Economic

EU and Switzerland deepen research ties through Horizon Europe agreement

Switzerland has formally joined Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research and innovation programme, together with Digital Europe and the Euratom Research and Training Programme.

An agreement, signed in Bern by Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva and Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin, that grants Swiss researchers the same status as their EU counterparts.

They can now lead projects, receive EU funding, and access every thematic pillar, reinforcing cross-border collaboration in fields such as climate technology, digital transformation, and energy security.

The accord, effective from 1 January 2025, also enables Switzerland to become a member of Fusion for Energy in 2026, thereby integrating its researchers into ITER, the world’s largest fusion energy initiative.

Plans include Swiss participation in Erasmus+ from 2027 and in the EU4Health programme once a separate health agreement takes effect.

A development that forms part of a broader package designed to deepen EU–Swiss relations and modernise cooperation frameworks across science, technology, and education.

The European Commission reaffirmed its commitment to finalising ratification of all related agreements, ensuring long-term collaboration and strengthening Europe’s position as a global leader in innovation and research.

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AI-powered Google Photos features land on iOS, search expands to 100+ countries

Google Photos is introducing prompt-based edits, an ‘Ask’ button, and style templates across iOS and Android. In the US, iPhone users can describe edits by voice or text, with a redesigned editor for faster controls. The rollout builds on the August Pixel 10’s debut of prompt editing.

Personalised edits now recognise people from face groups, so you can issue multi-person requests, such as removing sunglasses or opening eyes. Find it under ‘Help me edit’, where changes apply to each named person. It’s designed for faster, more granular everyday fixes.

A new Ask button serves as a hub for AI requests, from questions about a photo to suggested edits and related moments. The interface surfaces chips that hint at actions users can take. The Ask experience is rolling out in the US on both iOS and Android.

Google is also adding AI templates that turn a single photo into set formats, such as retro portraits or comic-style panels. The company states that its Nano Banana model powers these creative styles and that templates will be available next week under the Create tab on Android in the US and India.

AI search in Google Photos, first launched in the US, is expanding to over 100 countries with support for 17 languages. Markets include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, and South Africa. Google says this brings natural-language photo search to a far greater number of users.

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€5.5bn Google plan expands German data centres, carbon-free power and skills programmes

Google will invest €5.5bn in Germany from 2026 to 2029, adding a Dietzenbach data centre and expanding its Hanau facility. It will expand offices in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Munich, and launch skilling and a first German heat-recovery project. Estimated impact: ~€1.016bn GDP and ~9,000 jobs annually.

Dietzenbach will strengthen German cloud regions within Google’s 42-region network, used by firms such as Mercedes-Benz. Google Cloud highlights Vertex AI, Gemini, and sovereign options for local compliance. Continued Hanau investment supports low-latency AI workloads.

Google and Engie will extend 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy in Germany through 2030, adding new wind and solar. The portfolio will be optimised with storage and Ørsted’s Borkum Riffgrund 3. Operations are projected to be 85% carbon-free in 2026.

A partnership with Energieversorgung Offenbach will utilise excess data centre heat to feed into Dietzenbach’s district network, serving over 2,000 households. Water work includes wetland protection with NABU in Hesse’s Büttelborn Bruchwiesen. Google reiterates its 24/7 carbon-free goal.

Office expansion includes Munich’s Arnulfpost for up to 2,000 staff, Frankfurt’s Global Tower space, and additional floors in Berlin. Local partnerships will fund digital skills and STEM programmes. Officials and customers welcomed the move for its benefits to infrastructure, sovereignty, and innovation.

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Banks and insurers pivot to AI agents at scale, Capgemini finds

Agentic AI is expected to deliver up to $450 billion in value by 2028, as financial institutions shift frontline processes to AI agents, according to Capgemini’s estimates. Banks start with customer service before expanding into fraud detection, lending, and onboarding, while insurers report similar priorities.

