Economic

Shein faces formal proceedings under EU Digital Services Act

The European Commission has opened formal proceedings against Shein under the Digital Services Act over addictive design and illegal product risks. The move follows preliminary reviews of company reports and responses to information requests. Officials said the decision does not prejudge the outcome.

Investigators will review safeguards to prevent illegal products being sold in the European Union, including items that could amount to child sexual abuse material, such as child-like sex dolls. Authorities will also assess how the platform detects and removes unlawful goods offered by third-party sellers.

The Commission will examine risks linked to platform design, including engagement-based rewards that may encourage excessive use. Officials will assess whether adequate measures are in place to limit potential harm to users’ well-being and ensure effective consumer protection online.

Transparency obligations under the DSA are another focal point. Platforms must clearly disclose the main parameters of their recommender systems and provide at least one easily accessible option that is not based on profiling. The Commission will assess whether Shein meets these requirements.

Coimisiún na Meán, the Digital Services Coordinator of Ireland, will assist the investigation as Ireland is Shein’s EU base. The Commission may seek more information or adopt interim measures if needed. Proceedings run alongside consumer protection action and product safety enforcement.

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New Mastercard Move integration powers Ericsson fintech platform

Ericsson and Mastercard will integrate Mastercard Move into the Ericsson Fintech Platform to expand digital wallets and cross-border transfers. The partnership targets telecom operators, banks, and fintechs seeking to launch new payment services and reach underserved communities.

By combining Ericsson’s cloud-native fintech infrastructure with Mastercard Move’s money transfer network, the companies aim to simplify integration, deployment, and compliance. The integration is designed to reduce operational complexity and accelerate time-to-market for digital payment services.

Mastercard Move supports transfers in over 200 countries and territories and enables transactions in 150 currencies. Ericsson’s fintech platform operates in 22 countries, serving more than 120 million users and processing over 4 billion transactions per month.

The companies said the collaboration is intended to create new revenue streams and strengthen digital ecosystems in both emerging and developed markets. A global rollout will begin in the Middle East and Africa, where demand for mobile money and interoperable payment systems continues to grow.

Executives said the partnership will support faster, more secure cross-border transfers and promote financial inclusion. The integration aims to help telecom providers and financial institutions scale digital payment services and expand access to the digital economy.

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AI to transform India’s $400 billion IT ambition by 2030

India’s IT sector could reach $400 billion by 2030, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an interview with ANI, highlighting AI as a key growth driver. Services exports remain central to India’s economic expansion, with AI expected to reshape outsourcing and domain-specific automation.

Modi argued that AI is not replacing the IT industry but transforming it. General-purpose AI tools are becoming widespread, while enterprise-grade adoption remains concentrated in specific sectors where established IT firms continue solving complex business challenges.

Government policy is anchored in the IndiaAI Mission, which aims to expand access to computing infrastructure and strengthen domestic innovation. Modi said GPU targets have already been exceeded, with further investment planned to ensure affordable access for startups and enterprises.

Four Centres of Excellence have been established in healthcare, agriculture, education and sustainable cities, alongside five National Centres of Excellence for Skilling. Authorities aim to equip the workforce with industry-relevant AI expertise to support long-term competitiveness.

Strategic ambition extends beyond service delivery toward building AI products and platforms for domestic and global markets. Policymakers in India position AI as a catalyst for higher productivity, stronger digital infrastructure, and broader economic resilience.

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EDPS urges stronger safeguards in EU temporary chat-scanning rules

Concerns over privacy safeguards have resurfaced as the European Data Protection Supervisor urges legislators to limit indiscriminate chat-scanning in the upcoming extension of temporary EU rules.

The supervisor warns that the current framework risks enabling broad surveillance instead of focusing on targeted action against criminal content.

The EU institutions are considering a short-term renewal of the interim regime governing the detection of online material linked to child protection.

