Digital standards

OpenAI joins dialogue with the EU on fair and transparent AI development

The US AI company, OpenAI, has met with the European Commission to discuss competition in the rapidly expanding AI sector.

A meeting focused on how large technology firms such as Apple, Microsoft and Google shape access to digital markets through their operating systems, app stores and search engines.

During the discussion, OpenAI highlighted that such platforms significantly influence how users and developers engage with AI services.

The company encouraged regulators to ensure that innovation and consumer choice remain priorities as the industry grows, noting that collaboration between major and minor players can help maintain a balanced ecosystem.

An issue arises as OpenAI continues to partner with several leading technology companies. Microsoft, a key investor, has integrated ChatGPT into Windows 11’s Copilot, while Apple recently added ChatGPT support to Siri as part of its Apple Intelligence features.

Therefore, OpenAI’s engagement with regulators is part of a broader dialogue about maintaining open and competitive markets while fostering cooperation across the industry.

Although the European Commission has not announced any new investigations, the meeting reflects ongoing efforts to understand how AI platforms interact within the broader digital economy.

OpenAI and other stakeholders are expected to continue contributing to discussions to ensure transparency, fairness and sustainable growth in the AI ecosystem.

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Microsoft attracts tech pioneers to build the next era of AI

Some of the world’s most influential technologists (the creators of Python, Kubernetes, Google Docs, Google Lens, RSS feeds and ONNX) are now helping Microsoft shape the next era of AI.

Drawn by the company’s scale, openness to collaboration, and long-term investment in AI, they are leading projects that span infrastructure, productivity, responsible innovation and reasoning systems.

R.V. Guha, who invented RSS feeds, is developing NLWeb, a project that lets users converse directly with websites.

Brendan Burns, co-creator of Kubernetes, focuses on improving AI tools that simplify developers’ work. At the same time, Aparna Chennapragada, the mind behind Google Lens, now leads efforts to build intelligent AI agents and enhance productivity through Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Sarah Bird, who helped create the ONNX framework, leads Microsoft’s responsible AI division, ensuring that emerging systems are safe, secure and reliable.

Meanwhile, Sam Schillace, co-creator of Google Docs, explores ways AI can collaborate with people more naturally. Python’s creator, Guido van Rossum, works on systems to strengthen AI’s long-term memory across conversations.

Together, these innovators illustrate how Microsoft has become a magnet for the pioneers who defined modern computing, and they are now united in advancing the next stage of AI’s evolution.

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Facebook and Instagram Reels get multilingual boost with Meta AI

Meta has introduced new AI-powered translation features that allow Facebook and Instagram users to enjoy reels from around the world in multiple languages.

Meta AI now translates, dubs, and lip-syncs short videos in English, Spanish, Hindi, and Portuguese, with more languages to be added soon.

A tool that reproduces a creator’s voice and tone while automatically syncing translated audio to their lip movements, providing a natural viewing experience. It is free for Facebook creators with over 1,000 followers and all public Instagram accounts in countries where Meta AI is available.

The expansion is part of Meta’s goal to make global content more accessible and to help creators reach wider audiences. By breaking language barriers, Meta aims to strengthen community connections and turn Reels into a platform for global cultural exchange.

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Retailers face new pressure under California privacy law

California has entered a new era of privacy and AI enforcement after the state’s privacy regulator fined Tractor Supply USD1.35 million for failing to honour opt-outs and ignoring Global Privacy Control signals. The case marks the largest penalty yet from the California Privacy Protection Agency.

In California, there is a widening focus on how companies manage consumer data, verification processes and third-party vendors. Regulators are now demanding that privacy signals be enforced at the technology layer, not just displayed through website banners or webforms.

Retailers must now show active, auditable compliance, with clear privacy notices, automated data controls and stronger vendor agreements. Regulators have also warned that businesses will be held responsible for partner failures and poor oversight of cookies and tracking tools.

At the same time, California’s new AI law, SB 53, extends governance obligations to frontier AI developers, requiring transparency around safety benchmarks and misuse prevention. The measure connects AI accountability to broader data governance, reinforcing that privacy and AI oversight are now inseparable.

Executives across retail and technology are being urged to embed compliance and governance into daily operations. California’s regulators are shifting from punishing visible lapses to demanding continuous, verifiable proof of compliance across both data and AI systems.

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Ant Group launches trillion-parameter AI model Ling-1T

Ant Group has unveiled its Ling AI model family, introducing Ling-1T, a trillion-parameter large language model that has been open-sourced for public use.

The Ling family now includes three main series: the Ling non-thinking models, the Ring thinking models, and the multimodal Ming models.

Ling-1T delivers state-of-the-art performance in code generation, mathematical reasoning, and logical problem-solving, achieving 70.42% accuracy on the 2025 AIME benchmark.

