Future of work Archives | Page 20 of 223 | Digital Watch Observatory

Altman urges urgent AI regulation

OpenAI chief Sam Altman has called for urgent global regulation of AI, speaking at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. Addressing leaders and executives in New Delhi, he said the rapid pace of development demands coordinated international oversight.

In New Delhi, Altman suggested creating a body similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency to oversee advanced AI systems. He warned that highly capable open source biomodels could pose serious biosecurity risks if misused.

Altman argued in New Delhi that democratising AI is essential to prevent power from being concentrated in a single company or country. He added that safeguards are urgently required, even as technology continues to disrupt labour markets.

During the summit in New Delhi, Altman said ChatGPT has 100 million weekly users in India, with more than a third being students. OpenAI also announced plans with Tata Consultancy Services to build data centre infrastructure in India.

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EVMbench from OpenAI, Paradigm and OtterSec measures AI smart contract risks

OpenAI, with Paradigm and OtterSec, introduced EVMbench to test how AI agents detect, patch, and exploit smart contract flaws. The benchmark draws on 120 real vulnerabilities from 40 blockchain projects to better reflect live conditions.

Researchers report that leading agents can now discover and exploit end-to-end vulnerabilities in live blockchain instances. Over six months, exploit success rates rose sharply, prompting both praise for improved auditing capabilities and concern over the rapid scaling of offensive skills.

EVMbench evaluates agents across three modes: detect, patch, and exploit. Each stage reflects increasing technical complexity and mirrors the responsibilities faced in production blockchain environments, where contracts are often immutable, and errors can lead to irreversible losses.

Recent incidents underline the stakes. A vulnerability in AI-generated Solidity code reportedly mispriced an asset, triggering liquidations and losses. Such cases highlight the risks of deploying AI-written financial logic without rigorous human review and governance safeguards.

While EVMbench advances measurement of AI capabilities, it remains limited to curated vulnerabilities and sandboxed conditions. As blockchain adoption expands and criminal misuse evolves, researchers stress the need for responsible AI development alongside stronger innovative contract security practices.

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Lithuania selects Swiss firm Procivis for national eIDAS 2.0 wallet sandbox

Swiss firm Procivis has secured a contract to deliver Lithuania’s end-to-end Digital Identity Wallet sandbox, supporting the country’s preparations under eIDAS 2.0. The project will establish a national testbed for digital ID use cases and interoperability across the European Union.

Selected by Lithuania’s digitalisation agency, Procivis will build a platform for public authorities and relying parties to test secure digital wallet use cases. The sandbox will validate readiness ahead of the EU’s 2027 digital identity wallet deadline.

The updated eIDAS 2.0 technical framework sets out how wallets will store and share trusted digital credentials and electronic identification. Governments and private organisations will be able to integrate services into the wallets, streamlining authentication, onboarding, and cross-border access.

Across Lithuania and the EU, testbeds and large-scale pilots have been central to turning regulatory requirements into interoperable infrastructure. Lithuania’s sandbox will also support activities under the EU’s LSP Aptitude consortium, which is testing cross-sector digital identity solutions.

Procivis said the collaboration aims to accelerate practical validation while ensuring compliance with European standards on security, interoperability, and data protection. The company stated that supporting a timely, budget-aligned implementation of eIDAS 2.0 remains central to its mission.

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South Korea accelerates AI education reform in universities

South Korea’s Ministry of Education has launched a nationwide initiative to introduce mandatory AI courses at universities. The measure aims to ensure that all students acquire basic AI skills, regardless of their major, and to extend AI education reforms to higher education.

Under the plan, 6 billion won will be allocated to 20 universities, each receiving 300 million won to develop compulsory introductory AI courses. An additional 30 billion won will support national universities outside Seoul, alongside 5 billion won for short-term interdisciplinary AI programmes.

AI education will be integrated across disciplines rather than confined to computer science departments. Universities are expected to introduce AI courses for nonengineering majors, promote cross-faculty collaboration, and establish campus-wide support systems.

Participating institutions will share curricula, enable credit recognition across universities, and expand course delivery through online platforms. A consultative group will coordinate implementation and disseminate best practices nationwide.

Significant structural challenges remain. Shortages of AI-specialised faculty, limited recruitment flexibility, and the absence of generative AI guidelines in many institutions raise concerns about implementation capacity.

Education officials state that support will also be provided to professors outside AI-related fields to strengthen teaching capacity and address instructor shortages.

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Chinese AI video tool unsettles Hollywood

A new AI video model developed by ByteDance has unsettled Hollywood after generating cinema-quality clips from brief text prompts. Seedance 2.0, launched in 2025, went viral for producing realistic action scenes featuring western cinematic characters such as Spider Man and Deadpool.

In response, major studios, including Disney and Paramount, issued cease and desist letters over alleged copyright infringement. Japan has also begun investigating ByteDance after AI-generated anime videos spread widely online.

Industry experts say Seedance 2.0 stands out for combining text, visuals and audio within a single system. Analysts in Singapore and Melbourne argue that Chinese AI models are now matching US competitors at the technological frontier.

As Seedance 2.0 gains traction, Beijing continues to prioritise AI and robotics in its economic strategy. The rise of tools from China has intensified debate in the US and beyond over copyright, regulation and the future of creative work.

