Sustainable development

Google unveils new AI agent toolkit

This week at Google Cloud Next in Las Vegas, Google revealed its latest push into ‘agentic AI’. A software designed to act independently, perform tasks, and communicate with other digital systems.

Central to this effort is the Agent Development Kit (ADK), an open-source toolkit said to let developers build AI agents in under 100 lines of code.

Instead of requiring complex systems, the ADK includes pre-built connectors and a so-called ‘agent garden’ to streamline integration with data platforms like BigQuery and AlloyDB.

Google also introduced a new Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol, aimed at enabling cooperation between agents from different vendors. With over 50 partners, including Accenture, SAP and Salesforce, already involved, the company hopes to establish a shared standard for AI interaction.

Powering these tools is Google’s latest AI chip, Ironwood, a seventh-generation TPU promising tenfold performance gains over earlier models. These chips, designed for use with advanced models like Gemini 2.5, reflect Google’s ambition to dominate AI infrastructure.

Despite the buzz, analysts caution that the hype around AI agents may outpace their actual utility. While vendors like Microsoft, Salesforce and Workday push agentic AI to boost revenue, in some cases even replacing staff, experts argue that current models still fall short of real human-like intelligence.

Instead of widespread adoption, businesses are expected to focus more on managing costs and complexity, especially as economic uncertainty grows. Without strong oversight, these tools risk becoming costly, unpredictable, and difficult to scale.

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Tech stocks rally after Trump halts tariffs

Global stock markets experienced a significant surge following President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 90-day suspension on tariffs for several countries. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index soared over 12%, marking its second-best day ever and the most substantial gain since January 2001.

Leading technology firms saw remarkable recoveries. Apple’s shares jumped over 15%, achieving their best performance since January 1998, after enduring a severe four-day decline that erased nearly $800 million in market value.

Tesla and Nvidia also experienced substantial gains, rising 18% and 22% respectively, while Meta Platforms increased by 15%. Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet each posted gains of around 10%.

Asian markets mirrored this positive trend, with Japan’s benchmark index climbing more than 2,000 points shortly after the Tokyo exchange opened. Investors responded favourably to the tariff relief, anticipating reduced trade tensions and improved economic prospects.

Despite the optimism, concerns remain regarding ongoing trade disputes, particularly with China. While tariffs were paused for several nations, levies on Chinese imports were raised to 125%, potentially impacting companies with significant manufacturing operations in China, such as Apple.

Analysts caution that, despite the current market rally, the long-term implications of these trade policies warrant close monitoring.

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Google pushes AI limits with Ironwood

Google has announced Ironwood, its latest and most advanced AI processor, marking the seventh generation of its custom Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) architecture.

Designed specifically for the growing demands of its Gemini models, particularly those requiring complex simulated reasoning, which Google refers to as ‘thinking’, Ironwood represents a significant leap forward in performance.

Instead of relying solely on software updates, Google is highlighting how hardware like Ironwood plays a central role in boosting AI capabilities, ushering in what it calls the ‘age of inference.’

However, this TPU is not just faster but dramatically more scalable. Ironwood chips will operate in tightly connected clusters of up to 9,216 units, each cooled by liquid and linked through an enhanced Inter-Chip Interconnect.

These chips can also be deployed in smaller 256-chip servers, offering flexibility for cloud developers and researchers.

Instead of offering modest improvements, Ironwood delivers a peak throughput of 4,614 teraflops per chip, alongside 192GB of memory and 7.2 terabits per second of bandwidth, making it vastly superior to its predecessor, Trillium.

Google says this advancement is more than a performance boost, it’s a foundation for building AI agents that can act on a user’s behalf by gathering information and producing outputs proactively.

Rather than functioning as passive tools, AI systems powered by Ironwood are intended to behave more independently, reflecting a growing trend toward what Google calls ‘agentic AI.’

While Google’s comparison to supercomputers like El Capitan may be flawed due to differing hardware standards, there’s no doubt Ironwood is a substantial upgrade. The company claims it is twice as powerful per watt as the v5p TPU, even if the newer Trillium (v6) chip wasn’t included in the comparison.

