Digital standards

Qwen3-Max-Thinking hits perfect scores as Alibaba raises the bar on AI reasoning

Alibaba unveiled Qwen3-Max-Thinking, which scored 100 percent on AIME 2025 and HMMT, matching OpenAI’s top model on reasoning tests. It targets high-precision problem-solving across algebra, number theory, and probability. Researchers regard elite maths contests as strong proxies for reasoning.

Built on Qwen3-Max, a trillion-parameter flagship, the thinking variant emphasises step-by-step solutions. Alibaba says it matches or beats Claude Opus 4, DeepSeek V3.1, Grok 4, and GPT-5 Pro. Positioning stresses accuracy, traceability, and controllable latency.

Signal from a live trading trial added momentum. In a two-week crypto experiment, Qwen3-Max returned 22.3 percent on 10,000 US dollars. Competing systems underperformed, with DeepSeek at 4.9 percent and several US models booking losses.

Access is available via the Qwen web chatbot and Alibaba Cloud APIs. Early adopters can test tool use and stepwise reasoning on technical tasks. Enterprises are exploring finance, research, and operations cases requiring reliability and auditability.

Alibaba researchers say further tuning will broaden task coverage without diluting peak maths performance. Plans include multilingual reasoning, safety alignment, and robustness under distribution shift. Community benchmarks and contests will track progress.

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Microsoft deal signals pay-per-use path for AI access to People Inc. content

People Inc. has joined Microsoft’s publisher content marketplace in a pay-per-use deal that compensates media for AI access. Copilot will be the first buyer, while People Inc. continues to block most AI crawlers via Cloudflare to force paid licensing.

People Inc., formerly Dotdash Meredith, said Microsoft’s marketplace lets AI firms pay ‘à la carte’ for specific content. The agreement differs from its earlier OpenAI pact, which the company described as more ‘all-you-can-eat’, but the priority remains ‘respected and paid for’ use.

Executives disclosed a sharp fall in Google search referrals: from 54% of traffic two years ago to 24% last quarter, citing AI Overviews. Leadership argues that crawler identification and paid access should become the norm as AI sits between publishers and audiences.

Blocking non-paying bots has ‘brought almost everyone to the table’, People Inc. said, signalling more licences to come. Such an approach by Microsoft is framed as a model for compensating rights-holders while enabling AI tools to use high-quality, authorised material.

IAC reported People Inc. digital revenue up 9% to $269m, with performance marketing and licensing up 38% and 24% respectively. The publisher also acquired Feedfeed, expanding its food vertical reach while pursuing additional AI content partnerships.

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Microsoft invests $15 billion in AI growth across the UAE

Microsoft will invest $15.2 billion in the UAE by 2029 to expand AI infrastructure, develop talent, and build trust across the region. The investment encompasses a $1.5 billion stake in G42, significant AI and cloud data centre spending, and local operating costs to bolster the UAE’s digital economy.

The company is deploying advanced NVIDIA GPUs to power AI applications, including OpenAI models, Anthropic, and Microsoft’s own services. With 59.4 percent of the UAE population using generative AI, the country leads global per capita AI adoption.

Microsoft is also nurturing AI talent through initiatives like the Global Engineering Development Centre, AI for Good Lab, and skilling programmes for students, teachers, and government employees.

Trust is a core component of Microsoft’s strategy. The company, together with G42 and MBZUAI, founded the Responsible AI Future Foundation to promote ethical AI standards across the Middle East and the Global South.

An Intergovernmental Assurance Agreement with the US and UAE governments ensures compliance with cybersecurity, export controls, data protection, and responsible AI practices.

Through technology investment, talent development, and building international trust, Microsoft aims to strengthen the UAE’s position as a global AI hub while fostering long-term economic growth and collaboration between the UAE and the United States.

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EU invests €2.9 billion to drive net-zero industrial transformation

The European Commission has approved €2.9 billion in funding for 61 large-scale net-zero technology projects, marking one of the EU’s most significant investments in clean innovation to date.

Financed through revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System, the initiative aims to accelerate Europe’s path towards climate neutrality by 2050.

The selected projects cover 19 industrial sectors across 18 Member States and target areas such as renewable energy, energy storage, zero-emission mobility, and industrial carbon management.

Collectively, they are expected to cut more than 220 million tonnes of CO₂ over the next decade, reinforcing Europe’s global leadership in sustainable technologies instead of relying on imports.

Funded under the Innovation Fund, which draws on an estimated €40 billion in ETS revenues, the initiative highlights the EU’s industrial readiness for decarbonisation. The latest call attracted 359 applications requesting €21.7 billion in support, underscoring the rapid growth of the continent’s cleantech sector.

Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra described the announcement as proof that the EU is turning its climate ambitions into industrial reality, creating green jobs and strengthening economic resilience. The next round of Innovation Fund calls will open in December 2025.

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AI reveals gene defect driving Crohn’s disease

Scientists at UC San Diego used AI and molecular biology to show how a broken NOD2–girdin partnership causes chronic inflammation in Crohn’s disease. The study explains why some macrophages become inflammatory instead of restorative, leading to intestinal damage.

The study analysed thousands of macrophage genes, identifying 53 that separate inflammatory cells from healing ones. One key discovery revealed that NOD2 normally binds to girdin in non-inflammatory macrophages, keeping inflammation under control.

Mutations in NOD2, common in Crohn’s patients, disrupt this connection, tipping the immune system toward persistent gut inflammation.

Animal studies confirmed the findings. Mice lacking girdin developed severe intestinal inflammation, altered gut microbiomes, and in many cases, fatal sepsis.

