On Monday, Britain announced a major investment of £6.3 billion ($8.2 billion) by US companies ServiceNow, CyrusOne, CloudHQ, and CoreWeave in UK data centre technology. This announcement aligns with the UK government’s broader economic plans, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosts the International Investment Summit in London, gathering hundreds of global business leaders.
At the summit, the government is set to unveil an additional £50 billion ($65 billion) in new investments aimed at stimulating growth in sectors like AI, life sciences, and infrastructure. Starmer, emphasising the importance of private sector involvement, aims to create a stable environment that fosters economic expansion, aligning with his Labour Party’s commitment to boosting the economy.
The event will also feature discussions between ministers and business leaders on capitalising on opportunities in emerging industries, including health tech, clean energy, and creative sectors.
Unily has introduced its new ‘Insight Center’, a platform designed to help large enterprises integrate and manage digital assistants and language models. The solution provides a central access point for multiple AI tools, streamlining their use across business functions like HR and customer service. It also ensures efficient governance and prioritises simplicity in its user experience.
At its annual event, Unite 24, Unily also announced the launch of ‘Unily Go’, a mobile app focused on improving engagement and communication for frontline workers. The app helps connect employees who don’t have access to desktop computers, offering secure messaging and personalised features to keep teams connected.
By partnering with industry leaders such as Microsoft and Workgrid, Unily ensures its platform offers a comprehensive and secure way for organisations to interact with the digital assistants of their choice. Unily Go, in particular, addresses the need for better communication tools for mobile workers in sectors like retail and manufacturing.
Both the Insight Center and Unily Go will become part of the Unily employee experience platform in 2025. The company plans to offer these features with white-labelling options so businesses can align the tools with their corporate branding.
Adobe has launched its Firefly Video Model, an AI tool that generates video from text prompts, stepping into the growing competition in generative AI for film and television production. This move positions Adobe alongside rivals like OpenAI, ByteDance, and Meta Platforms, all of whom have recently released similar video tools.
Adobe, however, distinguishes itself by training its models on data it owns the rights to, ensuring the generated content can be legally used for commercial purposes. While a general release date is not confirmed, Adobe has begun offering access to those who signed up for the waiting list.
Although no customers have been announced for the video tool, Gatorade is using Adobe’s image generation model to create custom bottle designs, and Mattel has applied the technology in designing packaging for its Barbie dolls. Adobe has geared its video tools towards creators, making them user-friendly for everyday video production.
Ely Greenfield, Adobe’s chief technology officer for digital media, highlighted that the focus is on ensuring the AI understands key video production concepts like camera angles and motion, allowing it to seamlessly blend with conventional footage.
OpenAI‘s head of media partnerships, Varun Shetty, recently stated that the company does not intend to share advertising revenue from its SearchGPT product with publishers. During his address at the Twipe Digital Growth Summit in Brussels, Shetty highlighted OpenAI’s belief that it can provide value to publishers by driving significant traffic from new audiences rather than offering financial compensation. He also acknowledged the importance of a mutually beneficial relationship and indicated that OpenAI is exploring ways to ensure publishers find enough value to remain included in SearchGPT results.
Varun Shetty compared OpenAI’s approach to that of Google’s AI Overviews, which have been criticised for diminishing publishers’ visibility in search results. In contrast, the AI-powered search engine Perplexity has established revenue-sharing agreements with multiple publishers, and Microsoft has announced plans to pay publishers for content featured by its productivity assistant, Copilot. Currently, in an experimental phase, SearchGPT aims to provide answers in natural language while clearly indicating sources. OpenAI intends to integrate SearchGPT into its flagship ChatGPT product by the end of the year.
Shetty stressed the need to balance user experience with publisher needs, noting that while users seek answers, they also want to verify information. He assured publishers they could opt out of SearchGPT results if desired, and any publisher wanting to participate only needs to permit OpenAI’s search bot on their site. He emphasised that SearchGPT has the potential to drive significant traffic without complicating the decision-making regarding content training.
In addition to discussing SearchGPT, Shetty expressed how OpenAI could assist the news industry, noting that while audiences are not interested in AI-generated news, AI can help streamline journalistic tasks, such as story recommendations and multimedia management. He also hinted at advancements in the next GPT model, which will enable more complex user requests, enhancing its usefulness for various applications.
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, AI pioneer Yann LeCun dismissed concerns about AI poses an existential threat to humanity, calling them ‘complete B.S.’ LeCun, a professor at New York University and senior researcher at Meta, has been vocal about his scepticism, emphasising that current AI technology is far from achieving human-level intelligence. He previously tweeted that before worrying about super-intelligent AI, we need to first create a system that surpasses the intelligence of a house cat.
LeCun argued that today’s large language models (LLMs) lack essential capabilities like persistent memory, reasoning, planning, and a comprehension of the physical world—skills even a cat possesses. In his view, while these models are adept at manipulating language, this does not equate to true intelligence, and they are not advancing toward developing artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Despite his scepticism about current AI capabilities, LeCun is not entirely dismissive of the potential for AGI in the future. He suggested that developing AGI will require new approaches and pointed to ongoing work by his team at Meta, which is exploring ways to process and understand real-world video data.