Regardless, Ironwood is expected to power the next generation of AI breakthroughs, as the company prepares to move beyond its current Gemini 2.5 model.

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Blockchain app ARK fights to keep human creativity ahead of AI

Nearly 20 years after his AI career scare, screenwriter Ed Bennett-Coles and songwriter Jamie Hartman have developed ARK, a blockchain app designed to safeguard creative work from AI exploitation.

The platform lets artists register ownership of their ideas at every stage, from initial concept to final product, using biometric security and blockchain verification instead of traditional copyright systems.

ARK aims to protect human creativity in an AI-dominated world. ‘It’s about ring-fencing the creative process so artists can still earn a living,’ Hartman told AFP.

The app, backed by Claritas Capital and BMI, uses decentralised blockchain technology instead of centralised systems to give creators full control over their intellectual property.

Launching summer 2025, ARK challenges AI’s ‘growth at all costs’ mentality by emphasising creative journeys over end products.

Bennett-Coles compares AI content to online meat delivery, efficient but soulless, while human artistry resembles a grandfather’s butcher trip, where the experience matters as much as the result.

The duo hopes their solution will inspire industries to modernise copyright protections before AI erodes them completely.

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Microsoft’s Copilot Vision now sees your entire screen to guide you through apps

Microsoft is testing a major upgrade to its Copilot AI that can view your entire screen instead of just working within the Edge browser.

The new Copilot Vision feature helps users navigate apps like Photoshop and Minecraft by analysing what’s on display and offering step-by-step guidance, even highlighting specific tools instead of just giving verbal instructions.

The feature operates more like a shared Teams screen instead of Microsoft’s controversial Recall snapshot system.

Currently limited to US beta testers, Copilot Vision will eventually highlight interface elements directly on users’ screens. It works on standard Windows PCs instead of requiring specialised Copilot+ hardware, with mobile versions coming to iOS and Android.

Alongside visual assistance, Microsoft is adding document search capabilities. Copilot can now find information within files like Word documents and PDFs instead of just searching by filename.

Both updates will roll out fully in the coming weeks, potentially transforming how users interact with both apps and documents on their Windows devices.

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Amazon launches Nova Sonic AI for natural voice interactions

Amazon has unveiled Nova Sonic, a new AI model designed to process and generate human-like speech, positioning it as a rival to OpenAI and Google’s top voice assistants. The company claims it outperforms competitors in speed, accuracy, and cost, and it is reportedly 80% cheaper than GPT-4o.

Already powering Alexa+, Nova Sonic excels in real-time conversation, handling interruptions and noisy environments better than legacy AI assistants.

Unlike older voice models, Nova Sonic can dynamically route requests, fetching live data or triggering external actions when needed. Amazon says it achieves a 4.2% word error rate across multiple languages and responds in just 1.09 seconds, faster than OpenAI’s GPT-4o.

Developers can access it via Bedrock, Amazon’s AI platform, using a new streaming API.

The launch signals Amazon’s push into artificial general intelligence (AGI), AI that mimics human capabilities.

Rohit Prasad, head of Amazon’s AGI division, hinted at future models handling images, video, and sensory data. This follows last week’s preview of Nova Act, an AI for browser tasks, suggesting Amazon is accelerating its AI rollout beyond Alexa.

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Minister urges Indian start-ups to shift focus from ice cream to semiconductors

India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has sparked controversy by questioning whether Indian start-ups should focus on semiconductor chips instead of gluten-free ice creams and food delivery apps.

Speaking at a start-up conference, he compared India’s consumer internet boom unfavourably with China’s advances in robotics and AI, urging entrepreneurs to pursue more ambitious tech innovations instead of safe lifestyle products.

While acknowledging the position of India as the world’s third-largest start-up ecosystem, Goyal faced pushback from founders who argued consumer apps often evolve into tech pioneers.