Privacy officials argue that such measures need clearer boundaries and stronger oversight to ensure that automated scanning tools do not intrude on the communications of ordinary users.

EDPS is also pressing lawmakers to introduce explicit safeguards before any renewal is approved. These include tighter definitions of scanning methods, independent verification, and mechanisms that prevent the processing of unrelated personal data.

According to the supervisor, temporary legislation must not create long-term precedents that weaken confidentiality across messaging services.

The debate comes as the EU continues discussions on a wider regulatory package covering child-protection technologies, encryption and platform responsibilities.

Privacy authorities maintain that targeted tools can be more practical than blanket scanning, which they consider a disproportionate response.

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Mistral AI expands European footprint with acquisition of Koyeb

Mistral AI has strengthened its position in Europe’s AI sector through the acquisition of Koyeb. The deal forms part of its strategy to build end-to-end capacity for deploying advanced AI systems across European infrastructure.

The company has been expanding beyond model development into large-scale computing. It is currently building new data centre facilities, including a primary site in France and a €1.2 billion facility in Sweden, both aimed at supporting high-performance AI workloads.

The acquisition follows a period of rapid growth for Mistral AI, which reached a valuation of €11.7 billion after investment from ASML. French public support has also played a role in accelerating its commercial and research progress.

Mistral AI now positions itself as a potential European technology champion, seeking to combine model development, compute infrastructure and deployment tools into a fully integrated AI ecosystem.

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WordPress.com integrates AI assistant into its editing workflow

Major updates to AI tooling are reshaping website creation as WordPress.com brings an integrated assistant directly into its editor.

The new system works within each site rather than relying on external chat windows, allowing users to adjust layouts, create content, and modify designs in real time. The tool is available to customers on Business and Commerce plans, although activation requires a manual opt-in.

The assistant appears across several core areas of the platform. Inside the editor, it can refine writing, modify styles, translate text and generate new sections with simple instructions.

In the Media Library, you can create new images or apply targeted edits through the platform’s in-house Nano Banana models, eliminating the need for separate subscriptions. Block notes provide an additional way to request suggestions, checks, or link-based context directly within each page.

The updates aim to make site building faster and more efficient by keeping all AI interactions within the existing workflow. Users who prefer a manual experience can ignore the feature entirely, since the assistant remains inactive unless deliberately enabled.

WordPress.com also notes that the system works best with block themes, although image tools are still available for classic themes.

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Rising DRAM prices push memory to the centre of AI strategy

The cost of running AI systems is shifting towards memory rather than compute, as the price of DRAM has risen sharply over the past year. Efficient memory orchestration is now becoming a critical factor in keeping inference costs under control, particularly for large-scale deployments.

Analysts such as Doug O’Laughlin and Val Bercovici of Weka note that prompt caching is turning into a complex field.

Anthropic has expanded its caching guidance for Claude, with detailed tiers that determine how long data remains hot and how much can be saved through careful planning. The structure enables significant efficiency gains, though each additional token can displace previously cached content.

The growing complexity reflects a broader shift in AI architecture. Memory is being treated as a valuable and scarce resource, with optimisation required at multiple layers of the stack.

Startups such as Tensormesh are already working on cache optimisation tools, while hyperscalers are examining how best to balance DRAM and high-bandwidth memory across their data centres.

Better orchestration should reduce the number of tokens required for queries, and models are becoming more efficient at processing those tokens. As costs fall, applications that are currently uneconomical may become commercially viable.

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China boosts AI leadership with major model launches ahead of Lunar New Year

Leading Chinese AI developers have unveiled a series of advanced models ahead of the Lunar New Year, strengthening the country’s position in the global AI sector.

Major firms such as Alibaba, ByteDance, and Zhipu AI introduced new systems designed to support more sophisticated agents, faster workflows and broader multimedia understanding.

Industry observers also expect an imminent release from DeepSeek, whose previous model disrupted global markets last year.