In a lengthy blog post, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei presented an optimistic vision for the future of AI, asserting that powerful AI could emerge as soon as 2026. He envisions AI that surpasses human intelligence in key fields, capable of performing complex tasks such as solving mathematical theorems and conducting sophisticated experiments. Amodei believes this advanced technology could lead to groundbreaking advancements in healthcare, potentially curing diseases and doubling human lifespans within the next few decades.
Critics are sceptical about Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s ambitious claims regarding the future of AI, pointing out current limitations such as the technology’s inability to think independently and the challenges in applying AI solutions in real-world healthcare settings. While Amodei envisions AI tackling global issues like hunger and climate change and boosting economies in developing countries, he concedes that achieving these goals will necessitate substantial global cooperation and philanthropic efforts.
Despite acknowledging the potential risks and biases associated with AI, Dario Amodei does not present concrete solutions for the economic disruptions that may occur as AI replaces human jobs. He suggests that society will need to rethink its economic structure in an AI-dominated future but offers minimal guidance on navigating these changes. While he frames AI as a transformative force for good, sceptics remain cautious about the significant challenges and ethical dilemmas it presents.
Suki, a healthcare startup is developing AI-powered voice assistants, has raised $70 million in a Series D funding round led by London-based Hedosophia, with participation from Venrock and March Capital. The latest funding brings Suki’s total to $165 million and reportedly values the company at around $500 million. The Redwood City-based startup aims to reduce the administrative burden on healthcare providers with AI tools that streamline tasks like clinical documentation.
Founded in 2017 by former Google and Flipkart executive Punit Soni, Suki has seen growing demand for its products, particularly its Suki Assistant and Suki Platform, as more healthcare systems adopt generative AI technology. The startup now partners with over 300 health systems, including St. Mary’s Healthcare in New York, and integrates with major Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems such as Epic and Oracle’s Cerner.
Suki plans to use the new funding to further develop its AI assistant, adding new features and tools to manage multiple AI models. Competing in the same space as Microsoft’s Nuance and other startups like Abridge, Suki continues to expand its footprint in the AI healthcare market.
A person recently claimed to have used an AI tool called AI Hawk to apply for 2,843 jobs, sparking discussions about the increasing role of automation in the hiring process. The tool automatically generated résumés, wrote custom cover letters, and completed job applications within hours, removing much of the human effort typically required.
AI Hawk is just one example of a growing number of tools designed to help users apply for jobs en masse. This trend highlights a new phenomenon where AI is both filling out applications and, in many cases, reviewing them. In fact, a 2023 survey revealed that 42% of companies use AI to screen and even interview candidates, creating a feedback loop where human involvement is increasingly sidelined. The impact on traditional job seekers who manually apply for positions is still unclear. However, the rise of AI in recruitment could reshape how people search for jobs and how employers identify candidates.
Brazil‘s government has proposed a reform to its competition law that would empower the antitrust authority, CADE, to designate certain digital platforms as systemically relevant, imposing new obligations on them as needed. The Finance Ministry emphasises the importance of equipping local legislation with tools to tackle the challenges posed by large tech firms that inhibit competition due to their size and market influence. This reform targets practices like exclusivity agreements, ‘killer acquisitions,’ and self-preferencing in search results.
The proposed changes would require digital platforms to submit pre-merger notifications and follow transparency rules concerning service and product usage. They would also need to disclose any modifications to their terms of service. The government seeks to find a balance between the regulatory frameworks of the US and the EU while taking inspiration from practices in Japan, the UK, and Germany.
The next steps for the Brazilian government include deciding whether to present these recommendations as a new bill to Congress or to integrate them into existing legislative proposals. Economic Reforms Secretary Marcos Pinto highlighted that the goal of the proposal is to promote competition while avoiding hindrances to innovation or unnecessary bureaucracy, underscoring the need to maintain a competitive economic environment.
The rise of AI and digitalisation could displace up to 600,000 workers in Malaysia over the next five years, according to the Ministry of Human Resources. A report by Talentcorp, set for release in November, highlights how ten key industries will be most affected, including information technology, food manufacturing, and aerospace.
However, the government assures that many of these displaced workers will transition into new roles, as around 60 new types of jobs are expected to emerge. Workers in high-risk sectors will receive targeted support to upskill or reskill, making it easier for them to adapt to the changing job market. The report’s purpose is to prevent negative reactions and help industries prepare.
The report is part of a broader initiative to keep the workforce informed about the changing landscape. The government is launching a dedicated website to provide detailed information on the jobs most affected by AI, digitalisation, and green technology, as well as opportunities for training.
Steven Sim, the Human Resources Minister, has expressed optimism about the future, urging workers and industries to stay positive and proactive. The government’s ongoing studies will continue to assess other sectors in the coming years, ensuring workforce in Malaysia remains resilient in the face of technological change.