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AI productivity gap reveals critical enterprise adoption challenges

AI continues to generate expectations of broad economic transformation, particularly in productivity and employment. However, the extent of measurable economy-wide gains remains uncertain, and the overall impact of AI on business performance is still being assessed.

An extensive survey conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) found that while around 70% of firms across the US, UK, Germany, and Australia report using AI, nearly 9 in 10 companies have seen no significant effect on productivity or employment over the past 3 years. The findings suggest a gap between adoption rates and tangible outcomes.

Current enterprise use of AI remains concentrated in specific functions, including text generation with large language models, visual content creation, and data processing. Although previous studies have identified productivity gains in targeted areas such as customer support and writing tasks, these improvements have not yet translated into broad organisational performance increases.

Despite limited results to date, business leaders expect AI to deliver modest productivity gains in the coming years. The survey highlights a divergence in expectations, with senior executives anticipating slight reductions in employment, while employees foresee small job growth linked to AI adoption.

At the same time, some technology leaders predict more immediate disruption. Microsoft AI leader has argued that AI could soon reach human-level performance in many professional tasks, potentially reshaping white-collar work within the next few years.

The survey also indicates limited engagement with AI tools among top executives, with many reporting minimal or no direct use of them. This suggests that while AI investment is widespread, its integration into day-to-day leadership practices remains uneven.

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Brand turns AI demon into marketing stunt

Beverage company Liquid Death triggered confusion during the Winter Olympics after airing an AI advert featuring a figure skater who transforms into a red-eyed demon. The commercial appeared on Peacock’s Olympics stream but was not posted online, leaving viewers questioning whether it was real.

The brand later confirmed the advert was intentional and designed to parody fears around AI. According to Liquid Death, the limited run and lack of online acknowledgement were meant to amplify the sense of unease during the Winter Olympics broadcast.

Marketing analysts said that brands are increasingly leaning into AI scepticism to build trust with wary consumers. Campaigns from Equinox and Almond Breeze have similarly contrasted human authenticity with AI-generated content.

Despite the strategy, the Winter Olympics stunt drew criticism on social media, with some users labelling the advert AI slop. The reaction highlights both the risks and rewards for brands experimenting with AI-themed messaging.

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Geneva to host 2027 global AI summit

Switzerland will host the 2027 edition of the global AI summit in Geneva, President Guy Parmelin announced on Thursday at the 2026 AI Summit in New Delhi. Speaking at a high-level session attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Parmelin said Switzerland was ready to welcome global leaders to discuss the future of AI.

Calling Geneva ‘the epicentre of multilateralism,’ Parmelin said the city offers a natural platform for international cooperation on emerging technologies. He added that Switzerland looks forward to organising the event and collaborating with the United Arab Emirates, which is set to host the summit in 2028.

The Swiss Federal Council had already signalled its interest in hosting the 2027 edition ahead of the New Delhi meeting. Last month, the government confirmed that financing had been secured and that organisational preparations were already complete.

The summit has been held annually since 2023, beginning in the United Kingdom and then in South Korea and France. The gatherings aim to promote global dialogue on both the opportunities and risks of AI, including its impact on healthcare, climate action, agriculture, and broader society.

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Adoption of agentic AI slowed by data readiness and governance gaps

Agentic AI is emerging as a new stage of enterprise automation, enabling systems to reason, plan, and act across workflows. Adoption, however, remains uneven, with far fewer organisations scaling deployments beyond pilots.

Unlike traditional analytics or generative tools, agentic systems make decisions rather than simply producing insights. Without sufficient context, they struggle to align actions with real business conditions, revealing a persistent context gap.

Recent survey data highlights this disconnect. Although executives express confidence in AI ambitions, significant shares cite data readiness, infrastructure, and skills as barriers. Many identify AI as central to strategy, yet only a limited proportion tie deployments to measurable business outcomes.

Effective agentic AI depends on layered data foundations. Public data provides baseline capability, organisational data enables operational competence, and third-party context supports differentiation. Weak governance or integration can undermine autonomy at scale.

Enterprises that align data governance, enrichment, and AI oversight are more likely to scale beyond pilots. Progress depends less on model sophistication than on trusted data foundations that support transparency and measurable outcomes.

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Gemini 3.1 Pro brings advanced logic to developers and consumers

Google has launched Gemini 3.1 Pro, an upgraded AI model for solving complex science, research, and engineering challenges. Following the Gemini 3 Deep Think release, the update adds enhanced core reasoning for consumer, developer, and enterprise applications.

Developers can access 3.1 Pro in preview via the Gemini API, Google AI Studio, Gemini CLI, Antigravity, and Android Studio, while enterprise users can use it through Vertex AI and Gemini Enterprise.

Consumers can now try the upgrade through the Gemini app and NotebookLM, with higher limits for Google AI Pro and Ultra plan users.

Benchmarks show significant improvements in logic and problem-solving. On the ARC-AGI-2 benchmark, 3.1 Pro scored 77.1%, more than doubling the reasoning performance of its predecessor.

The upgrade is intended to make AI reasoning more practical, offering tools to visualise complex topics, synthesise data, and enhance creative projects.

Feedback from Gemini 3 Pro users has driven the rapid development of 3.1 Pro. The preview release allows Google to validate improvements and continue refining advanced agentic workflows before the model becomes widely available.

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