A model that combines efficient inference with strong reasoning capabilities, marking a major advance in AI development for complex cognitive tasks.

Company’s Chief Technology Officer, He Zhengyu, said that Ant Group views AGI as a public good that should benefit society.

The release of Ling-1T and the earlier Ring-1T-preview underscores Ant Group’s commitment to open, collaborative AI innovation and the development of inclusive AGI technologies.

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MIT creates AI tool to build virtual worlds for robots

Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and AI Laboratory have developed a new AI system that can build realistic virtual environments for training robots. The tool, called steerable scene generation, creates kitchens, restaurants and living rooms filled with 3D objects where robots interact with the physical world.

The system uses a diffusion model guided by Monte Carlo tree search to produce scenes that follow real-world physics. Unlike traditional simulations, it can accurately position objects and avoid visual errors such as items overlapping or floating unrealistically.

By generating millions of unique, lifelike environments, the system can dramatically increase the training data available for robotic foundation models. Robots trained in these AI settings can practise everyday actions like stacking plates or placing cutlery with greater precision.

The researchers say the technique allows robots to learn more efficiently without the cost or limits of real-world testing. Future work aims to include movable objects and internet-sourced assets to make the simulations even more dynamic and diverse.

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Microsoft boosts AI leadership with NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 supercomputer

Microsoft Azure has launched the world’s first NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 supercomputing cluster, explicitly designed for OpenAI’s large-scale AI workloads.

The new NDv6 GB300 VM series integrates over 4,600 NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs, representing a significant step forward in US AI infrastructure and innovation leadership.

Each rack-scale system combines 72 GPUs and 36 Grace CPUs, offering 37 terabytes of fast memory and 1.44 exaflops of FP4 performance.

A configuration that supports complex reasoning and multimodal AI systems, achieving up to five times the throughput of the previous NVIDIA Hopper architecture in MLPerf benchmarks.

The cluster is built on NVIDIA’s Quantum-X800 InfiniBand network, delivering 800 Gb/s of bandwidth per GPU for unified, high-speed performance.

Microsoft and NVIDIA’s long-standing collaboration has enabled a system capable of powering trillion-parameter models, positioning Azure at the forefront of the next generation of AI training and deployment.

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Harvard Medical School licenses health content to Microsoft’s Copilot

Harvard Medical School has signed a licensing agreement with Microsoft, granting the company access to its consumer health content on diseases and wellness.

Under the deal, Microsoft will pay a licensing fee to Harvard. The partnership aims to enhance Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant by enabling it to provide medical advice that more closely aligns with what a user might receive from a healthcare professional.

So far, Copilot’s underlying models have been powered primarily by OpenAI. But this agreement is part of Microsoft’s broader push to diversify and reduce its dependence on OpenAI’s technology stack.

Dominic King, Microsoft’s vice president of health, has said the goal is for Copilot’s responses to health queries to more accurately reflect what a medical practitioner would say, rather than generic or superficial answers.

Microsoft declined to comment in detail, but the move strengthens Copilot’s differentiation in the health domain, arguably a high-stakes vertical area where accuracy and trustworthiness matter greatly.

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Quantum innovations promise faster, cleaner, more efficient technologies

The Nobel Prize in Physics has spotlighted quantum mechanics’ growing role in shaping a smarter, more sustainable future. Such advances are reshaping technology across communications and energy.

Researchers are finding new ways to use quantum effects to boost efficiency. Quantum computing could ease AI’s power demands, while novel production methods may transform energy systems.

A Institute of Science Tokyo team has built a quantum energy harvester that captures waste heat and converts it into power, bypassing traditional thermodynamic limits.

MIT has observed frictionless electron movement, and new quantum batteries promise faster charging by storing energy in photons. The breakthroughs could enable cleaner and more efficient technologies.

Quantum advances offer huge opportunities but also risks, including threats to encryption. Responsible governance will be crucial to ensure these technologies serve the public good.

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Nvidia to invest $2bn in Elon Musk’s xAI

Nvidia is reportedly investing up to $2bn in Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, as part of a $20bn funding round aimed at scaling its Colossus 2 data centre in Memphis. The capital will be used to buy Nvidia GPUs, essential for powering xAI’s next generation of AI models.

The funding package combines about $7.5bn in equity and up to $12.5bn in debt, structured through a special purpose vehicle that will lease the hardware to xAI over five years. The debt is secured by the GPUs themselves, allowing investors to recover their costs through chip rentals.

xAI faces mounting financial pressure, with reports indicating a cash burn of around $1bn per month. The firm raised $10bn earlier in the year and continues to draw on capital from Musk’s other ventures, including SpaceX.

The move comes amid an intense funding surge across the AI sector, as OpenAI, Meta and Oracle also announce multi-billion-dollar investments in infrastructure. Nvidia’s latest deal with xAI further cements its position at the centre of the global AI hardware ecosystem.

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