Alibaba’s Qwen 3.5 model provides improved multilingual support across text, images and video while enabling rapid AI agent deployment instead of slower generation pipelines.

ByteDance followed up with updates to its Doubao chatbot and the second version of its image-to-video tool, SeeDance, which has drawn copyright concerns from the Motion Picture Association due to the ease with which users can recreate protected material.

Zhipu AI expanded the landscape further with GLM-5, an open-source model built for long-context reasoning, coding tasks, and multi-step planning. The company highlighted the model’s reliance on Huawei hardware as part of China’s efforts to strengthen domestic semiconductor resilience.

Meanwhile, excitement continues to build for DeepSeek’s fourth-generation system, expected to follow the widespread adoption and market turbulence associated with its V3 model.

Authorities across parts of Europe have restricted the use of DeepSeek models in public institutions because of data security and cybersecurity concerns.

Even so, the rapid pace of development in China suggests intensifying competition in the design of agent-focused systems capable of managing complex digital tasks without constant human oversight.

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Report warns of widening 5G capability gap

A new study by network analytics firm Ookla finds that while global 5G coverage gaps are narrowing, a deeper divide is emerging in network capabilities, with Europe falling behind. The report argues that the real competition is no longer about basic rollout, but about how effectively countries deploy advanced standalone (SA) 5G networks to support innovation, industry, and high-performance services.

According to the findings, North America and leading Asian markets have moved more decisively toward full standalone 5G architectures, achieving faster speeds and improved responsiveness. Gulf Cooperation Council countries have also advanced rapidly, with the region described as a 5G SA performance leader in 2025, delivering median download speeds reportedly more than five times higher than those in Europe.

Europe, by contrast, is characterised as lagging due to slow commercialisation, fragmented device ecosystems, and uneven tariff structures. While some countries, such as Spain, are cited as positive examples, the broader region risks losing ground as others accelerate deployment of 5G Advanced technologies, including enhanced spectrum use and more sophisticated network optimisation tools.

The report highlights national policy frameworks as a decisive factor in 5G competitiveness. Spectrum allocation strategies, infrastructure investment rules, and regulatory innovation are seen as equally important as technical upgrades. The findings come as the European Union advances its proposed Digital Networks Act, which has drawn mixed reactions from industry stakeholders concerned about investment conditions.

Beyond deployment, Ookla stresses that simply launching standalone 5G does not guarantee strong performance. Advanced optimisation strategies, such as cloud-native network design, deeper virtualisation, and improved spectrum efficiency, are key to unlocking the technology’s full potential. Enterprise adoption, initially slow under earlier non-standalone models, is now showing signs of growth, particularly in markets offering network slicing services.

The study concludes that decisions made in the next two years will be critical for long-term digital competitiveness. As 5G increasingly intersects with national AI strategies, industrial policy, and digital sovereignty agendas, countries that treat standalone networks as a strategic priority may gain a structural advantage, while others risk seeing the gap widen further as the transition toward 6G approaches.

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Parliament halts built-in AI tools on tablets and other devices over data risks

The European Parliament has disabled built-in AI features on tablets issued to lawmakers, citing cybersecurity and data protection risks. An internal email states that writing assistants, summarisation tools, and enhanced virtual assistants were turned off after security assessments.

Officials said some AI functions on tablets rely on cloud processing for tasks that could be handled locally, potentially transmitting data off the device. A review is underway to clarify how much information may be shared with service providers.

Only pre-installed AI tools were affected, while third-party apps remain available. Lawmakers were advised to review AI settings on personal devices, limit app permissions, and avoid exposing work emails or documents to AI systems.

The step reflects wider European concerns about digital sovereignty and reliance on overseas technology providers. US legislation, such as the Cloud Act, allows authorities to access data held by American companies, raising cross-border data protection questions.

Debate over AI security is intensifying as institutions weigh innovation against the risks of remote processing and granular data access. Parliament’s move signals growing caution around handling sensitive information in cloud-based AI environments.

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