents rather than people in the future, and many expect to be handled by AI themselves.

SnapLogic’s CTO, Jeremiah Stone, says the agile enterprise is about easing workloads and sparking creativity, not replacing people. The findings underscore the need for companies to align strategy, training, and trust to realise AI’s potential in the workplace fully.

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ChatGPT introduces new generation of interactive apps

A new generation of interactive apps is arriving in ChatGPT, allowing users to engage with tools like Canva, Spotify, and Booking.com directly through conversation. The apps appear naturally during chats, enabling users to create, learn, and explore within the same interface.

Developers can now build their own ChatGPT apps using the newly launched Apps SDK, released in preview as an open standard based on the Model Context Protocol. The SDK includes documentation, examples, and testing tools, with app submissions and monetisation to follow later this year.

Over 800 million ChatGPT users can now access these apps on Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans, excluding EU regions for the moment. Early partners include Booking.com, Coursera, Canva, Figma, Expedia, Spotify, and Zillow, with more to follow later in the year.

Apps respond to natural language and integrate interactive features such as maps, playlists, and slides directly in chat. ChatGPT can even suggest relevant apps during conversations- for instance, showing Zillow listings when discussing home purchases or prompting Spotify for a party playlist.

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