Future of work

Nigeria launches AI Scaling Hub with Gates Foundation

In partnership with the Gates Foundation, Nigeria has launched the Nigeria Artificial Intelligence Scaling Hub, backed by a funding commitment of up to $7.5 million over three years.

Announced during a signing ceremony in Abuja, the initiative will focus on responsibly scaling AI solutions across healthcare, agriculture, and education.

The AI Scaling Hub aims to unite government agencies, tech firms, academia, and development partners to support the nationwide deployment of proven AI innovations.

Rather than developing isolated pilot projects, the hub intends to build a collaborative system that encourages mature AI tools to be applied widely.

The Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy stated that the move aligns with Nigeria’s draft National AI Strategy and broader technology agenda.

Minister Bosun Tijani said the hub would help turn local AI concepts into real-world results by offering innovators mentorship, resources, and support.

The Gates Foundation echoed the sentiment, with Nigeria Country Director Uche Amaonwu stressing the importance of ensuring AI benefits reach underserved communities.

The project also involves Lagos Business School and is expected to bolster Nigeria’s leadership in ethical AI adoption across Africa.

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Eminem sues Meta over copyright violations

Eminem has filed a major lawsuit against Meta, accusing the tech giant of knowingly enabling widespread copyright infringement across its platforms. The rapper’s publishing company, Eight Mile Style, is seeking £80.6 million in damages, claiming 243 of his songs were used without authorisation.

The lawsuit argues that Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, allowed tools such as Original Audio and Reels to encourage unauthorised reproduction and use of Eminem’s music.

The filing claims it occurred without proper licensing or attribution, significantly diminishing the value of his copyrights.

Eminem’s legal team contends that Meta profited from the infringement instead of ensuring his works were protected. If a settlement cannot be reached, the artist is demanding the maximum statutory damages — $150,000 per song — which would amount to over $109 million.

Meta has faced similar lawsuits before, including a high-profile case in 2022 brought by Epidemic Sound, which alleged the unauthorised use of thousands of its tracks. The latest claim adds to growing pressure on social media platforms to address copyright violations more effectively.

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Sam Altman says AI will soon solve complex business problems

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes AI is on the verge of helping humans make genuine discoveries and solve complex business problems.

Speaking at the Snowflake Summit 2025, Altman likened today’s AI agents to junior employees, saying they increasingly take on tasks and improve through iteration.

He predicted that by next year, AI agents could contribute to uncovering new knowledge and providing non-trivial business solutions.

His comments come amid a growing shift in the labour market, with firms like Shopify and Duolingo replacing human roles with AI systems to cut costs and increase efficiency.

Recent data shows a 19% drop in AI-performable tasks in online job postings over the last three years. Roles in IT and database administration have seen hiring reductions of over 30%, highlighting how AI is actively reshaping employment.

Altman also highlighted OpenAI’s latest tools, such as Codex and GPT-4.5, designed to handle increasingly sophisticated tasks like coding and software integration.

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Czech justice minister quits over bitcoin scandal

Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blažek has resigned after it emerged he received a €40 million bitcoin donation from a convicted drug dealer.

The funds, amounting to roughly 468 bitcoins, were sent by Tomáš Jiřikovský, previously imprisoned for operating an illicit drug marketplace and crypto theft.

Although courts did not confirm the crypto’s criminal origins, the transaction sparked widespread suspicion and investigations into potential money laundering and abuse of office.

Blažek denies any wrongdoing but stepped down to limit political fallout, a move welcomed by Prime Minister Petr Fiala.

Interior Minister Vít Rakušan described the donation as damaging to the Czech government’s credibility, and authorities have since frozen the funds.

Opposition parties have called for the government’s resignation ahead of an emergency parliamentary session on 5 June.

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AI to take over all Meta ads under new plan

Meta is preparing to transform digital advertising on its platforms, with reports indicating that by 2026, all adverts on Facebook and Instagram could be fully created and targeted using AI.

The company’s vision would see AI tools take over the entire process—from ad generation to audience selection—requiring advertisers to provide only a product image and budget.

Since introducing generative AI features for advertisers in May 2023, Meta has continued to expand its automation capabilities. Currently, AI plays a major role in targeting ads across Meta’s platforms.

Under the new system, Meta’s AI will go several steps further by generating text, visuals, and video, as well as optimising ad delivery for the most suitable audience.

The initiative is aligned with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s broader vision of AI-led automation, especially within advertising—Meta’s financial backbone, which accounted for over 97% of the company’s revenue last year.

Speaking at Meta’s annual shareholder meeting, Zuckerberg outlined a future where businesses simply define their marketing goal and budget, link a payment method, and allow Meta’s AI to handle the rest.

The company is also developing real-time personalisation tools. These will allow the same ad to appear differently depending on a user’s location or context—for example, showing a car in snowy terrain to one user, while another might see it in an urban setting.

Meta is also exploring integration with third-party AI models such as DALL·E and Midjourney to further enhance creative capabilities.

This move follows similar developments by rivals like Google, which recently launched its Veo video generation model. With AI continuing to reshape the advertising landscape, Meta is betting on full automation as the next frontier in digital marketing.

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Agentic Intelligence set to automate complex tasks with human oversight

Thomson Reuters has unveiled a new AI platform, Agentic Intelligence, designed to automate complex workflows for professionals in tax, legal, and compliance sectors.

The platform integrates directly with existing professional tools, enabling AI to plan, reason, and act on tasks while maintaining audit trails and data control to meet regulatory standards.

A key component of the launch is CoCounsel for Tax, a tool aimed at tax, audit, and accounting professionals. It consolidates firm-specific data, internal knowledge, and regulatory materials into a unified workspace.

