Fiji, renowned for its pristine beaches and coral reefs, may lose its appeal for cryptocurrency investors after authorities reaffirmed a ban on virtual asset service providers. The National Anti-Money Laundering Council cited financial stability and national security concerns in maintaining the restriction.
The Reserve Bank of Fiji has prohibited crypto exchanges, transfers, and custody services, while residents are barred from purchasing cryptocurrency using local funds. The move reinforces the country’s strict stance on digital assets and limits crypto activity within its borders.
Across Oceania, regulatory approaches vary widely. Vanuatu and Nauru now licence crypto companies, while the Marshall Islands launched its own digital currency in 2018. In contrast, Papua New Guinea and Samoa still lack formal crypto regulations.
Australia and New Zealand, the region’s largest economies, are steadily developing comprehensive frameworks to govern digital assets, signalling a more structured approach to cryptocurrency regulation in Oceania.
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The University of Oxford will become the first UK university to offer free ChatGPT Edu access to all staff and students. The rollout follows a year-long pilot with 750 academics, researchers, and professional services staff across the University and Colleges.
ChatGPT Edu, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-5 model, is designed for education with enterprise-grade security and data privacy. Oxford says it will support research, teaching, and operations while encouraging safe, responsible use through robust governance, training, and guidance.
Staff and students will receive access to in-person and online training, webinars, and specialised guidance on the use of generative AI. A dedicated AI Competency Centre and network of AI Ambassadors will support users, alongside mandatory security training.
The prestigious UK university has also established a Digital Governance Unit and an AI Governance Group to oversee the adoption of emerging technologies. Pilots are underway to digitise the Bodleian Libraries and explore how AI can improve access to historical collections worldwide.
A jointly funded research programme with the Oxford Martin School and OpenAI will study the societal impact of AI adoption. The project is part of OpenAI’s NextGenAI consortium, which brings together 15 global research institutions to accelerate breakthroughs in AI.
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AI is set to reshape daily life in 2026, with innovations moving beyond software to influence the physical world, work environments, and international relations.
Autonomous agents will increasingly manage household and workplace tasks, coordinating projects, handling logistics, and interacting with smart devices instead of relying solely on humans.
Synthetic content will become ubiquitous, potentially comprising up to 90 percent of online material. While it can accelerate data analysis and insight generation, the challenge will be to ensure genuine human creativity and experience remain visible instead of being drowned out by generic AI outputs.
The workplace will see both opportunity and disruption. Routine and administrative work will increasingly be offloaded to AI, creating roles such as prompt engineers and AI ethics specialists, while some traditional positions face redundancy.
Similarly, AI will expand into healthcare, autonomous transport, and industrial automation, becoming a tangible presence in everyday life instead of remaining a background technology.
Governments and global institutions will grapple with AI’s geopolitical and economic impact. From trade restrictions to synthetic propaganda, world leaders will attempt to control AI’s spread and underlying data instead of allowing a single country or corporation to have unchecked dominance.
Energy efficiency and sustainability will also rise to the fore, as AI’s growing power demands require innovative solutions to reduce environmental impact.
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The US Treasury has issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to gather public input on implementing the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. The consultation marks an early step in shaping rules around digital assets.
The GENIUS Act instructs the Treasury to draft rules that foster stablecoin innovation while protecting consumers, preserving stability, and reducing financial crime risks. The Treasury aims to balance technological progress with safeguards for the wider economic system by opening this process.
Through the ANPRM, the public is encouraged to submit comments, data, and perspectives that may guide the design of the regulatory framework. Although no new rules have been set yet, the consultation allows stakeholders to shape future stablecoin policies.
The initiative follows an earlier request for comment on methods to detect illicit activity involving digital assets, which remains open until 17 October 2025. Submissions in response to the ANPRM must be filed within 30 days of its publication in the Federal Register.
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Te Whatu Ora (the healthcare system of New Zealand) has appointed Sonny Taite as acting director of innovation and AI and launched a new programme called HealthX.
An initiative that aims to deliver one AI-driven healthcare project each month from September 2025 until February 2026, based on ideas from frontline staff instead of new concepts.
Speaking at the TUANZ and DHA Tech Users Summit in Auckland, New Zealand, Taite explained that HealthX will focus on three pressing challenges: workforce shortages, inequitable access to care, and clinical inefficiencies.
He emphasised the importance of validating ideas, securing funding, and ensuring successful pilots scale nationally.
The programme has already tested an AI-powered medical scribe in the Hawke’s Bay emergency department, with early results showing a significant reduction in administrative workload.
Taite is also exploring solutions for specialist shortages, particularly in dermatology, where some regions lack public services, forcing patients to travel or seek private care.
A core cross-functional team, a clinical expert group, and frontline champions such as chief medical officers will drive HealthX.