To seize the opportunity, 33% of banks are building agents in-house, while 48% of institutions are creating human supervisor roles. Cloud’s role is expanding beyond infrastructure, with 61% of executives calling cloud-based orchestration critical to scaling.

Adoption is accelerating but uneven. Four in five firms are in ideation or pilots, yet only 10% run agents at scale. Executives expect gains in real-time decision-making, accuracy, and turnaround, especially across onboarding, KYC, loan processing, underwriting, and claims.

Leaders also see growth levers. Most expect agents to support entry into new geographies, enable dynamic pricing, and deliver multilingual services that respect local norms and rules. Budgets reflect this shift, with up to 40% of generative AI spend already earmarked for agents.

Barriers persist. Skills shortages and regulatory complexity top the list of concerns, alongside high implementation costs. A quarter of firms are exploring ‘service-as-a-software’ models, paying for outcomes such as the resolution of fraud cases or the handling of customer queries.

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ChatGPT-5 outperformed by a Chinese startup model

A Chinese company has stunned the AI world after its new open-source model outperformed OpenAI’s ChatGPT-5 and Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5 in key benchmarks.

Moonshot AI’s Kimi K2 Thinking model achieved the best reasoning and coding scores yet, shaking confidence in American dominance over advanced AI systems.

The Beijing-based startup, backed by Alibaba and Tencent, released Kimi K2 Thinking on 6 November. It scored 44.9 percent in Humanity’s Last Exam and 60.2 percent in BrowseComp, both surpassing leading US models.

Analysts dubbed it another ‘DeepSeek moment ‘, echoing the earlier success of China in breaking AI cost barriers.

Moonshot AI trained the trillion-parameter system for just US$4.6 million (nearly ten times cheaper than GPT-5’s reported costs) using a Mixture-of-Experts structure and advanced quantisation for faster generation.

The fully open-weight model, released under a Modified MIT License, adds commercial flexibility and intensifies competition with US labs.

Industry observers called it a turning point. Hugging Face’s Thomas Wolf said the achievement shows how open-source models can now rival closed systems.

Researchers from the Allen Institute for AI noted that Chinese innovation is narrowing the gap faster than expected, driven by efficiency and high-quality training data rather than raw computing power.

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Nvidia stake sale powers SoftBank’s $22.5bn OpenAI bet

SoftBank sold its entire Nvidia stake for $5.83 billion and part of its T-Mobile holding for $9.17 billion, raising cash for OpenAI. Alongside a margin loan on Arm, the proceeds fund a $22.5 billion commitment and other projects. Nvidia slipped 2%; SoftBank referred to it as asset monetisation, not a valuation call.

Executives said the goal is an investor opportunity with balance-sheet strength, including backing for ABB’s robotics deal. Analysts called the quarter’s funding need unusually large but consistent with an AI pivot. SoftBank said the sale recycles capital, not a retreat from Nvidia.

SoftBank has a history with Nvidia: the Vision Fund invested in 2017 and exited in 2019; group ventures still utilise its technology. Projects include the $500 billion Stargate data centre programme, built on accelerated computing. Shares remain volatile amid concerns about the AI bubble and questions regarding the timing of deployment.

Results reflected the shift, with $19 billion in Vision Fund gains helping to double profit in fiscal Q2. SoftBank says its OpenAI stake will rise from 4% to 11% after the recapitalisation, with scope to increase further. The group aims to avoid setting a controlling threshold while scaling exposure to AI.

Management stressed liquidity and shareholder access, flagging a four-for-one stock split and ‘very safe’ funding plans. Further portfolio monetisation is possible as it backs AI infrastructure and applications at scale. Investors will closely monitor execution risks and the timing of returns from OpenAI and its adjacent bets.

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MK1 joins AMD to accelerate enterprise AI and reasoning technologies

AMD has completed the acquisition of MK1, a California-based company specialising in high-speed inference and reasoning-based AI technologies.