Early adopters have reported significant productivity gains, with one accounting firm, BLISS 1041, cutting time spent on residency and filing code reviews from several days to under an hour.

Agentic Intelligence leverages over 20 billion proprietary and public documents and is supported by a network of 4,500 subject matter experts.

Built on partnerships with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Cloud, and AWS, the platform reflects Thomson Reuters’ strategic shift towards embedding AI across sectors traditionally dependent on manual expertise.

David Wong, chief product officer at Thomson Reuters, said the new platform represents more than a technological upgrade. ‘Agentic AI isn’t a marketing buzzword. It’s a new blueprint for how complex work gets done,’ he said.

‘These systems don’t just assist — they operate within professional workflows, break down tasks, act independently, and escalate where needed, all under human oversight.’

Following CoCounsel for Tax, the next product — Ready to Review — will focus on automating tax return preparation.

The platform is expected to expand into legal, compliance, and risk sectors throughout 2025, building on previous acquisitions such as Materia and Casetext, which have helped lay the foundation for Thomson Reuters’ AI-centric growth strategy.

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Musk’s xAI seeks billions to expand AI data centres

Elon Musk is raising $5 billion in debt for his AI company xAI Corp., in a move that signals a renewed focus on his business ventures after stepping away from a prominent political role.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley is leading the offering, which includes a floating-rate loan, a fixed-rate loan, and senior secured notes — all priced with double-digit interest rates, according to people familiar with the deal.

Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including accelerating development of xAI’s infrastructure, such as its vast Memphis-based data centre, Colossus.

The site currently houses 200,000 GPUs and could soon expand to over one million as Musk ramps up efforts to train advanced AI models. The debt package has already attracted over $3.5 billion in early demand, with commitments due by 17 June.

Musk’s move to raise capital for xAI comes after a string of fundraising rounds across his companies, including $650 million for Neuralink and a $300 million secondary stock sale in xAI.

He has also merged xAI with his social media platform X into a new entity, XAI Holdings, further aligning his ventures in AI, communications, and computing.

Musk’s focus on his business empire follows a controversial period in politics. As a senior adviser and key backer of Donald Trump during the 2024 election, Musk faced scrutiny both personally and in relation to the performance of Tesla, whose stock has dropped 20% since the presidential inauguration.

Morgan Stanley’s continued involvement underscores the bank’s deep ties with Musk, having previously advised on his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter (now X).

While that deal initially left lenders with billions in risky debt, recent improvements in Musk’s business standing helped the bank clear the remaining liabilities earlier this year.

The latest xAI debt sale is another indicator of investor appetite for AI ventures, especially when tied to high-profile figures like Musk. If successful, it will also strengthen the infrastructure needed to support Musk’s vision of AI leadership through xAI and its associated platforms.

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NVIDIA unveils world’s largest quantum research supercomputer

NVIDIA has launched the world’s largest research supercomputer dedicated to quantum computing, named ABCI-Q, housed at Japan’s new Global Research and Development Centre for Business by Quantum-AI Technology (G-QuAT).

Delivered in collaboration with Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), ABCI-Q combines over 2,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs with multiple quantum processors to enable advanced quantum-AI workloads.

ABCI-Q integrates seamlessly with CUDA-Q, NVIDIA’s open-source hybrid computing platform, and supports superconducting, neutral atom, and photonic qubit technologies.

The platform is designed to tackle quantum computing challenges such as error correction and application development, potentially transforming industries like healthcare, finance and energy.

Leaders from NVIDIA and AIST believe the facility will serve as a testing ground for accelerating real-world quantum computing applications. The partnership aims to bridge the gap between experimental hardware and scalable, practical systems capable of solving complex global problems.

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Courts consider limits on AI evidence

A newly proposed rule by the Federal Judicial Conference could reshape how AI-generated evidence is treated in court. Dubbed Rule 707, it would allow such machine-generated evidence to be admitted only if it meets the same reliability standards required of expert testimony under Rule 702.

However, it would not apply to outputs from simple scientific instruments or widely used commercial software. The rule aims to address concerns about the reliability and transparency of AI-driven analysis, especially when used without a supporting expert witness.

Critics argue that the limitation to non-expert presentation renders the rule overly narrow, as the underlying risks of bias and interpretability persist regardless of whether an expert is involved. They suggest that all machine-generated evidence in US courts should be subject to robust scrutiny.

The Advisory Committee is also considering the scope of terminology such as ‘machine learning’ to prevent Rule 707 from encompassing more than intended. Meanwhile, a separate proposed rule regarding deepfakes has been shelved because courts already have tools to address the forgery.

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AI copyright clash stalls UK data bill

A bitter standoff over AI and copyright has returned to the House of Lords, as ministers and peers clash over how to protect creative workers while fostering technological innovation.

At the centre of the debate is the proposed Data (Use and Access) Bill, which was expected to pass smoothly but is now stuck in parliamentary limbo due to growing resistance.

The bill would allow AI firms to access copyrighted material unless rights holders opt out, a proposal that many artists and peers believe threatens the UK’s £124bn creative industry.

Nearly 300 Lords have called for AI developers to disclose what content they use and seek licences instead of relying on blanket access. Former film director Baroness Kidron described the policy as ‘state-sanctioned theft’ and warned it would sacrifice British talent to benefit large tech companies.

Supporters of the bill, like former Meta executive Sir Nick Clegg, argue that forcing AI firms to seek individual permissions would severely damage the UK’s AI sector. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology insists it will only consider changes if they are proven to benefit creators.

If no resolution is found, the bill risks being shelved entirely. That would also scrap unrelated proposals bundled into it, such as new NHS data-sharing rules and plans for a nationwide underground map.

Despite the bill’s wide scope, the fight over copyright remains its most divisive and emotionally charged feature.

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