A major internet outage hit some of the world’s biggest apps and sites from about 9 a.m. CET Monday, with issues traced to Amazon Web Services. Tracking sites reported widespread failures across the US and beyond, disrupting consumer and enterprise services.
AWS cited ‘significant error rates’ in DynamoDB requests in the US-EAST-1 region, impacting additional services in Northern Virginia. Engineers are mitigating while investigating root cause, and some customers couldn’t create or update Support Cases.
Outages clustered around Virginia’s dense data-centre corridor but rippled globally. Impacted brands included Amazon, Google, Snapchat, Roblox, Fortnite, Canva, Coinbase, Slack, Signal, Vodafone and the UK tax authority HMRC.
Coinbase told users ‘all funds are safe’ as platforms struggled to authenticate, fetch data and serve content tied to affected back-ends. Third-party monitors noted elevated failure rates across APIs and app logins.
The incident underscores heavy reliance on hyperscale infrastructure and the blast radius when core data services falter. Full restoration and a formal post-mortem are pending from AWS.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
A new research partnership between Google and Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) aims to accelerate the development of clean, abundant fusion energy. Fusion powers the sun and offers limitless, clean energy, but achieving it on Earth requires stabilising plasma at over 100 million degrees Celsius.
The collaboration builds on prior AI research in controlling plasma using deep reinforcement learning. Google and CFS are combining AI with the SPARC tokamak, using superconducting magnets to achieve net energy gain from fusion.
AI tools such as TORAX, a fast and differentiable plasma simulator, allow millions of virtual experiments to optimise plasma behaviour before SPARC begins operations.
AI is also being applied to find the most efficient operating paths for the tokamak, including optimising magnetic coils, fuel injection, and heat management.
Reinforcement learning agents can optimise energy output in real time while safeguarding the machine, potentially exceeding human-designed methods.
The partnership combines advanced AI with fusion hardware to develop intelligent, adaptive control systems for future clean and sustainable fusion power plants.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
Spotify partners with major labels on artist-first AI tools, putting consent and copyright at the centre of product design. The plan aims to align new features with transparent labelling and fair compensation while addressing concerns about generative music flooding platforms.
The collaboration with Sony, Universal, Warner, and Merlin will give artists control over participation in AI experiences and how their catalogues are used. Spotify says it will prioritise consent, clearer attribution, and rights management as it builds new tools.
Early direction points to expanded labelling via DDEX, stricter controls against mass AI uploads, and protections against search and recommendation manipulation. Spotify’s AI DJ and prompt-based playlists hint at how engagement features could evolve without sidelining creators.
Future products are expected to let artists opt in, monitor usage, and manage when their music feeds AI-generated works. Rights holders and distributors would gain better tracking and payment flows as transparency improves across the ecosystem.
Industry observers say the tie-up could set a benchmark for responsible AI in music if enforcement matches ambition. By moving in step with labels, Spotify is pitching a path where innovation and artist advocacy reinforce rather than undermine each other.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech, and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
Uber is piloting ‘Digital Tasks’ in the US, letting select drivers and couriers earn by training AI models between trips.
Tasks include short selfie videos in any language, uploading multilingual documents, and uploading category-tagged images; each takes minutes, and pay varies by task.
Uber says demand came from US drivers seeking off-road income; participants can opt in via the Work Hub and need no extra experience.
Partners commissioning the data aren’t named. The pilot starts later this year, with potential expansion to non-drivers and wider markets.
The move diversifies beyond rides and delivery as robotaxis loom. Uber argues for more earning channels now, while autonomy scales over time.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech, and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
KAIST researchers have developed AI that predicts cell responses to drugs and genes, with potential to transform drug discovery, cancer therapy, and regenerative medicine. The method models cell-drug interactions in a modular ‘Lego block’ approach, enabling analysis of previously untested combinations.
The AI separates representations of cell states and drug effects in a ‘latent space’ and recombines them to forecast reactions. The system can predict gene effects on cells, providing a quantitative view of drug and genetic impacts.
Validation using real experimental data demonstrated the AI’s ability to identify molecular targets that restored colorectal cancer cells to a normal-like state.
Beyond cancer treatment, the platform is versatile, capable of predicting diverse cell-state transitions and drug responses. The technology shows how drugs work inside cells, offering a powerful tool to design therapies that guide cells toward desired outcomes.
The study, led by Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho with his KAIST team, was published in Cell Systems and supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea. Researchers highlight the AI framework’s broad use, from restoring cells to developing new therapies.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
OpenAI signalled a break with Australia’s tech lobby on copyright, with global affairs chief Chris Lehane telling SXSW Sydney the company’s models are ‘going to be in Australia, one way or the other’, regardless of reforms or data-mining exemptions.
Lehane framed two global approaches: US-style fair use that enables ‘frontier’ AI, versus a tighter, historical copyright that narrows scope, saying OpenAI will work under either regime. Asked if Australia risked losing datacentres without loser laws, he replied ‘No’.