The move marks a significant step in AMD’s strategy to strengthen AI performance and efficiency across hardware and software layers. MK1’s Flywheel and comprehension engines are designed to optimise AMD’s Instinct GPUs, offering scalable, accurate, and cost-efficient AI reasoning.

The MK1 team will join the AMD Artificial Intelligence Group, where their expertise will advance AMD’s enterprise AI software stack and inference capabilities.

Handling over one trillion tokens daily, MK1’s systems are already deployed at scale, providing traceable and efficient AI solutions for complex business processes.

By combining MK1’s advanced AI software innovation with AMD’s compute power, the acquisition enhances AMD’s position in the enterprise and generative AI markets, supporting its goal of delivering accessible, high-performance AI solutions globally.

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Vision AI Companion turns Samsung TVs into conversational AI platforms

Samsung has unveiled the Vision AI Companion, an advanced conversational AI platform designed to transform the television into a connected household hub.

Unlike voice assistants meant for personal devices, the Vision AI Companion operates on the communal screen, enabling families to ask questions, plan activities, and receive visualised, contextual answers through natural dialogue.

Built into Samsung’s 2025 TV lineup, the system integrates an upgraded Bixby and supports multiple large language models, including Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.

With its multi-AI agent platform, Vision AI Companion allows users to access personalised recommendations, real-time information, and multimedia responses without leaving their current programme.

It supports 10 languages and includes features such as Live Translate, AI Gaming Mode, Generative Wallpaper, and AI Upscaling Pro. The platform runs on One UI Tizen, offering seven years of software upgrades to ensure longevity and security.

By embedding generative AI into televisions, Samsung aims to redefine how households interact with technology, turning the TV into an intelligent companion that informs, entertains, and connects families across languages and experiences.

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OpenAI loses German copyright lawsuit over song lyrics reproduction

A Munich regional court has ruled that OpenAI infringed copyright in a landmark case brought by the German rights society GEMA. The court held OpenAI liable for reproducing and memorising copyrighted lyrics without authorisation, rejecting its claim to operate as a non-profit research institute.

The judgement found that OpenAI had violated copyright even in a 15-word passage, setting a low threshold for infringement. Additionally, the court dismissed arguments about accidental reproduction and technical errors, emphasising that both reproduction and memorisation require a licence.

It also denied OpenAI’s request for a grace period to make compliance changes, citing negligence.

Judges concluded that the company could not rely on proportionality defences, noting that licences were available and alternative AI models exist.

OpenAI’s claim that EU copyright law failed to foresee large language models was rejected, as the court reaffirmed that European law ensures a high level of protection for intellectual property.

The ruling marks a significant step for copyright enforcement in the age of generative AI and could shape future litigation across Europe. It also challenges technology companies to adapt their training and licensing practices to comply with existing legal frameworks.

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UK strengthens AI safeguards to protect children online

The UK government is introducing landmark legislation to prevent AI from being exploited to generate child sexual abuse material. The new law empowers authorised bodies, such as the Internet Watch Foundation, to test AI models and ensure safeguards prevent misuse.

Reports of AI-generated child abuse imagery have surged, with the IWF recording 426 cases in 2025, more than double the 199 cases reported in 2024. The data also reveals a sharp rise in images depicting infants, increasing from five in 2024 to 92 in 2025.

Officials say the measures will enable experts to identify vulnerabilities within AI systems, making it more difficult for offenders to exploit the technology.

The legislation will also require AI developers to build protections against non-consensual intimate images and extreme content. A group of experts in AI and child safety will be established to oversee secure testing and ensure the well-being of researchers.

Ministers emphasised that child safety must be built into AI systems from the start, not added as an afterthought.

By collaborating with the AI sector and child protection groups, the government aims to make the UK the safest place for children to be online. The approach strikes a balance between innovation and strong protections, thereby reinforcing public trust in AI.

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