Prominent personalities

Age verification and online safety dominate EU ministers’ Horsens meeting

EU digital ministers are meeting in Horsens on 9–10 October to improve the protection of minors online. Age verification, child protection, and digital sovereignty are at the top of the agenda under the Danish EU Presidency.

The Informal Council Meeting on Telecommunications is hosted by the Ministry of Digital Affairs of Denmark and chaired by Caroline Stage. European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen is also attending to support discussions on shared priorities.

Ministers are considering measures to prevent children from accessing age-inappropriate platforms and reduce exposure to harmful features like addictive designs and adult content. Stronger safeguards across digital services are being discussed.

The talks also focus on Europe’s technological independence. Ministers aim to enhance the EU’s digital competitiveness and sovereignty while setting a clear direction ahead of the Commission’s upcoming Digital Fairness Act proposal.

A joint declaration, ‘The Jutland Declaration’, is expected as an outcome. It will highlight the need for stronger EU-level measures and effective age verification to create a safer online environment for children.

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Google Cloud to power Gap Inc.’s digital transformation with AI

Gap Inc. has announced a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud to power its human-centred, digitally enabled technology strategy. The collaboration aims to accelerate AI adoption across the company’s brands, including Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta.

The partnership will give Gap Inc. access to Google’s AI stack, including Gemini, Vertex AI, and BigQuery. These tools will drive innovation in product design, pricing, marketing, and employee workflows, improving efficiency and enabling faster, more personalised retail experiences.

AI tools will accelerate product development and planning, support hyper-personalised shopping, and optimise marketing through smarter recommendations and storytelling. Gap Inc. is also using Google Ads to strengthen its omnichannel campaigns through AI-driven optimisation.

For employees, AI will act as a partner in decision-making and execution, making operations more agile and freeing teams to focus on creativity and customer engagement. This shift reflects a broader redesign of workflows to embed AI across the business.

Gap Inc. CTO Sven Gerjets said the partnership will bring AI to life across the company. Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian described it as a step towards reinventing retail with speed, personalisation, and industry-leading experiences.

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Microsoft attracts tech pioneers to build the next era of AI

Some of the world’s most influential technologists (the creators of Python, Kubernetes, Google Docs, Google Lens, RSS feeds and ONNX) are now helping Microsoft shape the next era of AI.

Drawn by the company’s scale, openness to collaboration, and long-term investment in AI, they are leading projects that span infrastructure, productivity, responsible innovation and reasoning systems.

R.V. Guha, who invented RSS feeds, is developing NLWeb, a project that lets users converse directly with websites.

Brendan Burns, co-creator of Kubernetes, focuses on improving AI tools that simplify developers’ work. At the same time, Aparna Chennapragada, the mind behind Google Lens, now leads efforts to build intelligent AI agents and enhance productivity through Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Sarah Bird, who helped create the ONNX framework, leads Microsoft’s responsible AI division, ensuring that emerging systems are safe, secure and reliable.

Meanwhile, Sam Schillace, co-creator of Google Docs, explores ways AI can collaborate with people more naturally. Python’s creator, Guido van Rossum, works on systems to strengthen AI’s long-term memory across conversations.

Together, these innovators illustrate how Microsoft has become a magnet for the pioneers who defined modern computing, and they are now united in advancing the next stage of AI’s evolution.

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European Commission launches Apply AI and AI in Science strategies

Countries are racing to harness AI, and the European Commission has unveiled two strategies to maintain Europe’s competitiveness. Apply AI targets faster adoption across industries and the public sector, while AI in Science focuses on boosting Europe’s research leadership.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that Europe must shape AI’s future by balancing innovation and safety. The European Commission is mobilising €1 billion to boost adoption in healthcare, manufacturing, energy, defence, and culture, while supporting SMEs.

Measures include creating AI-powered screening centres for healthcare, backing frontier models, and upgrading testing infrastructure. An Apply AI Alliance will unite industry, academia, civil society, and public bodies to coordinate action, while an AI Observatory will monitor sector trends and impacts.

The AI in Science Strategy centres on RAISE, a new virtual institute to pool and coordinate resources for applying AI in research. Investments include €600 million in compute power through Horizon Europe and €58 million for talent networks, alongside plans to double annual AI research funding to over €3 billion.

The EU aims to position itself as a global hub for trustworthy and innovative AI by linking infrastructure, data, skills, and investment. Upcoming events, such as the AI in Science Summit in Copenhagen, will showcase new initiatives as Europe pushes to translate its AI ambitions into tangible outcomes.

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Alibaba’s Qwen lab launches robotics unit to drive embodied AI

Alibaba Group has established a robotics AI team within its Qwen lab, marking a significant step in its strategy to expand into AI-powered hardware.

However, this move reflects China’s broader push to lead in robotics and embodied intelligence, increasingly driven by generative AI and multimodal foundation models.

Qwen researcher Lin Junyang revealed the creation of the robotics unit on social media, describing it as part of Alibaba’s efforts to move AI from the virtual to the physical world.

The lab’s Qwen series has already achieved global prominence, with seven models ranking among the world’s top ten on Hugging Face, including the multimodal Qwen3-Omni in first place.

Group chairman Joe Tsai recently stressed that success in AI depends less on model scale and more on how rapidly technologies are adopted. He argued that China is focused on cost-effective, open-source AI models that can enable faster integration than the high-cost approach pursued in the US.

Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu Yongming confirmed plans to raise AI infrastructure investment to 380 billion yuan over three years to become a full-stack AI provider.

The company also invests in robotics ventures such as Unitree Robotics and X Square Robot, aligning its expansion with national industrial strategies and the country’s accelerating robotics leadership.

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ABB sells Robotics division to SoftBank in $5.4 billion deal

The Swedish-Swiss electrical engineering corporation ABB has agreed to sell its Robotics division to Japan’s SoftBank Group for an enterprise value of $5.375 billion, abandoning plans for a spin-off.

However, the move marks one of the most significant robotics transactions in recent years, and reflects both firms’ ambition to drive the next era of AI-based automation.

A divestment that will allow ABB to focus on its core businesses in electrification and automation, while SoftBank expands its ‘Physical AI’ strategy.

ABB said the sale would create immediate shareholder value and that proceeds would be used according to its capital allocation principles.

The Robotics division, which employs around 7,000 people and generated $2.3 billion in 2024 revenues, will become part of SoftBank’s portfolio upon completion of the deal, expected by mid-to-late 2026. The transaction is projected to yield ABB a pre-tax book gain of about $2.4 billion.

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son said the acquisition aligns with his vision to combine artificial superintelligence and robotics to ‘propel humanity forward’.

ABB’s CEO Morten Wierod said the partnership would unite ABB’s industrial expertise with SoftBank’s AI capabilities, strengthening its global leadership in advanced robotics.

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Opal’s global rollout spans 15 countries with major feature upgrades

Google is expanding access to Opal, its no-code AI mini-app builder. Introduced two months ago within Google Labs, the tool enables users to create AI-powered mini-apps through natural language prompts, eliminating the need for coding.

According to Megan Li, Senior Product Manager at Google Labs, the expansion follows strong early engagement from creators. Users can access Opal at opal.withgoogle.com and join its builder community through Discord.

New debugging features aim to make workflows more transparent and efficient. Users can now run workflows step by step in a visual editor or adjust specific steps in the console, with real-time error reporting.

Performance upgrades have been introduced to speed up app creation, while parallel run capabilities enable simultaneous workflow steps. The rollout covers India, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil, Singapore, Colombia, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panamá, Honduras, and Argentina.

Meanwhile, Google DeepMind has launched Gemini 2.5 Computer Use, a specialised model capable of interacting with user interfaces. Available in preview through the Gemini API, it can be accessed via Google AI Studio and Vertex AI Studio.

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Kazakhstan turns to AI to fight the shadow economy

Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov has directed the full implementation of AI across government agencies to meet President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s goal of reducing the shadow economy’s share in GDP to 15 percent in 2025.

At a government session, Bektenov said progress must go beyond reports and correspondence, calling for structural reforms in taxation, digitalisation, and business regulation. He urged ministries to pursue a ‘transparent economy’ through comprehensive AI and data integration initiatives.

The State Revenue Committee of Kazakhstan will lead the digital transformation, supported by a new Data Processing Centre established by the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development.

Bektenov stressed that digitalisation projects such as cashless payments and the digital tenge have already proven effective in curbing unrecorded transactions and improving financial oversight.

AI will also be deployed in customs risk profiling and cargo inspection analysis to detect fraud and reduce corruption.

The Ministries of Finance, Justice, Trade, and National Economy were instructed to integrate databases under the Smart Data Finance system and to finalise an automated risk management system for company registration by 25 November.

Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin will oversee coordination.

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AI recreations of Robin Williams spark outrage

Zelda Williams has urged people to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her late father, Robin Williams, calling the practice disturbing and disrespectful. The actor and director said the videos are exploitative and misrepresent what her father would have wanted.

In her post, she said such recreations are ‘dumb’ and a ‘waste of time and energy’, adding that turning human legacies into digital imitations is ‘gross’. She criticised those using AI to simulate deceased performers for online engagement, describing the results as emotionless and detached.

The discussion intensified after the unveiling of ‘AI actor’ Tilly Norwood, created by Dutch performer Eline Van der Velden. Unions and stars such as Emily Blunt condemned the concept, warning that AI-generated characters risk eroding human creativity and emotional authenticity.

Williams previously supported SAG-AFTRA’s campaign against the misuse of AI in entertainment, calling digital recreations of her father’s voice ‘personally disturbing’. She has continued to call for respect for real artists and their legacies.

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Power grid spending surges as US braces for data centre and AI boom

US electric utilities are set to spend nearly $208 billion on the power grid in 2025 and more than $1.1 trillion over the next five years, according to the Edison Electric Institute. The surge in investment reflects rising demand from data centres, artificial intelligence, and wider electrification across the economy.

EEI data shows that investor-owned utilities spent $765 billion on capital projects in the five years to 2024. The new spending represents a significant increase and is aimed at upgrading and expanding infrastructure to keep pace with the accelerating demand for electricity.

The growing investment comes as demand from energy-intensive technologies continues to rise. Data centres and AI workloads are driving sustained growth in US power consumption, placing unprecedented pressure on existing infrastructure and prompting utilities to scale up their spending plans.

David Weeks, supply chain industry practice lead at Moody’s, warned that the escalating energy crisis could become a limiting factor across multiple industries. He said grid constraints and permitting delays must be factored into corporate supply chain strategies to avoid future disruptions.

As electrification spreads across the economy, grid reliability and capacity are becoming critical considerations for companies. The planned investment underscores the urgency of modernising the power grid to support economic growth while adapting to new technological demands.

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