Quick-commerce CEO Aadit Palicha noted that companies like Amazon began as consumer platforms before revolutionising cloud computing. However, investors admitted deep-tech struggles for funding, with most capital chasing quick-return ventures instead of long-term hardware or AI projects.

The debate highlights India’s innovation crossroads. Despite having 4,000 deep-tech start-ups, projected to reach 10,000 by 2030, they attracted just 5% of 2023 funding instead of China’s 35%.

Experts suggest the government could help by offering tax incentives instead of criticism, and building research bridges between academia and start-ups to compete globally in advanced technologies

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Trump moves to prop up struggling coal industry

President Trump is set to sign an executive order designating coal as a critical mineral instead of allowing its continued decline in the energy sector.

The order will force some coal-fired power plants slated for closure to remain operational, with the administration citing rising electricity demand from data centres instead of acknowledging coal’s dwindling competitiveness.

Currently, coal generates just 15% of US electricity instead of its 51% share in 2001, having been overtaken by cheaper natural gas and renewables.

Environmental experts warn coal remains the dirtiest energy source instead of cleaner alternatives, releasing harmful pollutants linked to health issues like heart disease and mercury poisoning. While the order may temporarily slow plant closures, analysts note it won’t reverse coal’s decline.

Solar and wind power now undercut operating costs at nearly all US coal plants instead of being more expensive, as was once the case.

The move could have more impact in steelmaking, where coal is still used instead of newer green steel techniques in most production. However, for power generation, renewables can be deployed faster than new coal plants instead of struggling to meet demand.

The order appears to prioritise political symbolism instead of addressing energy market realities, as even existing coal plants struggle to compete with increasingly affordable clean energy alternatives.

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New AI firm Deep Cogito launches versatile open models

A new San Francisco-based startup, Deep Cogito, has unveiled its first family of AI models, Cogito 1, which can switch between fast-response and deep-reasoning modes instead of being limited to just one approach.

These hybrid models combine the efficiency of standard AI with the step-by-step problem-solving abilities seen in advanced systems like OpenAI’s o1. While reasoning models excel in fields like maths and physics, they often require more computing power, a trade-off Deep Cogito aims to balance.

The Cogito 1 series, built on Meta’s Llama and Alibaba’s Qwen models instead of starting from scratch, ranges from 3 billion to 70 billion parameters, with larger versions planned.

Early tests suggest the top-tier Cogito 70B outperforms rivals like DeepSeek’s reasoning model and Meta’s Llama 4 Scout in some tasks. The models are available for download or through cloud APIs, offering flexibility for developers.

Founded in June 2024 by ex-Google DeepMind product manager Dhruv Malhotra and former Google engineer Drishan Arora, Deep Cogito is backed by investors like South Park Commons.

The company’s ambitious goal is to develop ‘general superintelligence,’ AI that surpasses human capabilities, rather than merely matching them. For now, the team says they’ve only scratched the surface of their scaling potential.

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OpenAI’s Sam Altman responds to Miyazaki’s AI animation concerns

The recent viral trend of AI-generated Ghibli-style images has taken the internet by storm. Using OpenAI’s GPT-4o image generator, users have been transforming photos, from historic moments to everyday scenes, into Studio Ghibli-style renditions.

A trend like this has caught the attention of notable figures, including celebrities and political personalities, sparking both excitement and controversy.

While some praise the trend for democratising art, others argue that it infringes on copyright and undermines the efforts of traditional artists. The debate intensified when Hayao Miyazaki, the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, became a focal point.

In a 2016 documentary, Miyazaki expressed his disdain for AI in animation, calling it ‘an insult to life itself’ and warning that humanity is losing faith in its creativity.

OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, recently addressed these concerns, acknowledging the challenges posed by AI in art but defending its role in broadening access to creative tools. Altman believes that technology empowers more people to contribute, benefiting society as a whole, even if it complicates the art world.

Miyazaki’s comments and Altman’s response highlight a growing divide in the conversation about AI and creativity. As the debate continues, the future of AI in art remains a contentious issue, balancing innovation with respect for traditional artistic practices.

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