Taite underlined that building on existing cybersecurity and AI infrastructure at Te Whatu Ora, which already processes billions of security signals monthly, provides a strong foundation for scaling innovation across the health system.
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Airports across Europe faced severe disruption after a cyberattack on check-in software used by several major airlines.
Heathrow, Brussels, Berlin and Dublin all reported delays, with some passengers left waiting hours as staff reverted to manual processes instead of automated systems.
Brussels Airport asked airlines to cancel half of Monday’s departures after Collins Aerospace, the US-based supplier of check-in technology, could not provide a secure update. Heathrow said most flights were expected to operate but warned travellers to check their flight status.
Berlin and Dublin also reported long delays, although Dublin said it planned to run a full schedule.
Collins, a subsidiary of aerospace and defence group RTX, confirmed that its Muse software had been targeted by a cyberattack and said it was working to restore services. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre coordinates with airports and law enforcement to assess the impact.
Experts warned that aviation is particularly vulnerable because airlines and airports rely on shared platforms. They said stronger backup systems, regular updates and greater cross-border cooperation are needed instead of siloed responses, as cyberattacks rarely stop at national boundaries.
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GitHub has launched a new app for Microsoft Teams that integrates Copilot directly into workplace chats. The tool is designed to turn everyday conversations into code, pull requests and documentation, bringing development work closer to team discussions instead of separating them into different platforms.
An app that functions like an additional team member who understands the codebase. It can open pull requests, write code, automate tasks and request reviews, while respecting repository and organisational policies.
Analysing project history and surfacing relevant files provides context-aware support without removing human oversight.
Teams can now move from reporting a bug to delivering a fix entirely within a chat channel. From identifying problems to discussing solutions and seeing Copilot carry out changes step by step, the whole workflow remains visible to the team.
Progress updates are displayed in real time inside Teams instead of requiring developers to switch tools.
The new app is previewed, with GitHub inviting user feedback before a wider rollout. The earlier GitHub for Teams app has been renamed GitHub Notifications, which now focuses only on surfacing issues, pull requests and workflow updates.
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The Chinese tech company, Huawei, has introduced over 30 global benchmark showcases at HUAWEI CONNECT 2025, highlighting how AI is reshaping digital transformation across education, healthcare, finance, government, and energy.
The company emphasised that networks have become the backbone of intelligent upgrades instead of serving only as information channels.
Among the examples, Shenzhen Welkin School presented an innovative education model to expand equitable learning opportunities. In finance, China Pacific Insurance demonstrated how its intelligent computing centre uses large-model training and inference to accelerate digital services.
Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore showcased an innovative campus network that improves the visitor experience and sets a new standard for digital innovation.
These initiatives were developed jointly by Huawei and its partners, creating replicable practices that can be applied worldwide. Leaders from Huawei and industry organisations attended the launch, underlining the collaborative nature of these projects.
The showcases will be open for on-site visits, offering customers direct insight into how AI can be integrated into networks to boost efficiency and enhance user experience.
Huawei noted that the insights gained from these projects will guide future innovations. The company and its partners aim to refine solutions and extend their applicability across various sectors by drawing on proven industry applications.
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Japan is adopting a softer approach to regulating generative AI, emphasising innovation while managing risks. Its 2025 AI Bill promotes development and safety, supported by international norms and guidelines.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) is running a market study on competition concerns in AI, alongside enforcing the new Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA), aimed at curbing anti-competitive practices in mobile software.
The AI Bill focuses on transparency, international cooperation, and sector-specific guidance rather than heavy penalties. Policymakers hope this flexible framework will avoid stifling innovation while encouraging responsible adoption.
The MSCA, set to be fully enforced in December 2025, obliges mobile platform operators to ensure interoperability and fair treatment of developers, including potential applications to AI tools and assistants.
With rapid AI advances, regulators in Japan remain cautious but proactive. The JFTC aims to monitor markets closely, issue guidelines as needed, and preserve a balance between competition, innovation, and consumer protection.
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Notion has officially entered the agent era with the launch of Notion Agent, the centrepiece of its Notion 3.0 rollout. Described as a ‘teammate and Notion super user,’ the AI agent is designed to automate work inside and beyond Notion.
The new tool can automatically build pages and databases, search across connected tools like Slack, and perform up to 20 minutes of autonomous work at a time. Notion says this enables faster, more efficient workflows across hundreds of pages simultaneously.
A key feature is memory, which allows the agent to ‘remember’ a user’s preferences and working style. These memories can be edited and stored under multiple profiles, allowing users to customise their agent for different projects or contexts.
Notion highlights use cases such as generating email campaigns, consolidating feedback into reports, and transforming meeting notes into emails or proposals. The company says the agent acts as a partner who plans tasks and carries them out end-to-end.
Future updates will expand personalisation and automation, including fully customised agents capable of even more complex tasks. Notion positions the launch as a step toward a new era of intelligent, self-directed productivity.
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