Economic Archives | Page 194 of 684 | Digital Watch Observatory

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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Sanders warns AI could erase 100 million US jobs

Senator Bernie Sanders has warned that AI and automation could eliminate nearly 100 million US jobs within the next decade unless stronger worker protections are introduced.

The report, titled The Big Tech Oligarchs’ War Against Workers, claims that companies such as Amazon, Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, and UnitedHealth already use AI to reduce their workforces while rewarding executives with multimillion-dollar pay packages.

According to the findings, nearly 90% of US fast-food workers, two-thirds of accountants, and almost half of truck drivers could see their jobs replaced by automation. Sanders argues that technological progress should enhance people’s lives rather than displace them,

His proposals include introducing a 32-hour workweek without loss of pay, a ‘robot tax’ for companies that replace human labour, and giving workers a share of profits and board representation.

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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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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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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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Scammers use AI to fake British boutiques

Fraudsters are using AI-generated images and back stories to pose as British family businesses, luring shoppers into buying cheap goods from Asia. Websites claiming to be long-standing local boutiques have been linked to warehouses in China and Hong Kong.

Among them is C’est La Vie, which presented itself as a Birmingham jeweller run by a couple called Eileen and Patrick. The supposed owners appeared in highly convincing AI-generated photos, while customers later discovered their purchases were shipped from China.

Victims described feeling cheated after receiving poor-quality jewellery and clothes that bore no resemblance to the advertised items. More than 500 complaints on Trustpilot accuse such companies of exploiting fabricated stories to appear authentic.

Consumer experts at Which? warn that AI tools now enable scammers to create fake brands at an unprecedented scale. The ASA has called on social media platforms to act, as many victims were targeted through Facebook ads.

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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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AI tools reshape how Gen Z approaches buying cars

Gen Z drivers are increasingly turning to AI tools to help them decide which car to buy. A new Motor Ombudsman survey of 1,100 UK drivers finds that over one in four Gen Z drivers would rely on AI guidance when purchasing a vehicle, compared with 12% of Gen X drivers and just 6% of Baby Boomers.

Younger drivers view AI as a neutral and judgment-free resource. Nearly two-thirds say it helps them make better decisions, while over half appreciate the ability to ask unlimited questions. Many see AI as a fast and convenient way to access information during car-buying.

Three-quarters of Gen Z respondents believe AI could help them estimate price ranges, while 60% think it would improve their haggling skills. Around four in ten say it would help them assess affordability and running costs, a sentiment less common among Millennials and Gen Xers.

Confidence levels also vary across generations. About 86% of Gen Z and 87% of Millennials say they would feel more assured if they used AI before making a purchase, compared with 39% of Gen Xers and 40% of Boomers, many of whom remain indifferent to its influence.

Almost half of drivers say they would take AI-generated information at face value. Gen Z is the most trusting, while older generations remain cautious. The Motor Ombudsman urges buyers to treat AI as a complement to trusted research and retailer checks.

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Google unveils CodeMender, an AI agent that repairs code vulnerabilities

Google researchers have unveiled CodeMender, an AI-powered agent designed to automatically detect and fix software vulnerabilities.

The tool aims to improve code security by generating and applying patches that address critical flaws, allowing developers to focus on building reliable software instead of manually locating and repairing weaknesses.

Built on the Gemini Deep Think models, CodeMender operates autonomously, identifying vulnerabilities, reasoning about the underlying code, and validating patches to ensure they are correct and do not introduce regressions.

Over the past six months, it has contributed 72 security fixes to open source projects, including those with millions of lines of code.

The system combines advanced program analysis with multi-agent collaboration to strengthen its decision-making. It employs techniques such as static and dynamic analysis, fuzzing and differential testing to trace the root causes of vulnerabilities.

Each proposed fix undergoes rigorous validation before being reviewed by human developers to guarantee quality and compliance with coding standards.

According to Google, CodeMender’s dual approach (reactively patching new flaws and proactively rewriting code to eliminate entire vulnerability classes) represents a major step forward in AI-driven cybersecurity.

The company says the tool’s success demonstrates how AI can transform the maintenance and protection of modern software systems.

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Harvard team builds quantum computer that runs continuously for over two hours

A team of Harvard physicists has built a quantum computing machine that can operate continuously without restarting, achieving a significant milestone in experimental quantum hardware.

Until now, quantum computing systems have typically run only for milliseconds or seconds before decoherence or atom loss forces a reset. But in a new setup, the team sustained operation for more than two hours, and they claim that, in theory, it could run indefinitely.

The breakthrough depends on a design that uses an optical lattice conveyor belt together with optical tweezers. These tools allow the system to replenish qubits (atoms) in real time, injecting new atoms at a rate of 300,000 per second into a 3,000-qubit array, to counteract atom loss and maintain quantum information.

Overcoming atom loss has been one of the biggest bottlenecks in scaling quantum computers. Without that fix, durability and error accumulation limit usability. With this experiment, the researchers demonstrate a path toward more robust, always-on quantum platforms.

Mikhail Lukin, who leads Harvard’s quantum research, said that while scaling remains challenging, the approach appears compatible with larger systems. Collaboration with MIT physicist Vladan Vuletić suggested that machines capable of indefinite operation could be within reach in as little as three years.

Applications in cryptography, materials simulation, finance, and medicine could benefit enormously if quantum machines can reliably operate over long durations. The new design resets a key assumption in quantum systems, shifting focus from short bursts of computation to sustained, fault-tolerant operation.

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