Pressed on launching and monetising Sora 2 before copyright issues are settled, Lehane argued innovation precedes adaptation and said OpenAI aims to ‘benefit everyone’. The company paused videos featuring Martin Luther King Jr.’s likeness after family complaints.
Lehane described the US-China AI rivalry as a ‘very real competition’ over values, predicting that one ecosystem will become the default. He said US-led frontier models would reflect democratic norms, while China’s would ‘probably’ align with autocratic ones.
To sustain a ‘democratic lead’, Lehane said allies must add gigawatt-scale power capacity each week to build AI infrastructure. He called Australia uniquely positioned, citing high AI usage, a 30,000-strong developer base, fibre links to Asia, Five Eyes membership, and fast-growing renewables.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech, and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
AI is moving from lab demos to frontline eye care, with clinicians using algorithms alongside routine fundus photos to spot disease before symptoms appear. The aim is simple: catch diabetic retinopathy early enough to prevent avoidable vision loss and speed referrals for treatment.
New imaging workflows pair adaptive optics with machine learning to shrink scan times from hours to minutes while preserving single-cell detail. At the US National Eye Institute, models recover retinal pigment epithelium features and clean noisy OCT data to make standard scans more informative.
Duke University’s open-source DCAOSLO goes further by combining multiplexed light signals with AI to capture cellular-scale images quickly. The approach eases patient strain and raises the odds of getting diagnostic-quality data in busy clinics.
Clinic-ready diagnostics are already changing triage. LumineticsCore, the first FDA-cleared AI to detect more-than-mild diabetic retinopathy from primary-care images, flags who needs urgent referral in seconds, enabling earlier laser or pharmacologic therapy.
Researchers also see the retina as a window on wider health, linking vascular and choroidal biomarkers to diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular risk. Standardised AI tools promise more reproducible reads, support for trials and, ultimately, home-based monitoring that extends specialist insight beyond the clinic.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech, and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
InfEHR transforms time-ordered data, visits, labs, medications, and vital signs, into a graphical network for each patient. It then learns which combinations of clues across that network tend to correlate with hidden disease states.
In testing, with only a few physician-annotated examples, the AI system identified neonatal sepsis without positive blood cultures at rates 12–16× higher than current methods, and post-operative kidney injury with 4–7× more sensitivity than baseline clinical rules.
As a safety feature, InfEHR can also respond ‘not sure’ when the record lacks enough signal, reducing the risk of overconfident errors.
Because it adapts its reasoning per patient rather than applying the same rules to all, InfEHR shows promise for personalized diagnostics across hospitals and populations, even with relatively small annotated datasets.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
The UAE Ministry of Investment and Microsoft signed a Memorandum of Understanding at GITEX Global 2025 to apply AI to investment analytics, financial forecasting, and retail optimisation. The deal aims to strengthen data governance across the investment ecosystem.
Under the MoU, Microsoft will support upskilling through its AI National Skilling Initiative, targeting 100,000 government employees. Training will focus on practical adoption, responsible use, and measurable outcomes, in line with the UAE’s National AI Strategy 2031.
Both parties will promote best practices in data management using Azure services such as Data Catalog and Purview. Workshops and knowledge-sharing sessions with local experts will standardise governance. Strong controls are positioned as the foundation for trustworthy AI at scale.
The agreement was signed by His Excellency Mohammad Alhawi and Amr Kamel. Officials say the collaboration will embed AI agents into workflows while maintaining compliance. Investment teams are expected to gain real-time insights and automation that shorten the time to action.
The partnership supports the ambition to make the UAE a leader in AI-enabled investment. It also signals deeper public–private collaboration on sovereign capabilities. With skills, standards, and use cases in place, the ministry aims to attract capital and accelerate diversification.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech, and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
Salesforce and AWS outlined a tighter partnership on agentic AI, citing rapid growth in enterprise agents and usage. They set four pillars for the ‘Agentic Enterprise’: unified data, interoperable agents, modernised contact centres and streamlined procurement via AWS Marketplace.
Data 360 ‘Zero Copy’ accesses Amazon Redshift without duplication, while Data 360 Clean Rooms integrate with AWS Clean Rooms for privacy-preserving collaboration. 1-800Accountant reports agents resolving most routine inquiries so human experts focus on higher-value work.
Agentforce supports open standards such as Model Context Protocol and Agent2Agent to coordinate multi-vendor agents. Pilots link Bedrock-based agents and Slack integrations that surface Quick Suite tools, with Anthropic and Amazon Nova models available inside Salesforce’s trust boundary.
Contact centres extend agentic workflows through Salesforce Contact Center with Amazon Connect, adding voice self-service plus real-time transcription and sentiment. Complex issues hand off to representatives with full context, and Toyota Motor North America plans automation for service tasks.
Procurement scales via AWS Marketplace, where Salesforce surpassed $2bn in lifetime sales across 30 countries. AgentExchange listings provide prebuilt, customisable agents and workflows, helping enterprises adopt agentic AI faster with governance and security intact.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech, and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!