The experiments showed that without the NOD2–girdin interaction, the gut’s immune balance collapses, highlighting the importance of this partnership for intestinal health.

By combining AI, genetic analysis, and animal models, the study opens new avenues for Crohn’s therapies. Researchers aim to restore the NOD2–girdin interaction to rebalance macrophages and ease chronic inflammation.

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Microsoft launches Agentic Launchpad to support AI start-ups

Microsoft, in collaboration with NVIDIA and WeTransact, has launched the Agentic Launchpad to drive AI innovation across the UK and Ireland. Built on Microsoft’s $30 billion investment in UK AI infrastructure, the initiative aims to help start-ups and scale-ups develop intelligent, next-generation AI platforms.

The programme provides participants with access to cutting-edge technologies, expert guidance, and global go-to-market support. Companies benefit from technical sessions, co-innovation opportunities, and marketing support to ensure their products reach the marketplace quickly.

Selected participants will also gain exposure through Microsoft and partner communications, networking events, and industry summits.

Agentic Launchpad is open to UK-based software companies developing agentic applications, autonomous systems, or generative AI platforms. Applicants should highlight their vision and technical strengths; submissions are open from 4 November to 28.

Microsoft and NVIDIA highlight the programme’s potential to foster innovation and leadership in the emerging era of agentic AI, offering training, infrastructure, and expert networks to accelerate development and performance.

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France moves to tax crypto as ‘unproductive wealth’

French lawmakers approved a proposal to expand the wealth tax to cover ‘unproductive assets’ like luxury goods, property, and digital currencies. The amendment by centrist MP Jean-Paul Matteï narrowly passed the National Assembly, 163 to 150, with support from socialist and far-right members.

The proposal will now move to the Senate for further debate as part of the 2026 national budget process.

Under the plan, individuals holding ‘unproductive wealth’ valued above €2 million would face a new 1% flat tax. The measure replaces the existing progressive real estate wealth tax, which currently charges up to 1.5% on assets exceeding €10 million.

Matteï argued that the change would promote ‘productive investment’ and address inconsistencies in the current system, which excludes assets like gold, classic cars, and cryptocurrencies.

The inclusion of digital assets has drawn criticism from the local crypto community. Éric Larchevêque, co-founder of crypto wallet maker Ledger, warned that the move sends a negative message, portraying crypto as economically ‘unproductive.’

He cautioned that investors could be forced to liquidate their holdings to pay the tax, and expressed concern that the threshold might later be reduced.

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Member States cooperate on next-generation European digital platforms

The European Commission has approved the creation of the Digital Commons European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (DC-EDIC), designed to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty. The new body unites France, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy as founding members.

DC-EDIC aims to build open, interoperable and sovereign digital systems, reducing reliance on imported technologies. Its work will focus on shared data infrastructure, connected public administration and collaborative digital tools to support both governments and businesses.

The Paris-based consortium will coordinate funding access, offer legal and technical guidance, and support the scaling of open-source digital solutions across Europe. Future projects will include a one-stop shop for resources, an expertise hub and a Digital Commons Forum.

All jointly developed software will be released under free, open-source licences, ensuring transparency and reuse whilst being GDPR compliant. The official launch is expected in December 2025, with the first annual State of the Digital Commons report planned for 2027.

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Salesforce’s Agentforce helps organisations deliver 24/7 support

Organisations across public and private sectors are using Salesforce’s Agentforce to engage people whenever and wherever they need support.

From local governments to hospitals and education platforms, AI systems are transforming how services are delivered and accessed.

In the city of Kyle, Texas, an Agentforce-driven 311 app enables residents to report issues such as potholes or water leaks. The city plans to make the system voice-enabled, reducing traditional call volumes while maintaining a steady flow of service requests and faster responses.

At Pearson, AI enables students to access their online learning platforms instantly, regardless of their time zone. The company stated that the technology fosters loyalty by providing immediate assistance, rather than requiring users to wait for human support.

Meanwhile, UChicago Medicine utilises AI to streamline patient interactions, from prescription refills to scheduling, while ambient listening tools enable doctors to focus entirely on patients rather than typing notes.

Salesforce said Agentforce empowers organisations to save resources while enhancing trust, accessibility, and service quality. By meeting people on their own terms, AI enables more responsive and human-centred interactions across various industries.

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AWS becomes key partner in OpenAI’s $38 billion AI growth plan 

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and OpenAI have entered a $38 billion, multi-year partnership that will see OpenAI run and scale its AI workloads on AWS infrastructure. The seven-year deal grants OpenAI access to vast NVIDIA GPU clusters and the capacity to scale to millions of CPUs.

The collaboration aims to meet the growing global demand for computing power driven by rapid advances in generative AI.

OpenAI will immediately begin using AWS compute resources, with all capacity expected to be fully deployed by the end of 2026. The infrastructure will optimise AI performance by clustering NVIDIA GB200 and GB300 GPUs via Amazon EC2 UltraServers for low-latency, large-scale processing.

These clusters will support tasks such as training new models and serving inference for ChatGPT.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the partnership would help scale frontier AI securely and reliably, describing it as a foundation for ‘bringing advanced AI to everyone.’ AWS CEO Matt Garman noted that AWS’s computing power and reliability make it uniquely positioned to support OpenAI’s growing workloads.

The move strengthens an already active collaboration between the two firms. Earlier this year, OpenAI’s models became available on Amazon Bedrock, enabling AWS clients such as Peloton, Thomson Reuters, and Comscore to adopt advanced AI tools.

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